AI Visibility · Lawyers

What AI Reads Before It Recommends a Lawyer

By Charlie Riske, founder of AIMention

Before anyone calls a firm, they describe the whole problem to ChatGPT — the charge, the county, the deadline, what they can afford. This page shows which sources AI trusts for lawyers, and how to make your practice specific enough to be named without crossing your state bar’s advertising rules.

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The short answer

AI assistants recommend lawyers based on three things most firm websites leave out: which courts and counties you actually practice in, how you charge for the matter in question, and which individual attorney handles that case type. They also lean heavily on claimed Avvo and Justia profiles and on public bar-standing records. Because bar rules restrict superlatives, the firms that win are the ones stating verifiable facts — years admitted, jurisdictions, case types — rather than adjectives.

The prompts

What do people ask AI before they call a lawyer?

Legal questions are the most detailed prompts anyone types. Nobody asks AI for “a lawyer near me” the way they ask for a plumber. They paste in the situation: charged with a second DUI in DuPage County, served with divorce papers and worried about custody, offered eleven thousand dollars by an insurance adjuster and unsure whether that’s low. The assistant answers the substantive question first, then names firms that fit the jurisdiction, the practice area, and the fee structure implied by the problem. A firm that hasn’t stated all three is filtered out before the recommendation is even assembled.

Law firms also face a constraint no other local business does: their marketing is regulated. State bar rules generally reserve “specialist” and “expert” for board-certified attorneys, require disclaimers on testimonials, and prohibit anything creating unjustified expectations about results. The rational response has been to say as little as possible — which is why so many firm sites read like a brochure that could belong to any practice in the state. The escape from that trap is that verifiable facts aren’t restricted. “Best DUI attorney in the county” is a compliance problem. “Admitted in Illinois in 2003, and I have handled DUI matters in the Eighteenth Judicial Circuit since 2009” is a fact — and it’s the kind of sentence an AI will quote.

Emergency

“I was charged with a second DUI in DuPage County — what happens next and who should I call?”

AI answers the process question first, then names firms. Jurisdiction is doing the filtering here: firms that never name the county or the circuit court aren’t candidates.

Emergency

“Served with divorce papers and I’m worried about custody — do I need a lawyer right away?”

Deadline-driven prompts reward firms that publish response timelines and say plainly whether they handle contested custody, not just “family law.”

Comparison

“The insurance adjuster offered me $11,000 for my accident. Is that low and should I get a lawyer?”

Pure research, and the highest-value prompt in personal injury. A firm with an honest page on how settlements are valued becomes the source AI cites while the client is still deciding.

Price

“How much does a personal injury lawyer take? Is a contingency fee always a third?”

Fee structure is a top filter and almost never stated. Publishing your contingency percentage and how costs are handled makes you quotable where competitors are silent.

Trust check

“Is Brennan and Vance Law Offices a real firm, and are they in good standing with the Illinois bar?”

Bar standing is a public record AI can check. What it often can’t find is the firm’s own confirmation — admission years and jurisdictions belong on your site, not just in the bar’s database.

Direct

“Estate planning attorney near Wheaton for a small business owner with young kids”

Compound prompts want the intersection of two practice areas. Firms that describe who a matter is for, rather than listing “estate planning” as a menu item, get matched.

Trust check

“Which attorneys actually appear regularly in the Eighteenth Judicial Circuit?”

Local court familiarity is a real buying criterion and an easy factual claim to make. Naming your courts is the single most underused move in law firm content.

Direct

“Employment lawyer in Illinois for a non-compete dispute — does anyone do a free consultation?”

Niche practice areas are the cheapest wins available. If non-compete work is a real part of your practice and has its own section, you beat general employment listings by default.

Comparison

“Should I hire a specialist or a general practice lawyer for a workers comp claim?”

AI explains the tradeoff, then names examples of each. Firms that state what share of their practice a case type represents give it something concrete to point at.

The sources

Where does AI get its answers about lawyers?

When an AI assistant names a law firm, it’s synthesizing a handful of sources it considers trustworthy. These carry the most weight for this industry — and consistency across them matters as much as presence on any one.

Avvo

High weight

Avvo builds a profile for every licensed attorney from state bar data whether you participate or not — but only claimed profiles get a numerical rating. An unclaimed profile means AI reads a page about you that carries no score and notes you’re inactive there.

Your own website and attorney bios

High weight

The only place jurisdictions, fee structure, admission years, and which attorney handles which case type can be stated. In law the individual is the product, so bio pages carry more weight than the firm’s homepage.

State bar directory and disciplinary records

High weight

Public, authoritative, and directly checkable. AI uses bar records to confirm you exist and are in good standing, which makes them the backstop for every “is this firm legitimate” prompt.

Justia

High weight

Claimed Justia profiles syndicate to Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute, which means one free listing places your name on a genuinely academic legal domain that AI weighs heavily.

Martindale-Hubbell and Lawyers.com

Medium weight

Peer-review ratings are a credential type that exists nowhere else in local business — other lawyers rating your legal ability. AI treats peer assessment as more meaningful than consumer star counts for professional services.

Super Lawyers

Medium weight

A selection-based list rather than a paid directory, capped at roughly the top five percent of attorneys in a state. That scarcity is exactly what makes it usable by AI as a differentiator between otherwise similar firms.

FindLaw

Medium weight

Part of the Thomson Reuters network and paired with a large library of consumer legal explainers, so its pages surface constantly in the research half of legal prompts — the half that happens before anyone picks a firm.

The gaps

Why are most law firm websites invisible to AI?

Each of these maps to one of the six dimensions we score. They’re the failure patterns we see over and over in this industry — and every one is a content fix, not a budget fix.

Authority & Trust

Bar-rule caution turned into saying nothing at all

Advertising rules genuinely restrict what lawyers can claim — “specialist” and “expert” usually require board certification, testimonials need disclaimers, and predictions of results are off limits. Most firms respond by stripping their sites down to safe abstractions like “aggressive representation” and “personalized attention,” which are unquotable. The overlooked point is that verifiable facts carry no such restriction. Admission years, jurisdictions, case types handled, and the share of your practice a matter represents are all compliant, all specific, and all things AI can repeat.

Citations & References

An unclaimed Avvo profile that carries no rating

Avvo generates a page for every licensed attorney from public bar records, so you have a profile whether you made one or not — and unclaimed profiles receive no numerical rating and are flagged as inactive. For a directory this central to legal queries, that means AI finds a page bearing your name and conspicuously lacking the one signal it would use to rank you. Claiming it is free and takes an afternoon, which makes it the highest return-per-hour item most firms have available.

Local Relevance

A service area described in towns instead of courts

Every other local business serves a radius. A law firm serves jurisdictions — specific counties, circuits, and courthouses — and clients ask in those terms because their case is docketed somewhere particular. A site saying it serves “Chicagoland and surrounding areas” cannot be matched to a question about the Eighteenth Judicial Circuit, while a firm that simply lists the courts it appears in wins that prompt without any additional authority.

Factual Clarity

“Free consultation” standing in for a fee structure

Cost is among the first things anyone asks AI about hiring a lawyer, and nearly every firm site answers with the same three words — which describe the first meeting, not the representation. Whether a matter is contingency, flat fee, hourly, or retainer-based is not confidential and not restricted; it is simply left unsaid. Stating it, with the contingency percentage or a typical range where you can, converts you from an unknown into an answer.

Structured Content

Practice areas as a nav menu, with no attorney attached

A dropdown reading Criminal, Family, Estate, Injury with eighty words behind each item tells AI almost nothing, and in a multi-attorney firm it creates a second gap: no indication of which lawyer handles which matter. Clients ask for a person, not a practice group. Mapping each case type to a named attorney with a real page behind them is what lets AI answer “who at this firm handles non-compete disputes” instead of skipping the firm entirely.

Structured Data Markup

No machine-readable identity for the firm or its attorneys

Law firm sites are usually built by legal-vertical marketing vendors whose templates ship without structured data, so nothing on the page tells a system that this is a law practice, where it sits, or who the attorneys are. That hurts more here than elsewhere because the entity AI needs to resolve is a person as much as a business — and an attorney bio with no machine-readable identity is just prose the system has to guess about.

Before and after

The same website, rewritten for AI

None of these rewrites required a developer or a redesign — just replacing copy that says nothing with copy that states facts an AI can quote.

Attorney bio opening

Authority & Trust
Before“Attorney Brennan is an aggressive advocate who fights tirelessly to get his clients the best possible outcome.”
After“Michael Brennan was admitted to the Illinois bar in 2003 and has handled criminal defense matters in the Eighteenth Judicial Circuit since 2009. He has been selected to Super Lawyers six times and served as president of the DuPage County Bar Association in 2019.”

Fees section

Factual Clarity
Before“We offer a free consultation and will work with you on a payment arrangement that fits your situation.”
After“Injury matters are handled on contingency at 33 percent, or 40 percent if the case is filed and proceeds to trial. Criminal defense is flat fee by charge class, typically $3,500 to $9,500. Family matters are hourly against a retainer, most commonly $3,000 to start.”

Service area statement

Local Relevance
Before“Serving clients throughout Chicagoland and the surrounding collar counties for more than two decades.”
After“We appear regularly in the DuPage County courthouse in Wheaton, the Kane County Judicial Center in St. Charles, and the Will County courthouse in Joliet. Most of our criminal and family matters are docketed in the Eighteenth Judicial Circuit.”

Practice area page

Structured Content
Before“Family Law: Our attorneys handle all aspects of family law with compassion and dedication to your goals.”
After“Contested custody, parenting-time modifications, and divorces involving a closely held business are handled by Sarah Vance, admitted in 2011. She has tried contested custody matters in DuPage and Kane counties and takes roughly twenty family matters a year.”
See It In Action

What a real report looks like for a law firm

A sample report for Brennan & Vance Law Offices, a fictional law firm in Wheaton, IL. Click through the tabs — your report will look exactly like this, scored against your real website.

Brennan & Vance Law Offices
Fictional four-attorney firm across the street from the DuPage County courthouse — genuinely credentialed, with a vendor-built site that says almost nothing checkable.
Grade C · Fair

Real credentials, almost nothing a system can check

Brennan & Vance is the most credentialed business in this entire sample set and still loses the prompts that produce clients. That’s the lesson of the vertical: in law, authority is rarely the problem — legibility is. Two unclaimed Avvo profiles leave half the firm ratingless in the directory AI leans on hardest, the fee structure is unstated, and a firm literally across from the courthouse never names the court. None of that requires a marketing budget or risks a bar complaint. It requires writing down facts the partners already know.

About these scores

These scores reflect how likely AI platforms such as ChatGPT, Google AI, Perplexity, and Claude are to include this business when recommending local services. They are based on the same signals AI systems use to decide which businesses to surface.

Score Breakdown

How the site performs across all six dimensions

Structured Content 62 / 100
Practice areas exist as a five-item dropdown with short pages, and no case type is mapped to a named attorney.
Factual Clarity 52 / 100
“Free consultation” appears on every page; contingency percentage, retainer ranges, and hourly rates appear nowhere.
Structured Data Markup 38 / 100
The legal-vertical template ships without structured data, so neither the firm nor its four attorneys are machine-readable.
Authority & Trust 89 / 100
The strongest authority signals of any sample we’ve published: 22 years, Super Lawyers selections, and a past county bar presidency, all stated plainly.
Citations & References 62 / 100
Martindale and Super Lawyers listings are current, but two of the four attorneys have never claimed their Avvo profiles and carry no rating.
Local Relevance 75 / 100
Wheaton and DuPage County are named throughout, though the courts themselves and the neighboring Kane and Will jurisdictions never appear.
Action Checklist

Prioritized fixes specific to this report — in order of impact

Claim the two unclaimed Avvo profilesHigh priorityLow effort
Unclaimed attorney profiles carry no numerical rating and are marked inactive, so half this firm appears ratingless in the directory legal prompts lean on hardest. Free, and done in an afternoon.
Publish how the firm charges, by matter typeHigh priorityLow effort
Cost is among the first things clients ask AI about hiring a lawyer, and “free consultation” answers a different question. Contingency percentages and typical retainer ranges are neither confidential nor restricted.
Name the courts and circuits you appear inHigh priorityLow effort
A firm across the street from the courthouse never names the court. Listing the DuPage, Kane, and Will venues turns jurisdiction prompts from automatic losses into natural wins.
Map every practice area to a named attorneyHigh priorityMedium effort
Clients ask for a person, not a practice group. Until each case type points at a specific lawyer, AI cannot answer who at this firm handles a given matter and will skip the firm rather than guess.
Rewrite the attorney bios around verifiable factsMedium priorityMedium effort
Admission years, jurisdictions, selections, and bar service are all bar-compliant and all quotable, unlike the adjectives currently occupying those pages.
Add structured data markup for the firm and each attorneyMedium priorityMedium effort
The legal-vertical template shipped without any, which leaves four attorney bios as prose the system has to guess about rather than identities it can resolve.
Write a settlement-valuation explainer for injury clientsLow priorityHigh effort
The adjuster-offer question is the highest-value research prompt in personal injury, and an honest explanation of how offers are evaluated earns the citation weeks before anyone signs a fee agreement.
60-Day Roadmap

A phased action plan based on these scores

Week 1–2
Quick Wins
  • Claim both outstanding Avvo profiles
  • Publish the fee structure page
  • Add the courts and circuits to the service area section
  • Verify bar-directory listings and addresses
Week 3–4
Content Fixes
  • Attach a named attorney to every practice area
  • Rewrite the four bios around admission years and jurisdictions
  • Expand the thin practice pages
Week 5–8
Build Authority
  • Add structured data markup for the firm and attorneys
  • Publish the settlement-valuation explainer
  • Claim Justia profiles for the Cornell syndication
AI Presence Score: Sometimes Visible
We ran 12 real prompts across 4 AI platforms — 48 AI answers in total. Brennan & Vance Law Offices appeared in 14 of 48.

Showing 6 of the 12 prompts tested, on 2 of the 4 platforms. Your report includes all of it: Perplexity, ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude.

P
Perplexity
33SCORE
4/12APPEARED
Prompts Tested
Local Search
Which criminal defense attorneys practice in the DuPage County courthouse?
Local Search
Well-regarded law firms in Wheaton, Illinois?
Near Me Search
Divorce lawyer near Wheaton who handles contested custody?
Near Me Search
Personal injury attorney near Wheaton and what do they charge?
Direct Search
Is Brennan and Vance Law Offices in Wheaton well regarded?
Direct Search
Which attorney at Brennan and Vance handles estate planning?
C
ChatGPT
25SCORE
3/12APPEARED
Prompts Tested
Local Search
Best DUI attorneys in DuPage County, Illinois?
Local Search
Law firms near Wheaton that offer flat fee criminal defense?
Near Me Search
Estate planning attorneys near Wheaton, IL?
Near Me Search
Employment lawyer near Wheaton for a non-compete dispute?
Direct Search
What can you tell me about Brennan and Vance Law Offices?
Direct Search
Does Brennan and Vance take injury cases on contingency?
Competitors Appearing in Results
Hartwell Legal Group (5x)Danforth & Reyes LLP (3x)Prairie State Trial Attorneys (2x)Wheaton Family Law Partners (2x)

Brennan & Vance Law Offices is a fictional business created for this sample — the scores illustrate patterns we see in the industry, not a real report. Your report reflects your real website.

Citations

Get listed where AI actually looks

The rule that beats every hack: your business name, address, phone, and hours must be identical on every one of these. AI cross-checks them, and disagreement reads as risk.

DirectoryPriorityWhat to do
AvvoEssentialClaim every attorney’s profile individually — unclaimed profiles get no numerical rating at all. Fill in practice areas, admission year, and jurisdictions, then answer a few questions in the public Q&A.
State bar directoryEssentialVerify each attorney’s listing shows current good standing and the correct firm address. This is the record AI falls back on when your own site is silent.
JustiaEssentialFree to claim, and claimed profiles syndicate to Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute — an unusually authoritative domain to appear on for zero cost.
Martindale-HubbellHigh valueKeep the peer-review rating current and make sure the firm profile and Lawyers.com listing carry the same address and practice areas as your site.
Super LawyersHigh valueIf any attorney has been selected, link the profile and name the years on their bio. Selection is capped near the top five percent, which is exactly why AI can use it to separate similar firms.
FindLawWorth havingMaintain an accurate profile even if you don’t advertise there. Its consumer explainer library surfaces throughout the research half of legal prompts.
Google Business ProfileWorth havingSet the specific category — Criminal justice attorney, Family law attorney, Estate planning attorney — rather than the generic Lawyer, and keep hours accurate for deadline-driven callers.
Questions

Common questions

Verifiable facts are not what advertising rules restrict. The rules target superlatives, unearned specialist claims, undisclaimed testimonials, and anything predicting results. Your bar admission year, the jurisdictions you practice in, the courts you appear in, your fee structure, and the case types you handle are all facts, and none of them trigger those prohibitions. Firms get into trouble with adjectives, not with numbers. Check your own state’s rules before publishing case results, which usually require a disclaimer.

Avvo builds a profile for every licensed attorney automatically from public state bar records. The catch is that only claimed profiles receive a numerical rating — an unclaimed one displays a note that you are not active on the platform and carries no score. Since Avvo is one of the sources AI reaches for most in legal queries, an unclaimed profile means the system finds a page with your name on it and no signal attached. Claiming it costs nothing.

Courts matter more than cities in this vertical, because a client’s case is docketed in a particular venue and they ask in those terms. Someone facing a charge in a specific circuit wants a lawyer who appears there, and AI treats a named court as a much stronger match than a named town. Listing the courthouses and circuits you regularly practice in is one of the least contested content moves available to a firm.

Yes, and it matters more in law than in almost any other field, because clients hire a person rather than an organization. Each attorney needs a page carrying their admission year, jurisdictions, practice focus, and the case types they actually handle. Without that mapping, AI cannot answer a question like who at this firm handles non-compete disputes, and it will usually skip the firm rather than guess wrong about a professional service.

The free actions matter more than the paid tiers. Claiming Avvo and Justia costs nothing, and a claimed Justia profile syndicates to Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute, which is a genuinely authoritative domain to appear on. Peer-review ratings on Martindale and a Super Lawyers selection carry real weight because they are earned rather than purchased. Buy advertising on those platforms if the leads pay for themselves, but the visibility benefit comes mostly from having complete, accurate, claimed profiles.

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  • AI Presence Scan — 12 prompts across 4 AI platforms
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