AI search for Pennsylvania law firms

Four rules every Pennsylvania page has to respect

Rule 7.1 says a lawyer shall not make a false or misleading communication about the lawyer or the lawyer's services. Comment [3] adds that a truthful report of past results may be misleading if it leads a reasonable person to expect the same result without reference to the facts of each case, and that an unsubstantiated comparison with other firms may be misleading. A suitable disclaimer may prevent a finding that a statement creates unjustified expectations.

Rule 7.2(c) lets you say which fields you practice in, but bars stating or implying that you are a specialist except in listed cases: certification by an organization approved by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, certification from another state's highest court with a statement that you are not certified in Pennsylvania, or a claim you can objectively verify, which must carry a disclaimer that you are not certified and may cover only one field. Patent and admiralty designations have their own exceptions.

Rule 7.2(e) requires a paid endorsement to disclose the payment and bars endorsements by a celebrity or public figure. Rule 7.2(h) requires advertisements to disclose the city or town of the office where the lawyers doing the work principally practice, or the county if the office is outside a city or town. Rule 7.2(k) requires the name and contact information of at least one lawyer or firm responsible for the content.

Former Rules 7.4 and 7.5 are now reserved. Their subjects moved into Rule 7.2(c) and the comments to Rule 7.1, so any page or template still citing Rule 7.4 for specialist wording is out of date. Why this matters in AI search: an assistant may lift one sentence from your page with no disclaimer beside it. The rules for calling yourself a specialist online apply to that sentence as much as to the page.

No filing program, and no more two-year file

Rule 7.2 contains no requirement to submit advertisements or websites for review before or after they run. The Supreme Court's order of October 15, 2024 also repealed the former requirement to keep copies of advertisements for two years. That puts the full weight on getting each page right before it publishes, which is why every page we deliver is approved by the attorney.

What Pennsylvania's bar associations have said about AI

The Pennsylvania Bar Association's Committee on Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility and the Philadelphia Bar Association's Professional Guidance Committee issued Joint Formal Opinion 2024-200, "Ethical Issues Regarding the Use of Artificial Intelligence," dated May 22, 2024. It concludes that lawyers may use AI with appropriate safeguards. Lawyers must be competent with the tools, verify every citation and the accuracy of cited material, keep confidential client information out of tools that lack adequate protection, communicate with clients about AI use, and keep AI-related charges reasonable.

The opinion is advisory and does not bind the Disciplinary Board or any court. It does not address marketing content. Your website is still a communication under Rules 7.1 and 7.2 whoever drafts it, so accuracy and attorney review are what count.

Pennsylvania questions need Pennsylvania answers

National content tends to tell families to "file the will with the probate court." In Pennsylvania, the register of wills in each county has jurisdiction of the probate of wills and the grant of letters to a personal representative under 20 Pa.C.S. 901, and the administration and distribution of decedents' estates runs through the orphans' court division of the court of common pleas under 20 Pa.C.S. 711. A page that names those offices correctly gives an assistant a sentence worth quoting; a page that says "probate court" teaches it the wrong process.

The same care applies to every deadline, form, and court name we publish, each checked against the statute or the court's own site. The estate planning guide shows how that works for one practice.

Pennsylvania markets

We write for firms statewide. The market guides cover the local facts that differ by county. In Philadelphia, adoptions go through the Family Court division by statute rather than the orphans' court. In Pittsburgh, a firm's search area spans the 130 municipalities of Allegheny County.

• Philadelphia
• Pittsburgh

What we build for Pennsylvania firms

• Practice-area pages written to Rules 7.1 and 7.2, with specialist wording checked against 7.2(c) and its disclaimers
• County pages only where you take clients, naming the register of wills, the orphans' court, and the right courthouse
• Answer posts for the questions Pennsylvania clients ask, each tied to the practice page it supports

Family matters are a good test of local accuracy: adoptions go to a different court division in Philadelphia than in other counties. See the family law guide for the pages that practice tends to need.

Neighboring states

Pennsylvania firms near a state line field questions from readers who live under another state's law. A page that serves them should say which state's law it explains and where your attorneys are licensed. See our guides for New York firms, New Jersey firms, and Ohio firms.

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