This guide is general information about marketing. It cites rules and ethics opinions so your attorneys can check them; it is not legal advice, and your state's rules govern.
How much reviews matter, with the numbers
In Scorpion's 2025 survey of 3,000 US adults, nearly 60% said online reviews carry more weight than word of mouth when choosing a lawyer, and more than half said they would not consider a firm rated below four stars. AttorneySync watched 320 people shop for an injury lawyer on screen in 2025: the median rating of the results they clicked was 4.9, and a 4.6 rating worked as a filter that disqualified a firm. FindLaw's 2024 survey of 2,000 adults with a legal need found 82% of those who contacted a lawyer they found online relied on reviews. Google's local ranking help says more reviews and positive ratings can help a firm's local ranking.
In the map packs we recorded across 14 towns in October 2026, every firm's name had a rating and a review count beside it. The count is what most independent firms lack: in the fictional memo on this site the firm had 14 reviews against 86, 61 and 44 for the three firms in its pack, and that gap is what the memo is built to measure.
The bar rules
Asking is allowed, with limits
The ABA's Model Rule 7.2(b) bars giving anything of value for recommending a lawyer's services, with exceptions. The 2018 amendments added (b)(5): a lawyer may give nominal gifts as an expression of appreciation that are neither intended nor reasonably expected to be a form of compensation for recommending the lawyer. Comment [4] caps that at a token item as might be given for holidays or other ordinary social hospitality, and bars any gift tied to a promise of future referrals. Texas copied the exception into Rule 7.03(e).
New York's bar ethics committee applied it to Google reviews in Opinion 1286, September 29, 2025: a lawyer may ask former clients to write Google reviews and may give a nominal gift such as a gift card, provided the lawyer does not draft the review and does not condition the gift on the content of the review. The opinion adds that a lawyer may not use a former client's confidential information to the client's disadvantage, and notes an example: an immigration client whose matter could be reopened should not be put in a position where a public review exposes them. The committee expressly did not decide whether the gift complies with the FTC's endorsement rules, which is the next section.
Florida's Standing Committee on Advertising ruled in 2008 that asking clients to rate a lawyer on a ratings site was soliciting a testimonial and barred it; after the 2013 rewrite of Florida's rules, the Bar's editor's note says lawyers may now ask for reviews if the testimonial rule and the filing rule are met.
Testimonials carry their own rules
Florida Rule 4-7.13(b)(9) bars a testimonial if the person is not qualified to evaluate the matter, if it is not the person's actual experience, if it is not representative of what clients generally experience, if the lawyer drafted it, if it was given for anything of value, or if it lacks the disclaimer that the prospective client may not obtain the same or similar results. That rule is about testimonials the firm uses in its advertising; a review the client leaves on Google is the client's speech, but the moment the firm quotes it on the website it becomes the firm's advertising and the rule attaches. New York's rule effective June 1, 2026 requires the person's permission to use their name, image or likeness in a testimonial.
Texas Rule 7.01 treats a communication as misleading if it is likely to create unjustified expectations; a review quoting a settlement amount, republished by the firm, runs into Comment 10's disclosure requirements for past results (amended January 31, 2022).
Google's policy
Google's policy for reviews on Maps and Business Profiles is stricter than any bar's on one point: it prohibits offering incentives for reviews at all. Its Business Profile help says offering incentives is strictly prohibited. The same policy lists as not allowed: discouraging or prohibiting negative reviews, selectively soliciting positive reviews, reviews from current or former employees, and reviews from competitors. So the nominal gift card that New York's committee allows is still a Google policy violation if the review is on Google, and Google removes reviews and can restrict profiles over it.
Google's help on asking is plain: share the profile's review link (or a QR code) with customers, and reply to reviews. That is the whole allowed method.
The FTC's rule
The FTC's Rule on Consumer Reviews and Testimonials, 16 CFR Part 465, took effect October 21, 2024. It bans fake reviews, buying reviews conditioned on their sentiment (positive or negative), undisclosed reviews from insiders, company-controlled sites presented as independent, and suppressing reviews by threat or by filtering. It does not ban every incentive, but a review bought on condition that it be positive is a violation, and the FTC's guidance says that asking only happy customers for reviews could violate the FTC Act. The FTC's Endorsement Guides separately say a material connection between an endorser and a business should be disclosed clearly and conspicuously, and that even an incentive with no financial value might affect the weight of an endorsement, which is where a gifted review and the New York opinion part ways.
Put together: the bar allows a nominal thank-you; Google allows nothing; the FTC allows nothing conditioned on sentiment and wants connections disclosed. The process below is built to fit the strictest of the three; your attorney confirms it for your state.
The ask
One message, sent by the firm to every client at the close of the matter, by text or email, with the profile's review link, no incentive and no screening. The wording we use, which an attorney at the firm approves before it goes out:
"Thank you for trusting us with your case. If you have a minute, we would be grateful if you would share how it went, in your own words: [link]. Please do not include details about your case; the review is public."Example request. Adjust the first sentence to the matter; never promise anything for the review.
The reason for every client and not just the happy ones is not only Google's rule. A firm that asks everyone gets a rating that reflects its work, which is what the person reading it assumes it is. The reason for the last sentence is the confidentiality duty and the New York opinion's point about reopened matters: a client who writes "they got my DUI reduced" has published something the lawyer could never have published.
Do not draft the review. Do not send a form with suggested wording. Do not ask the client to mention a practice area or a town for search reasons. Do not send the link from a lawyer's personal account. Send it from the firm, once, with one reminder two weeks later if nothing arrived, and then stop.
The reply
Reply to every review, including the five-star ones, within a few days. Replies are drafted by us and approved by an attorney, and every reply obeys one rule: nothing in it confirms, denies or describes anything about a client's matter, including whether the person was a client. ABA Formal Opinion 496 (January 13, 2021) says a lawyer may not disclose confidential information to respond to online criticism, that a negative review is not a controversy that permits disclosure, and that a permissible reply is one that says the lawyer's professional obligations do not allow a response as the lawyer would wish. Florida's Opinion 20-1 (October 9, 2020) reached the same place: a lawyer may not disclose confidential information, even a court order, to answer a review, and may say only in general terms that the review is not fair or accurate.
A good reply to a five-star review: "Thank you for taking the time to write this. It was a pleasure to work with you." A good reply to a one-star review from someone the firm cannot identify: "We are sorry to read this. We cannot discuss any matter in public, but we would welcome a call to the office at [number] so we can understand what happened." Nothing about the case, nothing about whether they were a client, nothing defensive.
A bad review
First, decide whether it breaks Google's policy. A review from a competitor, a former employee, someone who was never a client, or one that contains a threat or personal information can be reported through the profile; Google decides, and the decision can take weeks. Do not argue with the review in public while that is pending.
Second, if it is a real client with a real grievance, the reply above and a phone call. A firm that resolves the grievance may find the client edits the review; a firm may not ask the client to remove it in exchange for anything, which the FTC's rule on review suppression and the bar's gift rules both reach and a conditioned gift under the bar's.
Third, if it is defamatory, that is a question for the firm's own counsel, and the reply in the meantime is the general one. Texas Opinion 662 (August 2016) addressed whether a Texas lawyer may respond publicly to a former client's adverse internet comments; read the opinion before relying on it.
Last, the arithmetic. One bad review among 14 is a 4.7 that reads as a 4.7. One among 60 is a 4.9. The lasting answer to a bad review is the process in the section above, running for a year.
Reviews on the website
Showing reviews on the firm's own site turns them into the firm's advertising. In Florida that triggers Rule 4-7.13(b)(9): the testimonial needs the disclaimer that the prospective client may not obtain the same or similar results, and the Bar's comment requires the client's informed consent to use it. In New York, permission to use the person's name, image or likeness. In Texas, a review that quotes a result is a past-results communication under Rule 7.01, Comment 10. The simplest approach, for your attorney to confirm, is a page that links to the firm's Google reviews and shows the rating and the count, which Google displays, without quoting individual reviews. If the firm wants to quote one, the attorney chooses it, gets the client's written consent, adds the state's disclaimer, and removes any result or case detail.
What to do in the next hour
Set up the ask
- In the Business Profile, copy the review link (it ends in a short code).
- Write the request message with an attorney, using the example above as a floor. No incentive, no suggested wording, no case details.
- Decide who at the firm sends it and when: the day the matter closes, from the firm's number or address.
- Count your reviews and the date of the newest; write them in the file. Check again in 90 days.
- Reply to every existing review you have not replied to, with the general wording, after an attorney reads the replies.
Sources
- Scorpion, 2025 Legal Consumer Trends Report (3,000 US adults), September 10, 2025: scorpion.co.
- AttorneySync, 2026 Legal Service Consumer Choice Report (320 US consumers, screen-recorded): attorneysync.com.
- FindLaw, Key takeaways from the 2024 U.S. Consumer Legal Needs Survey (2,000 adults), October 17, 2024: findlaw.com.
- Google Business Profile Help, Tips to improve your local ranking: support.google.com.
- ABA Model Rule 7.2 (including (b)(5) nominal gifts): americanbar.org; Comment [4] text from ABA Revised Report 101 (August 20, 2018) as posted by the Connecticut Bar: ctbar.org.
- Texas Center for Legal Ethics, Rule 7.03 (nominal gifts, (e)): legalethicstexas.com; Rule 7.01 Comment 10, Supreme Court of Texas order of January 31, 2022: txcourts.gov; Opinion 662 (August 2016): legalethicstexas.com.
- NYSBA Ethics Opinion 1286, Requesting former clients to write Google reviews, September 29, 2025: nysba.org; NYSBA, Understanding changes to New York State lawyer advertising rules (June 1, 2026 rule; testimonials need permission), September 8, 2026: nysba.org.
- The Florida Bar News, Lawyers can't ask clients to evaluate their services for a ratings Web site, October 1, 2008, with the Bar's later editor's note: floridabar.org; Rule 4-7.13 as reproduced by the Florida Justice Association: floridajustice.com; Florida Ethics Opinion 20-1, October 9, 2020: floridabar.org.
- ABA Formal Opinion 496 (January 13, 2021), as reported by the ABA: americanbar.org.
- Google, Maps user contributed content policy: support.google.com; Business Profile Help on review requests and on replying (incentives strictly prohibited): support.google.com, support.google.com.
- FTC, Rule on Consumer Reviews and Testimonials (16 CFR Part 465), questions and answers: ftc.gov.
- FTC, The FTC's Endorsement Guides: what people are asking (material connections, incentives): ftc.gov.