Reputation management for law firms: what the confidentiality rule lets you say back, how to ask for reviews, and the record clients check

Reputation management for law firms is the work of earning honest reviews from clients, replying to criticism without revealing anything about a client's matter, and keeping the public record about the firm and its lawyers accurate. It differs from every other industry in one way: the lawyer's duty of confidentiality limits what any reply can say. Under ABA Model Rule 1.6, a lawyer may not reveal information relating to the representation of a client without informed consent or a listed exception, and ABA Formal Opinion 496 says a negative online review is not, on its own, a reason to use that exception. So the firm's reputation is built mostly before the review is written: by how clients are treated, how often they are asked for feedback, and how complaints are handled privately.

Where clients look before they call a firm

A person looking for a lawyer usually checks several places in one sitting:

• The firm's Google Business Profile, which shows the star rating and the latest reviews next to the map.
• Legal directories and review sites, such as Avvo, Martindale-Hubbell, Justia and Yelp, where profiles of individual lawyers often appear as well as the firm.
• The state bar's lawyer search, which shows whether a lawyer is licensed and in good standing, and, where the bar publishes it, any public discipline.
• News and court coverage that mentions the firm or a named lawyer.
• The firm's own site, where biographies, practice pages and any testimonials sit.

Reputation work for a firm covers all five. The review profiles get the daily attention, but a stale biography or an outdated bar address does quiet damage too.

Replying to a negative review: the confidentiality rule

Model Rule 1.6(a) says a lawyer shall not reveal information relating to the representation of a client unless the client gives informed consent, the disclosure is impliedly authorized to carry out the representation, or one of the exceptions in paragraph (b) applies. The exception people reach for is 1.6(b)(5), which allows disclosure to establish a claim or defense in a controversy between the lawyer and the client, or to respond to allegations in a proceeding about the lawyer's work.

ABA Formal Opinion 496, issued on 13 January 2021, addressed online reviews directly. As reported by the ABA Journal, the Standing Committee concluded that a negative online review, because of its informal nature, is not a controversy between lawyer and client within the meaning of Rule 1.6(b)(5), and that even if it were, a public response is not reasonably necessary to establish a claim or defense. The opinion noted that most state ethics opinions on the issue reached the same view.

The best practices the opinion sets out

• Consider not responding at all. The opinion says lawyers should give serious consideration to not responding, because a reply can lead to more posts from the same person.
• Ask the host to remove it. A lawyer can ask the website or search engine to take the post down, and can say the post is inaccurate without giving confidential details.
• Take it offline. A generic reply such as "Please contact me by telephone so that we can discuss your concerns" is acceptable.
• Use the permitted sentence. Where the poster is a client or former client, the opinion offers a response such as "Professional obligations do not allow me to respond as I would wish."
• Be careful with non-clients too. If the poster was never your client, even a general statement that events are not accurately portrayed can reveal that you were involved in a matter.

Your state's version of the rules and its own ethics opinions govern your firm, so read them alongside the Model Rules. The practical outcome is the same almost everywhere: the reply cannot be a defence of the case. It can only be short, courteous and content-free.

Getting more honest reviews, which is the real fix

Because replies are so limited, the firm's best protection is a steady flow of honest reviews from satisfied clients. One angry review among sixty fair ones reads very differently from one among four.

When to ask

Ask at a natural end point: a closed matter, a signed agreement, a completed estate plan. Do not ask in the middle of litigation, and think carefully before asking in practice areas where a client may not want any public link to the firm, such as criminal defence, family law or immigration. In those areas, some clients will prefer a private thank-you note, and that is their call.

How to ask

• Send the same short request to every client at the end of a matter, with a direct link to the review form. Google's help pages describe creating a review link or QR code for this.
• Remind clients not to include confidential details in what they write.
• Do not write the review for them or suggest wording.

What you must not do

Model Rule 7.2(b) says a lawyer shall not compensate, give or promise anything of value to a person for recommending the lawyer's services, apart from listed exceptions. A gift card for a five-star review is a payment for a recommendation. It also breaks Google's contribution policy, which bars offering payment, discounts or free services for reviews and bars asking only happy clients, and it breaks the US Federal Trade Commission's rule on consumer reviews, 16 CFR 465.4, which bars incentives conditioned on a positive or negative sentiment. Google also treats reviews from current or former employees as a conflict of interest, so associates and staff should not review the firm.

Testimonials and results on the firm's own site

Model Rule 7.1 bars false or misleading communication about a lawyer's services, including a true statement that omits a fact needed to stop it misleading. The comment to the rule says a truthful report of results in past matters can still mislead if it leads people to expect the same result without reference to the facts of their own case, and that an appropriate disclaimer may prevent that. Your state may add its own testimonial and disclaimer rules. Before you quote a review on your website or in an advert, check your state's rule and get the client's consent in writing.

Doing it in house or hiring help

A small firm can run its reputation work with one named person and about an hour a week: read new reviews, decide whether a reply is wise, send review requests at the close of each matter, and check the directory and bar profiles once a month. Larger firms with several offices often use review management software for a single inbox and request tracking.

If you hire a vendor, check three things in writing. First, that they never post replies without a lawyer approving them, because the reply is the lawyer's professional conduct. Second, that their review requests go to every client, with no filter that only sends requests to happy ones. Third, that they will not buy reviews or suppress fair ones. Under 16 CFR 465.7, using groundless legal threats or intimidation to get a review removed is itself a violation.

Questions about reputation management for law firms

Can a lawyer respond to a bad online review?

Yes, but only without revealing anything about the client's matter. ABA Formal Opinion 496 says a negative review alone does not permit disclosure under Rule 1.6(b)(5). A short, courteous reply, an offer to talk by phone, or no reply at all are the safe options.

Can a law firm ask clients for Google reviews?

Yes. Ask every client the same way at the end of a matter, and never offer anything of value in return. Model Rule 7.2(b) and Google's review policy both forbid payment for the review.

How do we get a fake review about the firm removed?

Report it on the platform as a review that does not reflect a genuine experience. You can tell the host the post is inaccurate without disclosing confidential information. Do not threaten the poster with a lawsuit you do not have grounds for.

Should individual lawyers manage their own directory profiles?

Each lawyer should own the accuracy of their own profile, with the firm keeping a list of every profile and checking it regularly. A wrong bar admission date or an old office address on a directory profile looks careless to a client.

Can we put client reviews on our website?

Often yes, with the client's consent and within your state's advertising rules. Your state may require a disclaimer near testimonials or results, so read its's rule first.

The client who asks an assistant for a lawyer

People now ask ChatGPT or Gemini questions like "who is a good employment lawyer in Denver for a wrongful termination case". The answer names a few firms, and it is built from what the assistant can read: directories, reviews, news, bar records and the firms' own practice pages. A firm with a good reputation and thin, vague practice pages can be left out. That gap is not something review software looks at. It is the job of a newer kind of check, of the kind we ran in a dated audit of Perplexity law firm citations, and AI Knows Us is built for it: it asks the questions a prospective client would ask across the main assistants and shows which firms are named and what each answer drew on.