The new owners of AVVO, the eponymous lawyer ranking site, have decided to discontinue AVVO Legal Services ("AVVO Legal"). A whole host of state ethics opinions warned attorneys of possible ethical violations, although one state recently indicated openness to modifying its ethical rules to fit AVVO Legal and other for-profit lawyer referral providers.
My personal view is that the ethical concerns regarding AVVO Legal were overblown because AVVO Legal neither recommended one attorney over another nor interfered with attorneys' professional independence of judgment. As I expressed in this space, to address lack of access to justice, the organized bar should embrace AVVO Legal and other companies that promote awareness of the law and the availability of lawyer assistance. Instead we continue to ignore the demand side of lack of access to justice while regulators experiment with supply-side solutions such as "navigators", "LLLTs," and alike that I fear will prove ineffectual.