Published in the New York Law Journal
“I found you by using AI.” For an increasing number of lawyers, some version of that sentence is becoming part of the regular client-intake conversation. A prospective client asks an AI system who handles a particular matter, receives a handful of names or a summary of firms’ capabilities, and arrives at a website with the confidence of someone who has already received a recommendation.
That interaction is easy to categorize as a marketing development. But it’s more consequential than that. When an AI system describes a firm’s expertise, litigation record, geographic reach, or reputation, it produces a synthesized account drawn from a public information ecosystem the firm only partly controls. If that account is incomplete, outdated, or wrong, the first indication may come after it has influenced a client’s decision.
The shift is already affecting how users act.
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