Could Video Kill a Law Firm?

Post Date:

November 5, 2009

Office holiday parties will be gearing up in a few weeks, and quaint seems the day when the biggest potential danger of such affairs were drunken, ill-advised dalliances among co-workers in coat rooms.

(Speaking of which, there really needs to be an office holiday party episode of Mad Men.)

Anyway, the point is, the stakes are raised these days, what with camera-phones and such. Remember Acorn?

If not, click the title of this post for a reminder.

Imagine a video of a white-shoe law firm holiday party, in which a partner is seen on video telling an off-color joke. Imagine him telling a joke with racist overtones. Imagine him harrassing a female associate. If such terrible things were recorded on video, the harm to the firm could be devastating.

It will be interesting to see what extra precautions companies start taking to prevent this kind of thing from happening. Will holiday party attendees be asked to hand over their phones at the door?

Of course, you could always just cancel the thing.