Bogus Attorney Rankings

There is a new attorney ranking system that is rapidly turning into more of an attorney rankling system. The system is called Avvo, and get be accessed for free at www.avvo.com. Avvo tries to affix a score of 1 to 10 on thousands of attorneys across the country. The ratings progress from extreme caution (1+), to strong caution (2+), to caution (3+), to concern (4+), average (5+), good (6+), very good (7+), excellent (8+) and superb (9+). Several lawyers we've never heard of scored 10s. Avvo's chief executive Mark Britton scored an 8.0. We originally scored a 6.6.

Some well-regarded and accomplished lawyers didn't fare as well: Harriet E. Miers and U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement each scored a 6.1; Alberto Gonzales, U.S. attorney general, a 6.5; U.S. Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Samuel Alito each got a 6.5, as did New York lawyer David Boies, who argued Bush v. Gore. Joe Jamail, the so-called King of Torts, got a 6.5. In fact, most lawyers got 6.5s, including a few dead guys and a few convicts, including Lynne Stewart. Convicted fraudster Ulysses Ware got a 6.3, the same as OJ's DNA specialist Barry Scheck, and Stanford Law professor Larry Lessig.

According to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, a class action suit was filed in Seattle last month by a Seattle class-action attorney who wants to shut down the service because of inaccurate and misleading scores for attorneys that violate the Consumer Protection Act. A copy of the complaint can be found at http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/venture/library/Avvo_Complaint_FINAL_secured1.pdf. It appears that Avvo is taking action in response to the lawsuit, but all we've noticed is that our ratings have been revised to a "no concern."

Comments

[TommyK]

I scored a 9.2, so it must be a highly accurate system :)

[RobertF]

>In fact, most lawyers got 6.5s, including a few dead guys and a few imprisoned convicts, including Lynne Stewart.

First of all, Lynne Stewart is not imprisoned, nor has she even been imprisoned. Ms. Stewart is free and waiting for the appeal of her conviction to wend its way through the courts.
Second of all, the sentencing judge stated at the time of sentencing there is a good chance Ms. Stewart's conviction will be overturned on appeal. You can read the appeal and judge for yourself by downloading the full appear in pdf format from this web site: http://www.LynneStewart.org
Third, Ms. Stewart has been rated one of the top ten criminal attorneys in all of New York City. If her conviction is overturned, which is a definite possibility, her reputation will have been restored.
Meanwhile, Ms. Stewart's popularity and the regard with which she is held by her thousands of admirers, is correctly reflected in the ratings which are the subject of this blog entry.