Curious
In the latest instalment of our Career Conundrums series, an aspiring solicitor wants the inside track on law firms’ online due diligence.
“Hello Legal Cheek team. I’ve seen this question asked on a few forums but thought I would send it your way. Do law firms check your social media accounts/activity as part of the application process? I’m just curious because I’ve seen mixed reports. I don’t have anything to hide!!”
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Sometimes, yes. Make them private people
(17)
(0) I’ve no insider knowledge, but I imagine they will do. Especially in this day and age.
(2)(4) Helpful, any other insights?
(16)(0) A firm once told me to take a picture of me down on Facebook where there was a beer in the background. I withdrew my application. I told my firm now and they laughed. It’s really firm dependent!
(13)(2) Yes I have personal experience of this. They had me remove posts from 10 years ago.
(4)(3) Yes and no. Depends on the firm and the hiring partner/team. When firms vet you they’ll usually outsource to someone like Experian who may run a “social media” check on you. This might be a hard check. Sometimes (and I have done this myself) they’ll search your name on Instagram, Facebook, X etc and see what comes up. Sometimes nothing, sometimes results are interesting. This is more of a soft check just to see what sort of person you really are. My advice: have your instagram profile on private and lock your Facebook account. I’m not on X or Tik Tok so have no idea what you can/cant do on those.
(7)(0) If you’re planning on being a lawyer and you don’t recognise the risks attached to not having a private social account then maybe you should reconsider a career path.
(12)(1) What are you planning to do on your social media account that is ‘risky’?
(4)(0) Depends on the firm. Americans definitely do way more than UK firms. Just make sure you haven’t got anything politically incorrect (put it lightly) and it goes without saying but don’t post pictures of yourself doing anything illegal..
Some people in these comments are very conservative though. Times are changing. Its generally not accepted now that your employers dictate what you do in your personal life. Hence why so many ‘lawfluencers’ are doing so well.
(8)(1) The answer is an unequivocal ‘yes’.
(0)(3) When I was interviewing for my TC one of the partners quoted the number of Instagram followers I had to me! Not sure if that was just to prove they had looked into me or what but some firms do!
(4)(0) That’s so weird.. they jus trandomly told you how many followers you had?
Is that not inappropriate?
(3)(0) Will they search Onlyfans? Asking for a friend.
(9)(0) Why are you posting on any platform with your real name and real face exposed? You know there’s foamers out there who will harass you or snitch on you for upsetting them over anything.
I have a LinkedIn and everything else in under a pseudonym.
(6)(0) People can have a life outside of law firms. Social media is the norm now.
(1)(0) 100% we do. Or more accurately the investigation agents we employ do. AI has made the process even cheaper too and easier to outsource abroad. It has also meant that more accounts using a pseudonym can be linked to individuals. One has to ensure the agents are located abroad and don’t send reports directly to the firm to avoid sticky issues with subject access requests or whatever the pesky things are called these days.
(1)(0) Yes this happens, and it’s firm dependant. My last firm took this to the extreme, and I lost some good staff/candidates due to silly posts made years ago, when they were teenagers! Make your accounts private, the views of some could have a detrimental view on your application.
(0)(0) Having heard about the escapades at a certain SC, doubt it
(0)(0) 
