How FindLaw works for lawyers: directory, websites, and the contract you sign

FindLaw began as an early online legal directory and has been part of Thomson Reuters since 2001. Today it operates as a marketing agency built around that directory, selling attorneys a package rather than a single product.

The published service list covers four groups: getting found (websites, local SEO, an authority listing service, directory advertising), getting contacted (pay-per-click, Super Lawyers listings, social media), staying connected (blogs, Spanish-language pages, review management), and tracking performance through a dashboard FindLaw calls Insight.

A firm typically buys several of these pieces at once under one subscription, rather than picking a single service the way a firm might buy one SEO package or one ad campaign elsewhere.

FindLaw's own marketing describes the directory as its largest, citing 9 million monthly visitors, and states that FindLaw serves more than 17,000 law firms as marketing clients. Both of those firms and non-clients with legacy profiles can appear in the same practice area and city listing a given attorney is trying to stand out in.

Unlike a bidding-based ad auction, FindLaw's public pages do not describe the directory ranking mechanic in detail, so a firm cannot see on FindLaw's own site exactly how many competitors share a given search result or how placement inside the directory is decided.

The pay-per-click piece of the bundle runs on top of, not instead of, that shared directory, so a firm's ad spend and its directory listing are two different exposure points that both sit next to competitors.

FindLaw's own pages state that pricing is customized to a firm's practice areas and geographic goals, and that a specific quote requires talking to a sales representative rather than reading a rate card.

The underlying contract is a Master Services Agreement between the subscriber and West Publishing Corporation doing business as FindLaw, paired with an order form and Product Specific Terms for whichever pieces of the bundle a firm buys. Where those documents conflict, the order form controls, then the Product Specific Terms, then the general agreement.

FindLaw's own customer support page does not publish that Master Services Agreement for a visitor to read before signing. It instead lists a billing phone line and directs subscribers with contract questions to their assigned Client Manager, which means the specific price, term length, and renewal mechanics are negotiated per firm rather than posted.

FindLaw does not publish a refund policy for its marketing subscriptions on its public pages. A firm considering the service cannot find a stated refund window or a cancellation notice period without opening the contract itself, so that information is not published where a prospective client can read it in advance.

What happens to a firm's website, domain, and directory placement if the firm stops paying, or if the agreement ends, is likewise not spelled out on FindLaw's public pages. General legal-industry practice for bundled marketing agencies is that the agency, not the client, typically registers and controls the domain and hosting unless the contract says otherwise, but that is a general pattern, not something FindLaw states about its own product on a page a firm can point to.

Because those terms live inside a Master Services Agreement that is not posted publicly, the honest answer for a firm doing pre-contract research is that FindLaw does not publish this, and a firm should ask its Client Manager for the specific clauses in writing before signing.

FindLaw's public pages describe what the firm gets while the subscription is active: a website, directory placement, managed ad campaigns, and content, tied together under one account.

What is not published is who holds the domain registration, who controls the hosting account, and what a firm can take with it if it leaves. FindLaw's terms of use for the general findlaw.com website addresses browsing the site, not marketing client ownership, and points instead to Internet Brands' broader terms, which is a different scope than the marketing contract a subscribing firm signs.

A firm evaluating FindLaw should treat website and domain ownership as an open question to settle in writing before signing, since FindLaw's own public pages do not answer it.

FindLaw fits a firm that wants one vendor handling a directory profile, a website, PPC, and content together, and that would rather negotiate one bundled price than manage several vendors and invoices.

Its scale, a stated 9 million monthly directory visitors and more than 17,000 client firms, can suit a practice trying to get visibility fast in a competitive market without first building an audience of its own.

A firm that wants to see its contract terms, refund policy, and domain ownership clauses in writing before it signs, rather than after, is better served starting that conversation with a vendor that publishes those terms up front.