The lawyer in the photo had seven fingers.
That was one of the giveaways on a Google listing called "Huntsville Car Accident Lawyer." According to Conrad Saam's write-up, "AI and SPAM team up in Alabama and beyond…", the profile "reeked of AI," from its imagery to its 11 reviews, which came from Google accounts with almost no history and never mentioned the firm behind the phone line. The website never named a real lawyer. But call the number, and you reached the intake team of Alexander Shunnarah Trial Attorneys, which Conrad calls "one of the most recognizable brands in personal injury law." Conrad has since updated his post: the Huntsville site and some others now send visitors to Shunnarah offshoot sites, though the generic firm name on the Google profiles has stayed.
Then the same template turned up 600 miles away. And again. Conrad and a group of fellow marketers traced it from Alabama to Louisiana to New Jersey, and he and Gyi Tsakalakis walked through it on Lunch Hour Legal Marketing in "Fake Listings, AI Reviews… Where the Hell Is Google?" One New Orleans "office" showed AI lawyers posing in front of tidy landscaping. The real building at that address, Conrad found, is "a multi-use nail salon/bar/noodle house/spa." Somewhere, a Jimmy McGill is taking notes. Conrad suspects the profiles "number well in the hundreds."
This isn't just a story about sloppy AI. If the reporting holds, it describes a deception campaign aimed at people on one of the scariest, most chaotic days of their lives: someone just hit on the highway, searching for a local lawyer they can trust, and reaching a firm they didn't know they were calling. What the reporting describes would run afoul of Google's rules for business listings, the FTC's ban on fake reviews and the state bar rules that govern every lawyer's license. The firm's side hasn't been heard, and Conrad is careful to note that the review signals "do not independently prove that a review or profile is fraudulent." But the pattern raises a question every firm should ask about itself: who is marketing under your name, and do you know what they're doing?
Every listing, review and ad a vendor runs carries a firm's name, and the responsibility doesn't leave with the invoice. That's why self-regulation is the smartest PR move a law firm can make. Vet every vendor on attorney advertising, solicitation and Google rules before they start. Supervise the work after. Put a person in charge of every AI tool. The firms that do aren't just staying inside the rules. They're protecting the one asset no ad budget can buy back: trust.
Shakespeare saw this coming. In The Merchant of Venice, a prince picks the golden casket, sure it holds the prize. Inside he finds a skull with a scroll tucked in its empty eye:
All that glisters is not gold.
Often have you heard that told.
Many a man his life hath sold
But my outside to behold.
Gilded tombs do worms enfold.
(Glisters is the archaic spelling.) Eleven five-star reviews glitter. So does a polished office that turns out to be a noodle house, and a lead source that seems to produce signed cases out of thin air. Gilded tombs, all of them. Most of us learned the plainer version as kids: if it's too good to be true, it probably is.
Credit where it's due
First, a thank-you. Gyi Tsakalakis of AttorneySync, a licensed, non-practicing attorney, and Conrad Saam of Mockingbird did something our industry mostly does in private groups and side texts. They wrote it down, showed their work and put their names on it.
Conrad's post is a model for this kind of reporting: specific, documented and careful about what the evidence does and doesn't prove. And they did the fair thing. The episode notes say they invited the firm's digital marketing director on the show to respond, and that invitation still stands. The hosts later reported that the profiles were gone, and Conrad's update says some now point to Shunnarah sites instead. Credit also goes to the independent Review Fraud write-up, which reported similar listings in Louisiana weeks earlier, and to the marketers who kept raising the issue until someone connected the dots.
I'm not going to pile on the firm or the individuals behind it. The real story isn't one firm. It's what happens when nobody is minding the marketing.
A very old story
Shakespeare's tragic heroes are rarely brought down by their enemies. They're brought down by ambition that outruns judgment. Macbeth admits he has no spur "but only vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself and falls on th' other," per the Folger Shakespeare Library.
That's hubris. Ambition isn't the problem. Every growing firm needs it. Unchecked ambition is. The antidote has always been character: the decisions a firm makes when it's confident no one is looking.
I'm not casting anyone as Macbeth. But the pattern rarely starts with a villain. It starts with a shortcut that worked, then a bigger one, then a dashboard so good nobody wanted to ask why.
Your state bar holds the license
The ABA gets quoted first in advertising ethics, and it should be heard. But plaintiff lawyers will tell you, correctly, that the ABA doesn't hold anyone's license. Your state does.
The ABA says so itself. Its Model Rules and ethics opinions "are advisory only," and "the ethics rules, laws and court decisions in each jurisdiction are controlling," according to the ABA's own consumer guide. The Model Rules are the blueprint. Each state decides what gets built, and many built something stricter. Look at the three states in this story.
- Alabama. Under the state's Rule 7.1, a lawyer must not "make or cause to be made" a false or misleading communication. Rule 7.2 makes each lawyer who appears in or is identified in a communication responsible for it, unless the lawyer "reasonably was not aware" of it or "reasonably could not have controlled its content." Its commentary treats "lawyer" as including the firm and reaches lawyers advertising in Alabama even if they aren't licensed there.
- Louisiana. Rule 7.7 requires lawyers to file non-exempt advertisements with the Louisiana State Bar Association for evaluation before or at first use. The LSBA adds a line every marketer should memorize: "exempt" does not necessarily mean "compliant."
- New Jersey. A Supreme Court-appointed Committee on Attorney Advertising disciplines advertising violations. In its Opinion 43, the committee wrote: "Attorneys are responsible for the language and methods of websites on which they advertise."
Every state is different. That's why I built Attorney Advertising Rules by State, The Reference Desk's directory linking the official advertising, disclaimer and solicitation rules for all 50 states. Start with your own state, then every state where you advertise.
So where does the ABA fit? It's the shared vocabulary. Because nearly every state's rules are built on the Model Rules, ABA opinions are often where ethics counsel and bar staff look first when a state hasn't addressed a new problem.
Nobody can police what they can't see
On the episode, Gyi said state bars generally aren't equipped to investigate fake profiles at scale. As he put it, "they're not the FBI." Conrad's whole question was where Google has been.
Both are fair. Bars do enforce the rules, and some, like Louisiana and New Jersey, have dedicated advertising machinery. But they mostly act on what's filed or reported. A mailbox-address profile in another state's market may never cross anyone's desk.
The bar can take your license. Only you can protect your name.
And don't count on going unnoticed. Your competitors are watching. When the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers surveyed state bar regulators, 78 percent said the people who file most lawyer-advertising complaints are other lawyers. Only 3 percent said consumers, according to the ABA's The Professional Lawyer. In a market as competitive as personal injury, the firm across town is often reading your ads more closely than the bar is. These listings came to light the same way: other firms spotted them and complained.
This is why I think of self-regulation as a PR strategy as much as an ethics obligation. The best crisis communications plan is the crisis you never have. A firm that has to say "we didn't know what our vendor was doing" has already lost the room, whether or not anyone files a grievance.
There's a bigger stake for the plaintiff bar, too. Every fake listing hands tort-reform ammunition to people who'd like to restrict how injured people find lawyers. That isn't hypothetical. In a 2025 Advocate Magazine article, Consumer Attorneys of California's Nancy Peverini warned that "over-the-top advertising is driving the tort reform discussion in Sacramento." In Louisiana, one of the states where these listings turned up, the governor called on lawmakers in 2025 to restrict personal injury lawyer advertising. Fake listings also drive up advertising costs. Fake listings saturate the market, so every legitimate firm pays more to be seen. Self-regulation protects your firm and every plaintiff firm's right to advertise.
"The vendor did it" isn't a defense
Gyi summed it up on the show: "the lawyers are ultimately accountable for what they're paying the marketing people to do."
Your state rules are where that accountability lives, and the ABA framework explains why so many states land in the same place. Model Rule 5.3 makes lawyers with managerial authority responsible for supervising the nonlawyers working for the firm. ABA Formal Opinion 501 describes a lawyer who knew a lead generator was using impermissible phone solicitation and accepted the leads anyway. The lawyer "is responsible for the lead generator's conduct."
Two rulebooks sit outside the bar entirely. The FTC's fake review rule covers AI-generated reviews and reaches businesses that buy or spread reviews they "knew or should have known" were fake. And Google's Business Profile guidelines make lead generation agents ineligible, exclude virtual offices and remote mailboxes, and bar phone numbers that send users to a different business.
As Cassius tells Brutus in Julius Caesar, "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves." Not in the vendor, the algorithm or the platform. In the firm that didn't look.
Step one: vet the vendor
If accountability can't be delegated, vendor selection is a risk decision, not a procurement decision. Before anyone markets under your name, they should show you they understand five things.
- Your state's advertising rules, and those of every state where you advertise, including filing requirements and required disclosures. If they've never looked them up, hand them the Reference Desk.
- Attorney roles. Who at the firm is responsible for the advertising, who approves it and why a lawyer stays in the loop.
- Solicitation rules. Where live calls, texts, or in-person contact can cross from advertising into solicitation.
- Platform rules. Google Business Profile eligibility, review policies, Meta's ad policies and the FTC's rules on reviews and endorsements.
- Ethics as a value, not a sales line. Ask what they've walked away from, and for references from long-term clients.
None of this means you can't buy leads, use AI or open new markets. Plenty of firms do all three ethically. It means a promise of more cases for less money, from a vendor who can't show you how, is too good to be true.
One more question for every vendor: who owns the accounts? Your Google Business Profiles, ad accounts, domains and review profiles should be in the firm's name, not the vendor's. Here's what to secure first if a vendor ever closes its doors.
Step two: supervise what you bought
Vetting gets the right partner in the door. Oversight keeps them honest. It's a routine, not micromanagement:
- A named lawyer or marketing leader approves advertising before publication, and someone tracks state filing deadlines.
- Every quarter, someone searches Google for listings, reviews and phone numbers tied to your intake line, including ones you didn't create.
- Every month, intake and marketing reconcile lead sources. Calls that can't be traced to a known channel get flagged, not celebrated.
- Every review comes from a real client, and every advertised office has a real address and real people.
Intake hears every call and the CRM logs every source. If a firm can trace a signed case to a billboard, it can trace one to a listing it's never heard of. "We didn't know" isn't a neutral position. It's a gap in the system.
The everyday version: AI with no one in charge
Fake listings with seven-fingered lawyers are the extreme. The everyday version is probably in your feed right now.
It's the firm whose marketing is obviously run by AI with nobody steering. The blog posts all start the same way and say nothing. The images have that slick, airbrushed look that tells everyone no human made a choice. The brand doesn't sound like anyone, because no one decided what it should sound like.
That's AI slop, and audiences spot it instantly. Macbeth had a line for it: "a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."
The problem isn't AI. I build AI workflows for plaintiff-firm marketing, and the tools are genuinely powerful. The problem is the absence of three things:
- Governance. A written policy on what AI can do, what data can go into it and who signs off on the output.
- Oversight. A human who checks facts, claims, disclosures, imagery and state-rule compliance before anything ships.
- Creative direction. Someone who knows the firm's voice, real lawyers, real clients and real story, and decides what's worth saying.
The ABA has drawn this line for legal work. Formal Opinion 512 says managing lawyers should set clear policies on generative AI and supervise the people and outside providers using it. The same logic applies to marketing. A tool can draft. Only a person can be accountable.
Those seven-fingered lawyers made it online because nobody looked. Every piece of AI slop has the same root cause.
How the story ends
Every Shakespeare tragedy reaches Act V, and the ending never surprises the audience. The flaw was visible from the first act. Only the hero didn't see it coming.
For a law firm, the first thing Act V takes is its name. Cassio, disgraced in Othello, says it best: "Reputation, reputation, reputation! O, I have lost my reputation! I have lost the immortal part of myself." That isn't poetry to a plaintiff firm. Reputation is what referring attorneys trade on, what jurors weigh and what an injured person trusts when they tap a phone number at the worst moment of their life.
And it doesn't come back on schedule. Lady Macbeth, trying to scrub away what she's done, gets the last word: "What's done cannot be undone." Listings can come down. Screenshots, podcast episodes and blog posts stay up.
Here's the good news. Law firms aren't characters in a play. They can rewrite Act V before they get there. Vetting, oversight, governance and creative direction are a firm deciding its own ending while it still holds the pen.
The bottom line
Self-regulation isn't a compliance chore that slows growth. It's the strategy that keeps growth from turning into a headline.
Know your state's rules. Vet the people who market for you. Supervise what they do. Put real governance and real creative direction behind every tool you use, including AI. The firms that do this won't just stay out of trouble. They'll be the ones consumers trust, referring attorneys recommend and reporters call for comment, instead of about. If you want a second set of eyes on how your marketing is governed, that's the work I do.
If it's too good to be true, it probably is. If it has your name on it, it's yours.
Frequently asked questions
Are law firms responsible for what their marketing vendors do?
Generally, yes. State rules based on ABA Model Rule 5.3 hold managing lawyers responsible for supervising nonlawyers working for the firm, and ABA Formal Opinion 501 held a lawyer responsible for a lead generator's improper solicitation. Check your own state's version.
Do the ABA Model Rules or state bar rules control lawyer advertising?
State rules control. The ABA describes its Model Rules as advisory and each state's rules as controlling. Find yours in the Attorney Advertising Rules by State directory.
Can lead generators have Google Business Profiles for law firms?
No. Google's Business Profile guidelines make lead generation agents ineligible and bar virtual offices, remote mailboxes and redirecting phone numbers.
What should a law firm ask a marketing vendor before hiring them?
Ask whether they know your state's advertising rules and filing requirements, who at the firm approves the advertising, where their calls, texts or in-person contact could cross into solicitation, how they follow Google, Meta and FTC rules, and what work they've turned down. Also confirm the firm owns every account they set up.
Are fake or AI-generated reviews against the rules?
The FTC's 2024 rule bans fake reviews, including reviews from people who don't exist, such as AI-generated ones. Google's policies also prohibit fake reviews, and state rules based on ABA Model Rule 7.1 bar false or misleading communications about a lawyer's services.