Martindale-Hubbell has been rating and listing American lawyers since 1868, which makes it the elder statesman of legal directories — and one of the highest-authority domains a law firm can be cited on. It's owned by Internet Brands and anchors the Martindale-Avvo network, which means a single claimed Martindale profile feeds your firm's data across Lawyers.com and Nolo as well. Three citations for the effort of one is the best ratio in legal directories.
Martindale is also home to the profession's oldest credential system: Peer Review Ratings, including the AV Preeminent designation, plus Client Review ratings. Referring attorneys and sophisticated clients still check these.
Step 1: Find your existing profile
Go to martindale.com and search your name and firm. Most attorneys already have a basic placeholder listing auto-created from state bar records. If yours exists, you'll claim it; if not, use Martindale's contact options to inquire about a new professional profile (their support form includes exactly that category).
Step 2: Claim your listing
- On your listing, look for the "Is this you?" prompt and click it.
- Complete the verification process to confirm your identity as the listed attorney.
- Once verified, you control the profile.
Step 3: Complete the profile
Work through every section with your canonical firm data:
- Contact information — firm name, address, and phone matching your website and Google Business Profile exactly, down to the suite abbreviation. Because this data syndicates across Lawyers.com and Nolo, an error here becomes three errors.
- Biography — client-facing, specific, at least a couple of substantial paragraphs.
- Practice areas — select every relevant tag from Martindale's taxonomy; the directory matches consumer searches against these.
- Education, bar admissions, languages, and firm details — including firm name, office locations, and logo where supported.
- Photo — a professional headshot if your listing tier displays one.
- Other attorneys at your firm — prompting colleagues to claim their own listings compounds the firm's footprint in directory search results.
About your website link
Set expectations here: contact details are free, but website link display on Martindale and its partner sites has historically been tied to paid profile tiers, similar to Avvo. Check the profile editor after claiming — if a website field is available to you, fill it with your canonical URL. If it's gated, the free profile is still worth completing: the NAP citation, the network syndication, and the ratings visibility carry real value on their own, and the paid tier (which also adds lead-gen tools and priority placement) should be judged as an advertising buy, not a checkbox.
Step 4: Pursue ratings — the part unique to Martindale
Two rating systems live here, and both are free to participate in:
- Peer Review Ratings. Attorneys are rated by other lawyers on legal ability and ethical standards, with AV Preeminent as the top designation. You can initiate the process from your claimed profile by requesting peer reviews; choose reviewers who genuinely know your work — judges and attorneys you've worked with or across from.
- Client Review Ratings. Invite past clients to review you through the profile. These display alongside peer ratings and feed the network sites.
An AV Preeminent rating is one of the few directory credentials that still moves referral decisions between lawyers, so if you've been practicing long enough to have a peer network, this is worth the outreach.
Maintenance
Revisit after any firm change and annually at minimum. Because the profile syndicates, verify your listing on Lawyers.com and Nolo a few weeks after edits to confirm the data propagated correctly.
FAQ
Is a Martindale-Hubbell listing free? Yes — every attorney gets a basic profile, usually auto-created from bar records, and claiming and completing it is free. Paid tiers add placement, customization, lead-generation tools, and website link display.
What is AV Preeminent? The highest Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review Rating, signifying that reviewing attorneys rank the lawyer at the top of legal ability and ethical standards. It cannot be purchased.
Do I need separate profiles on Lawyers.com and Nolo? No — Martindale-Avvo syndicates your professional profile data across the network. Claim and perfect the Martindale profile, then verify the sibling listings picked it up.
Related reading
- The Law Firm Directory Setup Guides
- How to Claim and Optimize Your Avvo Profile
- Client Reviews for Law Firms
LexGrow claims and completes your Martindale-Avvo network profiles as part of onboarding — one canonical dataset, verified across every listing. Book a call.