PrintThere are a number of ways to find information on the attorney’s background and experience, once you have selected the attorney you wish to hire, and know the state in which the attorney practices. You can go to one of the two largest online listings of attorneys, Martindale or Lawyers.com, and search for information about the attorney on those sites.
The listings on these sites provide the following types of information about attorneys:
education, memberships, publications, location, and area(s) of practice.
Another place to find information about an attorney’s experience is through Thomson Legal Record on FindLaw. At this Web site, you enter the name of the attorney, and receive information about the attorney in the following areas:
position, bar admission, affiliations, areas of practice, education, practice groups, and published works.
Only those attorneys and firms that have elected to be listed on these sites are so listed.
One additional way to learn about a lawyer’s experience is to search for the attorney you have selected on Google or Yahoo!, placing the attorney’s full name in quotes, along with the city and state where the attorney practices ("Sam Spade" Attorney San Francisco California). The search should turn up the link to the attorney and his or her firm’s Web Site, which site will provide the desired information on the attorney’s background and experience. The search will also provide additional information about the attorney, such as where the attorney has spoken, important cases the attorney has handled, newspaper articles about the attorney, what honors the attorney has received, etc.
