TechnoLawyer

Think Zagat for lawyers except that Avvo uses its own algorithm in conjunction with publicly-available information to generate its ratings. Personally, I think a combined Zagat/Amazon approach would generate more reliable results and better protect Avvo from lawsuits.

Speaking of which, Steve Berman of Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro has filed a class action lawsuit against Avvo even though the site just launched earlier this month. Talk about jumping the gun. See Browne v. Avvo.

Berman has a point. I just take issue with his method. A class action lawsuit comprised of a bunch of whiny lawyers is not likely to generate much sympathy.

Wake up class — it's 2007. Like it or not, you can no longer completely control what the world thinks of you. And the answer doesn't lie in a lawsuit.

The lawsuit lists criminal lawyer John Henry Browne as the representative plaintiff.

Like I said, he and Berman make some valid points. For example, Avvo's CEO Mark Britton has an 8.2/10 rating. That's like us giving us one of our TechnoLawyer @ Awards. Britton should pull his listing from Avvo.

Also, my rating is 6.4 (Good) whereas Browne's rating is 5.5 (Average). I practiced law for 4 years before jumping ship to start PeerViews whereas Browne has practiced for 35 years. Can an average lawyer remain in business for that long and represent high-profile clients like basketball stars and police chiefs?

But the biggest problem is that Avvo cannot possibly take into account a lawyer's work product since much of it never becomes public.

Case in point — I wrote some pretty amazing research memos in my day, including a 50 state survey for a celebrity CEO about how he could legally spy on his employees. This memo was was a top secret project. As far as I know, the memo had an audience of just three people — me, the partner who assigned the project, and the CEO. I was told not to discuss the project with my colleagues. During those 3-4 weeks, I was shielded from other assignments.

How could Avvo possibly rate me on this research memo?

But be that as it may, I think we need Avvo. Or more precisely, those seeking legal services need Avvo. It's just that consumers need an Avvo with a more transparent Zagat-style rating system driven entirely by clients and ex-clients — plus Amazon-style reviews to go along with the ratings.

That's my take. What do others think? Check out the June 18, 2007 Lawyer to Lawyer podcast in which hosts J. Craig Williams and Bob Ambrogi interview Browne along with Carolyn Elefant and Denise Howell.

For his part, Browne lists some amusing errors on Avvo (e.g., deceased lawyers), but he weakens his case by dishing out over-the-top pronouncements (e.g., "The people that run Avvo completely lack integrity because the system is basically a joke.").

But at least Browne showed up. Avvo was a no-show despite an invitation. Then again, Avvo is facing a lawsuit thanks to Berman and Browne. If you watch enough Larry King, you'll note that plaintiffs typically want to discuss their case while defendants typically shun the media.

The two stars of the show are Carolyn and Denise who make many excellent points, including the following:

• Most state bars do not provide lawyer ratings or reviews so you can't blame Avvo for seizing an opportunity.

• If Avvo shuts down, it should be the result of market forces, not a lawsuit.

• Google doesn't disclose its algorithm because doing so might enable people to game the system so why should Avvo?

• You cannot opt out of Google so why should you be able to opt out of Avvo?

• A site like Avvo could help raise the profile of outstanding lawyers in small firms.

Bottom line — Avvo launched prematurely and needs to fix its ratings system, or better yet, replace it with Zagat-style ratings and Amazon-style reviews. Plus it should slap a "beta" disclaimer on its Web site. And Berman and Browne should drop their lawsuit.

About TechnoEditorials
A TechnoEditorial is the vehicle through which we opine and provide tips of interest to managing partners, law firm administrators, and others in the legal profession. TechnoEditorials appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.

Coming June 29, 2007 to Fat Friday: Dean Birch explains the advantages of his firm's file naming convention, Jay Solomon offers seven tips for those thinking about buying a high-definition TV, Miriam Jacobson responds to a recent TechnoFeature about software training and shares her preferred method, Carolyn Thornlow reviews Vindigo for the Palm Treo, and Jere Wilson praises "recovered attorney" Seth Rowland. Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Fridays, Fat Friday is a weekly newsletter that features a grab bag full of genuinely useful product reviews and tips on a wide variety of topics. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Coming June 28, 2007 to Answers to Questions: Steven J. Best explains how to prevent trust accounting gotchas, Thomas Stirewalt provides instructions for setting up multiple monitors with two PCs and a KVM switch, Matthew Hite discusses LexisNexis' Time Matters upgrade policies and his firm's plans, Bruce Avery reviews his firm's upgrade to Amicus Attorney 7, and Blair Janis offers a solution for those seeking a foreign language document assembly program. Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published Thursdays, Answers to Questions is a weekly newsletter in which TechnoLawyer members answer legal technology and practice management questions submitted by their peers (including you if you join TechnoLawyer). Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Coming June 26, 2007 to TechnoFeature: Organizing all the elements of a case may seem overwhelming — like a huge puzzle with too many pieces. That's where litigation support software can help. In this article, trial attorney and legal technology expert Bruce Olson reviews LexisNexis CaseMap 7 (CaseMap), the newest version of the popular case analysis tool. In particular, he looks at the new enhancements since CaseMap became part of the LexisNexis Total Litigator family. Whether you're an existing CaseMap user or new to litigation support software, you'll find something of interest in Bruce's comprehensive review.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Tuesdays, TechnoFeature is a weekly newsletter that contains in-depth articles written by leading legal technology and practice management experts. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

In today's special eDiscovery issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire, lawyer and legal technology legend Dennis Kennedy covers a new email archiving and search solution, an eDiscovery software suite, and an online litigation document repository. Don't miss the next issue.

Below you'll find one of the three articles from today's edition:

Take Decisive Action
By Dennis Kennedy

Trying to reduce your or your client's litigation risk and eDiscovery costs? Looking for a way to easily and securely search and share email across your organization?

Recommind, best known in the legal community for its conceptual search and categorization software, recently launched Decisiv Email, which automatically categorizes "massive amounts" of unstructured email data. Decisiv Email employs advanced categorization and conceptual search technology to automatically tag, organize, and file email messages and associated attachments with virtually no user involvement.

Additionally, you can use Decisiv Email as an email archiving tool. Recommind claims that using Decisiv Email to store business records delivers up to 500% in storage savings over traditional email archiving systems while substantially reducing litigation risk and eDiscovery costs.

Fully integrated with Microsoft Outlook, Decisiv Email facilitates collaboration within an organization by accurately correlating email-based information with related information in email archives, content management systems, document management systems, records management systems and countless other information repositories. By automatically organizing and filing information as it enters and leaves the email system, Decisiv Email significantly reduces time spent sorting through email correspondence in search of specific data and allows for near real-time knowledge transfer.

Other notable features of Decisiv Email include automated tagging and filing of incoming and outgoing messages, semi- or fully automatic modes of operation, a virtually invisible filing system that can prompt the sender to file email messages, support for Microsoft Office documents, scanned documents, voicemails, and other popular formats, and integrated project management functions such as roles, project templating, and activity reporting.

Decisiv Email sells for $300 per user for perpetual licenses. Learn more about Decisiv Email.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Wednesdays, TechnoLawyer NewsWire is a weekly newsletter that enables you to learn about new technology products and services of interest to legal professionals. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Coming June 22, 2007 to Fat Friday: Mazyar Hedayat defends his recent Post on making the legal profession more efficient, Miriam Jacobson explains how she has gone nearly paperless for under $500 and no additional staff, Scott Bassett discusses what he sees as the real problem with Dell, Richard Wills shares his experience with age discrimination, and Kerry Hubick provides a cheap way to save email to PDF. Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Fridays, Fat Friday is a weekly newsletter that features a grab bag full of genuinely useful product reviews and tips on a wide variety of topics. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Coming June 21, 2007 to Answers to Questions: Christel Burris throws down the gauntlet in the everlasting Word v. WordPerfect debate, William Lloyd explains how a multiple monitor setup works, Philip Franckel reviews Dragon NaturallySpeaking and discusses the headsets that its creators use, Deborah Schneider reviews her experience using GoDaddy for email, and Roe Frazer offers a solution for easily finding gaps in Bates-stamped documents. Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published Thursdays, Answers to Questions is a weekly newsletter in which TechnoLawyer members answer legal technology and practice management questions submitted by their peers (including you if you join TechnoLawyer). Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Coming June 19, 2007 to TechnoFeature: Microsoft Word 2007 was released with much fanfare a few months ago — but should you upgrade to Word 2007 or switch from WordPerfect or another word processor? In this article, attorney and programmer Seth Rowland takes a close look at many of the new features (such as the "ribbon" and the new .docx format) as well as some important considerations for law firms before making the jump.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Tuesdays, TechnoFeature is a weekly newsletter that contains in-depth articles written by leading legal technology and practice management experts. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

In today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire, lawyer and legal technology legend Dennis Kennedy covers a consumer-friendly hard drive array, an online service for managing medical information used in litigation, and document comparison software that can compare anything to anything. Don't miss the next issue.

Below you'll find one of the three articles from today's edition:

Drobo Arigato Mr. Roboto
By Dennis Kennedy

What's the second most annoying aspect of hard drives after disk failure? Running out of disk space! With our office computers bulging from our own documents not to mention the documents of our clients, and our home computers experiencing a similarly expanding digital waistline thanks to music, movies, and photos, the traditional hard drive just doesn't cut it anymore.

But the world of storage beyond the hard drive is filled with acronyms like RAID, SAN, NAS, and other terms that are too complex for the average lawyer, leaving us between a rock and a hard drive.

Enter Data Robotics and its new consumer-friendly Drobo automated storage robot that manages data storage for you. It's designed to ensure that your data is protected and expandable. And it minimizes your need to understand the intricacies of data storage management.

Drobo is a USB 2.0 enclosure that houses up to four 3.5 inch SATA hard drives of any size and make you wish. You need not use all four drive slots initially. LEDs display the status of drives and their remaining capacity. If the lights are green, all is good. Red lights tell you to add or replace a drive. Yellow lights let you know that you are at 85% of capacity and it's time to add another drive or replace an existing drive with a larger one.

On your PC or Mac, Drobo shows up as one very large hard drive — up to 2 TB at which point it shows up as two hard drives. You use this space like a regular hard drive, but behind the scenes it mirrors, protects, and manages your data to provide redundancy in case one hard drive fails.

You don't have to select RAID levels, match hard drive sizes, or delve into network storage esoterica. Drobo's approach to data management speeds up data migration, switches you to other drives if a drive fails, and gives you quick access to new capacity when needed. Drives slide into Drobo without the need for special tools.

Drobo currently works with both PCs and Macs. Expect a Linux-compatible version later this year as well as a version with an eSATA interface. Drobo sells for $499. Learn more about Drobo.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Wednesdays, TechnoLawyer NewsWire is a weekly newsletter that enables you to learn about new technology products and services of interest to legal professionals. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

For more than a decade, Sabrina Pacifici's LLRX has provided lawyers, law librarians, and others with tons of helpful legal research not to mention legal technology information. In particular, I've always liked the overviews of the legal systems of other countries as well as Brett Burney's Legal Tech Reviews column.

While the excellent content continued to chug along year after year, the site began to show its age and even get in the way. It was time for an extreme makeover, legal edition.

So Sabrina retained Web design firm Justia to redesign the site, and just as importantly, implement a modern content management system — in this case Drupal, which is open source. The result is a fast-loading Web site with several ways to find content of interest to you.

I especially like the featured articles on the top of the home page, the bookstore, the Google-powered search engine, the drill down subject categories to find content (though they can be a bit overwhelming to browse casually), and printer-friendly versions of all articles. Best of all for longtime fans, if you have a favorite author or column, you'll find it extremely easy to find all the back issues.

All in all, the new LLRX demonstrates the importance of user interface design in making information accessible.

About TechnoEditorials
A TechnoEditorial is the vehicle through which we opine and provide tips of interest to managing partners, law firm administrators, and others in the legal profession. TechnoEditorials appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.