Self-Promotion and ABA Blawg 100 Listing Help Lawyer Playing Avvo’s Ratings ‘Game’
A listing in the ABA Journal’s Blawg 100 had an added benefit for the author of a tort law blog.
Writing at his New York Personal Injury Law Blog, lawyer Eric Turkewitz says the ABA listing helped improve his Avvo rating. So too, did other “faux awards,” Turkewitz says, such as a Super Lawyers listing.
Turkewitz added the references after his Avvo rating went from 6.7 to 6.6 without explanation. “In essence, the Avvo nonsense doesn’t really rate lawyers at all, but rates their ability to promote themselves by giving them information,” he says.
Turkewitz notes that he made a mistake when beefing up his profile. He inadvertently listed the same publication twice. When he deleted the redundant reference, his rating went down.
Turkewitz says he consulted Avvo’s ratings explanations and learned the system is based on a “super-secret ‘mathematical model.’ ” But he did learn that peer endorsements can improve ratings. “Ahhh, so if you can persuade your friends to review you, that will help get you a better objective rating,” he writes. “But ignore Avvo and just be the best lawyer you can be, and your rating may drop. This, of course, doesn’t make sense in any logical universe.
“But it does make sense if you want to make a buck. Avvo, after all, isn’t in this game to be altruistic. If you let your friends know about the site, and get them to review you, your rating will go up. Big win for Avvo. Big win for anyone that plays Avvo’s game. Not such a big win for lawyers that just do their job.”
Avvo CEO Mark Britton, rated 9.9 on Avvo’s 10-point scale, lists his status as an ABA Journal Legal Rebel in his Avvo profile. “It’s easy to sit in the peanut gallery and criticize what we are attempting to do,” he tells the ABA Journal. But the system is working as it was designed, he says.
Avvo is based on an evaluation of each lawyer’s background, client ratings and peer review. The background calculation is based on a classification developed by Avvo’s research team. When a lawyer adds information to Avvo, its computer will match the input with the existing classifications. That will affect the ratings.
Recognition by the ABA and Super Lawyers is considered relevant, Britton says. A blogger who gets noted in the Blawg 100, for example, has to be an excellent writer, with a good following and a knack for commentary. “That’s an excellent proxy for a lawyer’s handle on the law,” he says.
“I would encourage Mr. Turkewitz to use Avvo [as his peers use it],” Britton says, “as a marketing platform to showcase their expertise.”
Britton offers some ideas on why Turkewitz’s rating may have changed earlier this year. At the first of every year, the Avvo ratings are recalibrated, as he noted in a December blog post. “I’m guessing that was where he was affected,” Britton says.
The ratings can change a couple other ways, Britton says. The system is designed to decrease the value of information in a lawyer’s profile the older it gets. It also updates ratings based on Avvo’s proprietary Web crawler known as “Hoover.” When Hoover finds relevant information online and matches it to a lawyer, his or her rating will be affected. Ratings will also change based on bar records, but the frequency of the updates depends on the state.
“We’re very transparent and up-front with the Avvo rating,” Britton says. “There is nothing in the Avvo rating that is not in the lawyer’s Avvo profile.”
