BigLaw Firm Takes Measures To Deal With Partner's Vulgar Tweet At Supreme Court Blog

Big law firm Reed Smith is taking internal measures to deal with a commercial real estate partner's vulgar tweet to the popular Supreme Court blog SCOTUSBlog, The Am Law Daily reports.

That tweet was, "Go f@ck yourself and die." Steven Regan apparently thought he was tweeting at an official Supreme Court Twitter feed when he remarked on the high court's decision to take up a case related to greenhouse gas emissions, as Above the Law first reported.

Regan tweeted, "@SCOTUSblog - Don't screw up this like [Affordable Care Act]. No such thing as greenhouse gas. Carbon is necessary for life."

SCOTUSBlog responded, "Intelligent life?" prompting Regan to send the offensive tweet and delete his Twitter account shortly thereafter. Regan's tweet didn't go unnoticed, as SCOTUSBlog has more than 143,000 Twitter followers.

Reed Smith released this statement to Am Law Daily on Monday: "The posting of offensive commentary or language on social media is inappropriate and inconsistent with Reed Smith's social media policy. We are addressing this matter internally."

The firm has not been blind to the pitfalls of Twitter. News came out in 2010 that it was sending its senior lawyers to "Tweet School" to teach them how behave on the microblogging site, The Guardian reported at the time. It's not clear whether Regan attended. We've reached out to him for comment and will update this post if we hear back.

For its part, SCOTUSBlog blog took the tweet in stride.