Legal Torch — Get Your Law Firm Cited by AI First

The shift, in numbers

Your future clients are asking ChatGPT before they Google.

Search is splitting. Buyers no longer arrive at your firm via ten blue links — they arrive via a single AI answer that names a single lawyer. The firms that get named win the case. The firms that don't, don't.

58%

of Google users saw an AI Overview in a single month of searches

Pew Research Center, 2025

8%

click-through on results when an AI summary appears — nearly half the 15% without one

Pew Research Center, 2025

25%

projected drop in traditional search volume by 2026 as buyers shift to AI

Gartner, 2024

Methodology — VERDICT™ + PROOF™

Seven pillars. One outcome: your firm cited by name.

Built specifically for law firms. The C is the structural moat — every output is reviewed against ABA Model Rules and the relevant state-bar advertising rules. No generalist agency offers that.

V

Visibility Audit

Baseline test of how AI engines see your firm right now.

E

Entity Authority

Schema, knowledge graph, directory entity work.

R

Relevance Engineering

Content rewritten for AI retrieval.

D

Digital PR for AI

Citations from sources AI models actually pull from.

I

Intent-tuned Content

Content built around how YOUR buyers ask.

C

Compliance Layer

ABA + state-bar review on every output.

T

Tracking & Reporting

Citations, consultations, pipeline — monthly.

See methodology + sample PROOF Report →

The difference

Every agency says “AI search” now. Ask how they measure it.

The test of an AI-visibility claim isn’t the pitch — it’s whether the method is public, the engines are named, and the numbers can be checked. Ours are.

Published methodology.

VERDICT™ isn’t a black box — the seven pillars, the sequence, and a sample PROOF™ Report are on this site. You can see exactly what you’re buying before you buy it.

Five surfaces, measured per engine.

We track ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Gemini, and Perplexity as separate, named surfaces — with a monthly manual cross-check, because automated tools miss what’s actually shown to buyers. No blended “AI visibility %” that can’t be audited.

Compliance as a workflow, not a word.

Every output is screened against ABA Model Rule 7.1 and your state bar’s advertising rules under a written review procedure. That’s a documented step in every engagement — not a line on a website.

See the full methodology →

Practice areas we serve

Tuned to how your buyers actually search.

PI buyers ask different prompts than immigration buyers. Family law than corporate. Each practice area gets its own GEO playbook — citation sources, schema patterns, compliance overlay tuned to how your specific clients arrive at AI search.

Personal Injury

Get cited when injured plaintiffs ask AI for the best PI lawyer in their city.

Immigration

Get cited when applicants ask AI about EB-5, family, employment, asylum, removal.

Family Law

Get cited when divorce, custody, and adoption clients ask AI for help.

Corporate / M&A

Get cited when GCs, CFOs, and PE firms ask AI for the right corporate counsel.

Criminal Defense

Get cited when defendants and families ask AI for urgent criminal counsel.

Illustrative scenarios

What a successful engagement looks like.

We're a founding-cohort agency, so rather than dress up early numbers these are illustrative scenarios — the kind of outcome the VERDICT™ methodology is built to produce, not actual client results. Real, client-consented case studies will replace them as engagements mature.

Illustrative

Personal Injury · Southwestern US

0/12 → 9/12 PI prompts in 6 months.

Mid-size PI firm built citation share through entity work, attorney-attribution placements, and FAQ schema.

+312%Citation lift

47Consultations

Illustrative

Immigration · Orange County, CA

Korean-language EB-5 prompt dominance.

Boutique immigration firm became dominant on Korean-language EB-5 prompts in 5 months.

+218%Citation lift

31Consultations

Illustrative

Family Law · Pacific Northwest

Top-3 cited firm in metro in 5 months.

Multi-attorney family-law firm went from invisible to top-cited across 70%+ of family-law prompts.

+412%Citation lift

62Consultations

All case studies →

Who runs this

A specialist, not a generalist agency.

Shawn Lai

CEO & Founder, Legal Torch

Shawn Lai is the founder of Legal Torch. He spent his prior career as a Senior Manager in Deloitte's AI & Engineering Services practice, where he led AI implementation programs for enterprise clients across financial services, professional services, and healthcare.

He started Legal Torch after watching law firms — his clients' clients — lose visibility on the prompts their future buyers were asking ChatGPT. The firms had budgets for SEO and PPC. Almost none had a play for AI search. Legal Torch is built to fix that. UCLA Anderson EMBA.

LinkedIn → Read full bio Read latest writing

From the desk

Recent insights.

May 10, 2026 · 9 min read

AI search and ABA Rule 7.1 — what every law-firm marketer needs to know

How AI-generated content can quietly cross state-bar advertising-rule lines, why generalist GEO agencies don't catch the violations, and the practitioner checklist for catching them before they ship.

Forthcoming Q4 2026 · 20 min read

PROOF Series #1: Cal Bar 7.1 + AI citation rates

A quantitative study of 200 California firms across 4 AI engines. Pre-registered methodology — publishable either way.

All insights →

Common questions

FAQ

Three things. First, AI-search-first methodology (the VERDICT Framework) — we don't bolt GEO onto SEO; the methodology was built around AI engines from day one. Second, vertical specialization — we work with law firms only, with practice-area-tuned playbooks for PI, immigration, family, corporate, and criminal. Third, the Compliance pillar — every output is reviewed against ABA Model Rules and the relevant state-bar advertising rules. No generalist agency offers that.

Most engagements show measurable AI citation lift on baseline prompts by month 4. Consultation attribution typically follows by month 6. Pipeline-level impact accumulates from month 6 onward as the work compounds.

Engagements are scoped per firm based on practice mix, firm size, and target geography. The typical entry point is a Diagnostic Audit ($2,500, fixed, 10 business days) — that gives both sides a baseline before committing to a retainer. Retainer pricing is confirmed on the strategy call after the audit.

Initial term is 90 days (foundation work doesn't pay off in less time). After that it's month-to-month with 30-day notice.

Common situation. We work alongside existing SEO partners — the AI SEO hybrid service is built for this. We coordinate with your SEO agency on shared workstreams (schema, content, link acquisition) and own the AI-search-specific work end-to-end.

No. Legal Torch is a marketing agency that specializes in AI search visibility for law firms. We don't provide legal advice. Our scope is marketing strategy, content engineering, and AI citation tracking — reviewed for compliance with the legal-advertising rules in the firm's jurisdiction.

Get your law firm cited by AI before your competitors do.

Your future clients are asking ChatGPT before they Google.

Seven pillars. One outcome: your firm cited by name.

Every agency says “AI search” now. Ask how they measure it.

Published methodology.

Five surfaces, measured per engine.

Compliance as a workflow, not a word.

Tuned to how your buyers actually search.

What a successful engagement looks like.

A specialist, not a generalist agency.

Recent insights.

FAQ

Find out how AI search sees your firm.