1976, November, Pg. 1660. From the Wool-Sack.

• Author: by Christopher R. Brauchli

5 Colo.Law. 1660

Colorado Lawyer

1976.

1976, November, Pg. 1660.

From the Wool-Sack

1660Vol. 5, No. 9, Pg. 1660From the Wool-Sackby Christopher R. BrauchliThe Information in This Volume is Confidential

Martindale-Hubbell,IMPORTANT NOTICESMost travellers in France know and rely on the Michelin Guide which rates restaurants by giving up to three stars to those its representatives favor. Those so favored are virtually guaranteed success since people from near and far will make special trips to visit them. The people who publish the Guide are also assured financial success since people pay high prices to learn what the publisher thinks of the restaurants. In 1871 Mr. Hubbell said to himself after a particularly good meal in a three-star restaurant, "if you can rate coq au vin, why can't you rate lawyers?" And with that question Martindale-Hubbell was born.

It is unclear why a publisher's opinion of another's chicken or lawyer should be of much interest to the general public, but it is and, hence, its success. Though not as economically beneficial as three stars from Michelin, ratings in Martindale-Hubbell are somewhat valuable: a little to the lawyer highly rated, a lot to the publisher, and none to the low-rated or unrated lawyer.

At the risk of offending those who bestow its blessings upon lawyers, thus jeopardizing the modest esteem in which the author is held by them, this column will explain briefly how their system works. (It is obvious to all that rating the coq au vin Mr. Hubbell ate and the waiter who served it is considerably easier than rating the legal ability of someone you have never met who has never performed any legal services for you on the basis of what someone who in many cases has had little more contact with the subject to be rated tells you. Had Mr. Hubbell realized that rating lawyers was not as easy as rating food, he probably would have chosen a different profession.)

Although it is not possible in a brief space to fully explain how Martindale works, its Confidential Key, coupled with its explanation in a letter written to the Boulder County Bar Association in 1972 in response to an inquiry by that association,(fn1) affords some insight into its practices.

The first thing any lawyer who wants a rating must do is establish that he is a "v" kind of person for purposes of General...