How professional firms win clients who have never heard of them

Ask a lawyer or an accountant where new clients come from and the answer is usually the same: referrals. The evidence agrees, up to a point. In the latest tracker survey of 3,802 legal services users in England and Wales, the most common ways people chose a lawyer were having used them before (21%) or a recommendation from family or friends (18%), with an internet search next (11%)[1].

But a referral is where the search starts, not where it ends. In the same survey’s published data tables, 54% of people who chose on a recommendation tried to find more information about the firm before contacting it[2]. An earlier study for the regulator found that 69% of individual clients and 79% of small businesses looked at their solicitor’s website before instructing them[3]. Clients with a referral check you; clients without one can only find you through what is public. This guide is about making that public record win both.

The strongest data on how clients choose advisers comes from the UK; no comparable survey exists for Cyprus or the EU. Read the figures as the best available evidence on client behaviour, not as local statistics.

What clients look for

Regulation, reputation and specialism, before price. Being regulated was the most important factor for 91% of legal services users, with reputation and price following[1]. What would most increase their trust in a lawyer: being a specialist (92%), being regulated (91%) and “explaining things in a way they could understand” (91%)[4]. Three in four (76%) said positive published reviews would increase their trust[2].

Recommendation, and almost never the cheapest. In the regulator’s study, a recommendation was the main reason for choosing a solicitor for 31% of individuals and 26% of small businesses, and only 5% and 3% chose the cheapest provider[3]. One small business owner described the next step plainly: “you do a search of who the partners of the firm are and what kind of cases they have brought”[3].

Small businesses rely on a network of advisers. In a survey of more than 10,000 small businesses, the main reasons for choosing a legal adviser were specialism or expertise (26%), prior use (23%) and reputation (23%). Accountants were the professional advisers businesses used most, including for legal issues, and 10% of those using professional help chose their main provider on an accountant’s recommendation[5]. The newest official data, published in October 2026, shows the same pattern: of small employers who sought advice in 2025, 40% went to an accountant, 17% to a solicitor and 8% to a search engine[6].

The rules you work within

Regulated professions can promote themselves, within limits. The EU Services Directive required member states to “remove all total prohibitions on commercial communications by the regulated professions”, while keeping professional rules on independence, dignity, integrity and professional secrecy[7]. It also says that communications “compiled in an independent manner, particularly when provided for no financial consideration” are not commercial communications at all[7]: independent coverage is one thing, paid space another, and paid formats must meet the profession’s rules.

In Cyprus, the advocates’ code allows a lawyer “to inform the public about his or her services provided that the information is accurate and not misleading”, and permits personal publicity in any media to that extent. It also bars client hunting and the use of “any agents or brokers for the purpose of influencing and assigning any cases” to a law firm[8]. Accountants who follow the IESBA Code, which ICPAC applies, must be “honest and truthful” in marketing and must not make “exaggerated claims” or “disparaging references or unsubstantiated comparisons to the work of others”[9].

The common thread is that accurate information about your expertise is welcome, and anything that oversells, compares or pays for clients is not. The method below stays inside those lines.

The method, in six steps

1. Make your people findable and checkable

Clients search the partners, so give them something to find. Every partner and senior adviser needs a profile with their qualifications, experience, languages and the kind of work they do, written within the limits of confidentiality. For certain services, solicitors in England and Wales must already publish “the experience and qualifications of anyone carrying out the work, and of their supervisors”[10]; it is a good standard anywhere. Our guide on how to build a website that earns trust at first glance covers the rest of the site.

2. Publish your expertise under your partners’ names

Specialism is what raises trust most, and the clearest way to show it is to explain something in your field, well, under a partner’s name. Write for the business titles your clients and their other advisers read, choose subjects clients ask about, and source every claim. Our guide on how to become the expert your industry’s media quotes covers how journalists choose expert voices.

3. Stay visible to the advisers who refer

For small businesses, accountants sit at the centre of the adviser network, and lawyers, consultants and bankers around them. Be known to them: speak at the events they attend, write where they read, and make it easy for them to explain who you are when a client asks.

Directories and rankings work the same way. Chambers says its rankings “are based on real interviews with your specified references”[11], and The Legal 500 says “there is no cost to make an editorial submission”, with paid profiles written by firms and kept separate from its editorial research[12]. Make the submissions, and ask satisfied clients to act as referees.

4. Earn reviews and independent links, honestly

Google says a business’s prominence in local results depends partly on “how many websites link to your business and how many reviews you have”, and that “more reviews and positive ratings can help your business’s local ranking”[13]. Ask clients for honest reviews when a matter closes well, reply to the critical ones calmly, and never buy or reward reviews. Our guide on what regulators and search engines now expect as proof of trust explains the rules on reviews.

5. Show how you think, in a long conversation

Clients want to know what it is like to work with you before they do. A long-form interview, published as video and as a written feature, lets them hear a partner explain a subject in their own words, at length, without a sales pitch. Prepare for it like any interview that matters: our guide on how to prepare your spokespeople so every interview builds trust shows how.

6. Explain clearly, and say what things cost where you can

“Explaining things in a way they could understand” is one of the three things that would most increase clients’ trust[4], yet 63% of legal services users first learned the price by talking to the firm, and only 11% found it on the firm’s website[1][2]. Where your work allows it, publish how you charge, typical ranges and what affects the cost. Clients who understand the basis of a fee before the first meeting arrive ready to instruct.

A checklist for winning clients beyond referrals

1. Search for each partner’s name as a client would, and see what comes up.
2. Give every partner a full profile: qualifications, experience, languages, type of work.
3. Keep every claim accurate and confidential; never oversell or compare.
4. Publish sourced articles under partners’ names, in titles clients and advisers read.
5. Choose subjects clients ask about, and explain them plainly.
6. Be known to the accountants, lawyers and bankers who refer clients.
7. Make directory submissions, and ask satisfied clients to act as referees.
8. Ask for honest reviews when a matter ends well; never buy or reward them.
9. Earn links from independent sites through coverage, not exchanges.
10. Give a long-form interview that shows how a partner thinks.
11. Publish how you charge where your work allows.
12. Never pay anyone to steer clients to you.