Is Martindale-Hubbell on Life Support?

Does anyone use Martindale Hubbell anymore? Several bloggers have asked this question. Once upon a time, it was the only game in town for identifying and ranking lawyers. But no more, particularly with the growth of the internet and the flourishing of competitors. MB argues that its death has been greatly exaggerated:

[MB President Rod] Stoddard says he's shocked by the implication that Martindale is, at best, on life support. He blames it on rumors launched by competitors looking to poach Martindale business.

"It's exactly the same as it's always been," he says. "Martindale-Hubbell has tried to connect attorneys to other attorneys so they could make decisions around 'Whom should I work with?' and 'How do I stand vis a vis my competitors?' All those things still exist, and we'll make them better."

The team in charge of what's now called Martindale.com has begun tweaking the rating system with improvements to online navigation and expansion of its reviewing net. The changes have resulted in more lawyers being ranked each month, Stoddard says, though he says he doesn't have data or goals.

"There's a secret sauce that's been around 104 years," Stoddard says. "The challenge is to get people into that pipeline to get ranked and to review that so you don't have one person giving a lawyer an A rating. We're also tweaking who gets solicited to do reviews."

You can read more here at the ABA Journal’s blog.

(ljs)