How we rank lawyers
Re-scored weeklyUpdated 258,739 law firms scored57,107 ranked lists0 paid placements in any ranking
Every law firm gets one LFR Score from 0 to 100, built from 9 weighted factors and calculated separately for each practice area and city. Ranks come from that score and nothing else. Paid advertising never affects rank, and no rank is an endorsement.
The LFR Score in one line
Each factor earns a share of its weight; the shares add up to a score out of 100.
- 25%Reputation
- 10%Bar status
- 10%Review volume
- 10%Recency
- 5%Availability
- 15%Practice focus
- 5%Proximity
- 10%Claimed profile
- 10%Law Firms Ranked reviews
A factor we could not measure for a business is left out, and the score is worked out over the factors we did measure. The exact formula is in Formulas at the bottom of this page.
The nine factors
What each factor measures, why it counts, and where the data comes from.
| Factor | Weight | How it’s measured | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reputation | 25% | The Google star rating, adjusted for how many reviews stand behind it. A law firm with no Google reviews scores zero here. | Google rating and review count |
| Bar status | 10% | Not measured yet. We have not loaded an official bar admission source for this site, so this factor is left out of every score. | — |
| Review volume | 10% | Number of Google reviews, compared with the most-reviewed law firm on the same list. Each extra review counts a little less than the one before. | Google review count |
| Recency | 10% | Share of the law firm’s reviews posted in the last 12 months. | Review dates |
| Availability | 5% | Weekly office hours, open Saturday, open Sunday, and a phone answered 24/7, counted equally. | Google opening hours |
| Practice focus | 15% | How clearly this practice area is the firm’s work: its Google main category counts most, then a firm name that names the area, then an additional category. Firms listed only as “Lawyer”, “Law firm” or “Attorney” rank under general practice. | Google main and additional categories, firm name |
| Proximity | 5% | A law firm based in the city scores highest; one based elsewhere scores less the farther away it is, down to nothing at the practice area’s service radius. | Business coordinates |
| Claimed profile | 10% | Full points when the firm has claimed its Law Firms Ranked profile. Claiming is free; free and paid profiles earn the same points. | Law Firms Ranked account records |
| Law Firms Ranked reviews | 10% | Reviews from clients we verified ourselves: their average rating (pulled toward an average when there are only a few) and how many there are. Reviews a client verified only by email count half as much as invited ones. None yet scores zero. | LawFirmsRanked reviews |
25%Reputation
The Google star rating, adjusted for how many reviews stand behind it. A firm with no Google reviews scores zero here. Clients judge a firm by how others describe working with it, but a rating resting on a handful of reviews is noisy.
10%Bar status
An active record with a state bar or law society for a lawyer at the firm. Not measured yet: until we load and match official records, this factor is left out of every score (never counted as zero). Check any lawyer’s status yourself with the bar or law society.
10%Review volume
Number of Google reviews, compared with the most-reviewed firm on the same list. Each extra review counts a little less than the one before, so one very large firm cannot flatten everyone else.
10%Recency
Share of the firm’s reviews posted in the last 12 months. Lawyers move between firms; recent reviews say more about the people working there today.
5%Availability
Being able to reach a lawyer matters most after an arrest or an accident.
15%Practice focus
A firm that concentrates on one area should outrank one that lists it among many. This is a description of the listing, not a claim that any lawyer is certified in the area.
5%Proximity
A firm with an office in the city scores highest; one based elsewhere scores less the farther away it is, down to nothing at the practice area’s radius. Many matters need meetings and local court appearances.
10%Claimed profile
A firm that keeps its profile current is easier to reach and to hold to its published facts.
10%Law Firms Ranked reviews
Reviews from clients we verified ourselves: their average rating (pulled toward an average when there are only a few) and how many there are. Reviews a client verified only by email count half as much as invited ones. None yet scores zero. Firms may not offer anything in return for a review.
Emergency lists (for example emergency criminal defense lawyers in a city) move 10 points from reputation to availability, and count only 24/7 or same-day signals.
How the star rating is adjusted
A perfect score from 9 reviews should not beat a near-perfect score from a thousand.
A law firm with few reviews is pulled toward the local average for its practice area. As its reviews grow, its own rating takes over. At 50 reviews, its rating and the average count equally.
Worked example, using an example average of C = 4.4: a 5.0 from 9 reviews ranks below a 4.8 from 1,049.
| Order | Business | Google rating | Reviews | Weight on own rating | Adjusted rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Business B | 4.8 | 1,049 | 95% | 4.78 |
| #2 | Business C | 4.6 | 140 | 74% | 4.55 |
| #3 | Business A | 5.0 | 9 | 15% | 4.49 |
Businesses A, B and C are illustrations, not real companies.
When data is missing
We never fill a gap with a guess.
A law firm with no Google reviews scores zero on reputation, review volume and recency, so it can’t outrank reviewed law firms on missing data. That changes once it has 10 or more verified LawFirmsRanked reviews. Claimed profile and law firms ranked reviews are always measured: no claim or review yet means zero.
For any other factor, a missing input is left out rather than set to zero or to an average. The score is calculated over the factors we could measure, and each business shows its coverage: the measured weight out of 100.
In score bars a measured factor is solid. A factor we have not collected yet is hatched:
Example only: no review dates yet, so recency is hatched.
Who gets ranked
Some businesses are listed but not ranked; some are not listed at all.
- To be ranked for a practice area, a law firm needs a confident practice area match (its Google category or its name names the practice area) and either 3+ Google reviews or a claimed profile.
- Everyone else who serves the city appears unranked in a compact “Also serving” table on the same page.
- Ties are broken by score, then weekly open hours, then profile completeness (website, photos, description and hours), then name.
| Rule | Effect | Law firms affected |
|---|---|---|
| Only practice area evidence is the “General Practice” fallback tag | Never ranked on that tag alone. | — |
| Weak practice area match (only a services tag names the practice area) | Listed in “Also serving”, not ranked. | — |
| Fewer than 3 reviews and not claimed | Listed in “Also serving”, not ranked. | — |
| Permanently closed | Removed from every list. | — |
| Attorney advertising or any paid status | Never read by the score; never changes a rank. | — |
Service areas and coverage
Lawyers can take matters anywhere in the state or province where they are licensed, so a city list includes firms based nearby that serve it.
Each practice area has a service radius. A law firm based inside the city gets full proximity points; one based elsewhere scores less the further away it is, reaching 0 at the radius. Every card says where the law firm is based and how far that is.
| Practice area | Radius | Emergency list |
|---|---|---|
| Personal injury lawyers | 40 mi (64 km) | No |
| Medical malpractice lawyers | 60 mi (97 km) | No |
| Workers’ compensation lawyers | 40 mi (64 km) | No |
| Social Security disability lawyers | 40 mi (64 km) | No |
| Criminal defense lawyers | 30 mi (48 km) | Yes |
| DUI and DWI lawyers | 30 mi (48 km) | Yes |
| Divorce and family lawyers | 25 mi (40 km) | No |
| Estate planning and probate lawyers | 25 mi (40 km) | No |
| Bankruptcy lawyers | 40 mi (64 km) | No |
| Immigration lawyers | 40 mi (64 km) | No |
| Employment lawyers | 40 mi (64 km) | No |
| Business lawyers | 25 mi (40 km) | No |
| Real estate lawyers | 25 mi (40 km) | No |
| Tax lawyers | 40 mi (64 km) | No |
| Intellectual property lawyers | 50 mi (80 km) | No |
| Insurance lawyers | 50 mi (80 km) | No |
| Mediators | 40 mi (64 km) | No |
| General practice lawyers | 25 mi (40 km) | No |
Where the data comes from
- Google Business data: star rating, review count, review dates, categories, opening hours, coordinates and listed attributes.
- Business-submitted data: law firms that claim their profile can correct hours, practice areas and contact details. Changes are checked before they count.
A weekly job rescores the cities that were scored longest ago first. Scores are stored, not computed when you load a page, so a law firm’s number is the same on its profile and on every list it appears in. Each list shows the date it was last scored.
When a page shows a ranking
- A practice area × city list is published and indexed with 10 or more rankable law firms. With 5–9 it is shown but kept out of search indexes; below 5 we point to the state list instead.
- Emergency lists need at least 3 law firms with 24/7 or same-day signals.
- We don’t publish a separate page when more than 70% of its top 10 matches its parent list; it becomes a section of the parent.
- The top 25 law firms appear in full; the rest of the ranked list appears in a compact table on the same page.
- Every rank names its basis and date: the LFR Score, scored on a stated day.
What law firms can and cannot pay for
Law firms can pay for
- An Attorney advertising slot: a block labelled “Attorney advertising”, outside the ranked list, with at most 3 law firms per page, rotated daily at an equal price
- Pro profile tools: photos, a website link, review invites and profile stats
Law firms can never pay for
- A higher rank, on any list
- A change to their LFR Score or any factor in it
- Removal of a competitor, or of facts they dislike
Claiming a profile and adding our badge to your website are free. Free and paid listings earn exactly the same points for a claimed profile (10%); paying for Attorney advertising or Pro adds nothing to the score.
Each Attorney advertising card also shows that law firm’s actual rank, so readers see where it really places. Attorney advertising law firms are left out of the ranked list’s structured data.
Found a wrong fact? Our editorial policy explains how to request a correction and how fast we act.
Formulas
The exact calculations behind the factors above, for anyone who wants to check our work.
| Factor | Weight | Formula |
|---|---|---|
| Reputation | 25% | adj = v/(v+m)·R + m/(v+m)·C, with m = 50 and C = the review-weighted mean rating for the practice area in that city (a Bayesian average). Part = adj / 5. 0 when the law firm has no Google reviews. |
| Bar status | 10% | Left out (not measured) until a credential source is loaded. |
| Review volume | 10% | log10(v + 1) / log10(V + 1), where V = the most Google reviews on the same ranked list. 0 when the law firm has no Google reviews. |
| Recency | 10% | Reviews in the last 12 months / all reviews. Left out until review dates are collected; 0 when the law firm has no Google reviews. |
| Availability | 5% | (min(1, weekly open hours / 60) + Saturday + Sunday + 24/7 or same-day) / 4, each sign 0 or 1. Emergency lists: 1 with 24/7 or same-day evidence, else 0. |
| Practice focus | 15% | Google main category 1.0, law firm name names the practice area 0.7, additional category only 0.5; the highest that applies. |
| Proximity | 5% | 1.0 when based in the city, falling in a straight line to 0 at the practice area’s service radius. |
| Claimed profile | 10% | 1 when the profile is claimed (free or paid), else 0. |
| Law Firms Ranked reviews | 10% | 0.6 · (q − 1) / 4 + 0.4 · min(1, ln(1 + n) / ln(21)), where n = the weighted review count (invited 1.0, email-verified 0.5) and q = (avg · n + 3 · 4.0) / (n + 3). 0 with no reviews. |
- No Google reviews: reputation, review volume and recency are 0, not left out, unless the law firm has 10 or more weighted LawFirmsRanked reviews; then they are left out and the score is renormalised over the measured factors.
- Emergency lists move 10 points from reputation to availability.
- Ranking needs practice focus of 0.5 or more and 3+ Google reviews or a claimed profile.