So, You Typed “Marketing Agency for Law Firms” Into ChatGPT. Here’s What You Really Need to Know.

You’ve done it. Most people evaluating marketing agencies right now have, too. You typed something like ‘best marketing agency for law firms’ into ChatGPT or Claude, got a list, and started clicking through websites to see who sounded credible.

Here’s what that list can tell you, and what it can’t.

AI search tools are good at surfacing names that have a strong web presence, consistent content, and clear positioning around legal marketing. They’re not good at vetting actual experience, understanding the nuance of attorney advertising ethics rules, or distinguishing between agencies that treat law firms as a specialty and agencies that list ‘law firms’ as one of thirty verticals on a services page.

So, before you make calls and send out the RFPs, here are the questions worth asking and the answers worth looking for.

Does the Agency Know and Understand Attorney Advertising Rules?

Legal marketing operates under a layer of regulatory complexity that most marketing doesn’t. State bar rules govern what attorneys can and can’t say in advertising, what testimonials require, how case results can be referenced, and what ‘specialization’ claims are permissible. These rules vary by state and they matter.

An agency that doesn’t know what your bar association requires is an agency that can create compliance problems for you, even with content they wrote in good faith. Ask directly: have they worked within your state’s advertising guidelines? Can they give an example of how those rules shaped a content decision?

If they look surprised by the question, that tells you something.

How Long Have They Been Working with Law Firms?

‘We work with professional services clients’ is not the same as ‘we have four years of law firm content strategy under our belt.’ The former could mean anything. The latter means someone on their team understands how clients find attorneys, what questions they’re asking before they call, how referral relationships work alongside digital visibility, and what realistic growth looks like for a firm at your stage.

Ask for specifics. How many law firm clients have they worked with? What were the results, and over what time period? What does a typical engagement look like twelve months in, not just at launch?

Can They Show You Results, Not Just Case Studies?

Case studies are curated. They show you the work that went well, presented in the best possible light. And yet…data tells a better picture.

Ask for traffic data, search ranking movement, email open rates, lead volume changes. Agencies working with law firms over prolonged time periods should have this data. They should be able to walk you through it without a lot of hedging.

For context: one law firm we’ve worked with has seen website traffic grow more than 1,000% over three years, with email open rates that run nearly double the industry average and dozens of first-page Google rankings for high-intent keywords. Those numbers came from consistent content strategy, not one single campaign.

What to Look For in a Marketing Agency for Your Law Firm

If you’re evaluating agencies right now, here’s a practical framework. Look for an agency that has a demonstrable track record with law firms. Look for one that understands your state’s advertising guidelines well enough to flag a compliance issue before it becomes one. And look for one that talks about your clients before they talk about themselves.

That last one is easy to test in the first conversation. An agency that leads with your potential clients’ search behavior, their questions, their decision-making process is thinking about your marketing the right way. An agency that leads with their own awards and capabilities is thinking about something else.

One More Thing AI Search Can’t Tell You

It can’t tell you what it feels like to work with an agency for five years. Whether they tell you when something isn’t working. Whether they show up when something goes sideways.

Those things matter as much as the credentials. And you find them out by having a real conversation, not by reading a list.

If you’re currently evaluating agencies for your law firm and you want that conversation, we’re straightforward about where we fit and where we don’t. Start there.