For law firms and solicitors

Law firm profile or individual solicitor profile?

Google names lawyers as one of its examples of an individual practitioner — a public-facing professional with their own client base. That's the starting point for every firm working out its Business Profile structure, but it doesn't settle the question on its own.

A firm with one office and one named partner, a firm with twelve solicitors across three practice teams, and a sole solicitor trading under a brand all need different answers. This guide works through the decision firm by firm, not with a single template.

The decision framework

Before creating anything, work out which of these shapes actually describes the firm:

Google guideline

Google's guidelines name lawyers alongside doctors, dentists, financial planners, and insurance or real estate agents as examples of individual practitioners. Eligibility depends on being public-facing with an identifiable client base, and on being directly contactable at a verified location during stated hours. Support staff — paralegals, legal secretaries, receptionists in a purely administrative role — aren't eligible for their own profile, and there's no basis for a profile per practice area.

Read Google's guidance

Naming a solicitor's profile correctly

The naming pattern follows directly from the structure above:

Several solicitors at one firm: each eligible solicitor's profile title is their own name only — not "[Firm] — [Name]" and not a job title.
A sole public-facing solicitor under a firm brand: "[Brand]: [Solicitor name]".
Never a practice-area suffix on either pattern — no "Family Law — [Name]" or similar.

Worked example: a mid-sized firm with three teams

Illustrative exampleHypothetical business, not a real customer

A firm with family, conveyancing and employment teams

A hypothetical firm has eight solicitors split across three practice teams, working from a single office. The firm has one Business Profile, with a primary category such as "Law firm" and practice areas described through services and the business description — "family law, divorce and child arrangements," "residential conveyancing," "employment tribunal representation," and so on.

Of the eight solicitors, perhaps three are genuinely public-facing with their own identifiable client following and are directly contactable at the office during stated hours; they may each have an individual profile under their own name. The other five work as part of the team without an independent client base, and don't meet the practitioner test on that basis alone — their profiles sit with the firm, not as individuals.

Nobody on the team gets a profile per practice area. A family solicitor who also handles some employment matters is still one person with one profile.

Firm structure and profile eligibility Illustrative example

Illustrative only — Google decides eligibility and verification case by case.

Harrow & Dean Solicitors
Own profile
Main category: Law firm
Practice areas (family, conveyancing, employment) are listed as services and description content, not separate profiles.
- Priya Anand — public-facing senior solicitor, own client base
  Only if it qualifies
  May have an individual profile named only "Priya Anand", contactable at the firm's office during stated hours.
- Tom Reyes — associate solicitor, no independent client base
  No separate profile
  Works as part of the team; no separate profile.
- Reception and paralegal staff
  No separate profile
  Administrative, not public-facing in the practitioner sense.
- "Family Law Team" as a standalone profile
  No separate profile
  A practice area is not a separate entity — no profile per specialisation.

Own profileOnly if it meets the rulesPart of the main profile

Firm-only profile vs. firm plus eligible solicitor profiles
	Firm-only profile	Firm + eligible solicitor profiles
Who it suits	Associates without an independent client base; firms preferring one point of contact	Named solicitors with their own client base, contactable at the office
Naming	Firm name and category	Solicitor's own name only (or "[Brand]: [Name]" if sole practitioner)
Practice areas	Services and description on the firm profile	Still services on the relevant profile — never a profile per area
Multi-office solicitors	N/A	Listed only where genuinely contactable during stated hours, not duplicated across every office

Confidentiality in a public-facing profile

A law firm or solicitor's profile is a public-facing tool, and everything written on it or in response to it needs to respect the duty of confidentiality that comes before any marketing consideration. A few concrete rules we'd apply:

Never confirm a client relationship in a reply. If someone leaves a review implying they instructed the firm, a reply shouldn't confirm or deny that the reviewer was a client, or reference the nature of their matter.
No case details, ever, in a public channel. Not the outcome, not the opposing party, not the area of law involved for that specific reviewer, even if the reviewer has already disclosed it themselves.
Follow your own regulator's conduct rules. In England and Wales that means the SRA's rules on client confidentiality and publicity; other jurisdictions have their own equivalents (for example, state bar advertising and confidentiality rules in the US). Google's review policy doesn't set out confidentiality wording — that duty sits alongside it, not instead of it.

A generically safe reply pattern: thank the reviewer for their feedback, avoid any reference to representation or case specifics, and invite them to get in touch directly if they have a concern. For example: "Thank you for taking the time to leave feedback. If you'd like to discuss anything further, please contact our office directly." That wording confirms nothing about whether the reviewer was ever a client.

Google guideline

Google's review policy prohibits incentivised reviews and reviews written by employees or owners of the business being reviewed. It has nothing to say about client confidentiality — that's a professional and regulatory obligation that firms carry independently of Google's rules.

Read Google's guidance

Genuine out-of-hours assistance, not a misleading '24-hour' claim

Some firms, particularly in areas like criminal defence or urgent injunctions, offer a genuine out-of-hours contact line. If that's real — a number that's actually staffed or forwarded to someone who will respond — it can be described accurately as out-of-hours or emergency contact availability.

What doesn't hold up is marking a profile as open 24 hours when the office itself isn't staffed and reachable around the clock. Google's hours should reflect when the business is genuinely open and contactable; a voicemail that nobody checks until 9am isn't a basis for a 24-hour listing.

GBPly recommendation

Why a solicitor's personal profile should serve clients, not just generate another search listing

It's tempting to treat an eligible solicitor's profile as a second shot at ranking — another entry showing up for the same searches as the firm. That's not what the practitioner exception is for. It exists because a solicitor with their own client base is genuinely a distinct, contactable point of contact, and the profile should behave that way: accurate hours for when that person is actually in the office, a description that reflects what they actually handle, and reviews that relate to real interactions with them specifically.

Where a solicitor's own profile and the firm's profile end up saying almost identical things with no real distinction in contactability or content, it's worth asking whether the individual profile earns its place, or whether it's just duplicating the firm's listing under a different name.

How GBPly fits a law firm or solicitor

AI-drafted review replies, human-approved

Drafts a reply that avoids confirming any client relationship or case detail; a team member checks and sends it.

Review management →

Profile Guard across firm and solicitor profiles

Flags unexpected changes to hours, category or contact details on any of the firm's profiles.

Profile Guard →

Multi-office consistency

Keeps hours, categories and contact details aligned across offices where a firm has more than one location.

Multi-location management →

GBPly works with profiles you already manage. It does not create, verify or decide eligibility for Business Profiles; Google does.

Law firm and solicitor profile questions

Can every solicitor at a firm have their own profile?

Only those who are genuinely public-facing with their own identifiable client base and who are directly contactable at the office during stated hours. Associates without an independent client base, and administrative staff, generally aren't eligible.

Can we create a profile for each practice area?

No. Google doesn't allow multiple profiles to cover different specialisations of the same practitioner or firm. Practice areas belong on the firm or solicitor's one profile as services and description content.

What should a solicitor's own profile be named?

Their own name only, unless they're the sole public-facing practitioner under a firm brand, in which case the pattern is "[Brand]: [Name]".

Can a review reply confirm someone was a client?

We'd avoid it. Confirming a client relationship or case detail in a public reply isn't something Google requires or prohibits specifically, but it risks breaching professional confidentiality duties that sit outside Google's review policy entirely.

Can we list the firm as open 24 hours if there's an emergency line?

Only describe hours and out-of-hours availability accurately. If the office isn't staffed and genuinely contactable around the clock, a 24-hour listing is misleading, even where a real emergency contact line exists.

Sources and guidance

Statements tagged Google guideline paraphrase Google's own help pages below. Statements tagged GBPly recommendation are GBPly's editorial opinion, and Illustrative example scenarios describe hypothetical businesses. Google's guidelines change; check the live pages before acting.

Guidance checked against Google's help pages on 12 October 2026.

Get your firm's profile structure right, once

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