JD Supra Goes Live

By Marc Stern, a solo practitioner in Seattle, Washington, where his practice emphasizes insolvency and bankruptcy. Mr. Stern currently serves of cochair of the Bankruptcy Section of the GP|Solo Division of the ABA. He is also the coeditor of Letters for Bankruptcy Lawyers (ABA Publishing, 2005). He can be reached at marc@hutzbah.com and (206)448-7996. His website is at www.hutzbahlaw.com. This article is reprinted GP|Solo Division Technology eReport.

In the 1930s, The Martindale Hubbell company started publishing a catalogue of lawyers. In time it grew to be the single-most comprehensive and prestigious listing of attorneys in the United States. Since its inception, competitors have sought to compete with and ultimately replace it. The age of the Internet brought new competition, i.e. Findlaw, AVVO, and others. Martindale responded with Martindale.com and Lawyers.com. Martindale and all of its competitors use the same model, a listing available to search engines and a profile by the attorney describing the firm, its members, practice, representative clients, or other information believed useful by either the company or the subscriber. The information, while published online, is substantially similar to the old model that used books.

JD Supra, founded by experienced business attorney Aviva Cuyler, is about to change all that. JD Supra takes attorney marketing into the 21st Century. It provides something different and more innovative than all of the lawyer search engines that have preceded it. JD Supra provides real content contributed by the lawyers it lists. Its trademark is “Give Content, Get Noticed.”

Cuyler started the site because lawyers regularly draft documents that are used once and then forgotten. Many of these are prime examples of the lawyer’s craft. JD Supra provides a method for the lawyer to showcase that work by posting it in a searchable database linked to the lawyer’s profile. The brief that took days to write and is an example of your best work need not be relegated to the file cabinet but can be uploaded to showcase your experience in this area of law.

In order to get listed, the attorney must contribute a brief, motion, article, or some other legal document. These are then indexed by area of law, jurisdiction, type of document, subject area, and contributor. Posting documents is free. A basic listing that includes a logo or photo, name, contact information, practice area description and list, honors and awards, professional associations, and education is also free. Cuyler explains that she expects to produce income by selling enhancements to the basic listing, as well as advertisements on the site. A listing with direct links to an attorney’s email, websites, and blogs, will cost $20 per month or $240/year. No doubt other enhancements, and charges, will come.

Once the site is fully operational (it is scheduled to be online by the time you read this review), it will allow searches for briefs, decisions, papers, and other documents. The search engine is designed for use both by both lawyers and the lay person. You can limit the search by jurisdiction, subject matter area, document type, and search terms. This will enable a lawyer searching for a brief on a subject to find what another lawyer has done in the past, learn from it and, hopefully, improve upon it.

The site is designed to allow potential clients to read actual documents written by the lawyer before contacting or retaining the lawyer. Cuyler indicates that the site as originally contemplated would let lawyers benefit from their colleagues’ work and connect with real people. Potential clients could search, determine which lawyer was doing work on questions similar to their case, and then contact the lawyer.

In the reviewer’s opinion, this system offers many potential advantages, particularly for lawyers and corporate counsel looking for local counsel in a distant place. Instead of looking at what someone says about a lawyer, for the first time it will be possible to look at actual work done by the attorney before making the hiring decision. Clients may find this instructive; however, lawyers will probably be better able to judge the quality of the work actually done.

Note: While this review expresses the reviewer’s independent opinion and analysis respecting JD Supra, the editors disclose that JD Supra is a sponsor of the GP|Solo Division of the American Bar Association.