How to Find Law Firm Leads for Your Marketing Agency

Law firms can be excellent agency clients, with high case values and a clear way to measure results in new client enquiries. They're also wary of marketers, because they get pitched constantly and because their advertising is regulated. The agencies that win them pick the right practice areas and show they understand the rules from the first email.

Which firms buy marketing

Not every firm needs an agency. Firms whose clients find them through search and maps spend on marketing. Firms whose clients come through referrals usually don't.

The consumer-facing areas at the top are where most legal marketing budgets go. Choose one or two and learn them properly. An agency that only does family law sounds more credible to a family lawyer than one that does "legal marketing".

Building the list

• Map listings. Searching for law firms in an area gives you the firms that already compete for local search, with their websites and review counts.

• Firm websites. Attorney bio pages tell you the firm's size and practice areas, and often name the managing partner.

• Legal directories. Sites such as Avvo, Justia, FindLaw and Martindale-Hubbell are useful for research on practice areas and reviews.

• State bar directories. Good for confirming a lawyer is licensed. Check the terms of use before pulling contacts from them, since some bar associations restrict using member data for solicitation.

Who decides at a law firm

For small firms, email the managing partner directly. They're busy, so the first message has to show value in a few lines.

Who decides on marketing at law firms of different sizes.

Know the rules your clients work under

Lawyer advertising is regulated by each state's rules of professional conduct, most of them based on the American Bar Association's Model Rules. Under Model Rule 7.1, a lawyer can't make false or misleading communications about their services. The ABA's comment on the rule warns that advertising past case results can be misleading if it suggests other clients will get similar results.

Some states go further, with required disclaimers or labels on certain kinds of advertising. You don't need to be a legal ethicist. But an agency that says "we'll make sure your case result ads include the disclaimers your state requires" is answering the question every managing partner is quietly asking.

A pitch that gets a reply

Lead with something you found when you searched like a potential client would:

Hi [Name], I searched "[practice area] lawyer [city]" this morning. [Firm] didn't appear in the map results, but your [number] Google reviews are stronger than [competitor]'s, who did. That's usually fixable with [one specific change]. We work with [practice area] firms, and [one proof point you can back up]. Would it help if I sent a short breakdown of what I found?

Offering a free, specific breakdown works better than asking for a call. It gives the partner something useful whether or not they hire you.

Doing it with ManyPI

Disclosure: ManyPI is our product.

Map Search pulls the law firms inside an area you draw on a map, and Save and enrich looks for the right contact's email. You can also describe the list in a sentence, for example "personal injury firms in Atlanta with 2 to 10 attorneys, with the managing partner's email", and the agent reads firm websites live and records where each lead came from. Every email is checked before sending, and sequences go out from your own inboxes and stop when someone replies.

A law firm search typed into the ManyPI agent.

For agencies, each client can be its own brand inside one workspace, with its own inboxes, leads and campaigns (three brands on Pro, unlimited on Business). The agencies page covers that setup.

One caution: law firms talk to each other. A careless mass email to every firm in a city can earn you a reputation quickly. Smaller batches, each with something specific to that firm, are both kinder to your domain and better for your name.