Gary Wolfstone Welcomes You to Avvo Watch!
 Avvo Watch is a non-profit organization whose purpose is to educate the legal profession about the moral bankruptcy of the American legal profession. Avvo Watch reaches out to the international legal communities (all lawyers who practice law on any one of the seven continents) who have not yet been degraded by social networking web sites for lawyers ~ notably, the Avvo.com web site which ranks and rates American lawyers, dentists and doctors.
Avvo Watch is watching social networking web sites dealing with lawyers, including but not limited to Avvo.com. Avvo.com and its CEO, Mark Britton, have successfully transformed the American legal profession into a three ring circus ~ (1) lawyer bashing; (2) lawyer rating in a counterfeit system which lawyers can easily game with extravagant self-promotion; and (3) free legal advice with a counterfeit system which offers black letter law commentary in response to consumers' questions and then denies in a footnote under "Terms of Use" that free legal advice is legal advice.
For Mark Britton and for his Team Avvo, the Truth is a set of movable blocks that Mark Britton can shift around ~ forwards, backwards, and sideways ~ to create whatever counterfeit reality pleases them on the Avvo.com web site. For Mark Britton and his Team Avvo, the American Bar Association's Rules of Professional Conduct accomodate and track their every whim and caprice. Ethical standards vary according to what Mark Britton needs and wants.
Thanks to Avvo.com and Mark Britton, the American legal profession is undergoing a moral crisis and a linguistic crisis ~ and the two crises are organically connected. When Mark Britton steals intellectual property from the Washington D.C. Bar Association and passes it off as "data mining," he thereby generates his own language-field to legitimize his dishonest motives, values and ideals.
Mark Britton is a middle-aged business man who has never devoted his career to bar leadership. He has appointed himself a one man super bar association for purposes of ranking and rating every dentist, doctor and lawyer in America. Mark Britton quite frankly does not have the whiskers to do the job! Team Avvo also decided in one of its "stroking sessions" to confer an Avvo score of 9.2 on its CEO, Mark Britton. We mortals cannot help but wonder whether Mark Britton is a greek god or just another narcissistic personality.
Mark Britton's supporters might admit that he is guilty of "managing the facts" with his Avvo.com web site, but Mr. Britton's scheme of things is much more ambitious. Mark Britton apparently believes that his name is a password to a previously repressed truth ~ that the quest for money, the drive for power, and the celebration of vanity rule every lawyer's behaviour in the American legal profession.
Avvo.com has unleashed a whole tribe of spiritual sons and daughters who now give "free legal advice" to anyone ~ sight unseen ~ who has a keyboard and who submits a question. These pseudo lawyers are willing to practice law without the empirical support of carefully probing the questioner's facts and apparently do not rely upon a thorough research of applicable caselaw and statutory law ~ i.e., research tailor made to the specific person who is submitting the question with a specific legal problem. These pseudo lawyers bear a striking resemblance to pseudo scientists who generate hypotheses to explain the universe with a smorgasboard of scientifically untestable supernatural causes. These pseudo lawyers do not research potential conflicts of interest. These pseudo lawyers may have graduated from law school with an Order of the Coif certificate, but now they dance for Mr. Britton and his Avvo.com enterprise where instant gratification and mediocrity are the prevailing standards.
Instead of worrying about your ethical well-being which is codified in the American Bar Association's Rules of Professional Conduct, Mark Britton and his Team Avvo offer a "new ethical abundance" which is more powerful than any drug and which gives the lawyers a "nice buzz" ~ Avvo.com offers to establish the American lawyer's ethical superiority by staging a sleazy parade of injured and damaged lawyers with discipline; Avvo.com offers to show the American lawyer how to grow his practice and make more money with his Avvo page; and Avvo.com offers to express the American lawyer's power and potency with an Avvo score.
Avvo and Mark Britton live in a world in which the American legal profession is characterized by its three lowest common denominators ~ dishonesty, hypocrisy, and mediocrity. For Avvo and for Mark Britton, action authenticates meaning. For Avvo and for Mark Britton, the lawyer is only responsible to the bottom line. For Avvo and for Mark Britton, the legal profession is a three ring circus.
Many young lawyers are graduating from American law schools today deep in debt and with no job. What awaits them in the practice of law is a profession that now worships at the shrine of Avvo.com ~ a motley crew of superficial circus clowns who are getting rich trafficking in human pain.
Most American lawyers who are deeply embedded in bar associations, government offices and law firms are blissfully unaware of this disaster and impending doom ~ they only hear the soprano voices of Team Avvo, and they are humming along as they crank their wheels of justice.
A few short years ago, young lawyers in America emulated the standards of hard work, honesty, loyalty to one's clients and plain speaking. However, Avvo.com has redefined the code of conduct for the American legal profession. If lawyers follow Team Avvo's example, the code of conduct has become assertiveness and zeal at the borderline. Mark Britton and his bullies can now boast that an American lawyer's business success is his highest achievement.
Avvo Watch asks the question: Do you believe that Avvo.com (and similar organizations) engender greater respect or disrespect for lawyers?
Avvo Watch does rank its member-lawyers but that function is strictly incidental to our educational purpose. We are influenced by each member's own assessment of his or her dedication to the practice of law - What rank do you believe is appropriate in your case? Do you concur in our educational goals?
Avvo Watch is sensitive to the rich traditions of our profession and our global community. I am honored to extend our benefits to the international lawyer.
E-Mail: Gary L. Wolfstone, President
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