Your Next Solicitor Is Researching Your Firm Through AI Before They Apply

By Ben Holtom, Founder of RecQuest

Every firm knows candidates look them up before an interview. Far fewer have looked at what that search now returns. When a solicitor thinks about moving, they no longer start on your careers page. They start by asking ChatGPT, Gemini or Google's AI Overview what your firm is known for, which partners lead which teams, what it is like to work there, and how you compare to the firm down the road. The answer is stitched together from whatever your website makes legible, plus whatever the rest of the web says about you. If those signals are thin, the AI does not say it is unsure. It fills the gap, sometimes with a competitor, sometimes with a version of your firm that sounds smaller and quieter than you actually are. This piece covers why that matters for hiring, and what to do about it.

The research now happens before the application

Something shifted this year. The first move a solicitor makes when they consider a firm is no longer an application. It is a question, typed into an assistant. How much does a paralegal earn. Is this firm a good place to work. Which firms in Southampton or Bournemouth are hiring. That research happens weeks before a CV lands, and it happens through an AI layer most firms have never once audited. The impression forms before anyone at your firm has said a word, and before you know the candidate exists.

The search data backs it up

This is not a hunch. It is visible in how legal professionals now research firms. LawBoard, which holds verified profiles for nearly 9,000 SRA-regulated firms across England and Wales and runs its own salary estimator, exists precisely because people want to check a firm's size, regulatory standing and pay in one place before they make contact. Browse the LawBoard firm directory and you are looking at the same raw material an AI assistant draws on. The LawBoard salary estimator answers the pay question a candidate used to be too polite to ask at interview. We see the same pattern from the other side every week: solicitors check pay, check titles, and check what a firm is actually like before they attach their name to it. We covered how candidates should use this data in our guide on how to choose which family law firm to join. The firms that win are the ones who realise their candidates are already doing this homework.

Your strongest solicitors research the hardest

Here is the uncomfortable part. The people you most want to hire research the hardest. The settled, already employed solicitor with options is exactly the one who quietly asks an assistant about you and, if the answer is thin, moves on without ever raising a hand. You never see that application, because it never gets made. This is the passive candidate problem in a new form. As we set out in six signs your law firm should outsource recruitment, the strongest legal candidates are rarely on the job boards. Now they are also screening you through AI before they will even take a call.

The careers page you forgot is the one they read

Most firms pour their online effort into winning clients. The same pages now do double duty. Your people pages, your practice area content, your named solicitor bios: that is the raw material a candidate's AI search draws on to decide whether you are worth the risk of a conversation. If your careers page is a stock photo and a line about always looking for talented people, the AI has nothing to work with. Neither does the person reading it. Vague reads as low, in exactly the way "competitive salary" reads as low. The firms that put real specifics on the page, what they pay, how they develop people, and what the work actually is, give both the candidate and the assistant something solid to hold on to.

Where this stops being our lane

The hiring side of this we can talk about all day. Making your firm legible to AI search is a specialism of its own, and a different one to ours. Gregg King does exactly that for UK law firms: AI search visibility, handled in an SRA-aware way. His UK Law Firm AI Visibility Report 2026 is the clearest work we have found on how firms actually appear, or fail to appear, when someone asks an assistant about them. He made a point recently that we would put our own name to: AI search has quietly merged your marketing audience and your hiring audience into people asking the same questions in the same place. If your firm is investing in the technical side of visibility, his writing is where we would start.

Three things worth doing this week

Ask the assistant yourself. Type your firm's name into ChatGPT or Google's AI Overview and read what a candidate reads. Notice whether it mentions your people, your work and your culture, or whether it reaches for a competitor instead.

Name your solicitors. Real bios, real roles, on real pages. It helps a candidate picture the team, and it happens to be one of the signals AI search trusts most.

Put the specifics on your careers page. What you pay, how you develop people, and what the work actually is. If you are not sure where your salaries sit against the local market, our breakdown of what employment solicitors earn on the South Coast shows how far apart two firms at the same PQE level can be.

What this means for firms hiring on the South Coast

For firms across Hampshire, Dorset, Surrey, West Sussex and Wiltshire, the practical point is simple. Your next hire is forming a view of you before you know they exist, and they are forming it through a layer you can shape. The technical visibility work is Gregg's world. The hiring itself, the brief, the salary benchmarking, and the passive candidates who will only move for the right firm, is ours. If a vacancy matters and you want it filled by someone who has done their homework and still wants to talk, speak to RecQuest about your brief. And if budget is the reason you are hesitating, our note on the SRA fee increase and hiring budgets is worth a read first. The firms that win the next few years of hiring will not be the ones with the biggest ad budget. They will be the ones a good solicitor can research at 10pm and come away thinking, that looks like a place I could do my best work.

FAQ

How do candidates research a law firm before applying?

Increasingly through AI. Before they reach your careers page, many solicitors ask ChatGPT, Gemini or Google's AI Overview what a firm is known for, what it pays, and what it is like to work there. Tools like the LawBoard firm directory and salary estimator feed the same research habit.

Why does AI search visibility matter for hiring and not just marketing?

Because the marketing audience and the hiring audience now ask the same questions in the same place. A thin online presence costs you clients and candidates at once. Specialists such as Gregg King work with UK law firms on exactly this.

What should a law firm careers page include?

Specifics. Real solicitor bios and roles, what you pay or a genuine range, how you develop people, and what the day-to-day work actually is. Vague language reads as low to both a candidate and an AI assistant.

How do I find out what AI says about my firm?

Ask it. Type your firm's name into ChatGPT or Google's AI Overview and read the answer as a candidate would. If it reaches for a competitor or sounds thinner than you are, that is your starting point.

About the Author

Ben Holtom is the founder of RecQuest, a specialist legal recruitment consultancy based in Romsey, Hampshire. RecQuest works with law firms across the South Coast to find outstanding legal professionals. For a confidential conversation about your next hire, contact Ben at info@recquest.co.uk or call 02382 122 051.

Firm data referenced in this article is drawn from the LawBoard firm directory, built on the SRA register. AI search visibility guidance references the work of Gregg King.