Seriously.

According to Patrick Byers at the Responsible Marketing Blog, one can be had from the US Local Business Association. Click through to read the misleading email here: Awards for Sale: Not a rewarding experience. (For the record, Avvo verifies all awards submitted to the site to ensure they are more than a snazzy piece of mahogany with gold writing.)

…trust me. I’ve been there and while there are many days where I find myself on the verge of dropping my computer off the side of the building because I can’t find that *one* file I need, my life (and work) without a computer is unimaginable. I have a feeling there are many lawyers out there who can relate. So we need to figure out a way to take control of our data and make it work for us in a way that allows us to focus on our real work.

David Leffler over at the APA GP/Solo blog reviews Bit Literacy - something we are familiar with here at Avvo. Bit Literacy is a book by Mark Hurst which teaches us how to manage the “bits” of information we come into contact with each day. Emails, digital photos, word documents; if its information on a computer, it’s most likely a bit.

“Solo attorneys do not have an IT department to help them manage all of their digital detritus. More often than not they do not have a secretary, either. So it is even more important that you get a handle on your digital bits before they overwhelm you—throwing your computer out the window is not an option.”

The idea here is to manage all our data in a way that makes it useful to us and helps us to be more productive. Managing data (especially email) correctly and efficienty is just as important for tech companies and lawyers as it is for anyone whose business depends on electronic communication in anyway. I know these concepts have helped me to manage a sometimes overflowing Customer Care inbox. Check out David’s post and see if it can help you too.

Nonetheless, we respect the court’s decision, and we’ll go on providing the service in Illinois in its current form. If you are an Illinois lawyer and you can’t find your profile on Avvo drop us a note and we will manually create it. Just be sure to give us your name, as that’s the only way we can get the info from the ARDC

“Giving the list to Avvo would “lead to similar requests for this information from… other entities that wish to provide information regarding attorneys to the general public,” wrote ARDC attorney Rosalyn Kaplan in a brief opposing the company’s request.

And that’s supposed to be a bad thing?”

I was wondering the same thing. From the looks of the poll on the editorial page, over two-thirds of readers agree that the ARDC should release the information to Avvo.

Our ears were burning last week, when we learned that Avvo was the subject of heated debate on the ABA SoloSez message boards. We were heartened to see this impassioned defense from Jonathan Stein on a variety of issues:

• Lawyer Ratings:

Ratings are the name of the game in every profession. What do you think JD Power does for a living? Do they sit around and play tiddly winks all day?

No. Of course not. They RATE PEOPLE! Really, I promise. Go listen to some car commercial some day. Tylenol - the choice of more pediatricians. What is that? A RATING! Crest - 4 out of 5 dentists recommend it. Guess what? We call that a rating. President of the United Freaking States? Rated. Doctors?

Indian Chiefs? Teachers? All rated. Toilets? Rated. Sanitary napkins? Rated.

(Really, I checked.)

• Avvo Answers

By the way, for those of you too stubborn to visit Avvo because you are afraid they will start to track you or send out black helicopters, spend a few minutes there. There is a question and answer section. And, unlike other sites, the answers are not all “Call me for a free consultation and I can help you.” There are real substantive answers. In addition, they are launching Legal Guides where attorneys write information and consumers can read it - at no charge. Oh my gosh - education for consumer that is free to the attorney and free to the consumer. And it doesn’t matter what your rating is.

• Martindale-Hubbell

By the way, speaking of M-H, and I was before, how many consumers use it? Oh right, they use lawyers.com. Really? Funny, when I check for lawyers, the people who show up are the people who PAID TO BE THERE! Oh, and the M-H website never explains how they determine their ratings. I know, based on reviews by other attorneys. But, HOW? Explain it to me and use small words because I aint that bright! Interestingly, a law firm receives the rating of its HIGHEST RATED partner. So 10 CVs in a law firm as partners and 1 AV and the firm is rated AV. That seems fair, sure. And Peter Griffin seems svelt.

The image above is to refresh your memory as to whether Peter is svelte. Jonathan, your root beer is on the way.

• If you are a deadbeat dad, do not come before Judge Judy with the excuse that you often buy diapers, food, toys, or clothes for your children. Similarly, do not offer that you give your baby mama money for your kids whenever she asks. Judge Judy will simply remind you that this does not relieve you of your legal obligations for child support.
• If you are being sued for repayment of a loan, do not do Judge Judy’s job for her and declare that what you were given was a gift. Judge Judy wants you to merely describe the circumstances surrounding the exchange, so she can divine the donor’s intent.
• Different states have different laws regarding engagement rings. Unfortunately, in many jurisdictions (e.g. California), an engagement ring that accompanies a proposal is considered to be a gift given in the contemplation of marriage. So ladies, you are not automatically entitled to keep your engagement ring - even if your betrothed is the one who balks at marriage.

What do these fine Northeastern states have in common?

Well, Avvo launched its service in all of them today. We are very excited about this launch because it increases our coverage to 19 markets (18 states plus Washington, DC) and 80% of the practicing lawyers in the United States. It also gives us great coverage in the Northeast, adding to the already-launched states of New York, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. Geez, it sounds like the first Constitutional Convention!

Here are some links to:

Top Rated New Jersey Lawyers
Top Rated Connecticut Lawyers
Top Rated Maryland Lawyers

For all of the lawyers in our new states, as I have said many times before, we love your feedback. So, whether you think Avvo is great or not-so-great, please let us know. It is the only way we can improve.

The Avvo train keeps rolling . . .

Mark

The guidelines in question, you see, generally prohibit the dissemination of the Attorney Roll to non-Illinois entities or for most commercial uses (for-profit Illinois CLE providers are exempt). Putting aside the only-for-Illinois portion of the guidelines (a restriction that surely doesn’t meet the standards of the federal Constitution’s Privileges and Immunities clause), the ARDC has focused on Avvo’s status as a commercial entity and Avvo’s use of the attorney records. Along the way, the ARDC has attempted to understand how Avvo works. Unfortunately, it hasn’t done so via the lens of the consumer. So let’s clear up some misconceptions the folks in Springfield hold:

Avvo Claimed Profiles: In an effort to “understand and advise the court on the nature of Avvo’s service,” the ARDC searched Avvo for the names of 10 specific Illinois attorneys, 5 of whom were government officials or lawyers. Unsurprisingly, none of them had claimed profiles. What’s frustrating about this type of “name” search is that it is only an ancillary way of using Avvo. The primary benefit of Avvo is that it allows a consumer to conduct a search by geography and type of problem rather than by lawyer name. If the ARDC wants to understand how Avvo works for a consumer, it should search for, say, Chicago bankruptcy lawyers. It should also come as no surprise that Avvo doesn’t spend its data mining resources on filling out the backgrounds of government lawyers, as consumers aren’t typically looking to hire state’s counsel.

Number of Illinois Lawyers on Avvo: I have estimated that Avvo has profiles for 95-99% of licensed Illinois attorneys, but that we (and consumers, and at least some number of lawyers in Illinois) want to make sure Avvo contains a complete record of Illinois attorneys. In its filing, the ARDC points out that a search of IL lawyers on Avvo only yields 66,000 results when the ARDC’s records show 85,000 licensed attorneys. I’m at a loss to understand how this line of argument is relevant to the issues at hand, but I must dispel the impression it leaves that Avvo has been less-than-diligent in the task of extracting what it can from the ARDC’s public website.

First of the all, the ARDC is again working from the mindset of the lawyer, not the consumer. Avvo’s search results are based on geographic presence, not state of licensing, so the 66,000 lawyers we show in Illinois are those with a business address in the state, regardless of the state that licensed them. It’s a safe bet, of course, that the vast majority of those 66,000 lawyers are licensed in Illinois. However, attorneys with Illinois addresses who are licensed in more than one state - and who haven’t claimed their Avvo profiles - will have multiple profiles that show up in an Illinois search, somewhat inflating the actual number of individual attorneys we have records for. So how many of the ARDC’s 85,000 lawyers are in resident in Illinois? According to ARDC records, 61,500. Now, I’m not sure of the exact number of multiple profiles we have in IL, but with 66,000 Avvo profiles in IL against the ARDC’s record of 61,500 Illinois-licensed lawyers resident in-state, I’m sticking with my estimate that we have profiles for 95-99% of IL lawyers.

As a side note, Avvo’s 66,000 number also doesn’t include deceased, disbarred, inactive or judicial profiles, as consumers aren’t looking to hire such lawyers. However, you can find these profiles when searching by name (e.g., Abraham Lincoln and Barack Obama).

Commercial Use: First of all, Avvo may be a commercial entity (i.e., ultimately interested in making money), but our use of the data is not commercial - we’re not selling it; we’re trying to make attorney licensing data as widely available as possible so consumers have more options and guidance in choosing a lawyer. Consumers can check a lawyer’s name on the ARDC website, but they can’t use it to find a lawyer in the first place. Avvo is using the data in a way that makes it far more accessible and useful to Illinois consumers.

Furthermore, even if the use were commercial, what of it? All sorts of public records are used for commercial purposes – data from tax records to court decisions is aggregated and often flatly sold for commercial gain. There is nothing about attorney licensing and disciplinary records that makes them worthy of more protection than the myriad categories of public records already being used for commercial purposes.

Ultimately, the public is served by freer access to public records. Avvo’s is but one of the many novel uses that open access and the broad dissemination and aggregation offered by the internet make possible. We hope that the Illinois Supreme Court sees its way clear to finding that these public records should be freely accessible.