HireTrade Goes After Avvo?
August 30, 2007 | Filed Under New Services
Lawyer rating site Avvo made a big splash earlier this year. As legal news and as a defendant.
Now lawyer connection site HireTrade steps into the fray. As reported by John Cook of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, HireTrade CEO Neil Sandhu has a few thoughts about numbers:
We think that existing professional ratings systems, including most numerical ratings systems, result in arbitrary values as it is impossible for a numerical algorithm to really capture every single nuance of a professional’s background or decide what is the correct weight to place on different items of information such as experience, education, etc. (not to mention the fact that it appears that some of these systems merely assign higher scores to those professionals who take the time to fill out their profiles in more detail). Thus, meaningful comparisons are difficult to draw from the numerical values that result.
Furthermore, there is very little actual intrinsic value in any number generated by such a system.
Ouch!
Avvo has a bit of a head start as HireTrade builds up some momentum. The former has built up quite a number of rankings; the latter will work to expand on its hourly value concept as it goes forward.
The big part of the market for both seems to be for clients who haven’t had much experience with lawyers. Those who have could use these services for confirming information, but often rely on a personal referral in the first instance.
Avvo Thyself
June 5, 2007 | Filed Under Law 2.0, Technology, New Services
After a 16 months in stealth mode, venture-backed (to the tune of $14 million!) Avvo pulls off the veil. For a long time the home page didn’t say much, beyond this teaser:
However, we can say that we are dedicated to helping consumers better navigate the highly confusing legal industry, and we are building something that no one else has built before.
Drum roll…
It’s a lawyer ratings site. On steroids.
CNET has the details, with a lot of prominent lawyers given some not-so-great ratings. The local Seattle paper has more, including an explanation from CEO Mark Britton. He notes that Avvo goes beyond Martindale-Hubbell, FindLaw and AttorneyPages:
… Britton says there is “no established brand” that attacks the problem on behalf of the consumer. And the 40-year-old former attorney at Preston, Gates & Ellis notes that Avvo is different because it uses a mathematical model — pulling information from attorneys’ Web sites, state bar associations and other public databases — to determine which attorney is the best in his or her practice area.
I want to think about this, and noodle around the site a bit. It’s a beta (Whatever that means anymore).
There will certainly be additional content as Avvo builds out the site. Probably a link to local search, and allowing lawyers to add content. The Avvo blog hints at this. Part of the pitch to the VCs had to be “Zillow for lawyers.”
At first blush, you wonder if legal ratings might be better targeted at the corporate market rather than consumers. Some are working on this now. (And I’ll give a hint that it relies more on real people than math).
Joe Sixpack typically interacts with lawyers in divorce, personal injury, and the occasional will or trust. Do these areas need complex algorithms? Sometimes this works in my area.
People do need help navigating the maze that is the law and in finding lawyers when they need them. They also need help paying for them, which has led to the expansion of pre-paid legal plans.
We learned in the last few years to Google ourselves to see what’s out there on the Interweb. When I Avvo’d myself this morning I was told that it hasn’t yet crawled its way to the Midwest.
Thank goodness.
Good luck to Avvo. I’d like to see more VC money in the legal space.
Update: (Also good thoughts on Avvo from Kevin O’Keefe and Carolyn Elefant).
From OffShore to OnRamp
April 6, 2007 | Filed Under Law Firm Trends, Law 2.0, New Services
Last time, I looked at major companies that are showing an increasing interest in sourcing their work globally.
Today, a gaze into the rearview mirror on a stateside initiative that is gaining traction: Legal OnRamp. More than just a website, Legal OnRamp is a online hub that brings together corporate legal departments and leading law firms. Content, always a staple of law for business, is a starting point. But the brains behind Legal OnRamp understand a key fact about law in the 21st century: what really distinguishes lawyers is how they apply the law and drive business results.
That’s where the vein of value can be deep and rich and provide a common benefit.
To this end, the really interesting parts of Legal OnRamp, from my initial experience, are opportunities to work in a community and collaborate in ways that foster learning in new areas and lawyering in new ways.
The network created by Legal OnRamp is growing. Backed by Cisco and other leading law departments, it is helping ease the friction that can cause the gears of legal commerce to grind a bit.
My colleague in the law.com blog network, Bruce MacEwen, has a great overview of Legal OnRamp, including details on the law firms involved.
Further information is available by contacting Legal OnRamp here or me as well.
Technology is best when it is transparent to the user, so that the focus can be on solutions. Legal OnRamp is one example of how the law is moving forward. Which way are you headed?
Linde Pays the (DLA) Piper
March 1, 2007 | Filed Under New Services, Legal Resources
Firms that aren’t talking with their clients about ways they can improve service have another reason to wake up and smell the coffee.
Just a few weeks after a similar deal between Tyco and Eversheds, DLA Piper announced yesterday a major legal services agreement with Linde (a Germany-based gas and engineering company).
Under the arrangement, Linde goes from 150 law firms to 5. Here’s an explanation:
Under the radical, new model introduced by Linde, DLA Piper will advise on a range of matters across Europe, Asia Pacific and the US, which amounts to 80 per cent of legal spend. This single solution approach incorporates matters such as commercial and compliance work, IP, employment, litigation, property, data protection, regulatory, product liability and non-strategic acquisitions and disposals. DLA Piper will work closely with the 65-strong internal legal services team at Linde to deliver quality legal solutions and obtain more value from its outsourced work.
Four other firms made the cut:
The other law firms retained by Linde are Linklaters, which will advise on all corporate issues outside the US; the German law firm Hengeler Muller, which has retained an advisory role on company law issues; Simpson Thacher, which has been retained to advise Linde on strategic corporate work in the US and Shearman & Sterling which will handle the Group’s antitrust matters.
So for lawyers at the other 145 firms left at the altar, go ahead, have another cup, call the office and say you’re running late.
Convergence Like a Laser Beam
January 9, 2007 | Filed Under New Services, Legal Resources
Tyco announced today that counsel for legal matters relating to Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) will move from 250 law firms to one, Eversheds.
At the same time, Tyco is “reorganizing” its in-house legal team, although no details were provided.
According to Trevor Faure, Tyco’s EMEA General Counsel:
Under this model, the department is managed by senior lawyers with responsibility for a specific business segment in the region, regional lawyers who report to them and provide the local law and language expertise across segments, and external resources who are dedicated, full-time Eversheds lawyers to ensure broad geographic coverage and an ongoing link with the Eversheds parent firm.
Some of the features of this arrangement include these in EMEA countries:
– A 24 x 7 x 365 multi-lingual legal hotline.
– Local language and business expertise in contracts, employment, compliance, environmental health and safety, major litigation, intellectual property, and general corporate matters.
– Contract automation, business process redesign, and a legal extranet integrated into Tyco’s business by Eversheds (to facilitate online reporting and invoicing).
– Fixed and risk-sharing fee structures, as well as predictable, fixed fees allocated based on business size and complexity.
– Full-time, dedicated Eversheds lawyers in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, the Middle East, Poland, Benelux, and South Africa linked to the regional teams.
Three quick reactions:
1. Tyco is clearly trying to push the envelope on the mix of inside/outside legal services, driven by business demands.
2. Eversheds shows innovation in a legal market that sometimes acts like an Etch-A-Sketch is cutting edge.
3. Outsourcing of legal services doesn’t always mean going from law firms to new service providers. Law departments aren’t immune, either.
Hopefully we will learn more about this arrangement from the principals.
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