Here is something strange about lawyer listings on Martindale.com. I noticed that my listing included something called a “Visibility Ranking,” which is supposedly based on “the total number of weekly profile views.” Mine said that I was #1 out of 17 lawyers in my town of Rockport, Mass., and that I was #204,221 out of 886,124 total lawyers overall. Then I looked at the other lawyers in Rockport and found that each and every one of them had the exact same Visibility Ranking — each was #1 out of 17 and each was #204,221 out of 886,124.

Then I went on to check other lawyers I know in various locations around the country. Guess what? Many of them also had identical Visibility Rankings, no matter where they were. For example, Ernie Svenson is #1,156 out of 4,235 lawyers in New Orleans, while Evan Schaeffer also happens to be #1,156 out of 6,234 lawyers in St. Louis, Mo. Both also happen to share the same overall rank as me and my colleagues in Rockport — 204,221 out of 886,124. I found a number of other lawyers who all had the same overall ranking of 204,221.

Bottom line: I don’t know what this ranking is all about, but it appears to be entirely meaningless for a significant number of lawyers.

Photo of Bob Ambrogi Bob Ambrogi

Bob is a lawyer, veteran legal journalist, and award-winning blogger and podcaster. In 2011, he was named to the inaugural Fastcase 50, honoring “the law’s smartest, most courageous innovators, techies, visionaries and leaders.” Earlier in his career, he was editor-in-chief of several legal publications, including The National Law Journal, and editorial director of ALM’s Litigation Services Division.