Avvo headquarters in Seattle.Internet Brands Combines Martindale With Avvo in Reboot of Online Legal Network
After completing its acquisition of Avvo in March, the company is fusing its name with the venerable Martindale-Hubbell brand.
October 23, 2018 at 06:00 AM
3 minute read
The original version of this story was published on The American Lawyer
Despite closing the door on Avvo's efforts to provide bespoke legal services, new owner Internet Brands remains bullish on the name.
The company, which completed its acquisition of Avvo in March, is pairing it with the storied Martindale moniker and rebranding its online legal network Martindale-Avvo. Previously, the network was known as The Martindale Legal Marketing Network.
According to Marindale-Avvo president Diana Schultz, the combination seemed likely at the time the deal was announced in January, but the company had to kick the tires on the idea.
“As we did some research with attorneys and consumers, it became clear that pairing Martindale's reputation with the lawyer community and Avvo's reputation for innovativeness made a nice combination,” she said.
Internet Brands entered into a joint venture in 2014 with LexisNexis to combine its Nolo legal division with LexisNexis' Martindale-Hubbell and Lawyers.com business. After the joint venture expired at the end of 2017, the company assumed full control of the Martindale-Hubbell brand, which is over 140 years old.
In acquiring Avvo, for an undisclosed sum, Internet Brands gained a company that provided a series of legal services, ranging from document templates for consumers who want to prepare some of their own filings, short consultation services like Avvo Advisor, all the way up to packaged bespoke legal services across a number of different practice areas.
But under pressure from state bar associations, which voiced concerns over improper fee-splitting arrangements and unauthorized practice of law, the company announced an end to Avvo Legal Services in July.
We're now focused on innovation within the normal regulatory framework,” Schultz said.
The Avvo site now offers a lawyer search and ranking service as well as a free question and answer service.
Another entity under the Martindale-Avvo umbrella, Nolo, offers forms that allow individuals and businesses to complete legal documents, like forming an LLC or filing a provisional patent. The company's Ngage unit manages the live chat operations on lawyers' and law firms' websites.
Martindale-Avvo claims to offer attorneys an audience of 25 million consumers monthly—850,000 of whom request to speak with an attorney—who visit the domains including Avvo.com, Nolo.com, Lawyers.com, Attorneys.com, AllLaw.com, TotalAttorneys.com, DisabilitySecrets.com, DivorceNet.com.
Internet Brands, which was founded in 2010, also owns websites like ApartmentRatings.com, CarsDirect.com Inc. and WebMD. It is a portfolio company of private equity firms Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Temasek.
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