Professional firms
People looking for a lawyer or an accountant often ask an AI assistant for a few names. TrustInsider shows you how your firm is described and prepares corrections that stay within the rules of the profession.
The rules of the profession
Every profession has its own rules on information to the public, which differ from one country to another. A correction that glorifies the firm or promises an outcome can break them.
Professional bodies and codes of conduct govern how professionals present themselves and their work. The firm knows which ones apply to it; the platform prepares informative drafts, with no promises or comparisons, and leaves them for approval by whoever signs for the firm.
A sample practice area of a professional firm described in two ways: on the left in a promotional tone with promises, on the right with verifiable information.
| Promotional text | Verifiable information | |
|---|---|---|
| Opening | The best employment law firm in the city. | The firm advises businesses and workers on employment law. |
| Outcome | We win most of the cases we handle. | The areas covered and the professionals who handle them. |
| Reference | No link to the professional register. | The link to each professional’s entry in the register. |
Areas and registers
The assistant attributes to the firm an area it doesn’t practise, or ties it to an area dropped years ago. The wrong enquiries arrive and the right ones are lost.
Practice areas should be declared with the professionals responsible and stay consistent with the registers and directories where the firm appears. When a partner leaves, the professionals page is updated the same day, so the answer no longer associates them with the firm.
The sample practice areas page of a demo professional firm: the areas with the professional responsible, a dropped area removed and the date of the update.
What to avoid: the firm appears for an area it no longer practises, read in a directory never updated. What to do: practice areas with the professionals responsible, updated on the website and in directories together.
The professionals’ sources
For questions about professionals the assistant often relies on directories, sector rankings, professional body registers and reviews. The firm rarely knows which ones carry weight for its area.
Sources change from one profession to another: for lawyers directories and rankings count, for accountants local listings and reviews, for consultants the business press. The map of cited sources is read by practice area, and shows where an outdated listing keeps speaking for the firm.
Four types of source cited in answers about professionals, placed according to how much the firm can update them and how local the question is, without numbers.
How local the question is
How much the firm can update it
They say who is registered and where: the firm keeps them consistent, it doesn’t write them.
They place the firm in a practice area, often at national level.
They answer “near me” questions with address, hours and reviews.
It reports deals and mandates, and stays read for a long time.
Professional secrecy
A negative review calls for a reply, but the reply can’t reveal anything about the mandate. Professional secrecy and personal data rules apply there too.
The Action Center prepares replies that thank, acknowledge the issue and invite direct contact, without repeating any client facts. For accountants, reviews grow during tax return season and need closer attention; asking clients for reviews is done in line with European rules on reviews.
A firm’s sample reply to a negative review: it thanks the reviewer, repeats no fact about the mandate and invites direct contact.
QuestionReview: “Case handled slowly, we expected more updates.”
Demo firm · sample reply
Thank you for your feedback. We can’t comment on individual mandates, but we take seriously the issue of keeping clients updated. We invite you to contact us directly to discuss it.
The reply states the limit of professional secrecy without adding facts.
It acknowledges the subject of the review in general terms.
It moves the conversation to a private channel.
The work to do
Every error found becomes an intervention with a priority, a status and an owner. The firm sees what to fix first and who is handling it.
The glimpse shows the list of all Actions interventions on a demo brand: the calculated priority, impact, description, effort, status and due date of each. For a firm the typical intervention is updating a directory, removing a departed partner from the professionals page or correcting a practice area: each with its owner and its date.
Consulting firms
A consulting firm is searched for by expertise and by sector served. The answer draws on the business press, professional profiles and publications more than on the website.
The typical risk is an expertise attributed to a competitor or a sector served described badly. Clear expertise pages, signed publications and a consistent presence on professional profiles give the answer facts to repeat, without needing to name clients.
Three sample questions a business asks when choosing a consulting firm, with the fact the answer uses and the source where it usually finds it.
| Question | The deciding fact | Where the answer finds it |
|---|---|---|
| Who helps SMEs with business succession? | The declared expertise and sectors served | Expertise pages and business press |
| A firm with expertise in EU funding calls? | The work carried out and the publications | Signed articles and professional profiles |
| Consultants for organising a manufacturing plant? | Experience with that type of plant | Interviews and conference talks |
Frequently asked questions
Who approves the texts, how to correct a wrong specialism, how to reply to reviews and whether the platform also works for a small firm.
They are informational drafts, prepared to avoid promises or comparisons. Before they go out, they are approved by whoever signs for the firm, who knows the rules of their professional body.
By updating the practice areas page, the professionals page and the directory listings together, then checking the answer in the next cycle.
Yes: the reply thanks the reviewer, acknowledges the issue in general terms and invites direct contact, without repeating any client facts.
Yes: the panel is built with the firm’s practice areas and local questions, and grows if the firm opens other offices.
Related paths
Each role uses the platform with a different goal. From here you compare the other solutions, the path from brand to verification and the methodology behind the numbers.
Law firms: practice areas, current lawyers and offices of the firm in AI answers, with the sources to update when someone leaves the firm.
ReadAccounting and tax firms: services, deadlines and specialisms of the practice as AI assistants report them to people looking for an adviser.
Read