Martindale-Hubbell ratings: AV Preeminent, the ISLN identifier, and Client Champion awards.
Martindale-Hubbell carries two distinct rating frameworks: the peer-side Peer Review Rating (AV Preeminent, Distinguished, Notable) and the client-side Client Champion award (Platinum, Gold, Silver). The ISLN identifier disambiguates attorney entities across the syndicate. All three propagate through Internet Brands.
Peer Review Rating: AV Preeminent, Distinguished, Notable
Martindale-Hubbell's Peer Review Rating measures peer-side assessment of legal ability and ethical standards. The rating is generated through secure online surveys of other lawyers and members of the judiciary in the rated attorney's geographic and practice area. AV Preeminent is the top tier, signaling attorneys whose peers rank them at the highest level of professional excellence. Distinguished and Notable are the lower tiers. Attorneys with sufficient peer-response counts and qualifying scores earn the rating; insufficient peer-response counts produce no rating rather than a low rating, which makes the rating relatively scarce among the broad attorney population.
Client Champion Platinum, Gold, Silver
Martindale-Hubbell introduced Client Champion awards in 2017 to measure client-side sentiment alongside the existing peer-side rating. Platinum, Gold, and Silver tiers correspond to client review volume and average rating thresholds. Client Champion measures client sentiment; AV Preeminent measures peer assessment. They are independent signals. An attorney can hold both, either, or neither. Both render on the Martindale-Hubbell profile and propagate across the Internet Brands syndicate.
ISLN and the entity-graph implications
The International Standard Lawyer Number is Martindale-Hubbell's proprietary persistent identifier, assigned to attorneys in its database. The ISLN functions as a stable identifier across name changes, firm changes, and jurisdictional changes. It disambiguates attorneys who share names across the legal-services Knowledge Graph and feeds entity resolution alongside the state bar number. For Google's entity-confidence assessment, ISLN consistency across the Internet Brands syndicate (Martindale-Hubbell, Avvo, Lawyers.com, Nolo, FindLaw) is one of the citation-consistency anchors a directory citation program maintains. The Martindale ISLN is the deepest cross-platform identifier in the legal directory ecosystem.
Internet Brands (operating as MH Sub I, LLC) acquired Martindale-Hubbell in 2014 alongside Lawyers.com and Nolo, added Avvo in 2018 (rebranding the collective attorney-services unit as Martindale-Avvo), and completed the FindLaw acquisition from Thomson Reuters in December 2024. Martindale-Hubbell is the anchor profile in the consolidated syndicate. Citation updates on Martindale propagate to the other four nodes through shared data infrastructure. Rule 7.1 still governs how the firm represents its rating on the firm's own site: an AV Preeminent rating is the firm-attributable fact, but the unjustified-expectation analysis applies when the rating is positioned as a guaranteed-result signal.
For the full directory ecosystem context, see the free legal directories hub. Sibling spokes cover Super Lawyers selection process (the editorial peer-nomination alternative outside the Internet Brands syndicate) and Martindale ISLN for the entity-resolution mechanics specifically.
If your firm needs the Martindale profile maintained alongside the full Internet Brands syndicate, our legal directory citation management service treats the four nodes plus Justia plus Super Lawyers as one citation profile. For the broader Attorney SEO program, the homepage is the entry point.
Questions on the Martindale ratings before the citation profile review.
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How is the AV Preeminent rating actually computed?
AV Preeminent is the top tier of Martindale-Hubbell's Peer Review Rating. It signals attorneys whose peers rank them at the highest level of professional excellence for legal ability and ethical standards. The rating is generated through secure online surveys of other lawyers and members of the judiciary. Distinguished and Notable are the lower tiers. Attorneys with sufficient peer responses and qualifying scores earn the rating; insufficient peer-response counts produce no rating rather than a low rating.
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What does the ISLN identifier do for entity resolution?
The International Standard Lawyer Number is Martindale-Hubbell's proprietary persistent identifier, assigned to attorneys in its database. It disambiguates attorneys who share names across the legal-services Knowledge Graph and feeds entity resolution alongside the state bar number. ISLN consistency across the Internet Brands syndicate (Martindale-Hubbell, Avvo, Lawyers.com, Nolo, FindLaw) is one of the citation-consistency anchors a directory citation program maintains.
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What are the Client Champion tiers and how do they differ from AV Preeminent?
Martindale-Hubbell introduced Client Champion awards in 2017, with Platinum, Gold, and Silver tiers based on client review volume and average rating thresholds. Client Champion measures client-side sentiment; AV Preeminent measures peer-side assessment. They are independent signals. An attorney can hold both, either, or neither. Both render on the Martindale-Hubbell profile and propagate across the Internet Brands syndicate.
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Where does Martindale-Hubbell sit in the Internet Brands consolidation?
Internet Brands (operating as MH Sub I, LLC) acquired Martindale-Hubbell in 2014 alongside Lawyers.com and Nolo, added Avvo in 2018 (rebranding the collective attorney-services unit as Martindale-Avvo), and completed the FindLaw acquisition from Thomson Reuters in December 2024. Martindale-Hubbell is the anchor profile in the consolidated syndicate. Citation updates on Martindale propagate to the other four nodes through shared data infrastructure.
The Martindale profile is the anchor inside Internet Brands. Citation updates propagate; entity confidence compounds. Book a diagnostic.
We read your Martindale-Hubbell profile against AV Preeminent rating mechanics, Client Champion eligibility, ISLN consistency, and propagation across the Internet Brands syndicate. The diagnostic comes back with the directory profile audit and the citation-consistency remediation scope.