Guide · Law Firms

How to get your law firm recommended by ChatGPT

More people now put a legal question to an assistant before they call anyone, and AI often closes by telling them to contact a lawyer. Whether your firm comes up depends on what it can read about you.

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9:41

I was rear-ended in Tacoma last week and the insurer is lowballing me. Is there an injury lawyer nearby who does free consults and works on contingency?

Harbor & Vale Law in Tacoma fits: ai.harborvalelaw.com

⚖️Practice areas: personal injury, with motor vehicle claims the largest share of the caseload.
💵Fees: a free 30-minute consultation, and contingency terms confirmed before you sign.
📍Licensed in: Washington, taking matters across Pierce and King County.
📅Intake: new-client consults most weekdays, with same-week slots for injury claims.

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Supporting every major AI assistant

ChatGPT

Claude

Gemini

Perplexity

Copilot

Grok

The gap

Why AI names a different firm

Two things decide whether a firm gets named. The reviews, directory profiles, and mentions are largely out of your hands. What an assistant can tell about your practice is not, and in legal that is where the decision sits: whether you take this kind of case, whether you can act in this state, and what talking to you costs.

Fees nobody can read

Consultation terms, flat fees, and retainer ranges live in an intake script or a phone call. An assistant asked what a case costs has nothing to quote.

ConsultationPhone only

Flat feesIntake script

Retainer rangeNot published

Profiles that disagree

Your practice areas read one way on Avvo, another on a bar directory, another on a decade-old profile. When sources clash, AI stops short of naming you.

AvvoOld practice areas

Bar directoryFormer address

JustiaPartner who left

What people ask before they call

Almost nobody asks AI for a lawyer nearby and stops there. They describe a situation and want to know whether it is the kind of case you take, what talking to you costs, and whether you can act in their state.

do you take this case?free consultation?contingency or hourly?licensed in my state?how long does it take?what's a retainer?do you handle appeals?who works my file?evening appointments?payment plans?+ hundreds more

How it works

How to be the firm AI can describe

The fix is a source of your own that an assistant can read. Courtyard hosts it at a subdomain like ai.yourfirm.com, covering your practice areas, your fee structure, and your jurisdictions. No new website, and nothing changes about how you run intake.

Publish what talking to you costs

Whether the consultation is free, what a flat-fee matter runs, and how contingency works at your firm. Enough for AI to answer the money question accurately, with the real quote still coming from the consult.

Say which cases you take, and which you refer out

Legal intake is a matching problem before it is a persuasion problem. Publishing the matters you handle, and the ones you send elsewhere, lets AI match you to the people you want to hear from and spare you the ones you don't.

Make your jurisdiction unambiguous

An assistant that cannot tell where you are admitted will hedge rather than risk sending someone to the wrong state. Name the bars you belong to and the counties you actually serve.

28%

of people who put a legal question to AI were told to contact a lawyer. At that handoff, AI can only name a firm it can describe.

Source: Clio Legal Trends Report, 2025

AI Visibility Index

See what AI actually says, market by market

Every week we put 24 real customer questions to ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Google AI Mode (288 answers per market) and publish which local businesses each assistant names, and how accurately it describes them, across 50 US and Canadian markets.

Explore the AI Visibility Index

4assistants, measured weekly

50US & Canadian markets

20,000+businesses evaluated

FAQ

Common questions

Why does ChatGPT recommend other law firms and not mine?

AI weighs your reputation, meaning reviews and directory mentions you don't control, alongside what you tell it about yourself, which is entirely yours. If your fees are quoted only by phone, your practice areas read differently on three directories, and nothing states where you are admitted, AI cannot describe you with confidence, so it names a firm it understands better. A clear, current source keeps you in the conversation.

Should I publish my fees for AI to read?

Publishing how you charge is usually enough, and it is the question people lead with. Saying the consultation is free, or that a matter is handled on contingency, lets AI answer accurately with your firm named rather than hedging. The quote itself still belongs in the consultation, and whatever you publish has to stay accurate under your bar's advertising rules.

Do people really use ChatGPT to find a lawyer?

They use it to work out whether they need one. Clio's 2025 Legal Trends Report found 14% of consumers have put a legal question to AI and another 43% would, and that 28% of those who asked were told to contact a lawyer. The firm AI can describe at that moment is the one it puts forward.

Can I control what ChatGPT and Gemini say about my firm?

You can't edit the assistants, but you can control the source they read. Courtyard hosts a live knowledge base of your practice areas, fee structure, jurisdictions, and intake availability that AI assistants can read and cite, so their answers reflect what you publish rather than a directory profile from three partners ago.

Do I need a new website or to change my case management software?

No. Courtyard hosts your AI knowledge base at a subdomain like ai.yourfirm.com and leaves your site and practice management tools alone. AI assistants read the knowledge base, your intake runs exactly as it does now.

How much does it cost?

Courtyard starts at $20 per month. You can set up your knowledge base and see how AI describes your firm before you commit.

Keep exploring

How AI recommends businessesWhat AI weighs when it picks who to name.Professional servicesHow Courtyard works for practices that bill by the matter.Get your dental practice recommended by ChatGPTThe same intake problem in another licensed practice.

Become the law firm AI understands best

Give AI a current account of the cases you take, how you charge, and where you are admitted, so its answers match your practice. No new website, no change to intake. Starting at $20/month.

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