The AI answer for law firms is still being decided.
We asked ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Perplexity to recommend law firms 90 times — six questions, five metros, every answer saved with its sources. They named 226 businesses. Openness runs 63–74 of 100 — leaders exist, but none are safe, and the gap between cities is real.
Most open first.
Tampa is this trade's most open market at 74; Las Vegas its most settled at 63. Each city link carries the full record — every business named, for which of the six questions, and the sources cited to justify it.
The names that came back most, anywhere.
Across all 90 answers, these law firms were named most often in their own market. Not a quality ranking and none are our clients — this is a record of who the assistants kept reaching for on July 26, 2026.
- Kelly Law Team Phoenix Phoenix · named in 8 of 18 answers
- Naqvi Accident Injury Law Las Vegas · named in 8 of 18 answers
- Bachus & Schanker, LLC Denver · named in 7 of 18 answers
- Lamber Goodnow Injury Lawyers Phoenix · named in 7 of 18 answers
- Richard Harris Personal Injury Law Firm Las Vegas · named in 7 of 18 answers
- McMinn Law Firm Austin · named in 5 of 18 answers
- Morgan & Morgan (Tampa office) Tampa · named in 5 of 18 answers
- Trial Lawyers of Arizona Phoenix · named in 5 of 18 answers
No brand crossed three city lines. This answer is entirely local.
Of 226 named businesses, 99% appeared in exactly one metro, and no name was matched in three or more cities — in this trade the assistants recommend local operators, not national brands. (2 names matched across two metros; at two, similarly named but unrelated businesses are plausible, so we count without naming.) For an owner this is the friendliest possible market structure: the business you are losing the AI answer to is across town, not a national marketing department.
Where the assistants got their answers.
Every recommendation carries citations, and the citations are the actionable part: they are the pages deciding who gets named. Across all five metros, the sources cited most for law firms:
- justia.com cited 50 times
- avvo.com cited 34 times
- superlawyers.com cited 22 times
- reddit.com cited 21 times
- attorneys.superlawyers.com cited 19 times
- expertise.com cited 19 times
- lawleaderboard.com cited 18 times
- profiles.superlawyers.com cited 13 times
- lawyers.com cited 12 times
- bestlawyers.com cited 12 times
- bestlawfirms.com cited 7 times
- forbes.com cited 7 times
Directories and review platforms supplied 30.1–43.2% of citations depending on the city — the heaviest directory reliance of the trades we measure. Whatever you think of those platforms, the assistants read them aloud: a thin or inconsistent profile there is not cosmetic, it is the evidence.
226 named, out of 7,446 businesses.
County Business Patterns counts 7,446 offices of lawyers with paid employees across these five counties (Clark County, Hillsborough County, Denver County, Maricopa County, Travis County). The assistants named 226 — and named only 86 of those more than once. That ratio is the whole argument for caring about AI visibility: the funnel from existing to recommended is brutally narrow, and almost nobody is competing for it deliberately.
Checkable, and meant to be argued with.
The exact six questions, asked per city with the city's name in place of the bracket:
- Who is the best personal injury lawyer in [city]? commercial
- I was just rear-ended in [city] and the other driver's insurance is calling me. Which local law firm should I contact? situational
- Who is the best family law attorney in [city]? commercial
- My spouse and I are separating in [city] and we own a house together. Which local attorney should I hire? situational
- Who is the best criminal defense attorney in [city]? commercial
- Which personal injury law firm in [city] has the best client reviews? commercial
Each went once to ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Perplexity with web search enabled — 90 recorded answers for this trade, in which Google Gemini named 143 businesses, ChatGPT named 89 businesses, Perplexity named 78 businesses. Names are resolved across spelling variants within each metro; cross-metro brand matching is deliberately conservative and only names a company seen in three or more cities. Assistants are non-deterministic, so this is a dated snapshot, not a standing ranking, and being named is not an endorsement — none of the businesses above are our clients. The full methodology covers the prompts, the openness formula, and what these numbers cannot support. Findings are CC BY 4.0 with attribution.
Working in this trade? What we build for law firms covers the commercial side, and the free AI visibility report runs these questions against your own market.
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