Do Client Reviews Affect my Avvo Rating?

By Gina F. Rubel

When we wrote recently about the lawyer rating website Avvo, and what it means for a law firm’s practice, one of the follow-up questions we heard repeatedly was, “Do client reviews affect my Avvo rating?”

It’s a logical question. An Avvo profile includes space for client reviews and ratings, and even has a feature whereby attorneys can email clients to request that they submit a review. If the website goes to such lengths to encourage client input, it would seem to follow that that input would affect an attorney’s numerical rating.

According to Avvo, however, client reviews do not affect an attorney’s rating.

As we previously discussed, Avvo uses a proprietary algorithm to calculate a numerical rating for an attorney on a scale of 1 to 10. The formula takes into account the professional information that an attorney has entered into his or her Avvo profile, including career history, scholarly writings, speaking engagements and industry-specific memberships and awards. Each of these types of information in the profile contributes to an attorney’s overall rating.

Reviews from other attorneys do boost a lawyer’s rating. Those from clients do not. Avvo says: “Peer endorsements do affect your Avvo Rating, though client reviews do not. This is because peer endorsements – one lawyer endorsing another’s skills and experience – are a way to assess industry recognition, which is a factor in how we calculate an attorney’s Avvo Rating. Client reviews do play a very important role for people looking to hire an attorney, but we have chosen to not include that information when calculating the Avvo Rating.”

That doesn’t mean that attorneys should ignore client reviews. Particularly for lawyers in some consumer-facing practices, such as family law, reviews from past clients can influence a potential client’s choice of attorney. Avvo’s client rating is a way for an average consumer to rate how they feel their attorney handled their case. And consumers seeking an attorney often consider input from previous clients to help them decide which attorneys to approach regarding a similar legal issue.

As with any rating a consumer gives to a service or product online – think Amazon, eBay, or TripAdvisor – a client review can be superb or not so superb. Avvo’s client ratings are displayed as stars on the attorney’s profile page, with five stars being the highest and one star being the lowest.

So what is Furia Rubel’s advice regarding Avvo client ratings? We do advise lawyers to claim their Avvo profiles and fill them out as completely as possible in order to boost their rating. (Avvo invests heavily in marketing and Avvo profiles tend to appear high in search engine results.) For attorneys who work primarily in-house or who deal with corporations, municipalities or other entities, soliciting client reviews may not be worth an investment of effort. For lawyers who work directly with the public, however, positive client reviews can help influence a consumer’s buying decision, and seeking them out may be worth the time and effort, regardless of their lack of influence on Avvo’s overall lawyer rating.

How Can Lawyers Boost Their Avvo Ratings?

By Gina Rubel

As we discussed last week, Avvo is an attorney directory website that aims to “match consumers with the best possible fit for legal representation.” It also “rates” attorneys with a number from 1 (indicating “extreme caution” to 10 (Superb).

As we also discussed last week, that rating does not necessarily reflect an attorney’s actual prowess. Even Avvo admits as much, noting that, “The Avvo Rating is based only on the information we have collected and that the attorney has provided, so we don’t recommend the Avvo Rating as the only piece of information you use to evaluate whether an attorney is right for you.”

What is in the ‘Secret Sauce’?

Much like the formula for Coke or the 11 herbs and spices in Kentucky Fried Chicken’s seasoning, the precise factors that Avvo uses to calculate an attorney’s rating are kept secret. Avvo maintains that the information it uses is the same information displayed on an attorney’s profile.

“However, we do not disclose the weight we give to this information so that no one can game the system, boosting their rating through unfair advantage,” it says. “Much as Google doesn’t share its search engine secrets, we don’t share the inner-workings of the Avvo Rating so we can maintain the neutrality and integrity of the rating.”

Whether you agree with the fundamental premise behind Avvo’s ratings or not, the site still probably has a profile for you. Because it appears so high in search engine results, we advise our clients to take control of their Avvo profiles and to fill them out as completely as possible.

6 Tips to Boost Your Avvo Rating

After years of experience helping clients improve their Avvo ratings, here are six areas of the Avvo profile that we have seen correlate to a higher overall rating.

Attorney endorsements: We have found that endorsements from fellow attorneys significantly increase an attorney’s Avvo rating. However, there is a limit to how many endorsement points you can receive. To receive endorsements from your peers, you need to proactively request those testimonials. It’s the same as asking someone for a reference, and it is rare that other attorneys will endorse you without being formally asked first.

Work experience: The Avvo Rating factors in the type of work experience as well as the number of years you have practiced law. This can include leadership positions that you have held with legal associations (e.g., state bar). And be sure to include your current employer. If your current employer is already listed on your Avvo profile, check to make sure that information is correct such as your employer’s address and contact information.

Awards and honors: Awards from recognized groups such as Super Lawyers, The Best Lawyers in America, Martindale-Hubbell, etc. will positively impact your Avvo Rating. The weight from these awards will decrease over time, however, so be sure to update each year that you receive the award.

Associations: Avvo also is interested in your professional involvement in the legal community. This shows that you take your law practice seriously and that you are committed to improving yourself as an attorney. The boost to your rating will be even bigger if your peers have elevated you to an office or position within that group.

Publications: If you have not published any articles, now is the time to do so. We highly recommend submitting an article in your area of expertise to a legal journal or other media outlet. If it is published, you will have a publication credit to add to your Avvo profile. If you already have published law-related articles, then you are ahead of the game; just list them on your profile. This is also a great place to include media mentions if you or your cases have garnered positive media coverage.

Speaking engagements: Lastly, be sure to list prior speaking engagements. This can include events where you have given a talk, such as at the annual bar association conference, or if you have led any continuing legal education (CLE) programs. If you haven’t yet taught a CLE program, think about what expertise you have to offer. In addition to expanding your knowledge of your chosen practice area, it's a good way to increase your Avvo Rating.

Has your Avvo Rating affected your business? Share any thoughts and/or experiences in the comments below.

What Goes Into an Avvo Rating, and Why Should You Care?

By Gina Rubel

As legal marketers, we field questions from attorneys all the time about Avvo – what it is, what its lawyer “ratings” are based upon, and whether attorneys should pay it in any mind.

Founded in 2006 in Seattle by former Expedia general counsel Mark Britton, Avvo is an attorney rating and directory website that aims to “match consumers with the best possible fit for legal representation.” It enables potential clients to research lawyers by city, state and practice area and to submit requests for legal advice, among other things.

Lawyer referrals go high-tech

Britton and co-founder Paul Bloom raised millions in venture capital to launch Avvo, which they envisioned becoming a name brand nationwide resource.

“When you are looking for a book, there’s Amazon; when (you) travel, you have Expedia; for jobs, there’s Monster; and when it comes to search, there’s Google. But when it comes to legal, there’s nothing,” Britton told the Seattle Times in a 2007 interview.

In the years since then, Avvo has raised millions in funding, including $71.5 million in 2015 to expand its product offerings, boost its headcount, and increase its marketing efforts. According to Bloomberg Business, the site is valued at $650 million.

Attorney ‘ratings’

By far Avvo’s most contentious offering is its ratings system, which assigns a numerical value to attorneys in its vast directory. Shortly after the site’s launch in 2007, it found itself in the legal crosshairs of two Seattle attorneys who took umbrage at the site’s ratings, alleging it engaged in “unfair and deceptive practices by falsely claiming to be objective, reliable and factual.” The suit was dismissed by a federal judge who wrote, “Neither the nature of the information provided nor the language used on the Web site would lead a reasonable person to believe that the ratings are a statement of actual fact,” Lasnik wrote.

So what does all of this mean for attorneys? Should lawyers care about their Avvo rating?

In short, yes, but first, it is helpful to understand how those ratings come to be.

Avvo calculates a rating for a lawyer, with 10 being the highest, using a mathematical formula based upon the information provided to Avvo in a lawyer’s profile and from public records such as state bar associations and law firm websites. Therefore, an Avvo rating often has little to do with an individual attorney’s prowess, and instead is based upon how thoroughly an attorney has filled out his or her Avvo profile. That sometimes leads to situations where well-regarded attorneys who have practiced for decades will have lower Avvo ratings than less experienced attorneys who have claimed and updated their Avvo profile.

Avvo’s marketing investment can benefit your practice

Remember that $71.5 million in funding we mentioned? Avvo is pouring some of that money into advertising its site, which now claims 8 million unique visits each month. Attorneys can benefit from that traffic in various ways:

• Individual Avvo profiles appear very high in Internet search results. If you’re an attorney, Google your name and see if your Avvo profile appears on the first page of results; there’s a good chance it will.
• Avvo provides free online real estate of which attorneys should take ownership. If your name is on it, you want to be able to exercise as much control over it as possible.
• Avvo ratings are important to consumers (just like Super Lawyers).
• High Avvo ratings can be used for firm marketing efforts.
• Avvo profiles allow attorneys to link to their firm’s website, boosting the traffic to the website.

Although claiming your Avvo profile sometimes can be tedious, we advise clients to invest the time in doing so. But don’t stop there; a surprising number of lawyers claim their Avvo profile and then do nothing with it. It is important to fill in an Avvo profile completely in order to ensure it accurately reflects a lawyer’s credentials and experience. It’s also just as important to maintain that profile and keep it updated.

Adding relevant, current information to a lawyer’s profile can translate into “points” toward Avvo’s calculated rating. We advise attorneys to fill out as much of their Avvo profile as possible, to help achieve as high a rating as possible.

In a future blog post, we will share tips on ways attorneys can boost their rating, looking at the factors that influence an Avvo rating – and those that don’t.

Law Firm Crisis Planning and Management: Lessons Learned from #Sandy - Lawyernomics Blog

Gina Rubel recently authored a blog for Avvo.com's Lawyernomics blog titled, "Law Firm Crisis Planning and Management: Lessons Learned from #Sandy." The blog explores crisis management for businesses and how Furia Rubel and its law firm colleagues on the East Coast dealt with the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Gina discusses crisis planning and management issues such as life without electricity, transportation / travel, social media and crisis messaging. To read the full article, go to Avvo.com's Lawyernomics Blog.

How to Create a Professional Avvo.com Profile

Image from Avvo.com

By Laura Powers

A Web search for the name of a lawyer will frequently reveal that lawyer’s Avvo.com listing on the first page of results. On Avvo.com, default profiles are created for lawyers from public information. Unless these profiles are claimed by attorneys to verify their identities, they remain mostly without vital information that viewers can use to learn about a lawyer, their firm and their services. Avvo profiles also have ratings associated with them that are based on very little information. The only way to improve a rating is to complete a profile.

Below are details for the sections that are needed to complete a lawyer's Avvo profile. If information can be copied from a current website bio and LinkedIn profile, we find that, on average, each individual's Avvo profile update will take about 60 to 90 minutes to complete.

Overview Section

Practice Areas - Add all primary practice areas (choices are limited to an extent by Avvo) with the percent of business conducted in each and a brief description of specific and unique services. Including the brief description allows viewers to read about services in more detail through a pop-up bubble on the profile.

Fees and Payment Types - Adding this information should be determined by personal / firm preference.

Contact Information - Add company name, address, office phone, mobile, fax, email, website and up to four blog and social media links.

Languages Spoken  - Adding this information should be determined by personal / firm preference.

About Me - Add a professional photo and biographic information. There is an additional option to link YouTube (or Vimeo) videos and have them displayed as well.

References Section

There are two types of references on Avvo: client reviews and peer endorsements.

There are automated forms that can be used via this section to request client reviews that should be used at the lawyer's discretion with approval from the firm.

Resumé Section

License - Add all states in which the attorney is licensed to practice. Note that you will need a Bar ID Number because Avvo verifies these records.

Work Experience - Add all relevant past and present positions.

Education - Add college, law school and advanced degrees.

Awards - Add relevant awards and recognitions.

Associations - Add organization name, dates and positions served.

Portfolio Section

Contribution - Avvo has a system of earning points by interacting and communicating with the Avvo community to provide useful information. See the “About Contributions” section below for more information.

Cases - Adding this information should be determined by personal / firm preference. This section requests case titles, details and outcomes.

Publications - Add title, publication name, year and a link to online content, if any.

Speaking Engagements - Add topic, event name, organizer information, date and a link to information online, if any.

About Avvo Contributions

Avvo has a system of earning points by interacting and communicating with the Avvo community to provide useful information. Points can be earned in a variety of ways. What do contributor points mean? On the Legal Leaderboard page, contributors move up and down according to points. Our tests indicate that it isn't obvious to the public how to navigate to this leaderboard area, so the value of contributor points to the consumer is not clear.

As with any social media, if engaging with the Avvo community, lawyers should follow the Rules of Professional Conduct for the states in which they are licensed to practice, should not reveal confidential information and should avoid debating the accuracy of another user's answers or comments. Avvo legal contributors should always conduct themselves professionally and never offer legal advice.

Avvo has become an important player in organic search engine optimization for individual lawyer’s names across the county. Because of this, it is important for lawyers to complete their Avvo profiles at Avvo.com. Taking a short amount of time to complete a profile using the steps above will help support the online marketing of attorney’s names and their law firms.

Tips for Successfully Communicating a Law Firm Succession, Merger, or Acquisition - Avvo Blog Post

Law firm successions happen all the time – some are planned for and others are not. To learn more about communicating such changes effectively with internal and external audiences, check out Gina's latest blog on Avvo Lawyernomics here.

Twitter and Facebook Changes In Time for the Holidays - Avvo Blog Post

Just when you thought you “got it” – Twitter and Facebook have announced major changes to their platforms.

To read more of Gina's blog post on Avvo.com, click here.

Avvo Webinar: Integrated Marketing For Law Firms With Gina Rubel

Posted by Amanda Walsh

The Avvo webinar hosted by Gina Rubel that we wrote about last week is now up on Vimeo for your viewing pleasure. Learn about implementing a strategic approach to integrated marketing for your law firm.


Integrated Marketing for Law Firms with Gina Rubel from Avvo on Vimeo.

A big thank you to Avvo for hosting the webinar!

Integrated Marketing For Law Firms - Free Webinar On Aug. 4, 2011

Posted by Gina Rubel

Join me tomorrow, August 4, 2011, at 1 p.m. EST for a free Avvo webinar titled Integrated Marketing for Law Firms.

Lawyers and legal marketers understand their firm needs a website, a logo and even business cards. Many also understand the benefit of a blog, email newsletters, online profiles and public relations campaigns. But not many lawyers know where to start and how to strategically piece together each marketing initiative so that they support the brand, key messages and ultimately bring in more business. I will discuss how you can put together an effective integrated marketing plan and best practices for ensuring its implementation is a success.

Lawyers who participate in this webinar will learn about: brand identity and message creation; developing a marketing plan to reaching a target audience; and how to integrate each marketing initiative to ultimately bring in more business.

State Bars & Testimonial Advertising - Ethics For Lawyers

Guest post by Josh King

Some state bars – like Florida, Indiana and South Carolina – have, in their zeal to over-regulate attorney advertising, flat-out prohibited testimonial advertising. Never mind that the FTC has consistently called on the states [pdf] to minimize restrictions on testimonial ads, or that there’s no empirical evidence that testimonial advertising is uniquely problematic. These states think it is bad, so they reflexively bar testimonials from attorney advertising.

One issue that perennially crops up is how attorneys can use their Avvo profiles in these states. The concern is that Avvo includes a forum where clients can leave reviews of attorneys, and these reviews could be construed as “testimonials” that violate the state ban on this advertising technique. The question crops up regularly with respect to client reviews on Avvo, Yelp reviews or endorsements on LinkedIn.

When this question arises, I tell lawyers to quit wringing their hands about it. There are two very basic reasons why:

1. Client feedback is not “testimonial advertising.” Sure, if you put it up on a billboard it is – because then you are taking editorial control and paying to have it published.  But when a client leaves a review on Avvo, the attorneys are not in control of the review. The client decides whether to write a review, and what the tone will be.  They might even leave a negative review. And while you can comment on the review, you cannot modify or delete it. Even Florida recognizes that this makes a big difference; that state’s “Guidelines for Networking Social Sites” explicitly note that attorneys are not responsible for third party reviews on sites like Avvo.

And that is a good thing, because besides the obvious common-sense distinction, there is a statutory consideration as well: 47 U.S. § 230 precludes any attempt by states to hold lawyers responsible for online content that they did not create.

But even more importantly . . .

2. Prohibitions on testimonial advertising are not legal. There is little question that the testimonial prohibitions in Florida, Indiana and South Carolina would be swept from the books if challenged in federal court (as has already happened in the last year with similar restrictions in New York and Louisiana [pdf]). Attorney advertising regulation is subject to the First Amendment, which means it must be narrowly applied and materially advance important state interests. And the state carries the burden of proving this is the case. Outright bans on testimonials cannot clear this bar. They are too broadly restrictive of free speech rights. And there is no chance that a testimonial prohibition covering independent client reviews could meet the narrowness requirement.

There are a lot of things attorneys need to worry about these days – generating new business, providing responsive service, zealously advocating for clients. But the advertising implications of postings left by your clients should not be one of them.

Josh King is general counsel and vice-president, business development for Avvo, Inc. He is a frequent writer and speaker on First Amendment and professional ethics issues in the practice of law. He can be reached at josh@avvo.com or (206) 734-4113.

All the opinions reflected in this blog post are those of the author. This guest post does not necessarily reflect the opinions of Furia Rubel.