Nobody likes filling out forms. The information is repetitive and the work is tedious, but lawyers must make time to complete their law firm directory listings. People rely on popular law firm directories to help them locate attorneys and law firms, which means appearing on them can be extremely beneficial for generating new clients.
The benefit of having up-to-date directories is that you can drive traffic to your law firm website and/or provide contact information for users ready to reach out to a lawyer for help. While it’s true that your listings may only receive a small amount of traffic, users visiting lawyer directory listings are much more likely to convert into leads and eventual clients.
However, when it comes to directories, there are a lot of them out there and determining which ones are worth your time can be difficult. To help lawyers and law firms ready to jump on the directory bandwagon, here is a list of free law firm directories on which you can claims and build out your individual and/or law firm profile to jump start your efforts:
- Avvo – One of the fastest growing attorney directories, Avvo profiles provide a clean and sleek looking snapshot of lawyers. Users can search for individual lawyers or search via practice area.
- Martindale-Hubbell – Lawyers know Martindale-Hubbell well for its rating system. While Martindale-Hubbell does offer premium listings, a basic profile can help drive users to your website. Having a completed Martindale-Hubbell profile also allows you to send out review requests to achieve an AV rating.
- Super Lawyers – Although Super Lawyers only lists lawyers who receive one or more of their awards, any lawyer can register for access and fill out a profile on the site. This profile won’t appear live online until the lawyer receives an award, but setting up and completing a profile helps put you on Super Lawyers’ radar.
- HG – While Hg.org may be less well known than other directories on our list, the website allows users to include a plethora of information, such as biography and “about the firm” sections.
- Lawyer Central and Lawyer Legion – Lawyer Central and Lawyer Legion are much smaller directories, but with an easy sign up process, a lawyer can complete each profile fairly quickly.
- Justia – While most directories only require an email address to sign up, Justia requires a copy of your state bar card or a letter of good standing from your state bar. Even though this may be a bother for attorneys, this means Justia listings are of a better quality as a whole, and this is attractive both to search engines and to users looking for a lawyer.
- State Bar Websites – The State Bar of Texas has a user-friendly website for people looking for lawyers. While lawyer profiles are short and only contain basic information, it does include disciplinary history, which is important to users. Lawyers licensed in other states should make sure all of their state bar profiles are filled out with up-to-date contact information.
Some directories are dependent upon membership, invitation, or receiving an award. While it is more work to be included in these directories, they are excellent at converting searchers into potential clients. Just some of the thousands of additional legal and business directories to consider include:
- Mass Tort Trial Lawyers Association
- American Institute of Personal Injury Attorneys
- National Academy of Personal Injury Attorneys
- The National Trial Lawyers
- Million Dollar Advocates Forum
- Local Chambers of Commerce
- Benchmark Litigation
- Chambers and Partners
- Best Lawyers
- U.S. News & World Report Best Law Firms
- Litigation Counsel of America
- American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA)
- Board Certifications
How To Get Started
To get the most out of your law firm directory listings, you will need to claim your listings, implement best practices for completing them, and optimize them. If you want to make sure your legal directories get completed correctly, contact the legal marketing experts at Stacey E. Burke, P.C. today.