Live database

GEO for Law Firms

How AI engines choose and recommend law firms today.

We run real buyer prompts against ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity with web search on, and record which law firms they name and which sources they cite. This page is one live view into that dataset - it updates as new probes land.

Run your free AI visibility scanHow we collect this data
Updated Jul 18, 202626 prompts analyzed153 citations75 brands detected
Top cited domain
en.wikipedia.org
36 citations · 24% of all
Most active engine
ChatGPT
88% of citations
Top source type
Other
52% of citations
Data as of
July 18, 2026
trends unlock after two cycles
1

What buyers ask AI

Real questions people put to AI assistants about law firms.

Best employment lawyerStartup attorneyBest divorce lawyerImmigration lawyerBusiness lawyer near mePersonal injury attorney reviewsAffordable estate planning lawyerBest IP lawyer for softwareTax attorney for small businessEmployment contract review lawyer
2

What AI actually recommends

Probed from a United States context · July 18, 2026

Live answers per engine - exactly what each one named, in order.

PromptChatGPTGeminiPerplexity
Best employment lawyer
  1. Akerman LLP
  2. Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP
  3. WilmerHale
  1. Littler Mendelson
  2. Jackson Lewis P.C.
  3. Ogletree Deakins
  1. American Bar Association
  2. Super Lawyers
  3. Barrett & Farahany
Best startup attorney
  1. Venturous Counsel
  2. Axis Legal Counsel
  1. Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe
  2. Gunderson Dettmer
  3. Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati
  1. Cooley
  2. CooleyGO
  3. Wilson Sonsini
Best divorce lawyer
  1. Laura Wasser
  2. Raoul Felder
  3. Stange Law Firm, PC
  1. Martindale-Hubbell
  2. Avvo
  3. American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML)
  1. family law attorney
  2. divorce experience
  3. professional record
Best personal injury lawyer
  1. Morgan & Morgan
  2. Beasley Allen Law Firm
  3. Simmons Hanly Conroy
  1. Martindale-Hubbell
  2. Avvo
  3. Super Lawyers
  1. Levin Perconti
  2. Zealous Advocate
Best immigration lawyer
  1. IMMLAW
  2. Murray Osorio PLLC
  3. Stump & Associates
  1. American Immigration Lawyers Association
  2. AILA
  3. Martindale-Hubbell
  1. TrustAnalytica
3

AI ranking factors

Where these engines actually look before naming anyone - citation share by source type.

Other52% · 79
Wikipedia24% · 36
Directories19% · 29
Reviews4% · 6
Social1% · 2
Reddit / Forums1% · 1

Shares are computed from the actual sources engines grounded on in our probes for this industry - not an editorial guess. Unknown domains are bucketed as “other” and reviewed monthly.

The United States sources that matter for law firms

Avvoavvo.com
Attorney directory + client reviews; heavily cited for consumer-law prompts.
Justiajustia.com
Directory + legal content; strong structured profiles engines can parse.
FindLawfindlaw.com
Directory + consumer legal guides; frequent grounding source.
Martindale-Hubbellmartindale.com
Peer-review ratings (AV Preeminent) - a trust signal engines quote.
Super Lawyerssuperlawyers.com
Selection-based listing; cited for “best lawyer” phrasing.
State bar directoriesamericanbar.org
Authoritative admission records; the baseline credibility layer.
4

Engine comparison

How differently each engine sources its answers - share of that engine's citations per source type.

SourceChatGPTPerplexity
Wikipedia★★★★★★★★★★
Directories★★★★★★★★★★
Social★★★★★★★★★★
Reddit / Forums★★★★★★★★★★
Reviews★★★★★★★★★★

Stars are banded from real citation shares in this vertical - hover any cell for the exact number.

5

How law firms win AI visibility

What the data above means in practice - and the playbook that follows from it.

Legal is one of the most directory-mediated verticals on the web, and AI answers inherit that structure directly. When an engine with web search answers “best employment lawyer”, it rarely reasons from a firm’s own website first - it leans on the aggregation layer: Avvo, Justia, FindLaw, Super Lawyers, Martindale and state bar listings. Those directories have already done the work engines need (structured profiles, practice areas, peer ratings, review counts), which makes them the shortest path to a confident citation. The practical consequence is blunt: a firm that is invisible or stale on the top legal directories is fighting for AI visibility with one hand tied, no matter how strong its own site is.

The second structural force is E-E-A-T at the level of individual attorneys, not firms. Engines increasingly cite author pages - a named partner with bar admissions, case history, publications and a real bio - because a person with credentials is an easier trust judgment than a brand. Firms whose sites bury attorneys behind a generic “Our Team” grid give engines nothing to anchor on. The firms that show up in AI answers tend to have partner pages that read like standalone credentials documents, cross-linked from directories and legal publications.

01

Build strong directory profiles

Complete and keep current: Avvo, Justia, FindLaw, Martindale, Super Lawyers, your state bar listing and Google Business. Consistent name, practice areas and contact everywhere.

02

Give every attorney a real page

Bar admissions, education, notable matters, publications, speaking - engines cite people with credentials (E-E-A-T), not team grids.

03

Earn detailed reviews

Ask satisfied clients for specific reviews on Google and Avvo. Volume matters, but detail (practice area, outcome) is what gets quoted.

04

Publish answer-shaped content

Pages that directly answer buyer questions - “what does an employment lawyer cost”, “how to choose a startup attorney” - with clean structure and FAQ schema.

05

Get mentioned where engines read

Legal publications (Law.com, ABA Journal, state bar magazines), local news and genuine community threads. One earned mention beats ten self-descriptions.

06

Track and iterate

Run the same buyer prompts monthly, note which sources engines cite, and fix the gap between where they look and where you appear.

Name your attorneys, not just the firm
AI engines cite individual author pages heavily. Give every partner a rich bio with credentials, bar admissions and published work - then link it from directory profiles so the signals reinforce each other.
Answer real prompts on your site
Publish pages that directly answer the questions buyers ask AI. “Best divorce lawyer in Austin: how to choose” beats a generic practice-area page, because it matches the prompt shape engines are answering.
Show up where Perplexity looks
In our probes Perplexity leans hardest on directories and community threads. A stale Avvo profile or an empty review page costs you exactly the citations that engine hands out.
Keep structured data current
LegalService, Attorney, Review and FAQPage schema make your pages machine-readable - the format engines prefer to cite. Validate after every site change.
6

FAQ

Answers to common questions about this report.

What is GEO for law firms?
Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is the practice of making your firm visible in AI-generated answers. When someone asks ChatGPT or Perplexity for “the best employment lawyer”, GEO determines whether your firm is named - the AI-era equivalent of ranking on page one of Google.
How is this data collected?
We run real buyer prompts against ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity with web search enabled, on a rolling schedule, and record which firms each engine names and which sources it cites. The page shows exactly what the engines returned - no editorial reordering.
Why don’t the prompts include a city?
AI engines already localize answers to the person asking, so we probe with locationless prompts qualified only by country. Your own visibility for city-level prompts (“divorce lawyer in Austin”) is what a brand-level scan measures.
Which sources matter most for law firms?
In our current probes the biggest citation shares come from legal directories (Avvo, Justia, FindLaw), review platforms and community threads - see the live source mix above for the exact split, which shifts month to month.
How can my firm get started?
Run a free AI visibility scan with your firm’s name or website. In about two minutes you’ll see where you appear across engines, which sources cite you, and what to fix first. No credit card required.

See where your firm appears across all AI engines.

The data above is the industry view. Run a free scan to get the same report for your firm: where you show up, who outranks you, and what to fix first.

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Zene dashboard: a brand's AI visibility score, the next automatic scan, and per-engine cards for ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity