A lawyer directory whose star ratings sit beside paid "Preferred Placement" sold to the very attorneys it lists, so high visibility can reflect ad spend as much as merit.
What it's really for A lawyer directory; attorneys pay for profiles and 'Preferred Placement' advertising.
What our grade covers The grade on this page is about its attorney listings and peer ratings, not everything the site does.
High Scoring Confidence Checked against primary sources. We are confident in the facts and the grade here.
Attorneys and law firms pay the most, through monthly listing fees (around $277/mo in one cited example) and Preferred Placement that, by the platform's own ad model, puts paying lawyers at the top of relevant listing pages.
Source →- Operating since
- 1998 (28 years) · source
- What it costs you
- Free to read The reviews are free to read.
- How they make money
- It makes money selling attorneys subscription profiles and paid "Preferred Placement" advertising across the Martindale-Avvo network, plus lead generation.
- What they do
- It lists attorneys with profiles, Martindale-Hubbell peer-review ratings (such as AV Preeminent) and client reviews so consumers can search and compare lawyers by location and practice area.
- What to watch for
- The peer ratings reflect surveyed lawyers' opinions of one another rather than hands-on testing, and the top spots in a listing can be bought through paid Preferred Placement, so position is not a pure merit ranking.
- Composite score
- 1.90 / 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
- Lawyers.com and martindale.com began offering online legal services in June 1998; the platform and Martindale-Hubbell are owned by Internet Brands, with the joint venture combining them completed in March 2014. Source: Wikipedia: Martindale-Hubbell →
- Internet Brands, owner of Martindale-Hubbell and Lawyers.com, was acquired by private equity firm KKR in June 2014 for about $1.1 billion. Source: Business Wire: Internet Brands to Be Acquired by KKR →
- With Preferred Placement, attorneys pay to show up at the top of their relevant location and practice-area listing page; a basic listing example runs about $277/month on a 12-month commitment, while Preferred Placement can exceed a thousand dollars a month in competitive metros. Source: JurisDigital: Is Lawyers.com Advertising Worth the Money? →