Personal branding for lawyers: credible, and within the rules.

Why a Personal Brand Matters for Lawyers

Most people hire a lawyer at a stressful moment, and many look the lawyer up before they call. What they find shapes whether they call at all. Referral sources do the same: another lawyer, an accountant or a former client will often check your profile before passing your name along.

Legal skill is only part of what clients judge. A 2019 research report from the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System coded 2,232 online client reviews of lawyers and found that clients wrote about communication, demeanor, business practices and tenacity alongside legal skill. A personal brand is where those qualities become visible before the first meeting.

There is a career reason too. Research on professionals in prestigious posts, including law, finds that the employer both adds to and drains a person's professional brand (Parmentier and Fischer, 2021). A partner whose reputation lives only inside one firm's name starts again with every move.

What Good Help Looks Like

Positioning Around a Practice Area

Good help starts with what you actually do and for whom: your practice area, the clients you serve best and the point of view you bring. A practice should interview you in depth and learn how your clients find lawyers before it proposes anything.

A Presence Clients Check

That usually means an accurate biography, a strong professional profile, a clean search result for your name and a small body of writing or talks that shows your thinking. Reviews matter as well. Studies of online reviews find that how positive reviews are tends to matter more than how many there are (You and colleagues, 2015), and that readers weigh negative reviews heavily (Chevalier and Mayzlin, 2006). Reviews must be earned honestly; see earning client reviews ethically.

Content That Educates

Articles, talks and commentary that explain the law in plain language build trust without making promises. They are also the safest kind of content under the rules below.

The Rules That Limit What You Can Say

Lawyers are bound by professional conduct rules on how they describe their services. The American Bar Association's Model Rules of Professional Conduct are the template most states start from, but each state adopts its own version, and the differences can matter. The points below come from the Model Rules as amended in 2018.

No False or Misleading Communications

Rule 7.1 says a lawyer shall not make a false or misleading communication about the lawyer or the lawyer's services. A statement is misleading if it misrepresents a fact or law, or omits a fact needed to make the whole statement not misleading. The comments add that truthful reports of past results can mislead if they create an unjustified expectation that other clients will get the same result, and that an unsubstantiated comparison with other lawyers can mislead too. For a personal brand, that touches case results, superlatives and claims of being the best.

Paying for Recommendations and Claiming a Specialty

Rule 7.2 lets a lawyer communicate through any media and pay the reasonable costs of advertising. It does not let a lawyer give anything of value to a person for recommending the lawyer's services, apart from narrow exceptions such as nominal thank you gifts that are not expected as payment. That matters for paid reviews, paid endorsements and some referral schemes. The rule also bars saying you are a certified specialist unless an approved or accredited organization certified you and you name it, and it requires every communication to include the name and contact information of at least one lawyer or firm responsible for it.

Solicitation

Rule 7.3 bars soliciting work through live person to person contact, such as in person or a live call, when a significant motive is the lawyer's financial gain, unless the person is a lawyer, has a family, close personal or prior professional relationship with the lawyer, or routinely uses that kind of legal service for business. The comments say communications to the general public, such as a website or an advertisement, are not solicitation. Any solicitation is barred if the person has asked not to be contacted, or if it involves coercion, duress or harassment.

Anything that touches a client matter, such as a case study or a client story, also raises confidentiality questions. Check your bar's guidance and get the client's informed permission first.

What to Ask Before Hiring

• Have you worked with lawyers before, and in which states?
• How do you keep content within the advertising rules of my state?
• Who reviews claims about results, specialties and comparisons before anything is published?
• How do you handle reviews and testimonials without paying for recommendations?
• Will you build in time for my firm's or my own ethics review?
• Are my profiles, domain and content in my own name?

The full list is in Questions to Ask. The Brief Builder helps you set out your goals and constraints before the first call.

Red Flags

• A practice that promises rankings, case volume or a set number of new clients.
• Content that calls you the best or a specialist without a basis you can document.
• Offers to buy reviews, swap reviews or pay people to recommend you.
• Outreach plans built on calling or messaging people known to need legal help.
• No answer when you ask how they handle your state's rules.

See red flags when hiring a personal branding agency for the general list.

Sources

Each source was read at its publisher, its DOI record or an official index such as PubMed. Findings are summarized in plain words; see how sources are chosen.

1. American Bar Association (2018). Model Rules of Professional Conduct 7.1 to 7.3, as amended August 2018, with letter on the amendments (opens in a new tab). ABA Center for Professional Responsibility, clean copy of the amended rules, published by the Connecticut Bar Association.
2. Cornett, L. (2019). Think Like a Client (opens in a new tab). Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System, University of Denver. Research report.
3. Parmentier, M.-A., and Fischer, E. (2021). Working It: Managing Professional Brands in Prestigious Posts (opens in a new tab). Journal of Marketing, 85(2), 110 to 128.
4. Chevalier, J. A., and Mayzlin, D. (2006). The Effect of Word of Mouth on Sales: Online Book Reviews (opens in a new tab). Journal of Marketing Research, 43(3), 345 to 354.
5. You, Y., Vadakkepatt, G. G., and Joshi, A. M. (2015). A Meta-Analysis of Electronic Word-of-Mouth Elasticity (opens in a new tab). Journal of Marketing, 79(2), 19 to 39.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can lawyers use personal branding?

Yes. The Model Rules let lawyers communicate about their services through any media, as long as nothing is false or misleading and the other advertising rules are met. Your own state's version governs.

Can a lawyer post case results online?

Often, but with care. A truthful result can still mislead if it suggests other clients will get the same outcome, so context and qualifying language matter. Check your state's rules and get client permission where needed.

Can a lawyer call themselves a specialist?

Under the Model Rules, only if an approved or accredited organization has certified the lawyer as a specialist, and the communication names that organization. State rules vary.

Can lawyers pay for online reviews?

No. The Model Rules bar giving anything of value to a person for recommending a lawyer's services, apart from narrow exceptions such as nominal thank you gifts that are not expected as payment.

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