Community Guidelines

NALPconnect Community Guidelines

Welcome to NALPconnect.

NALP is pleased to provide a forum for sharing and interacting related to the legal employment industry. NALPconnect is a members-only professional community made up of NALP members from law schools, private legal employers, public service employers, bar associations, alumni, and affiliate members. In keeping with the spirit of our professional community, a core set of guidelines must be followed by all participants of NALPconnect. By participating in NALPconnect, you agree that you have read and will follow these rules and guidelines.

NALP’s goal is to provide an online professional community where members can express their views, share information, and interact with one another. These guidelines are designed to ensure that NALPconnect is a professional, collaborative, inspiring, and safe area for all members. The viewpoints and opinions expressed in NALPconnect are those of the individual participants, and may not reflect NALP policies or positions. To preserve a climate that encourages both civil and fruitful dialogue, NALP reserves the right to delete posts or terminate participation of members who violate these guidelines.

Please take a moment to acquaint yourself with these important guidelines. If you have questions about these guidelines or NALPconnect, contact the NALP support team at support@nalp.org. Questions about NALP should be directed to our member services center at 202-835-1001 or info@nalp.org. For more information about eligible membership categories, please visit NALP’s membership webpage.

Mission

Providing an online platform for conducting NALP-related activities.
NALPconnect aims to provide a platform for NALP members, volunteers, and staff to connect, communicate, and conduct the business of the association. Volunteers, sections, and those with specific topical interests may gather to form discussions, share resources, and reach out to fellow members through the member directory.

Fashioning a professional community useful for you.
If there is something you want to talk about with other members of the community, start a discussion. If an existing discussion engages you, jump in. If you have questions, don’t hold back. If you have a resource to share, upload it to a group or the general resource library.

Owning your own words.
You are responsible and liable for your own posts. NALP is not liable for material posted by members. We do not prescreen postings and will rarely remove messages. We do, however, reserve the right to do so. Inappropriate posts include, but are not limited to, those containing advertising, copyrighted materials used without permission, those with antitrust implications, or libel or obscenities.

Here is what you should do

Be respectful and responsible.
It is okay to disagree with others, but cutting down or insulting individuals will not be tolerated. Comments will be removed that use obscenities, personal insults, ethnic slurs, or other disparaging language. Respect that other people have different points of view, work experiences, styles, budgets, and confidence levels. Be responsible for your interactions with other members. NALP reserves the right, but has no obligation, to monitor and/or remove disputes between you and other users.

Tell it like it is.
Don’t misrepresent yourself or lie about your identity or affiliations. The NALP community is based on contributions of real members who share their experiences and ideas with the greater community. Identify yourself in the messages you post. Be sincere in your contributions. Post with purpose — to inspire, enable, or share with colleagues.

Keep your comments on topic.
NALPconnect is about providing an online platform for all members to collaborate and form an online professional community. We welcome discussion about NALP and the legal employment industry. If posts are off topic, NALP staff may move your post to a more relevant forum or help you create a new group or discussion post.

Link to other websites.
NALP is not responsible for the content of any linked website, or any link contained in a linked website, or any changes or updates to such websites. The inclusion of any link does not imply endorsement by NALP of that website. In addition, please be aware that NALP is not responsible for the privacy practices of such other websites. NALP encourages you to read the privacy statements of every website.

Keep it legal.
Comply with all applicable local, state, and federal rules, regulations, and laws. Do not post content protected by any intellectual property rights, including but not limited to copyright, trademark, or other proprietary rights without permission from the owner. Do not post any information or other material protected by copyright without first obtaining permission from the copyright owner. By posting material, the posting party warrants and represents that he or she owns the copyright with respect to such material or has received permission from the copyright owner.

Here is what NOT to do

Do not spam.
Don’t create misleading posts, discussion items, or resources in order to increase views and/or link click-throughs. Do not post large amounts of untargeted, unwanted, or repetitive content, including comments and private messages.

Do not harass other members.
NALP encourages active discussions in its forums, including discussion on controversial topics, but the forums can only flourish if all members feel welcome and safe. NALP will not tolerate messages targeting any member(s) with insults, attacks, challenges to another member's right to participate, sarcastic asides, or snide comments. Harassment and/or unethical acts are taken very seriously.

Do not invade a member’s privacy.
Do not post personal or confidential information about yourself or others. Harvesting contact information from NALPconnect is not permitted. NALP will not sell the email addresses of participants, and no one is allowed to collect or use the addresses of list participants for the purpose of unsolicited email marketing or "spam." Once notified of such activity, NALP reserves the right to permanently remove the offending party from participation in NALPconnect.

Do not post hate speech.
NALP encourages the expression of unpopular points of view but will not permit hate speech or discrimination based on sex, actual or perceived gender, age, race, color, religion, creed, national or ethnic origin, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, genetic information, parental, marital, domestic partner, civil union, military, or veteran status. Read NALP’s Non-Discrimination and Fair Access in Legal Recruitment policy.

Do not post offensive language or images.
We do not allow objectionable language and images, including but not limited to profanity, obscenity, vulgarity, racial/ethnic slurs, hate speech, personal insults, hostile comments, and threatening language. All the standard curse words are banned (you know what they are), and we will remove messages that contain clever (or not clever) misspellings of curse words.

Do not sell or advertise.
Members do not visit NALPconnect to be solicited or “sold to.” Please do not recommend your business, even if your business or services would seem to be an ideal fit for a member’s needs. As a business owner or representative you may not recommend your own business or service. However, participants may post referrals, recommendations, and critiques about vendors or services used. Messages and posts may not exist solely for the promotion, endorsement, or advertisement of a business or organization. Refrain from posting commercial links and commercial or personal contact information unless it is directly requested.

Do not post unsubstantiated critical or negative comments or reviews of businesses, products, or services.
You must completely refrain from posting any critical comments about your competitors. NALPconnect participants are not permitted to provide unsubstantiated critical or negative claims, reviews, or comments about the products, services, management, or employees of an organization or business.

Do not post libelous, slanderous, defamatory, or abusive messages.
NALPconnect is designed for the open exchange of information and ideas among NALP members. All defamatory, abusive, profane, threatening, offensive, or illegal materials are strictly prohibited. Participants should not post anything that they are not comfortable acknowledging came from them.

Do not post information about pricing, salaries, or personnel benefits.
Participants should not post any message that encourages or facilitates arrival at any agreement that either expressly or implicitly leads to price fixing, a boycott of another's business, or other conduct intended to illegally restrict free trade. Messages that encourage or facilitate an agreement about the following subjects are inappropriate and could be illegal: salaries; bonuses; benefits; profits, profit margins, or cost data; selection, rejection, or termination of vendors or suppliers.

Do not post excessive job offers/openings.
All job openings should also be posted on the NALP Job Center.

The Bottom Line.

Please take these guidelines seriously. As with any community, it’s up to all participants to create and engage in open conversations that can bring us together.

Disclaimers and Legal Rules

NALPconnect is provided as a member service for NALP members. NALP accepts no responsibility for the opinions and information posted on NALPconnect. The messages posted belong to the individual participants who post them. Opinions expressed in postings are not necessarily the opinions of NALP. NALP disclaims all warranties with regard to information posted in NALPconnect, whether posted by NALP or any third party; this disclaimer includes all implied warranties of merchantability and fitness. In no event shall NALP be liable for any special, indirect, or consequential damages or any damages whatsoever resulting from loss of use, data, or profits, arising out of or in connection with the use or performance of any information posted on this site.

In addition, by posting material, you grant to NALP and the members in NALPconnect the nonexclusive, world-wide, transferable right and license to display, copy, publish, distribute, transmit, print, and use such information or other material in any way and in any medium, including but not limited to print or electronic form.

NALP reserves the right to remove and/or block any content and/or users who do not abide by these guidelines. NALP also reserves the right to revise this policy at any time and will post and alert the NALPconnect community of such changes. This serves as a supplement to, and not a replacement of, any pre-existing NALP policy.

Please take a moment to acquaint yourself with these important guidelines. If you have questions about these guidelines or NALPconnect, contact the NALP support team at support@nalp.org. Questions about NALP should be directed to our member services center at 202-835-1001 or info@nalp.org. For more information about eligible membership categories please visit NALP’s membership webpage.

Updated September 21, 2022
Updated December 15, 2021
Updated March 12, 2012
Updated March 8, 2012
Updated March 5, 2012
Updated February 28, 2012
Updated February 10, 2012
Updated February 9, 2012
Updated February 3, 2012
Updated January 31, 2012
Updated January 30, 2012

Privacy Policy

You can view NALP's Privacy Policy here.