We’re excited to share that Avvo Founder and CEO Mark Britton is profiled as one of the American Bar Association Journal’s Legal Rebels!

A project taken on this month by the Journal to showcase those who are driving innovative change in the legal profession, Mark’s story outlines his vision for Avvo, and its mission to empower both consumers and lawyers in a way that has never been done before.  Sendi Widjaja, Avvo’s CTO, is also highlighted as the company’s technical ‘Wizard of Oz’, who has led the product development of Avvo since day one.

You can read Mark’s Legal Rebel profile here.

I often speak to attorneys about their Core Web Presence and how a website, blog or even an Avvo Profile can serve as an excellent core. Oddly when it comes to blogging, attorneys consistently have two knee-jerk excuses:

1. I’m too busy to even figure out where to start; and
2. I can’t spend thousands of dollars a year on something that I may not use.

I usually put the first excuse to bed by referencing blogs like Leanna Hamill’s Massachusetts Estate Planning and Elder Law blog or Craig Williams’ May It Please the Court blog. Leanna and Craig have successful legal practices, and yet they find time to blog numerous times per week. And for every Hamill and Williams, there is an Ambrogi , Elefant or Greenfield. They all support the notion that there are thousands of busy lawyers blogging effectively, and the excuse-laden lawyer should be too. The marketing benefits far outweigh any effort.

But combating the second excuse is always harder. That’s because, when it comes to blogging platforms and tools for lawyers, there are few reasonable alternatives. Lawyers can either (1) use a very basic WordPress or Blogger template that may not have the professional look and feel that lawyers need, or (2) have a custom blog built for them that is expensive to both build and maintain.

To fill this gap, today we are introducing Avvo Blogs, a simple, effective and affordable blogging solution for lawyers around the world.

Simple

The key for lawyers in blogging is to start blogging, and Avvo Blogs make that very simple.

Avvo offers 10 simple templates to start that run on WordPress technology – the blogging platform for millions of blogs, including the NFL, Time Magazine, Ford, CNN, The New York Times and Techcrunch.

Avvo pre-populates a customizable blog roll, and also allows additional customization of highlighted pages, categories, etc.

Avvo Blogs also are supported by Avvo’s great customer service team. For two years, we have been helping thousands of lawyers get more business and Avvo Blogs are no different.

Simply visit the Avvo Blog page, follow the instructions and, voila, you will be blogging in no time.

Effective

To be effective, lawyers’ blogs must be professional looking and tailored to the lawyer’s web strategy. Each of the Avvo Blog templates is very professional in its look and feel. Additionally, we have kept each template clean and simple so that your ideas, rather than the blog design, do the talking – much like the Avvo website. :-)

Another important feature is that Avvo Blogs can go on the lawyer’s own domain, which allows you to pick a catchy domain url (e.g., bestPIblog.com) or to integrate the blog into an existing website or other web property (e.g., blog.wilsonjones.com).

Affordable

With Avvo Blogs, you can blog for less than $1 per day. You shouldn’t have to spend a truckload to showcase your expertise in a professional manner.

Many companies will try to sell you “more-effective” blogging technology for thousands of dollars per year, but few bloggers will need such a fancy blog. Think of blogging like buying a suit. You can spend thousands of dollars on a custom-made suit, or you can buy one off the rack at Macy’s that your client’s will love just as much. Clients will focus on the brains in the suit, not whether you have hand-stitching on your lapel.

As with all things Avvo, we would love to get your feedback. We have intentionally kept our Avvo Blogs simple, so they don’t have every bell and whistle. But they don’t have the multi-thousand dollar price tag either. With your feedback we look forward to adding just the right amount of bells or whistles that lawyers want and deserve at a reasonable price.

Let the blogging begin!

Mark

I need to warn everyone out there . . . Avvo turned two today. Wondering what we are all in for, I searched for the behavioral characteristics of your average two-year old and the outlook is grim. See the gory details below with my commentary on how we plan to manage this difficult period.

According to Bella Online, your average two-year old:

• Wants exactly what he wants when he wants it [Since Avvo’s launch, we have had high expectations for our products and the ongoing evolution of the legal profession. We have also been very impatient with these expectations. Upon further reflection, I see all of this as a positive and we won’t be changing anything over the next year.]
• Will not usually give in [If it relates to getting consumers better guidance regarding their legal issues and more business for top-notch lawyers, I don’t see us changing this either. Geez, I didn’t expect to be so unyielding!]
• Everything has to be done just so [Well, yes, we are particular. You can’t effectuate change by being wishy-washy.]
• Likes to give orders [We like to give orders as long as we are simply implementing the feedback of consumers and lawyers. However, if we ever come off as bossy, please let us know. We are here to serve passionately, not bossily.]
• Has trouble making decisions [Well, this is sort of true. Because we are a small company without the infinite budgets of some of our competitors, we make choices everyday regarding how to allocate our limited resources. It is always hard, but I think we have done a decent job to date. Stay tuned for some neat products we have coming down the line.]
• Wants to continue doing whatever he is doing no matter what [Well, that’s true. And if you talk to our customers, they want us to continue as well.]
• May begin to bite. [Hmmm . . . we’ll have to handle that one on a case-by-case basis.]

After thinking this through, maybe we’re in pretty good shape. Could it be that many of the behavioral characteristics of the “terrible twos” are actually required to succeed in the competitive marketplace? Paging Jim Collins: There is a best-selling management book in there somewhere.

Thank you to everyone who has helped make Avvo such a success. 2008-2009 was a banner year for us, and we look forward to 2009-2010 being even better. I am reminded of one lawyer’s quote that “Avvo may be the greatest thing for lawyers since the invention of a laptop.” I’m not sure how we are going to top that, but we will (greatest thing since cloud server architecture maybe?)

And finally, I would like to give the biggest of all shout-outs to Team Avvo, a highly talented group of individuals up here in rainy Seattle that has worked tirelessly to make the Avvo marketplace something special. It is my honor to work with each and every one of you every day – let’s just keep the biting to a minimum.

Giddyup!

Mark

image courtesy of grittycitygirl via Flickr Creative Commons License

MarketWatch Radio, a financial-news leader with a nation-wide listenership of almost 20 million, turned to Avvo to develop a story on how the financial crisis is impacting divorce rates.  Avvo surveyed top-rated divorce lawyers to determine what impact the economic meltdown has had on divorce rates, causes of divorce, and the growth in popularity of post-nuptial agreements.  The Avvo survey contains some suprising results – namely that divorce rates are going down and that interest in post-nuptial agreements is spiking up.

Last Friday, we had a white elephant exchange party here at the office.  Here are some of the choice items (thanks Jeannie for taking the photos):

two-year old gingerbread

mousetrap complete with cheese

stuffed stewie

For more White Elephant Exchange photos, become a member of Avvo Lawyers on Facebook.

We’ve had a very busy office this week. Justin’s iPhone app, Last Call was finally released by Apple and got picked up by a ton of sites, including Gizmodo and Wired. We released Avvo’s Law School Rankings, of 493 law schools, which was quickly picked up by the ABA Journal. Twitter and Solosez were abuzz with Avvo news, including Kevin O’Keefe’s post about a lawyer who has landed 50 clients through Avvo. Stay tuned, more to come next week . . .

Your vote counts. If you’d like to help us change the (legal) world, please vote by submitting your email address here:

CNN Health recommends Avvo as a resource for consumers in financial hardship in an article, Stressed about Money? Free help is a call away. The article discusses some predatory pitfalls in the current financial crisis and highlights four trustworthy resources, including Avvo’s free legal advice forum.

Word to all the Twitterers out there – you can now find Avvoblog on Twitter! Here is a list of some of the Avvo Attorneys I follow and who follow Avvo Blog:

• Randall Moeller
• Derek Linke
• Michael Atkins
• Patti Spencer
• Jessica Foley
• Leanna Hamill
• John Harding
• Josh King (our learned GC)
• Danie Jaffe
• Adrianos Facchetti
• Greg Beck
• Scott Wolfe
• Thomas Lamb
• Steve Worrall
• Douglas Cornelius
• Nicole Black

If you are on Twitter and think that Avvoblog ought to be following you, just tweet or comment below.

Copyright is one of the few issues that did *not* arise when Avvo Blog last visited Tattoos. In the NYT Ideas Blog today, the issue of tattoo artists having copyright claims to their tattoos is explored. The post links to a couple of law review articles that explore the implications of this issue. The Lewis & Clark law review article explores the issues in the context of the dispute that arose between Rasheed Wallace, Nike and Rasheed’s tattoo artist:

Tattoos are almost ubiquitous these days, with body piercing likely following closely behind. With advertising increasingly displaying skin- from hip huggers to cropped shirts to a basketball jersey showing an athlete’s tattooed arm-actors, actresses, and sports figures display both forms of body art on television, the silver screen, billboards, and the Internet for consumer product and service providers who hope to benefit from increased sales. But businesses, advertising agencies, and celebrities often lose sight of any interest that tattoo artists may have in the tattoos and body piercings. In this Article, Mr. Harkins uses the recent copyright infringement lawsuit stemming from the advertising use of basketball player Rasheed Wallace’s tattoo to analyze the current state of copyright law’s application to body art.