US law firms lead rush to join Twitter rival Threads
It comes as an IP battle between Twitter owner Elon Musk and Meta's Mark Zuckerberg shapes up.
A number of big law firms in the US have signed up for Threads, Meta’s new social media platform designed to rival Elon Musk’s Twitter.
Threads was launched earlier in July and has already surpassed 100 million users since it went live.
The app has caught the attention of several of the world’s largest law firms. Eight of the top 20 firms on the American Lawyer's annual law firm rankings have already created Threads accounts, including Latham & Watkins; DLA Piper; Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom; Sidley Austin; Jones Day; Hogan Lovells; Goodwin Procter; and Norton Rose Fulbright.
Meanwhile, five of the top 20 U.K. law firms have also established a presence on the app.
Though it is as yet unclear how the firms will leverage the app, recent evidence shows that law firms are becoming increasingly attuned to the need for a positive social media presence, particularly as they seek to appeal to younger audiences.
TikTok, in particular, has become the destination of choice for a host of so-called ‘lawfluencers’ —younger lawyers particularly in the UK who document their attempts to navigate the lengthy recruitment process of joining the top firms, with law firms seizing on the trend to promote their own brands.
The trends comes as a legal battle between Meta and Twitter shapes up, after Musk’s lawyer Alex Spiro, a partner with Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, sent a cease-and-desist letter on Musk’s behalf to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
The letter, which was published to Twitter, accused Meta of the “systematic, willful and unlawful misappropriation” of Twitter’s trade secrets and IP.
Earlier this week, Musk tweeted: “Competition is fine, cheating is not”.
