A lawyer score built on resume data, with the top spots sold to advertisers.
What it's really for A lawyer directory free to consumers; lawyers pay for advertising and top placement.
What our grade covers The grade on this page is about its 1-10 'Avvo Rating' of attorneys, not everything the site does.
High Scoring Confidence Checked against primary sources. We are confident in the facts and the grade here.
Lawyers are Avvo's paying customers, and their money buys placement and visibility: "Sponsored Listings" put paying lawyers at the top of directory search pages, and free (non-paying) profiles are surrounded by ads for competing "Similar Lawyers" that a paid subscription removes — so paying does not raise the numerical rating but does buy higher placement and exposure.
Source →- Operating since
- 2006 (20 years) · source
- What it costs you
- Free to read The reviews are free to read.
- How they make money
- It is free to consumers and makes money by selling lawyers advertising (sponsored top-of-page listings, display ads, and ads placed on competitors' free profiles), Pro/ProVantage profile subscriptions, and pay-per-lead consumer contacts.
- What they do
- It produces a searchable directory of nearly all U.S. licensed attorneys with a proprietary 1-to-10 "Avvo Rating," peer endorsements, and client reviews.
- What to watch for
- The lawyers shown at the top of your search results are usually paid advertisers, not the highest-rated attorneys, and the score itself reflects profile completeness, years in practice, and self-supplied credentials rather than actual case outcomes, skill, or client satisfaction.
- Composite score
- 2.10 / 5.00 → grade C-
How the grade was reached
Does the site take money from the very entities it ranks? Pay-for-placement, vendor-funded data, and affiliate commissions all pull this down. The less the ranking can be bought, the higher the score.
What is the ranking actually built on? Hands-on testing scores highest, then verified first-hand reviews, then opinion or popularity surveys and self-reported figures, then pay-to-rank, which scores lowest.
Is the methodology published, specific, and reproducible? Can a reader see how a given rank was reached, or is it a black box?
Are commercial relationships, sponsorships, and affiliate arrangements disclosed clearly and near the rankings themselves, rather than buried?
How hard is it to game? Controls against fake reviews, solicited reviews, and vendor gaming raise this; an open box anyone can stuff lowers it.
Evidence
- Avvo was founded in 2006 in Seattle by Mark Britton (former Expedia general counsel) and was acquired by Internet Brands in 2018; it generates income through 'selling legal services, advertising, and other services primarily to lawyers' and covers over 97% of licensed U.S. attorneys. Source: Wikipedia — Avvo →
- Avvo's lawyer advertising products include 'Sponsored Listings' that 'position you at the top of directory pages when consumers search for attorneys' plus display advertising — i.e., paying lawyers buy top placement and visibility in search results, with pricing only available via a sales quote. Source: Avvo — Advertising for Lawyers →
- Avvo 'uses a proprietary algorithm that pulls from multiple sources, but it does not publicly disclose the exact formula behind its ratings'; the rating reflects experience, endorsements, discipline and profile completeness but 'does not have access to win/loss records, settlement amounts' and client reviews 'are not incorporated into the rating calculation,' while 'advertising on its platform has no effect on the rating.' Source: Legal Soft — What Is an Avvo Rating? →