How to Get Your First Online Reviews as a New Attorney
Before a new potential client calls you, they're making a judgment about whether to call at all. That judgment is heavily influenced by what they find when they look you up — and increasingly, reviews are a central part of what they find.
For a new attorney without an established client base, this creates a chicken-and-egg problem: you need reviews to attract clients, but you need clients to get reviews. The good news is this problem is solvable, and the path through it is simpler than most attorneys think — if you approach it ethically and consistently from the start.
Why Reviews Matter More Than Attorneys Think
Attorneys sometimes dismiss online reviews as a consumer-facing phenomenon that doesn't apply to professional services. This is increasingly incorrect. Research consistently shows that a majority of people seeking professional services — including legal services — consult online reviews before making contact. Even clients who receive a referral from a trusted source often look up the referred attorney's reviews before calling.
A new attorney with no reviews isn't neutral — they're unverified. In a market where comparable attorneys have reviews and you don't, that absence works against you. The first few reviews you accumulate move you out of that disadvantaged position and begin building the credibility baseline that supports referral conversion.
What Ethical Rules Allow
Attorney ethics rules regulate how attorneys can solicit reviews, and the regulations vary by state. Generally speaking:
- Asking clients for reviews is permitted. You may ask a satisfied client to share their experience in a review. The request should be genuine — not scripted or transactional.
- Incentivizing reviews is not permitted. Offering anything of value in exchange for a review — a discount on future services, a gift, a reciprocal favor — implicates professional responsibility rules about giving things of value for recommendations in most states.
- Paying for reviews is prohibited. Review generation services that produce fake or compensated reviews are prohibited by ethics rules, violate the terms of review platforms, and create reputational risk that is not worth any short-term benefit.
- Responding to reviews requires care. When responding to a negative review, you cannot reveal client confidences or information about the representation. Your response to a negative review should be brief, professional, and empathetic — not defensive or detailed about the client's situation.
Check your state's specific rules if you're uncertain about any aspect of review solicitation. The relevant provisions are typically in your state's version of the Model Rules around advertising and solicitation.
How and When to Ask
The most effective review requests come at specific moments in the client relationship — moments when the client's experience is fresh and positive:
- At case conclusion. When you close a matter successfully and the client is grateful, that's the natural moment to ask. "I'm glad we were able to get this resolved — if you'd be willing to share your experience in a Google review, it would be genuinely helpful for others who are looking for an attorney."
- After a positive check-in. If a client contacts you with good news or expresses satisfaction with how things are going, follow that interaction with a brief request.
- In your closing communication. A brief note in your closing email or letter — thanking the client and gently noting that reviews help other people find good representation — is low-pressure and appropriate.
The ask should be genuine and specific. "Here's a link to my Google Business Profile if you'd like to leave a review" is more likely to result in a review than a vague "feel free to leave a review if you'd like." Make the action easy by providing the direct link.
Where to Focus Your Review Efforts
Not all review platforms are equally valuable. For most attorneys, the priority order is:
- Google Business Profile. Google reviews are the most visible and most broadly trusted. They appear prominently in search results and maps. This is where your first review efforts should go.
- Avvo. Many potential clients use Avvo specifically to search for attorneys. An Avvo profile with reviews is useful for practice areas where Avvo is commonly used for attorney search.
- Your state bar profile. Some states allow attorneys to display reviews or testimonials on their official bar profiles. Check your state's provisions.
Spreading review efforts across too many platforms dilutes the impact. Build a strong presence on one or two platforms before expanding to others.
Reviews as Part of a Broader Reputation Strategy
Online reviews and offline referral relationships are not alternatives — they're complementary. Your online reviews validate referrals that other attorneys make on your behalf. When a colleague tells a client "you should call Jane Smith — she's excellent at this kind of case," that client will look Jane up. What they find either confirms the referral or undermines it.
Building online reputation and building referral relationships simultaneously creates a compounding effect: each strengthens the other. Your reviews make referrals from colleagues more likely to convert. Your referral relationships provide the clients who become the source of future reviews.
The Bottom Line
Reviews are reputation infrastructure. Build them consistently, ethically, and from the earliest client relationships you establish. And build them alongside the referral relationships that will eventually be the most powerful driver of client acquisition in your practice.
Join Overture for free and start building the attorney peer network that generates the referrals that generate the reviews — and the compounding professional reputation that sustains a practice over time.