A few lawyers have commented that Avvo’s taxonomy (i.e., its practice area categories) is strangely organized. And they are right . . . from a lawyer’s point of view. But that is not the point of view upon which Avvo was built.

Avvo exists to help consumers choose the right lawyer, and to be successful in our mission we must view the legal marketplace through the consumer lens. In no place is this more true than with the Avvo taxonomy. Rather than building a taxonomy that would have made legal academics proud, we built our taxonomy based on how consumers talk about and search for lawyers.

To do this, we listened to consumers in focus groups and analyzed their searching habits across the Internet. This led to some interesting revelations: Are Chapter 7, 11 and 13 bankruptcies different enough to warrant separate practice areas? Probably not, but consumers think so. Is an automobile accident that different from a motorcycle accident? Nope . . . but rather than lecturing consumers on this, we decided to just help them find the motorcycle accident lawyer they are searching for millions of times each month.

The result is a legal taxonomy defined by consumers, rather than by lawyers. And, yes, this will feel strange to some lawyers but it is a necessary step in helping consumers. The legal profession’s polysyllabic diction and Latin phrasings essentially serve as white noise for the consumer; and Avvo’s aim is to remove that noise . . . to build a marketplace that walks and talks the way a consumer thinks it should.

Our bet is that by serving consumers in this way, we will help consumers get to the right lawyer faster. And that is good for everyone consumers, lawyers and maybe even those that find us a bit strange. :-)

Onward . . .

Mark

1. Blair Berk (attorney to the stars, Mel Gibson and Lindsay Lohan, among others.) Los Angeles, CA
2. Joseph Finlay Jr. Southampton, PA

3. Michael Emory Clark Houston, TX

4. Roger Dunaway Seattle, WA
5. Stacy Levine Great Neck, NY
6. Lawrence Gelber Brooklyn, NY
7. Derk Wadas Plano, TX

8. Robert Bennett Houston, TX. Ethics and Professional Responsibility Lawyer, Robert Bennett made headlines this week publishing The 10 WORST US Prosecutors 2007 which was also picked up in the WSJ Law Blog.

9. Roni Deutch North Highlands, CA

10. Thomas Walley Newport Beach, CA

HILARIOUS! One of the funniest inquiries I have received to Avvo Customer Care was the report of “a balloon on my forehead.” In actuality, the balloon was the welcome message on the lawyer’s profile. It seemed to have caused some confusion for lawyers and consumers alike. So…we changed it!

Hoa, our fab designer was able to transform the floating bubble into a very attractive, easy to find, easy to understand message on top of the lawyer’s profile picture. Yay Hoa!

BEFORE

AFTER

Yesterday, the WSJ’s Marketplace covered a new trend of top lawyers charging an hourly rate in the four figure range.

I thought it would be interesting to see if the Avvo Rating was correlated to the billable rate of more than $16.50 a minute these high priced attorneys charge:
Kevin Arquit Avvo Rating: 9.0-Superb
Barry Ostrager Avvo Rating: 8.6-Excellent
Richard Beattie Avvo Rating: 9.1-Superb
Stephen Susman Avvo Rating: 10.0-Superb
Benjamin Civiletti Avvo Rating: 9.2-Superb
Brad Scheler Avvo Rating: 8.8 Excellent

Peter Lattman, at the WSJ Law Blog also covers it, which includes a very interesting comment from a Lawyer from Denver: “client’s are wooed too much by the marketing and allure of these high priced lawyers – there are plenty of other lower priced lawyers who can do just as good of job. It just takes some time and digging to find them.” Here at Avvo, we’re trying to make that digging easier.

The most viewed lawyers of last week are:
1.Joel Steven Cohen, New York, NY
2.Michael Ian Werner, Pittsburg, PA
3.Jeffrey Pollock, Pittsburg, PA
4.Richard D. Ackerman, Temecula, CA
5.Briteney Ann Mercer, Seattle, WA

6.John Henry Browne, Seattle, WA
7.Kelly Vi-Vi Chang, Los Angeles, CA

8.Robert S. Bennett, Houston, TX

9.Roni Lynn Deutch, North Highlands, CA

10.Tommy Wade Harrison, College Station, TX

With DUI and drug possession charges becoming the latest craze in Hollywood, lawyers seem to have their work cut out for them. Socialites Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie will be spending their Friday nights behind bars if these high powered celebrity attorneys don’t play their cards right.

Lindsay Lohan’s attorney Blair Berk helps the troubled actress face charges including two counts of driving under the influence, possession of cocaine, bringing a controlled substance into a jail facility, and driving on a suspended license. We will see Berk and Lohan in the Beverly Hills Courthouse on August 24 as they battle these charges.

Nicole Richie’s attorney Shawn Chapman Holley has been working hard trying to keep Richie out of jail for her second DUI, where she was caught driving the wrong way on the freeway with marijuana and Vicodin in her system. Richie has been sentenced to serve four-days in county lockup.

Also Paris Hilton’s attorney Richard A. Hutton fought to keep Paris out of jail for former DUI charges and then driving with a suspended license. Paris served around 3 weeks in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Other celebrity lawyers to check out:

Britney Spears’ attorney, Laura Wasser
Kevin Federline’s attorney, Mark Vincent Kaplan

Mark and I spent a few days last week at the American Bar Association Annual Meeting in San Francisco–an intimate gathering of our 9,000 closest friends. We headed down mostly to get a sense for the top-of-mind issues lawyers are talking about, and to meet some of the folks from the ABA. It turned out to be a valuable and eye-opening trip.

In addition to enjoying some excellent Chinese food at Hunan Home, we had the opportunity to chat with several past, current, and future leaders of the ABA. Bob Hirshon, one of Avvo’s legal advisors and former ABA president, hosted a great dinner at The Slanted Door, including Laura Farber and Brian Mendelez (both former presidents of the Young Lawyers Division), Michael Bedke, Bob’s son Jason, and several others.

We also met with several leaders from the Law Practice Management section, including Micah Buchdahl (who gave an excellent presentation on web marketing), Walter Karnstein, and Larry Smith.

We had a great conversation with Will Hornsby, staff attorney at the ABA, regarding bar rules on advertising and how they have evolved since the landmark Bates v. Arizona decision. This was a pretty hot topic of discussion, with some very insightful comments during the Ethics in Advertising panel from Micah, Susan Kay, Rodney Smolla.

One of the more interesting discussions I had was with Jeffrey Aresty, who has been working to establish an Internet Bar whose purpose is “to address issues associated with the practice of law in cyberspace and with harmonizing laws internationally that affect human rights starting with privacy, identity theft and e-commerce, and other issues that may emerge as globalization and virtual practices advance”. Talk about a big vision.

Yesterday, Kevin O’Keefe posted on Why lawyers can’t ignore Facebook for networking.

Yesterday, Newsweek’s covershot was of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

And yesterday, I started an Avvo Lawyers Facebook Group. Check us out – we’ll answer questions and post updates about Avvo and you can connect with other attorneys who are using the site.

The most viewed lawyers last week are:
1.Joel Steven Cohen, New York, NY
2.Richard D. Ackerman, Temecula, CA
3.Richard Murray Escoffery, Atlanta, GA
4.Matthew Jeremy Ruggles, Sacramento, CA

5.Martin J Waters, San Diego, CA
6.Piotr Gabriel Reysner, Stockton, CA
7.Tommy Wade Harrison, College Station, TX
8.Briteney Ann Mercer, Seattle, WA

9.Michael Emory Clark, Houston, TX
(Note Michael’s clever Court TV profile picture!)
10.Nathan L Webb, Bellevue, WA

Being a part of Customer Care, I come into contact with a lot of lawyers. My favorite part of the day is when a really good name pops up in my inbox, someone who was born to be a lawyer. This afternoon I came across a list of great law firm names on the WSJ blog. So I decided to track down some great lawyer names from Avvo.

My favorites