NEWS

Avvo Helps Clients Find the Best Lawyers

New Jersey Law Journal
March 18, 2008
By Mary Pat Gallagher

If Mark Britton has his way, people looking for legal help will no longer have to rely on lawyer directory services really designed for use by other lawyers.

Britton is the founder and CEO of Avvo, a free, consumer-oriented site, launched last June, which seeks to address the difficulty that the average person has in finding a lawyer when the need arises.

Avvo -- derived from "avvocato," Italian for lawyer -- includes the kind of information that can help consumers make informed choices of counsel.

Britton -- the former general counsel of Expedia.com, a travel-planning Web site -- says that Avvo lawyer profiles are all works in progress, susceptible to embellishment and comment by lawyers, colleagues and clients.

The profiles contain public-source data, such as admissions records from state judiciaries and bar associations.

But attorneys can "claim" their profiles -- that is, beef them up with information about awards, speaking engagements, other recognitions for their legal work and cases they have worked on, creating a "track record" of their "greatest hits," says Britton.

In Washington state, where Avvo is based, about 12 percent of the more than 20,000 practicing lawyers have claimed their Avvo profiles, he says.

Similar to the Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory, Avvo includes lawyer ratings. But they are on a scale consumers can appreciate: from a low of 1 (extreme caution) to a high of 10 (superb). Avvo computes the rating based on an algorithm that factors length of practice, professional achievements and disciplinary history.

Where only admissions data is available, Avvo indicates either "Attention" or "No Concern," based on whether the lawyer has been disciplined.

Profiles can include the lawyer's college and law school, a pie chart showing areas of practice and a map and directions to the office.

Clients can also post comments and rate lawyers on knowledge, trustworthiness, responsiveness and communication. They must provide their e-mail address and the basis for their opinion: how long ago they used the lawyer, the type of matter and how many other lawyers they have worked with. Avvo reviews comments before they go up, and has taken down a few after attorneys complained and the clients backed down or failed to respond.

Other attorneys can weigh in too, but only on the positive side, with "peer endorsements." Client comments can be anonymous but lawyers must identify themselves, and their own rating appears next to their endorsement.

The site also includes a forum where lawyers can answer consumers' questions on such topics as child visitation, sexual assault and legal malpractice. (Those who answer most often are highlighted as the week's top lawyers.)

Though Avvo is geared toward consumers, Britton says lawyers and especially solos should welcome it as a free Web presence and "a chance to showcase their work." He says the site has logged more than six million page views and more than a million profile views.

The site was launched with $13 million in startup capital. Its director is Louis Andreozzi, a former Lexis Nexis CEO and Martindale-Hubbell division manager. Robert Hirshon, the American Bar Association president in 2001-02, is an adviser.

The site already has 655,000 profiles, about half of all lawyers in the country by Britton's estimate. They are from nine heavily lawyer-populated states, including New York, California, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Texas, and the District of Columbia. Massachusetts and Florida are to be added next month, and Britton says he hopes to expand nationwide.

New Jersey was meant to be part of the initial launch, but Britton says he's hit a "brick wall." Twice last year, once before the launch and once afterward, the New Jersey courts denied requests for admissions data. Avvo general counsel Joshua King was advised by Supreme Court Clerk Stephen Townsend that the information would not be available in bulk until completion of an electronic database project, currently behind schedule and with no end in sight.

When King insisted that Avvo had a right to the data, in some form or other, Townsend recommended asking the state Supreme Court. On Wednesday, King petitioned the Court under the Open Public Records Act and Rule 1:38, which governs access to court records.

"Every one of the 29 other states Avvo has contacted make attorney licensing data available to the public, in many cases in a convenient electronic form," King wrote in the petition.

In an interview, King said he encountered no obstacle in obtaining disciplinary history from New Jersey, just the admissions data, "basically name, rank and serial number."

Judiciary spokeswoman Tammy Kendig says Avvo is looking for information that is not available in one place and is not reliable at present.

Another potential stumbling block in New Jersey could be the state Supreme Court's forthcoming decision in a controversy over attorneys' advertising their inclusion in two ratings publications, Superlawyers and Best Lawyers in America. In 2006, the Court's Committee on Attorney Advertising found, in Opinion 39, that those ads violate rules against creating the impression a lawyer has a better chance than another lawyer in guaranteeing success. The Court has stayed Opinion 39 pending a special master's review.

LITIGATION COMES QUICKLY

Avvo's launch in Washington state was greeted swiftly by a lawsuit. On June 14, 2007, nine days after the site went live, two Seattle lawyers filed a federal class action in the Western District of Washington, challenging the accuracy, validity and fairness of the ratings system.

One of the lawyers was John Henry Browne, who scored a 5.5 rating (average), despite 35 years of practice, an AV designation from Martindale-Hubbell, eight years on the Best Lawyers list and status as a "Super Lawyer." A 2005 admonishment dragged him down.

Browne alleged that at least two clients dropped him over his rating and he noted that it was below the 6.2 rating given to Bernie Willard Potter, who was still listed even though he had committed suicide after being disbarred over criminal convictions.

Browne also criticized the system as easily gamed, noting that another lawyer upped his rating by .3 with a softball award, and coercive, because lawyers with low ratings are stuck with them unless they choose to claim their profiles.

Chief District Judge Robert Lasnik dismissed Browne's case on Dec. 18 on First Amendment grounds, noting that the ratings were subjective opinions, as the Avvo site repeatedly reminds users, rather than facts to be proved or disproved.

Browne says he was initially rated 3.7 or "Caution" but the number jumped two points after he publicly criticized Avvo. He is now at 5.7, while Potter's rating has been removed and he is denoted as deceased.

Britton says Avvo knew it would get sued "by not only having flowery ratings but also cautioning consumers" and the suit was an attempt to chill and censor it. The company relies on bar records and the information it was given about Potter was not up to date, he explains.

As for that softball bounce, he says "we didn't appreciate that people would try to mess with the system and any little thing they found, put it in a class action complaint." Awards posted by lawyers are now checked before, rather than after, bumping up their ratings, he says.

Browne's co-plaintiff, bankruptcy lawyer Alan Wenokur, alleged he was initially rated 6.5, or "Good," but felt he deserved a higher rating, in light of his 24 years of practice and an AV rating from Martindale-Hubbell. Now, his listing reads "No Concern," and carries no rating.

CONSULTANTS' OPINIONS VARY

Micah Buchdahl, a Pennsylvania lawyer who owns HTMLawyers Inc., a legal marketing company in Moorestown, N.J., says Avvo has great potential.

"There will continue to be a need for legitimate online resources of lawyers and law firms," he says, adding that Avvo stands out from other directories in its consumer emphasis.

But Larry Bodine, a legal marketing consultant and blogger based in Glen Ellyn, Ill., says lawyer directories are becoming obsolete. "There is only one directory that counts, Google," says Bodine, who advises clients to cancel their paid listings and "put money into your Web site and make sure when someone Googles your practice area, you come up."

Bodine has, however, been involved with a Web site that includes law firm profiles. He helped create JDSupra, a free site launched earlier this month, which features a database of legal documents supplied by contributor firms.