86% of US law firms are invisible in AI search.

Learn what the most visible companies do differently to get traffic, leads and sales from AI surfaces like ChatGPT.

Read with Claude Read with ChatGPT agent.md

The verdict

Most US law firms were never named in any AI answer

AI assistants answered real legal questions all quarter, and almost every firm in the market went unmentioned. 86% of the 633 firms surveyed appeared in no answer.

263 of the 384 answers named no firm at all. When an assistant did name a firm, the name came from one corner of the market. Full-Service / BigLaw Corporate Firms: 40 of 61 firms were named (65.6%), against 13.6% across the market. Outside that corner, whole practice areas went unnamed, and immigration was among them. Immigration Law: 0 of 27 firms were named (0.0%), against 13.6% across the market.

How do companies show up in AI?

We compared 633 companies across 128 prompts and 6 personas.

86%of companies never appear in an AI answer
14%appear at least once
12companies appear for most buyer types
38%of national (traffic 50,000 and over) companies are visible, the highest share of any size
384answers analysed, 3 per prompt

Which companies appear in AI most often?

14%of companies appear
32%of answers name a company from our list
69%of answers name no company

Companies with the highest overall AI visibility for

Company name% share
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom 10%
Latham & Watkins 9%
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher 9%
Kirkland & Ellis 9%
LegalZoom 9%
Sullivan & Cromwell 9%
Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP 9%
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett 8%
Cravath, Swaine & Moore 8%
Debevoise & Plimpton 8%
Ropes & Gray LLP 8%
Cleary Gottlieb 7%
Davis Polk & Wardwell 7%
Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz 7%
Sidley Austin 6%
Weil, Gotshal & Manges 6%
WilmerHale 6%
Jones Day 6%
Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP 5%
Covington & Burling 5%
White & Case LLP 5%
Greenberg Traurig 5%
Hogan Lovells 5%
Mayer Brown LLP 5%
Baker McKenzie 4%
Proskauer Rose LLP 4%
DLA Piper 4%
Holland & Knight 4%
Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton 3%
Arnold & Porter 3%
King & Spalding LLP 3%
Akin Gump 3%
McDermott Will & Emery 3%
Milbank LLP 3%
Morgan & Morgan 3%
Paul Hastings LLP 3%
Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan 3%
Williams & Connolly 3%
Winston & Strawn 3%
Cooley LLP 2%

Share of 384 answers that name the company. 547 companies never appear.

Where are the invisible companies?

86 of the 633 companies appear in at least one answer. The other 547 never do.

Visible: 86 (14%)Invisible: 547 (86%)

Where the visible companies sit

GroupShare
Full-Service / BigLaw Corporate Firms 47%
General & Multi-Practice Firms 29%
Personal Injury & Accident Law 10%
Specialist & Boutique Firms 9%
Employment & Labor Law 2%
Family & Divorce Law 1%
Unclassified firms 1%

Share of the 86 visible companies in each group.

Where the invisible companies sit

GroupShare
General & Multi-Practice Firms 32%
Personal Injury & Accident Law 26%
Specialist & Boutique Firms 13%
Unclassified firms 9%
Family & Divorce Law 8%
Immigration Law 5%
Full-Service / BigLaw Corporate Firms 4%
Employment & Labor Law 2%
Estate Planning, Probate & Trusts 2%

Share of the 547 invisible companies in each group.

Which kinds of companies does AI see?

CategoryVisible
Full-Service / BigLaw Corporate Firms 40 of 6166%
Employment & Labor Law 2 of 1513%
General & Multi-Practice Firms 25 of 20212%
Specialist & Boutique Firms 8 of 7710%
Personal Injury & Accident Law 9 of 1496%
Unclassified firms 1 of 482%
Family & Divorce Law 1 of 432%
Immigration Law 0 of 270%
Estate Planning, Probate & Trusts 0 of 110%

Share of the companies in each category that appear in at least one answer, with the count behind it.

Does the size of a company change its AI visibility?

VisibleInvisible

0 of 36

Micro (traffic under 1,000)

2 of 195

Small (traffic 1,000 to 9,999)

38%

67 of 176

National (traffic 50,000 and over)

17 of 226

Mid-size (traffic 10,000 to 49,999)

Share of the companies in each size tier that appear in at least one answer.

Which companies does AI name for almost every buyer?

Company name	Group	Personas reached	Answers
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom	Commercial & BigLaw firms	6 of 6	39
Latham & Watkins	Commercial & BigLaw firms	6 of 6	36
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher	Commercial & BigLaw firms	6 of 6	35
Kirkland & Ellis	Commercial & BigLaw firms	6 of 6	35
LegalZoom	Other national brands	6 of 6	35
Sullivan & Cromwell	Commercial & BigLaw firms	6 of 6	35
Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP	Commercial & BigLaw firms	6 of 6	34
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett	Commercial & BigLaw firms	6 of 6	32
Cravath, Swaine & Moore	Commercial & BigLaw firms	6 of 6	29
Debevoise & Plimpton	Commercial & BigLaw firms	6 of 6	29
Ropes & Gray LLP	Commercial & BigLaw firms	6 of 6	29
Davis Polk & Wardwell	Commercial & BigLaw firms	6 of 6	28

The 12 companies in the universal tier: named for most buyer personas. Answers: how many of the 384 answers name the company.

Do companies people search for by name get named by AI?

Brand searches a monthVisible
No brand searches 0 of 10%
1–100 a month 1 of 1141%
101–1,000 a month 7 of 1854%
1,001–10,000 a month 30 of 14920%
Over 10,000 a month 34 of 5661%

Share of the companies in each brand search band that appear in at least one answer. 505 of 633 companies have a search figure.

128 companies have no search figure and sit outside every band: keyword not acceptable to the provider (too short, too long, over ten words, only punctuation, or carries a symbol Google Ads refuses); provider returned no figure for this keyword.

2 companies share 1 brand search term with another company, so their band is the term's, not theirs alone.

How many companies does AI name that are not on our list?

365different companies named in 121 answers
92of them are on the list we checked
75%are not on the list (273)

Named most often, not on our list

Company nameAnswers
LegalZoom 35
Weil, Gotshal & Manges 23
Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton 13
Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan 10
Winston & Strawn 10
Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr 6
Reed Smith 5
Sanford Heisler Sharp 5
Wake Family Law Group 5
Ellis Family Law 4

Answers that name the company, of the 121 answers that name any.

Does the buyer persona change the results?

Company name
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom	9%	9%	10%	10%	10%	14%
Latham & Watkins	9%	9%	10%	10%	10%	10%
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher	9%	8%	10%	10%	10%	10%
Kirkland & Ellis	9%	9%	10%	8%	10%	10%
LegalZoom	9%	8%	10%	10%	10%	10%
Sullivan & Cromwell	9%	9%	6%	10%	10%	11%
Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP	9%	8%	10%	10%	8%	10%
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett	8%	8%	10%	8%	8%	10%
Cravath, Swaine & Moore	9%	8%	8%	8%	8%	5%
Debevoise & Plimpton	8%	8%	8%	8%	6%	8%
Ropes & Gray LLP	6%	8%	8%	6%	8%	10%
Cleary Gottlieb	9%	6%	10%	8%	5%	6%
Davis Polk & Wardwell	8%	8%	6%	8%	6%	8%
Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz	6%	8%	6%	6%	8%	5%
Sidley Austin	5%	8%	5%	8%	5%	6%
Weil, Gotshal & Manges	5%	6%	5%	8%	5%	8%
WilmerHale	6%	6%	3%	5%	6%	10%
Jones Day	5%	5%	5%	10%	5%	6%
Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP	5%	5%	5%	10%	5%	5%
Covington & Burling	3%	6%	6%	6%	5%	5%
White & Case LLP	5%	6%	5%	5%	5%	6%
Greenberg Traurig	5%	5%	5%	8%	3%	5%
Hogan Lovells	5%	5%	5%	5%	5%	6%
Mayer Brown LLP	5%	5%	5%	5%	5%	5%
Baker McKenzie	5%	5%	5%	5%	3%	5%
Proskauer Rose LLP	3%	3%	5%	6%	2%	6%
DLA Piper	5%	2%	5%	3%	3%	5%
Holland & Knight	2%	3%	3%	2%	3%	10%
Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton	5%	2%	2%	5%	5%	3%
Arnold & Porter	3%	3%	5%	5%	2%	0%
King & Spalding LLP	5%	2%	3%	2%	3%	3%
Akin Gump	3%	3%	2%	2%	3%	3%
McDermott Will & Emery	0%	2%	3%	2%	2%	8%
Milbank LLP	0%	3%	3%	3%	2%	5%
Morgan & Morgan	8%	3%	3%	0%	2%	0%
Paul Hastings LLP	0%	5%	2%	3%	2%	5%
Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan	2%	2%	2%	5%	2%	5%
Williams & Connolly	3%	3%	3%	2%	0%	5%
Winston & Strawn	3%	2%	2%	3%	3%	3%
Cooley LLP	3%	3%	2%	2%	0%	3%

Share of each persona's answers that name the company. Sort by a persona with its column heading.

Does each buyer see a different market?

Each persona drew on its own set of firms

The index counted the distinct firms each persona's answers named. 141 distinct firms were named by the Exiting Employee persona's answers. 128 distinct firms were named by the Business Owner persona's answers. 117 distinct firms were named by the Home Buyer persona's answers. 110 distinct firms were named by the Divorcing Parent persona's answers. 94 distinct firms were named by the Estate Planner persona's answers. 64 distinct firms were named by the Injury Claimant persona's answers.

A firm is not visible in general; it is visible to a persona asking its kind of question. Sullivan & Cromwell led the Estate Planner persona, named in 7 of that persona's 63 runs (11.1%). A firm should pick the persona closest to its practice and check whether its name appears there.

PersonaCompanies
The Injury Claimant 64
The Divorcing Parent 110
The Home Buyer 117
The Exiting Employee 141
The Small Business Owner 128
The Estate Planner 94

Different companies named across each persona's answers.