I am an attorney and had contact with this company years ago when it posted my "profile" without my consent, apparently scraping it from some legitimate source like the state bar website. I was assigned a low rating (6.5/10) based on no reviews whatsoever and encouraged to join and get recommendations from other attorneys on the site to raise my rating. I'm a 20+-year practitioner with no complaints from clients or the bar.

Quite simply, it's a scam along the lines of "America's Who's Who" where the people listed in the database are the source of income for the enterprise. If attorneys don't "join" and pay they're added to the database without their consent and assigned a random low rating pulled out of nowhere.

I don't see any basis to rely on "Avvo" for attorney recommendations. Try Martindale-Hubbell or recommendations from the local bar association real-life attorneys.

No at all reliable. Just look for yourself and see that the 'reviews' are nearly all '5-star'. Avvo will not allow negative reviews.