A Google search ad is 30 characters of headline and 90 of description. Every state treats it as an advertisement. The rules it falls under were mostly written for billboards, television spots and printed mailers, long before an ad could be assembled on the fly from 15 headlines, rewritten by software, or shown on a phone the size of a business card.
So the rules don't always fit neatly. But they apply, and in some states the bar wants to see the ad before anyone else does.
This chapter sets seven jurisdictions side by side, California, New York, Texas, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana and Nevada, on the questions a Google ad actually raises: filing, results, the word "specialist," who has to be named, rival firms' names, and reviews. They were chosen for size and for how differently they handle the same questions. This is our reading of the published rules, checked at the source, so you can take it to your own counsel or your state bar. It isn't legal advice, and your state may say something none of these do.
Florida Wants Internet Ads Filed 20 Days Before They Run. Nevada and Texas Want Them After.
Here's how the seven handle filing:
- Florida: Internet advertisements, except a firm's own website, "must be filed for review with the bar at its headquarters address at least 20 days before their first use," with a $150 fee per ad, or $250 if filed late.
- Louisiana: non-exempt advertisements are filed "prior to or concurrent with first use." Louisiana's rules define online ads to include information that appears on search engine screens, but the state supreme court has suspended enforcement of one key provision for online ads. Ask the bar where a search ad stands.
- Texas: ads are filed with the Advertising Review Committee within 10 days after first dissemination, subject to the exemptions in its rules.
- Nevada: ads are filed within 15 days of first dissemination, each one separately, with a $100 fee per ad. Websites are exempt.
- New York: no filing, but the firm must pre-approve its ads and keep copies.
- California and Illinois: we found no filing requirement.
Florida also offers an exit. Its filing rule doesn't apply to ads "limited to the presumptively valid content listed in Rule 4-7.16," a list of basic information about the firm. Our reading: a plain search ad that sticks to the firm's name, the case types it handles, its location and how to reach it may fit inside that list, and an ad that adds results or quality claims won't. Check the list before you rely on it.
Then there's the question none of these rules answer: what counts as one ad? A responsive search ad can show thousands of combinations of its headlines and descriptions, and AI Max can write new ones from your site, as Chapter 13 explained. Nevada charges per ad. Florida reviews each one. We found no state that has said whether each combination is a separate ad. The safer practice is to file or keep every headline and description you wrote, and to keep AI Max's text customization off in any state that reviews ads.
Every State Words the Results Disclaimer Differently. None of Them Fit in a Headline.
Results are where the rules get specific, and where the wording differs most:
- New York requires the disclaimer "Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome" with ads that include results, testimonials, comparisons or claims about quality.
- Nevada requires a disclaimer that past results "do not guarantee, warrant, or predict future cases," and adds that the advertising lawyer must have been lead counsel or primarily responsible for the result.
- California says an electronic-media ad portraying a result must state that the result "was dependent on the facts of that case, and that the results will differ if based on different facts."
- Florida allows testimonials only under a list of conditions, including that they reflect the client's actual experience and come with a disclaimer when they mention results.
- Texas says that if an advertised verdict was later reduced, reversed or settled for less, each ad must state the amount the client actually received, with equal or greater prominence.
The shortest of those, New York's, runs 48 characters. A headline holds 30. So the working rule for a Google ad is simple: results stay out of headlines entirely. If an ad mentions an outcome, a pinned description must carry your state's sentence, which Chapter 8 covered, and AI Max must stay off or fenced, because Chapter 13 showed it can unpin that description. Results belong on the landing page, next to the disclaimer your state requires, not just in the footer.
"Specialist" Is Fine in Some States, Banned in Others and Limited to One Board in Texas.
The ABA's Model Rules say a lawyer generally may describe a practice as specializing in a field, as long as it's not misleading, but may only claim to be "certified as a specialist" when an approved or ABA-accredited organization certified them and the ad names that organization. The states split from there:
- New York: a specialist claim is barred unless the lawyer is certified, and then it comes with a required disclaimer.
- Illinois: the state's supreme court "does not recognize certifications of specialties," and a lawyer may not use "certified," "specialist," "expert" or similar terms, except to identify a real award or certificate, and then only with a statement that the state doesn't recognize specialty certifications.
- Texas: only certification by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization, or an organization it accredits, can be advertised.
A firm advertising in more than one state should write to the strictest one. Words such as "handles," "focused on," "years of experience" or the case type itself carry the same message without the risk. "DUI Defense Lawyer" says what "DUI Specialist" says, and works in all seven jurisdictions.
Your Ad Has to Say Who's Responsible. California Now Lets Consumers Sue Over the Ad.
Most states want an ad to identify the lawyer or firm behind it, and often where they practice:
- California: the name of a California lawyer or the firm, plus the city, town or county of a bona fide office.
- Texas: the name of the lawyer responsible for the ad and that lawyer's primary practice location.
- Florida: a lawyer or firm name and the city, town or county of an office, even in ads exempt from filing.
- New York: the name, principal office address and phone number in all advertisements.
- Illinois: the name and office address of a lawyer or firm responsible for the ad.
How a 30-character Google ad carries all of that is unsettled. Our reading: the firm's verified business name, a location asset showing the office, the display path and a call asset together go a long way, and a headline with the firm's name helps. None of the rules we read address Google's formats directly, so have counsel look at a sample ad as it actually appears.
California raised the stakes this year. Under the amended Business and Professions Code, effective January 1, 2026, a consumer misled by a lawyer ad can sue, after a State Bar finding, for statutory damages of $5,000 to $100,000 per unique advertisement. With a responsive search ad producing many combinations, "per unique advertisement" is a phrase worth asking your counsel about before the first click.
Bidding on a Rival Firm's Name Is Banned in North Carolina and Conditioned in New Jersey and Florida.
Google allows bidding on another firm's name as a keyword. Bars don't all agree:
- North Carolina: prohibited. A 2010 ethics opinion, adopted in 2012, found it a violation for a lawyer to select another lawyer's name as a keyword.
- New Jersey: permitted, but since a state supreme court decision on May 22, 2025, the landing page must carry a clear and conspicuous disclaimer. The required text: "You arrived at this page via a paid advertisement on [insert name of search engine provider] through paid keyword search results. This website and the legal business it describes are affiliated only with [insert name of purchasing attorney] and the other attorneys referenced within this website."
- Florida: permitted only if the ad clearly shows it's for a different firm than the one searched. The safe harbor is putting the advertiser's name first.
- Texas and South Carolina: permitted, as long as the ad itself complies. South Carolina warns against derogatory or uncivil messages.
- Most other states: no ruling we could find.
South Carolina's supreme court publicly reprimanded a lawyer in 2015 whose Google campaign bid on the names of opposing lawyers and ran an ad asking searchers whether they'd been "Ripped off? Lied to? Scammed?"
Chapter 5's default stands: rival names go on the negative list. A firm that wants a competitor campaign should read its own state's rule first, build it as its own campaign, and write ads that name the firm doing the advertising, never the one being searched.
A Gift Card for a Five-Star Review Breaks a Federal Rule Before Your Bar Ever Sees It.
Reviews show up in ads, on map listings and on Local Services cards, so the rules on them reach Google Ads too.
The FTC's rule on consumer reviews, issued in 2024, makes it an unfair or deceptive practice for a business to give compensation or other incentives "conditioned expressly or by implication on" reviews expressing a particular sentiment. A gift card for a five-star review is the textbook case, and it breaks the federal rule regardless of what the state bar says. Florida, New York and Louisiana separately limit or condition testimonials in lawyer ads. Ask every client for an honest review, and reward none.
Paying for leads is a different question, and the answer is generally yes. The comment to Model Rule 7.2 allows paying others to generate client leads, as long as the lead generator doesn't recommend the lawyer. A New York opinion allows paying a for-profit service per lead when the lawyer is chosen by transparent, mechanical methods and the service doesn't vouch for anyone. Paying Google per lead, as Local Services Ads do, fits that pattern. Whether a badge on a Local Services card amounts to a recommendation is a question no bar we read has answered.
Nearly Half the Firms in One Test Missed the Call. No Bar Rule Covers That. The Budget Pays for It.
Most of what goes wrong with law firm ads isn't a rules violation. It's a phone that rings and nobody answers. Chapter 15 covers missed calls: what they cost, why Google's own systems punish them, and how to fix intake before spending another dollar on clicks.
See every chapter on the guide home. Want ads built to your state's rules from the start? See our Google Ads management.
