Law firm partners get cited by ChatGPT when they have a clearly defined area of expertise, a body of original content that answers the questions clients actually ask, and coverage in trusted third-party publications. Most firms have the expertise. But very few have the other two.
Why does this matter? Because clients are already asking on AI. A 2026 study of 1,110 US consumers by iLawyer Marketing found that the share using ChatGPT to research lawyers rose from 28% to 42% in a single year.
Business buyers are further ahead still. In Forrester's Buyers' Journey Survey, 94% of business buyers said they used AI during a purchase.
Yet, many law firms have not changed their marketing strategies. In a recent audit of a regional law firm run by Findwell, one AI assistant read the firm's pages in 12 of its answers but named the firm in only five.
The firm had published 54 articles in a year under named authors, and none of them reached Google's first page for the searches we tested. The expertise was there. It's just that the AI just couldn't connect it to anyone.
How do I identify an area of expertise worth owning?
So, where do you start? Let's go from the beginning. Let's say you're an expert. You've built your career in a specialist area, whether that's private client law, disputes or something else.
Before thinking about how to get referenced by ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini, step back and ask yourself a simple question. What am I an expert in?
Importantly, this isn't about how you would describe your expertise. The way you frame it will often be very different from how your target audience would phrase it, whether that's potential clients, journalists or anyone else.
Say you'd call yourself an expert in cross-border carried interest for private equity firms. You may be so deep in the detail that you don't realise this framing is too technical for the people looking for you. They're more likely to search for something broader, like a private equity tax expert. That's the territory to target.
We learnt this the hard way. When we ran this process on our own expert hub, 18 of the 22 topics we had set up were built around phrases nobody searches for. That's exactly the gap between how experts describe themselves and how buyers look for them.
But be careful not to swing too far the other way, into an area so broad it speaks to everyone. If your expertise is tax for private equity, don't target "tax expert".
It might get you referenced by AI, but it will bring in people who are disappointed when your biography shows you only work with private equity.
Just as importantly, the wider you go, the fiercer the competition. Don't fight for a category where everyone is racing for first place. It's better to own a niche completely than to occupy broad ground that's a war zone.
How do I create content for AI visibility?
Once you've settled on the area you want to own, it's time to turn it into content. The aim is a body of work that owns that expertise. Ten shorter articles, each giving your take on a different sub-question, will do more than six months spent on one mega-article.
Why? First, you can tailor each piece to a question people are actually asking. Second, you're not putting all your eggs in one basket. Publish a few pieces, look at the numbers, see what's working, then double down.
It's better to own a niche completely than to occupy broad ground that's a war zone.
As a starter for ten, these rules will put you in a good place.
Mine for questions. Use tools such as Google Trends, AlsoAsked and AnswerThePublic to find the questions people ask most in your area. Search those questions on Google and in AI assistants, to see whether existing content already answers them or whether you have something to add. You'll quickly have a hit list of ideas.
Write original content. Experts are experts because they have genuine, deep insight, and that's what AI and readers are looking for. Surface-level content that summarises what's already out there doesn't add to the discussion, and it's unlikely to be picked up by AI.
You might get lucky, but tricks like that don't hold up for long. In practice, share opinions that haven't been aired elsewhere, use cases and examples that aren't already online, and, better still, add your own data and research.
Use different formats and channels. Once you have good content that answers real questions, turn it into a mix of formats. Don't just post it on your firm's blog.
Repurpose it across channels, such as a newsletter, a short explainer video for YouTube or a supporting post on LinkedIn. This creates a network of content that AI can see, connect together, and place you at the centre of. That's the goal.
Done well, by the end of this process you might have 20 to 30 good pieces of content across several channels, each one showing you as a specialist in a concrete, distinct area of law.
Describe yourself the same way everywhere. One mistake I see a lot is inconsistency. Wherever possible, all of this content should describe you in a single, clean, clear way, such as "UHNW divorce lawyer".
That includes your firm biography, your LinkedIn profile and your legal directory entries, such as Chambers and The Legal 500, which AI assistants read too. AI needs to see that the same person created all this content, and that all of it adds up to the same expertise.
Do I need PR and media coverage to be cited by AI?
The steps above will raise your game substantially, and you should start to see AI references fairly quickly. But media coverage is one of the best ways to step up.
AI trusts editorial coverage in third-party publications more than content you publish on your own website, social channels or YouTube. So alongside your owned content, build earned coverage too. It's harder to do quickly, because you have to build relationships with journalists, pitch ideas and get on their radar. But it's worth the time and investment.
The numbers bear this out. Muck Rack's May 2026 analysis of the sources cited by ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini found that 84% were earned media, such as journalism, research and reference sites. Content a firm publishes about itself is a small part of what AI reads.
So what does good media coverage for AI visibility look like?
Respected trade titles often beat national media. It's tempting to chase big-ticket coverage in the BBC, The New York Times or AFP, and those titles carry real weight.
But if you're building a profile as an expert in tax for private equity, coverage in specialist titles such as The Lawyer or the private equity trade press will often count for more, because AI treats them as specialist rather than mass-market. Pursue opportunities in the trades.
Prefer op-eds, comment pieces and long-form interviews. Choose coverage that lets you show your expertise at length. That gives AI far more to work with than a short quote in an article that cites several people.
Pay and registration walls are the enemy of AI. Where possible, secure coverage on sites that don't sit behind hard pay or registration walls. If a reader can't get to it easily, AI usually can't either.
Some publications, including the FT, are signing deals that let AI assistants read their content, but it's early days. For now, open sites are the safer bet.
PR has to be timely, and AI visibility is only one lens. With genuine editorial coverage, you don't control the opportunities or the angles journalists want. You need a timely hook that makes your view relevant to their readers. And coverage isn't only about visibility. It's about credibility. Don't see PR purely through a marketing lens.
What are the three steps?
Taken together, that's a three-part approach to getting your partners cited by ChatGPT.
- Define a clear area of expertise, in the words your clients use.
- Build a body of original, cross-channel content that answers the questions people actually ask.
- Add high-quality earned coverage in specialist publications.
Do all three and you'll be ahead of most of the market. The firm in our audit had the expertise and the articles. What it lacked was focus and third-party proof. We found no press coverage for any of the five senior lawyers we looked at.
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