How to Use the ICLE Community

The ICLE Community allows you to tap into the knowledge of thousands of ICLE Partners in this private, easy-to-use, online “community of practice” for lawyers. Ask and answer practice questions in a forum focused on substantive law; connect with colleagues and ICLE’s network of experts; market yourself by demonstrating your expertise through your own blog and posts. Detailed profile pages allow you to highlight your professional experience and view other members’ experience. ICLE legal staff participate in the Community daily and encourage ICLE experts to answer questions.

Click MY COMMUNITY (under MENU on smaller devices). You many also access the Community by clicking on e-mails you elect to receive. Login will be required if you are not already logged on to ICLE’s website.

Go to your Profile using the MY PROFILE tab. ICLE has prepopulated your basic items like name, firm, city, state, practice areas, year admitted to the bar, number of lawyers in your firm, and whether you are licensed in other states. Although you will see additional information on your profile page such as your street address, phone number, and e-mail, the default setting is not to display this information to other members of the community. See Set Privacy Settings to control who sees each section of your profile.

To add information to a section of your profile, click on the gray, gear-shaped edit icons by each section heading. Sometimes the interface will bring up a blank box for editing profile information, and other times it will direct you to your My Account profile on ICLE’s main website. In either case, click save or SUBMIT to update your profile.

You may also choose to add your profile information from LinkedIn. Click on Update your information from LinkedIn® and follow the on-screen directions.

Under the MY PROFILE tab, click on My Privacy Settings to control who can view the information you have entered in your profile. We recommend selecting Members Only. Click save to preserve your settings.

You can also choose whether you would like to be included in the member directory and group rosters. Choosing No means that you won’t appear in search results or in the list of members of a group. Other ICLE Community members won’t be able to contact you or invite you to become a contact. Your name and firm will still be included if you post to a discussion.

1. Click on MY PROFILE > My Subscriptions.
2. Choose whether you want to receive e-mails of discussion posts in HTML format (looks like a webpage with graphics and links) or plain text format.
3. Choose among the following options:
   • Real Time: Receive an e-mail for each discussion post.
   • Daily Digest: Receive a single e-mail compiling all posts over a 24-hour period. Delivery time for the Daily Digest is generally between 1:00 and 5:00am.
   • No Emails: Receive no discussion e-mails. You may access discussions from the ICLE Community website.
   • Un Subscribe: Receive no discussion e-mails. You will be unable to access the ICLE Community website.
4. Click Save.

1. Click on GROUPS > View Groups > My Groups.
2. By the name of the group where you want to start a discussion, click View or Enter (as applicable).
3. On the home page for the group, click on Discussions. Note: It’s recommended to browse through the existing discussions or use search to see if anyone has already posted on the topic you’d like to discuss.
4. Click on Post New Message.
5. Compose your message.
6. You can attach a document or an image by clicking Attach (your attachment will also be included in the ICLE Community Library for the group). Click Choose and find the file you want to attach on your computer or network. Then click Upload File(s) and Next, and give your document a name and description. To finish, click next and then finish.
7. If you’d like to include a link in your message, click on the Hyperlink Manager (the globe with a chain). Copy and paste the URL (web address) you’d like to link to in the URL field. Title your link appropriately in the Link Text field. Click OK.
8. Click Send.

1. To see discussions in the groups to which you belong, click on GROUPS > View Discussions > All Discussions. Click on the number under Posts to see all the discussion threads in a group. To view a discussion, click on the title under Thread Subject.
2. Click Reply to Discussion to reply so that the whole group can see your reply. You can also Reply to Sender to send a response just to the sender.
3. See Start a Discussion for details on adding attachments, including links, or changing your signature.

If you know the name or company of someone you want to connect with, you can search for them within the ICLE Community under DIRECTORY > Find a Member. Once you find the person, you can use the links by the person’s listing to add him or her as a contact or send the person a message.

You can also use DIRECTORY > Advanced Search to look for ICLE Community members in your area, by educational criteria, or with similarities to your profile.

1. Click on BLOGS > Create New Blog.
2. Type a title in the Title of Your Blog Post field.
3. The Design tab provides a toolbar with common formatting options. This toolbar also provides easy ways to add links or files to your blog.
4. Use the drop-down box to associate your blog with a particular ICLE Community group.
5. Choose who can read or comment on your blog (definitions are provided for the choices). We recommend members only.
6. You can click save for later to come back and finish writing later. You can find a blog you started but hadn’t published yet under BLOGS > My Blog.
7. When you’ve finished writing your blog and are ready for others to see it, click Publish.

1. At the bottom of the blog page, click Add a comment.
2. Type your comment.
3. Click Save.

Use the search box to search all materials within the ICLE Community—blogs, discussions, shared docs, and groups.

• You can search within discussions from GROUPS > View Discussions > All Discussions.
• You can search within a library from GROUPS > View Shared Docs > Search Shared Docs.
• You can search within blogs from BLOGS > View Blogs.

On both the general search results page and the discussion, shared docs, and blog search pages, you can click show advanced search to see appropriate options for focusing your search.