You may not remember that you (and a number of your partners) were among tens of thousands of attorneys who were assigned an AV-5.0 rating in 2010 when Martindale-Hubbell added a numerical component to its AV, BV, CV designations.

When Martindale announced that modification, they also said they would begin randomly re-rating all lawyers with AV designations at some future point. That time has come and all lawyers given an AV-5.0 in 2010 will be re-rated sometime in the next few years.

I am blogging this because numerous partners around the country have recently missed or ignored emails sent to them by Martindale announcing they were being re-rated. A couple of months later, they have received a notice they had dropped to BV or, due to a lack of response by those lawyers Martindale unilaterally decided to poll, now had no rating at all. To say these lawyers were upset was a profound understatement. It’s happening to well-known competent partners who have been in practice at prominent firms for decades.

If you get a re-rating email, get your marketing people involved ASAP. They will work with you to assure proper polling occurs. You can and must submit to Martindale your own list of lawyers outside of your firm and, if possible, judges who know your work. These votes are essential if you are to keep your AV designation.

A full explanation of Martindale’s new rating system is at http://www.martindale.com/Products_and_Services/Peer_Review_Ratings.aspx