Content & Graphic Design
Yes, AI Cares About Your Legal Directory Profile
By Jonathan Spencer | 09.23.2026
For years, attorneys have had a complicated relationship with legal directories and lawyer recognition programs. Some honors are genuinely prestigious.
Some help prospective clients compare lawyers. Others are pure pay-to-play and seem designed mainly to promote plaque buildup (that is, urging you to buy this year’s wall ornament or lucite tombstone). It can be difficult to tell which profiles merit your attention and which awards are worth the time, effort, and expense.
Just when you thought you knew which was which, artificial intelligence is giving you a new reason to revisit that calculation.
Prospective clients – across a range of practice areas and legal needs – are increasingly asking ChatGPT, Claude, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, and other AI tools to help them find a lawyer. To make a recommendation, those platforms need information about your experience, practice, location, and credibility, and they’re looking beyond your firm’s website to find it.
AI Doesn’t Just Take Your Word for It
Your website can explain that you handle employment disputes, commercial litigation, estate planning, medical malpractice, or other areas of law. Your bio can highlight your experience, representative matters, publications, and professional leadership. Your practice pages can explain the problems you help clients solve.
All of that matters, but it is still information you or your firm published.
When someone asks AI, “Who is the best family law attorney in Grand Rapids?” the tool must identify potential answers and determine whether there is sufficient evidence to recommend someone. A polished firm bio may help, but outside sources can reinforce or contradict what it says.
That is where third-party profiles become important.
A recent study by Custom Legal Marketing analyzed thousands of law firm recommendation queries across ChatGPT, Claude, and Google AI Mode. One finding should grab your attention: the platforms relied on very different third-party sources. For example:
- Avvo appeared frequently in Claude responses.
- Super Lawyers was more prevalent in Google AI Mode.
- Martindale-Hubbell appeared prominently on one platform and barely registered on the others.
A profile you have largely ignored may still help an AI platform understand who you are, what you do, and where you practice.
Does This Mean You Should Chase Every Lawyer Award
Oh, no. Please don’t
The arrival of AI does not suddenly make every “Greatest Attorney in the Universe” award worth pursuing. You should still ask whether the organization is credible, whether the recognition is selective, and whether participating makes sense for your practice and budget.
But add another question: Does the recognition provide accurate, publicly accessible information that supports the reputation you are building? A credible profile that highlights your practice focus, location, experience, or peer recognition may offer useful confirmation for both prospective clients and AI tools.
Consistency matters. If you want to be known for healthcare M&A deals but every outside profile describes you only as a “business lawyer,” those profiles do not help distinguish your practice. If you moved from Chicago to Detroit three years ago but several directories still list Illinois, you may be sending conflicting location signals.
Your Firm Bio Isn’t the Only Bio That Matters
You may have profiles on LinkedIn, your state bar’s website, Martindale-Hubbell, Avvo, Super Lawyers, Best Lawyers, Chambers, professional association websites, conference pages, and other platforms. Some were created by you, while others may have been created for you or with little to no involvement from you.
Those profiles do not need identical language, but they should tell the same basic story. Think of it as building a digital consensus about who you are and what you do.
Your title and office location should be up to date. Your principal practice areas should align. If you have developed a niche, such as physician practice transactions, trade secret litigation, special-needs planning, or municipal zoning, this focus should be visible on every platform that features your profile.
The goal is not to manufacture authority for AI. It is to make your real experience and reputation easier to recognize.
What Attorneys Should Do Now
Start by searching your own name.
Review the first several pages of results and identify your directory listings, awards, associations, social media, speaking engagements, and other professional profiles. Pay particular attention to prominent legal directories, even those you have not considered especially important in the past.
Then look at the profiles collectively.
- Is your title and office location correct?
- Do the listed practice areas reflect the work you want to attract?
- Are important industries, services, or niches missing?
- Are outdated profiles still describing a former firm, role, or practice?
Ask your marketing team (or exceptionally knowledgeable and friendly outside marketing consultant) to help correct inaccurate profiles and prioritize the sources most relevant to your practice. Also, keep the team informed when you receive meaningful recognition, take a leadership role, speak at a conference, publish an article, appear on a podcast, or are quoted in the media. These activities are not isolated publicity opportunities. Together, they provide independent evidence of what you know and how others recognize your work.
AI tools are becoming another intermediary between prospective clients and law firms. You cannot control which platform a client uses or which sources that platform will favor. However, you can ensure the public record surrounding your practice is accurate, consistent, and credible.
Your firm’s website remains essential. It is just not the only place telling your story.
