A confidential peer-opinion lawyer rating, with prominence you can buy around it.
What it's really for A legal rating and marketing directory; the AV ratings are peer-based, the prominence around them is sold.
What our grade covers The grade on this page is about its 'AV' attorney peer-review ratings, not everything the site does.
Medium Scoring Confidence Mostly sourced, but a detail or two still needs a primary source, so the grade could shift slightly.
Rated lawyers and their firms are the paying customers: ratings are nominally free and separate from advertising, but the same company sells those lawyers paid profiles, SEO/PPC, and websites that buy higher visibility in the directory, so paying correlates with placement/prominence while the AV rating itself is not directly purchasable.
Source →- Operating since
- 1887 (139 years) · source
- What it costs you
- Free to read The reviews are free to read.
- How they make money
- It makes money by selling lawyers paid profiles, law-firm websites, SEO/PPC advertising, and lead generation across Martindale.com, Lawyers.com, and Nolo, not by charging for the peer ratings themselves.
- What they do
- It issues attorney "AV" Peer Review Ratings (Preeminent / Distinguished / Notable) based on confidential surveys of other lawyers and judges, and publishes lawyer profiles in an online legal directory.
- What to watch for
- The rating is a confidential peer-opinion survey, not a test of case outcomes or verified client results, and a lawyer's prominence in the directory can be bought through paid profiles and advertising even though the badge itself cannot.
- Composite score
- 2.20 / 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
- Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review Ratings were created in 1887 as an objective tool to attest to a lawyer's ability and professional ethics, based on the confidential opinions of other lawyers and judges; the rating historically used an A-B-C scale plus a 'V' for very high ethical standards. Source: Alker & Rather, LLC — Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review Ratings →
- Martindale-Hubbell generates revenue by selling lawyers marketing services: profiles on Martindale.com, Lawyers.com and Nolo.com, law-firm websites ('40,000 lawyer websites'), and 'Pay-Per-Click, Social Media and SEO services, proven to increase visibility and credibility.' It is part of MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands and the Martindale-Avvo Legal Marketing Network. Source: Martindale-Hubbell — About / Marketing Solutions →
- Ratings are based on a secure online peer review survey scoring legal ability (Legal Knowledge, Analytical Capabilities, Judgment, Communication Ability, Legal Experience on a 1-5 scale) and General Ethical Standards; references must be currently practicing attorneys or sitting judges in the Martindale-Hubbell database, and a lawyer needs a minimum threshold of qualifying peer responses to qualify for AV Preeminent (held by roughly 10% of attorneys). Source: Martindale-Hubbell — AV Peer Review Ratings & Client Review Awards →