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Martindale-Hubbell® Client ReviewMartindale-Hubbell® Client Review is a new service featuring client feedback that complements our 100 year Martindale-Hubbell® Peer Review Ratings™ program. Client Review provides comprehensive and credible information about lawyers and firms to aid buyers of legal services in their decision-making.
What is Martindale-Hubbell Client Review?Martindale-Hubbell Client Review is a service that enables buyers and providers of legal services to provide and benefit from client feedback on a lawyer or firm. Client Review takes approximately 5 minutes for the reviewer to complete and gathers insight on key attributes of a lawyer's and/or firm's service and relationship qualities that assist potential clients in their decision-making process. There is no cost to participate in Client Review.What does Client Review include?Client Review consists of 4 main questions that measure communication ability, quality of service, responsiveness and value for the money on specific matters. Also included are an overall recommendation question, basic demographic questions of the reviewer and an optional Additional Feedback section that allows clients to provide narrative feedback. The survey takes only a few minutes to complete.How does Client Review complement the Martindale-Hubbell® Peer Review Ratings™ program?For many years, Peer Review Ratings has been a standard in the legal industry, allowing legal professionals to provide feedback on their colleagues. The Client Review program was established to address the growing needs of buyers of legal services to have feedback from their own peers about the lawyers and firms they have retained. Both of these ratings programs complement and support the information firms provide to aid potential clients in evaluating lawyers and firms.What are Average Client Review Ratings on Lawyers.com?Average ratings-which averages the published ratings of all lawyers across the firm into a single metric-enhance ratings at the firm level and help firms with rated lawyers differentiate themselves from their competitors. Average Client Review Ratings appear in search results and on law firm profiles on Lawyers.com.Why are only published ratings part of average ratings?A firm can elect to not publish the rating of any given lawyer within the firm. To honor such agreements Martindale-Hubbell cannot include unpublished ratings in Average Client Review Ratings.How Client Review WorksDoes a law firm have to subscribe to Martindale-Hubbell to participate in Client Review?No. Any practicing law firm or lawyer is eligible to participate in Client Review. There is no cost to the lawyer/firm or to the client to complete a Client Review. However, if a firm is a subscriber, more detailed information will be presented on their Lawyer/Firm Profiles on both martindale.com and lawyers.com.Are Client Reviews anonymous?Yes. Client Reviews are anonymous and reviewers' identities are not published. This allows client participants to provide candid assessments of their firms or lawyers. However, Martindale-Hubbell will display a demographic summary of the respondents who have completed Client Reviews for each firm and lawyer. The survey will also ask for identifying information from the reviewer, which Martindale-Hubbell will keep completely confidential.What types of matters may be reviewed?Clients are invited to submit Client Reviews only on closed matters with the law firm or lawyer under review. Submission of a review requires that the client respondent represent that he/she or his/her employer has been a client of the law firm/lawyer and that he/she is completing the review on matters that are closed.What are the benefits for clients to participate in Client Review?If you are a recent client of a firm and/or lawyer, completing a Client Review about your experience will help others in their research and selection of legal counsel. This input, along with that from other clients, helps build a robust database of Client Reviews, so that all users of Client Review will be better informed as they make purchase decisions for legal services.Using Client Review data, you can leverage the first-hand experiences of other clients when evaluating a lawyer or law firm for a matter—especially in new geographical areas or where your knowledge of legal talent may be limited. Client Review will allow you to make more confident hiring decisions, particularly when combined with Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review Ratings™ and law firm/lawyer profile data.
Why would Firms engage in Client Review?Client Review provides valuable feedback directly from clients - those with first-hand experience of the firm and their lawyers. This feedback can be shared with prospects to promote lawyer and law firm expertise and to add depth to existing Martindale-Hubbell profiles.Client Reviews are fast becoming an industry requirement and is being fueled by market demand. Users want more comprehensive data on lawyer and firm capabilities, which includes feedback from other clients.
Larger firms can leverage the Client Review data in support of their current client satisfaction efforts. Medium to smaller firms may use this as a cost-effective, single source of client feedback. Participation in Client Review can provide clear differentiation and position firms/lawyers as thought leaders.
Where will my Client Reviews display?On LexisNexis websites, specifically martindale.com and lawyers.com, so that all law firms and their clients may benefit from adding this attribute to the firms' and lawyers' credentials.Why display Martindale-Hubbell® Client Review Ratings on Lawyers.com?Adding Client Review Ratings to Lawyers.com bring ratings to the consumer and small business markets for the first time and gives rated lawyers and law firms an opportunity to differentiate themselves from their competition in new ways.How can I promote my lawyer or firm Client Review Rating?Benefit from your Martindale-Hubbell Client Reviews by sharing and promoting your Client Review Rating to other online marketing locations such as your firm web site.When doing so the following phrase should always be used in conjunction with your Client Review Rating on your web site, brochure, etc.
"Martindale-Hubbell® Client Review Rated Lawyer of Preeminent 4.5 out of 5 [descriptive term and current numeric rating] as of 28 May 2009. [Date of latest review published on martindale.com and lawyers.com]" 1
I am a lawyer with both a Peer Review and Client Review Rating. How can I promote myself on both?When marketing and promoting your Client Review Rating, the following phrase should always be used in conjunction with your Client Review Rating on your web site, brochure, etc."Martindale-Hubbell® Client Review Rated Lawyer of Preeminent 4.5 out of 5 [descriptive term and current numeric rating] as of 28 May 2009. [Date of latest review published on martindale.com and lawyers.com]" 1
For specific guidelines on promoting your Peer Review Rating, please click here.
Can a lawyer or law firm promote their Client Reviews in press releases or other marketing materials?Yes. Please contact your Client Development Solutions Specialist, the Client Service Center at http://csc.martindale.com or call 1-800-945-4958 for more information about ways/tools to help you capitalize on the benefits of Client Review to grow your business.Can reviews be completed on individual lawyers as well as firms?Yes. Reviews can be submitted for both lawyers and for firms.Can law firms nominate clients to participate in the review process?Firms can submit client nominations via our online Client Service Center at http://csc.martindale.com. Firms must nominate at least 5 client references before surveys will be sent.How are clients identified to perform a Client Review?Clients can be identified in several different ways. Buyers of legal services can be nominated by one of their law firms as a current or former client with specific experience with the law firm; Martindale-Hubbell can ask a client to review its law firm, or a client can choose to access Client Review via a link beside each lawyer or firm profile on martindale.com. The variety of Client Review identification points helps to facilitate a representative sample of respondents. Clients must affirm that they are a client of the lawyer or firm identified for review. A client can submit only one review for a specific lawyer or law firm within a 12-month period.I received an e-mail inviting me to participate in Client Review. What is this?The e-mail you received invites you to participate in the LexisNexis® Martindale-Hubbell® Client Review process. By participating and sharing your knowledge of the law firm or lawyer under review, you will be providing an invaluable service to buyers of legal services who may consider hiring that firm or lawyer.Why did Martindale-Hubbell introduce the "Review as a Client" link on Lawyers.com and martindale.com?"Review as a Client" was introduced to add channels of collection for Client Review Ratings. Using multiple channels (client-initiated, firm-initiated, Martindale-Hubbell initiated, etc.) increases the credibility of Client Review by helping to create a more random sample of reviews, and encourages more potential respondents to complete reviews.How does Martindale-Hubbell verify that the nominated clients are legitimate?Martindale-Hubbell reviews all responses and employs technical security measures to ensure the validity of reviews completed. We cannot confirm the lawyer/client relationship, which in many cases is confidential; therefore clients must affirm that they are a client of the subject lawyer or firm at the time of the completed Client Review.Why can't I rate a lawyer or law firm if I am related to that lawyer or to any member of that firm?In situations where you are also a family member of the lawyer under review, that could present a conflict of interest and affect the objectivity of the ratings. Therefore, family members are disqualified from participating in Client Review in such cases.Do law firms/lawyers have the option of viewing Client Reviews before they are published on LexisNexis® online sites?Yes. After validated Client Reviews have been received for a law firm or lawyer, the subscribing firm will receive an e-mail with a link to the Client Service Center (CSC) to review the resulting Client Review rating and associated anonymous summary detail of the review responses. Firms/lawyers then have up to 30 days to review the results before they are published on LexisNexis websites. Or they can choose not to display the rating at all.If the subscribing firm/lawyer chooses not to publish an updated rating, when new Client Reviews become available, the previously published rating and related details of the reviews will also be removed from display. It is the lawyer's/firm's responsibility to manage client narrative responses to the Additional Feedback question and choose to publish these in accordance with the code of conduct governing marketing and promotion of legal services for their particular state bar. 2 A firm/lawyer must publish the Client Review Rating in order for the Additional Feedback responses to be published.
Non-subscribing firms and lawyers benefit from receiving the numerical Client Review rating, and Martindale-Hubbell will publish to their profile upon aggregation, however the Additional Feedback will not be published.
Is there a limit to the number of Client Reviews that a firm/lawyer can have?There is no maximum limit to the number of Client Reviews to be utilized for the rating. More are encouraged and there is no limit on the number of Client Reviews that can be utilized for the rating. The greater the number of reviews, the more value in-house counsel, referring lawyers and other consumers will derive from the information.What if Client Reviews are not published for a specific firm or lawyer?Martindale-Hubbell does not undertake to develop Client Reviews for all firms and lawyers. Therefore, the fact that a firm or lawyer has no reviews published should not be construed as unfavorable.How current are the Client Reviews that are published?Client Reviews that are over twenty-four months old will be archived but can still be accessed for review online.I'd like to review other firms not included on the survey questionnaire.The survey link includes the option to add law firms or lawyers for you to review. Provided the law firm or lawyer is confirmed as valid, a review can be completed.I received an invitation to participate in Client Review, but my state bar rules or my organization's codes of conduct prohibit me from providing testimonials or references for my outside counsel. What should I do?If you received a request to complete a Client Review and your organization or state bar prohibits this type of activity, please disregard the request or click the "decline" button in the survey link.Can I forward my invitation to another person?Yes, provided you are answering the review in a professional capacity, Client Reviews can be forwarded to a colleague within your organization who may be in a better position to complete the Client Review. Once contact details are confirmed, that person's Review is eligible to be included in the ratings process.What is the scope of Client Review?Client Reviews can be conducted worldwide for firms and lawyers.Can I complete part of the survey then return later to finish?No. The survey needs to be completed and submitted in one session. For security reasons, if the browser is closed before the survey is submitted your responses will be lost.I had to close the Client Review survey before finishing. When I return to the survey via the e-mail link I found that my responses do not appear.Responses are only saved to the system when the "submit" button is clicked. If you did not click the submit button before the survey window closed, the responses on that page would have been lost.What is the question set for Client Review?The question set includes a research industry standard 5-point scale system across 4 main evaluation criteria: Communication Ability, Responsiveness, Quality of Service and Value for Money. These questions speak to a lawyer's or firm's service and relationship qualities. Respondents are also asked an overall recommendation question, Practice Areas for which the lawyer/firm was retained and an optional Additional Feedback question. Demographic questions are also asked of the reviewer, as research has proven that buyers of legal services particularly like to see reviews of legal counsel by their peers. See a sample survey.How is a Client Review Rating determined?For each of the 4 main questions (Communication Ability, Responsiveness, Quality of Service and Value for Money) a 1 to 5 point scale is utilized with 1 corresponding to "Rated" and 5 corresponding to a "Preeminent" evaluation.The overall rating is determined by averaging the review responses. Martindale-Hubbell does not adjust the overall rating based upon any additional proprietary calculation. The rating is comprised solely upon completed, validated Client Reviews. See a sample display.
Is "scoring" methodology on a lawyer considered "professional"?While not traditionally true, the landscape for lawyer ratings has changed recently, supported by users' need for and access to more online rating data. Rating methodology has been around for many years in other professional industries. It is just now being applied to the legal market.I have more questions about the Client Review process; whom do I contact?You may contact your Client Development Solutions Specialist or call the numbers indicated below for additional information on Client Review. United States: 1-800-526-4902, ext. 6789 or + 1-908-665-6789; Canada: +1 403 870 6455; International: +44 (0) 20 7347 3700; E-mail: clientreview@martindale.comWhom do I contact if I have a question about pending reviews?To review the status of pending reviews send a detailed e-mail to clientreview@martindale.com.1 Client Review Rated Lawyers and Law Firms may use the Client Review Rating(s) in a manner that is consistent and compliant with the then current rules and regulations governing lawyer advertising in the state/commonwealth/jurisdiction in which the Client Review Rating(s) are to be used. It is the obligation of the Client Review Rated Lawyer and Law Firm to ensure compliance with the most current rules and regulations regulating such usage.
2 Lawyer ethics rules, including lawyer advertising rules, in the U.S, are complex. While states have generally based their rules on the American Bar Association's Model Rules of Professional Conduct, many states have adopted additional rules and exceptions. The result is that ethics rules and associated ethics opinions vary widely from one state to another. Firms must ensure their own compliance with the various ethics rules and opinions that might be applicable to particular circumstances, including participation in Martindale-Hubbell Client Review.
Disclaimer
Martindale-Hubbell® does not undertake to develop a Client Review Rating for all firms and lawyers. Therefore, the fact that a firm or lawyer has not been reviewed should not be construed as unfavorable. Martindale-Hubbell accepts no responsibility for and will not be liable for the content and accuracy of the individual Reviews and the aggregated Reviews. All published Client Reviews on martindale.com® will display a disclaimer that states: No representation is made that the quality of legal services to be performed is greater than the quality of legal services performed by other lawyers. This testimonial or endorsement does not constitute a guarantee, warranty, or predication regarding the outcome of the legal matter. Any result the endorsed law firm may achieve on behalf of one client in one matter does not necessarily indicate that a similar result can be obtained for another client. Past performance cannot be an assurance of future results as each case must be decided on its own merits. | |
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