More Firms Get into Lawyer Rating Game and Claim Profiles on Avvo
We caught up with Avvo founder and ‘09 Legal Rebel Mark Britton in Chicago to chat with him about online reputation management—a hot topic for big and small law firms as competition increases and potential clients from consumers to Fortune 500 general counsel are flooded with information via the Web.
Static websites and law firm biographies will fade in importance as websites that post ratings by clients and peers, such as Avvo and Yelp, gain traction, a group of panelists said at the ABA’s 2010 Annual Meeting in San Francisco earlier this month. Britton couldn’t agree more.
“The reality is word of mouth is moving online,” Britton told us last week. Consumers are increasingly flocking to the Internet to verify word-of-mouth referrals from other individuals and lawyers, he said. Sophisticated legal clients are also turning to the Web to research outside counsel, prompting many law firms to “claim” and manage Avvo attorney profiles en masse, Britton adds.
Firms that have claimed their lawyers’ profiles include Fenwick & West, Cooley Godward, Perkins Coie, and Davis Wright Tremaine, according to Britton.
Client size doesn’t matter, Britton says, as more legal service buyers and even opposing counsel go online to understand the profile and resumés of the lawyers they work with. In fact, Britton predicts that in 10 years, nearly all searches for licensed professionals—including lawyers—will be done through the Internet and legally focused websites like Avvo.
For more from our interview with Mark Britton, click on the video above.
Also see:
ABAJournal.com: “It Doesn’t Matter if You’re a Good Lawyer if the Internet Doesn’t Agree, Experts Say”
Legal Rebels: “Mark Britton: Lawyer Rater”
