Great, now I gotta be responsible for these robots too?? One day you think you have your law firm’s reputation nailed down, the next you’re starting from square one. At least that’s how the speed and intensity of AI integration has a lot of business owners feeling. The rapidly evolving digital landscape keeps our marketing efforts in a state of constant expansion. The latest mutation? Your audience is no longer exclusive to web users, leads, and all clients past, present, and future—it now includes AI. In this article, we’ll explore how AI is changing reputation and brand management for law firms, and what you can do to stay in control.
Algorithmic Shifts: Now You’re Talking to AI, Too
Marketers have always had to balance marketing to real web users and pleasing/feeding the almighty search and social algorithms. We’ve officially entered the era of AI-powered search, and that includes a shift in algorithmic perception and evaluation across the board. Google has used artificial intelligence in its search ranking system for over a decade now, starting with RankBrain, but AI Mode, which Google rolled out earlier in 2025, marks a significant development in its search functionality. Users saw the change through the appearance of AI overviews for a significant percentage of queries and the more chatbot-like search experience overall.
But what matters more to us legal marketers is the evolution in the way the algorithm surfaces and ranks search results. Gone are the days of exact keyword matching. AI-powered search is more relational and contextual than what we’ve come to know as traditional search ranking. The new AI algo synthesizes responses and results by using a map of subtopics and running micro searches, in addition to referencing standard ranking and authority signals like backlinks and content quality.and authority signals. And all that means that your law firm’s digital reputation is no longer just a matter of what you publish—it’s how AI interprets, synthesizes, and surfaces your authority across the web.
Lawyer-Facing AI and Client-Facing AI
In terms of running a business or managing your law firm, AI falls into two camps—internal tools and programs you and your lawyer colleagues use and the AI-driven digital ecosystem that determines how clients and prospects discover and perceive your firm. The former, lawyer-facing AI, is what your firm is doing to boost productivity, enhance legal services, and better serve clients—tools like Clio AI, CoCounsel by Reuters, and even LexisNexis. Your firm operations obviously impact your client work, which impacts client reviews, which impacts your overall brand reputation. But it’s the latter, that holistic AI-powered digital environment in which all your clients live, that really powers your law firm reputation in 2025. The AI-powered algorithms and search experiences your potential clients encounter daily build their own synthesized conception of your firm from across the web, and it is this AI-generated perspective that ultimately determines how and when your firm appears in search results.
Reality check: you can’t ignore either camp of AI. Even if your engagement is exploratory—or even if you ultimately decide against adopting certain AI tools—both lawyer-facing and client-facing AI deserve some attention. Whatever your approach, transparency is key. Inform clients when your firm uses proprietary AI programs for case work, assure them that data security is paramount and no privileged client information is ever fed into training datasets, and clearly communicate the areas in which AI is not used. “All client communications are handled by real people.” Even a small disclaimer like that can go a long way. The official consensus on AI-generated communications like emails or intake responses remains unclear, but we know now that AI communications can feel impersonal or even upsetting to clients—it’s worth the candor. Thoughtful and transparent AI adoption (or lack thereof) helps reinforce trust and shape your firm’s reputation in a world increasingly governed by AI-driven perceptions.
How AI Is Rewriting Your Firm’s Reputation
Reputation management used to be about visibility as control. Post blogs, manage Google reviews, optimize webpages, rinse and repeat. But that model is growing more complex by the day.
Enter AI. Now, some, though not all, leads will rely on AI overviews and chat-style answers rather than clicking through to your site. And that means that for some, the narrative AI constructs becomes the “truth.” Yes, AI loves authority (i.e. official sites like Google Biz, Avvo, and other legal directories), so its “truth” is somewhat reliable. But you can still affect that narrative—the difficulty of that depends on your firm’s size and public footprint. At a big firm, for example, news stories from respected publications and even some UGC from sources like LinkedIn may continue to shape your AI-driven reputation regardless of your efforts.
“Chat, What Do You Think My Firm Does Best?”
Okay so AI has some massive swing when it comes to your law firm reputation. But always remember—it’s our world, AI is just livin’ in it. Well, it’s not living (kinda the whole point), but you get it. The point is, you are not powerless. You can still manage, protect, and improve your digital rep. The first step in understanding your AI-shaped standing is to actually ask AI about it.
Open a chatbot or AI-powered search platform and explore what it “knows” about your firm. Look beyond the basics—location, hours, legal services, and areas of specialization—and see what it surfaces about client reviews, court outcomes, news coverage, PR statements, or even user-generated content like Reddit posts. Doing this turns the lens toward practical brand management, showing you where your digital presence is strong, where it’s missing context, and how to optimize visibility for the AI-driven world.
Source Check: Where AI Learns About You
Owned Platforms
- Official website (including any blogs) corporate blog
- Professional social media profiles (both for the firm and individual lawyers) including LinkedIn and YouTube
- Google Business Profile
- Wikipedia (if applicable)
External Authority Sources
- Bar associations & legal societies (articles, newsletters, thought leadership)
- Courts & regulatory bodies (citations in rulings, compliance reports, official initiatives)
- Legal industry publications & journals (trade outlets, law reviews, specialized legal magazines)
- Law school partnerships & academic research (co-authored studies, guest lectures, research collaborations)
- Legal NGOs & professional advocacy groups (collaborations that reinforce credibility and trustworthiness)
Backlinks
- Authoritative legal sites & publications (backlinks & references)
- Professional networks & associations
- Social Media (LinkedIn, X, etc.)
Outside of managing those specific digital spaces, it’s important to keep an eye on how AI actually interprets your firm over time. Regularly check AI overviews and LLM outputs, watch for inaccuracies or outdated info, and use what you learn to update your legal website, blogs, and professional social media profiles. Make it a habit. Ongoing attention ensures your reputation stays accurate and aligned with the reality you want clients to see.
A Note About Optimizing for AI
At this point, we know that AI interprets and synthesizes your firm’s reputation from a mix of owned and external sources. We can easily audit what AI “knows” and from where it’s pulling information. Which all means that now, reputation management for law firms includes monitoring how AI “perceives” and ultimately portrays that information. The legal marketing solution? Something we refer to as GEO, or Generative Engine Optimization. It’s also been called Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) or simply AI SEO. Whatever floats your boat! All terms refer to the optimization of your owned digital content—website, social accounts, citations and listings, and overall digital footprint—to build AI-friendly trust signals and meet the expectations of both people and algorithms.
As legal marketers and consistently early adopters of new opportunities, we view AI SEO as a competitive edge. But the landscape is still crystallizing and the future impact of AI algorithms and search on legal marketing is still largely undetermined. And it’s true that today most web traffic still comes from search engines like Bing or Google, not AI chat platforms. But even on those engines, AI-powered features like summaries, overviews, and chat-style responses shape what prospective clients see first.
Conclusion: The Future of Brand Management for Law Firms
So yes, AI is changing how your firm’s digital reputation is formed and received, but your website is still the real deal closer. Prospective clients will still click through to see your legal services, expertise, pricing, and overall vibe (because no AI summary quite nails “vibe” yet). In the meantime, AI will keep stitching together its own version of your firm from sources across the web, so it’s imperative to make sure the materials it’s pulling from are airtight.
Law firm reputation management in the age of AI is all about keeping your content sharp, your data clean, and your digital footprint tightly monitored. The robots are watching, but so are your clients.
Drop us a line if you’d like to get a handle on your rep in this wild west web.
Hannah Bollman is Nifty’s talented and dynamic Content & Brand Manager. She develops compelling content across blogs, newsletters, social media, and ad campaigns, ensuring alignment with Nifty’s voice and mission. With a background in SEO, content marketing, and stand-up, Hannah brings a unique mix of creativity, strategy, and humor to everything she does. When she’s not shaping Nifty’s brand or growing visibility for legal clients, she’s on a run, on her bike, or enjoying a delicious falafel sammich.