Does AI recommend your law firm?

164 law firms, three engines

We asked each engine the question a new client asks before they have a name: “Who are the best solicitors in <town>?”. Then we asked what each engine knew about every firm by name. Here is what came back for the 164 independent law firms in our sample.

15 of 164

named by at least one engine when asked for the best solicitors in their town

8 · 10 · 9

named by ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity in turn

136 of 164

described by all three engines when asked about the firm by name

112 of 164

had at least one engine that could not say who runs the firm

78 of 164

had at least one engine treat their own claims as marketing

44 of 164

got different answers from the engines to the same factual question

The engines know most of these firms. They just rarely put them on a shortlist. For 4 firms, at least one engine mixed them up with a similarly named company.

Reviews and who got named

Every firm the engines named had at least 10 Google reviews. Of the 47 firms with 50 to 199 reviews, 8 were named. Of the 14 with 200 or more, 3 were named. Plenty of well-reviewed firms were still left out, so reviews look necessary rather than enough.

Across all 1,000 firms in the study, 93% were not named by any engine, and reviews were the clearest dividing line: 1% of firms with no reviews were named, against 38% of firms with 200 or more. That is a correlation, not proof that reviews cause recommendations. Firms with many reviews tend to be busier and better known in other ways too.

Norwich and Southampton did best, with 4 of 11 firms named in each, then Sheffield with 3. No firm was named in London, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Liverpool, Newcastle or Belfast.

Where the engines get their facts

The firm’s own website was the main source. These are the outside sites cited most often in the answers about the law firms we tested, with the number of times each was cited.

1. SRA registersra.org.uk331
2. Companies Housefind-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk261
3. LinkedInlinkedin.com, uk.linkedin.com216
4. Law Society Find a Solicitorsolicitors.lawsociety.org.uk176
5. ReviewSolicitorsreviewsolicitors.co.uk122
6. Lawstreetlawstreet.co.uk97
7. Chambers and Partnerschambers.com88
8. Legal 500legal500.com48
9. Trustpilotuk.trustpilot.com42
10. Lawzanalawzana.com37

For law firms the SRA register was cited more than any other outside source, ahead of Companies House. The Law Society's Find a Solicitor was cited 176 times. For a law firm, those two records are where the engines check the facts.

A checklist for law firms

1. 1

   Make your SRA and Law Society entries match your website

   The SRA register was the most cited outside source for the firms we tested, and Find a Solicitor was cited 176 times. Check the firm name, offices, practice areas and named solicitors line up with your site.

2. 2

   Keep Companies House current

   It was the second most cited outside source. Registered office, members or directors and trading name should all agree with what your website and SRA entry say.

3. 3

   Build Google reviews steadily

   No firm with fewer than 10 Google reviews was named in our test. Ask at the close of each matter, within what your professional obligations allow.

4. 4

   Name your solicitors on a team page

   For 112 of the 164 firms, at least one engine did not name who leads the firm. List partners and solicitors with their roles, practice areas and SRA numbers, and keep LinkedIn profiles in step.

5. 5

   Look after the legal directories the engines cite

   ReviewSolicitors, Lawstreet, Chambers and Partners, Legal 500, Trustpilot and Lawzana all appeared in the answers. Respond to reviews, fix wrong details, and keep any ranked practice areas up to date.

6. 6

   Add Organization schema

   Mark up your legal name, SRA number, company number, offices and leaders, with links to your SRA and Companies House pages. It makes the official facts easy for crawlers to read.

7. 7

   Publish an llms.txt file

   A plain summary of your practice areas, offices and people. It is a small, cheap step that helps machines read the site. On its own it will not get you recommended.

None of this guarantees a place in any list. AI answers change from day to day and with the wording of a question. These steps make the facts about your firm consistent and easy to check, which is the part you control.