I have never minded competing for clients, or duking it out in court, which is why the Benjamin Law Offices in Sacramento is a successful, small, private sector law firm primarily serving businesses and employers with counseling, transactional and litigation matters. I seriously doubt that AVVO will help or hinder or be of any relevance to what we do and who we represent.

We encourage potential clients to ask questions, the kind of questions you’d find in any article on choosing a lawyer. Our best clients are those who ask questions about our experience and results in matters similar to their own, but of course, there isn’t and can’t ever be, any way for AVVO to know that information, or appreciate the nuances present in every legal matter. Some things can’t be reduced to a number.

We think the AVVO rating, being a gross generalization and reduction ad absurdium to a single 1 - 10 rating, will never accurately reflect what we do or how well. For instance, I’ve simply been too busy representing clients the last few years to get a decent vacation, so why would I bother with writing articles, conducting seminars or padding my resume with bar association subcommittee activities? Don’t you understand that those activities are marketing tools for many attorneys? To associate an attorney’s merits as a practitioner to their proclivity for writing articles, undertaking public speaking events or paying association dues is silly. When I was a junior associate, I did lots of writing, speaking and bar association activities. Didn’t make me a better lawyer; didn’t get me any clients, either. I found other ways to market my services, so I whittled down the writing, speaking and bar association activities. Almost any attorney can get an article published if they put in the effort, but then unlike me, those folks have more time on their hands. Maybe if they were better attorneys, they’d be too busy…

Although most potential clients don’t seem to think it, we screen them, too. The list of reasons why we won’t represent someone is far too long to list here. A potential client who is focused on the AVVO rating, especially if AVVO’s rating algorithm and database are not greatly improved, will not be the type of client we’re looking for, which is to say, the client who doesn’t know how to find the attorney with the right knowledge, skills, experience, temperment and fee structure for the job, as opposed to the best AVVO rating.

Quantifying intanglibles, who really thought that would work? Good luck with your website; you’ve got a huge amount of work to do before this thing becomes of any use to potential clients trying to determine which of the many capable attorneys is the right attorney for them.

As I and thousands of others have spent the last 48 hours manipulating our “objective score,” a number of comments and questions have arisen.

Despite your front page claim, your site doesn’t appear to analyze the attorney supplied data in any ojective manner. As long as these folks place as many lines in as many of the fields as possible, their score gets adjusted upward. I can put “4th grade spelling bee” in the award section or Island of the Blue Dolphins Book Report in the speaking engagement and your program will accept it and adjust the score.

Nor is the problem fixed by simply saying that the attorney has agreed not to lie in their profile. I actually did win in 4th grade. I also caught an attorney who put in “dean’s list” for one quarter of undergrad as an accomplishment.

You may say that the consumer can read the data and judge for themselves. Still, that may not relieve your responsibility when you rank them a 10 on their front page, call the measurement “objective,” and place the attorney third down from the top of the list in their field. First impressions count. If you’re unable to read and analyze the attorney “data” then you need a more severe disclaimer on your front page.

As you know, there are also a great number of “awards” and “lists” that an attorney can simply purchase to get the certificate. Will you research those and inform the consumer? I’m sure they’d like to know. I’ve noticed that some attorneys have simply listed each year they bought the certificate as individual “accomplishments.”

We’ve noticed that some attorneys who have half the years of experience in the very same field as other attorneys have twice the “experience” marks. Please explain.

You indicate you rely in part on court records. Do you consider whether or not an attorney has won a published case? Us attorneys consider that pretty impressive. By the way, I looked up a friend who was number 1 at Stanford Law, clerked for the US Supreme Court, has successfully argued in the 9th Circuit, and is one of the youngest partners in a nationally recognized SF firm. You rated her a 6. Isn;t all of that data in the public realm? There’s a lot of relevant stuff you’re not considering which isn’t “style” or “personality.”

You allow clients to supply a comment. If a client happens to leave a stinging but innacurate comment, can we reply without risk a privilege breach? Did you make that a use term and condition for the client before they enter the data?

Again, I sincerely commend you on your effort. The public truly does need more information on attorneys other than their own paid advertisements. But that’s the point isn’t it? You’re trying to combat the phone book ads not simply offer us another page for free.

So, just because someone doesn’t include all of their awards and accomplishments on a publicly available website, they will be perceived as being average at best. That really disadvantages in-house counsel (and, frankly, any lawyer who doesn’t keep a public bio), and is very unfair and unjust.

Your goal of helping consumers is not met with this site. If anything you will often give them a false sense of security, or cause them to avoid a very good and qualified lawyer who doesn’t happen to see the need to have a public bio listing his/her accomplishments.

With all of the inconsistencies being pointed out by many media outlets, can you seriously justify how you think you are helping consumers? LinkedIn, where at least you can get referrals from people you know in your network (and where people have endorsements from clients), is a far superior way to find a good lawyer than using this misleading site.

I’m truly amazed that sophisticated venture capitalists thought this was a good idea. I feel like it’s 1999 all over again.

I strongly recommend that you take the opposite approach on that.

What could you possibly have to do each day that is more important than communicating with your customers?

This blog is the equivalent of the storekeeper facing his customers every day and addressing their concerns, talking about successes, and dealing with responses to mistakes.

Use this as the fantastic tool that it is — 15 minutes every day to share information with your customers and fans. Listen to what they have to say (don’t DO everything they ask, of course!) and share what you can.

Best of luck — I’m a huge fan of what you’re trying to accomplish.

Dave