Lawyer content marketing under your own name in the UK
Publishing under your own name is a professional statement, not a marketing asset. 7 questions have to be settled before you write: the byline, the areas you may cover, whether fees may be named, who checks, who corrects, the review date, and who owns the page when you leave.
Last updated: 5 August 2026
Whose statement is a page that carries your name?
Yours and the firm's at once, which is why the byline is the decision rather than the writing.
A page under a named solicitor is read as that person saying something about the law. Somebody who was given your name by a former client arrives, reads it, and treats it exactly as they would treat you saying it in a meeting. That is the whole value of the byline and it is also the whole exposure.
Three people sit in the chain and only one of them is visible: the author, the supervising solicitor who checks it, and the firm that publishes it. A marketing supplier is not in the chain at any point. We are not, and we would not accept being. We do not check statements about the law, we cannot approve one, and we will not draft a page in a named solicitor's voice unless that solicitor writes or corrects it themselves.
A damaging admission early: this is the part of the work where we are least useful. Everything below costs the firm time rather than money, and none of it is billable to us. It is here because a fee earner asked to start writing deserves the answer before they start rather than after the first page is live.
What must a publishing policy settle before anybody writes?
Seven questions, and an unanswered one becomes an argument later rather than sooner.
| Question | Who answers it | What goes wrong if nobody does |
|---|---|---|
| Which form of your name appears | You, once, everywhere | Your visibility divides across three spellings |
| Which areas of work you may write about | Head of the practice area | Somebody publishes outside their competence in good faith |
| Whether a fee may be named on your page | Whoever owns the firm's price and service information | A published figure that is not the figure charged |
| Whether past matters may be described | The firm | Client-identifiable detail in a published example |
| Who checks before it goes live | Named supervising solicitor | The draft waits, unread, until the author gives up |
| Who corrects it when the law moves | The named owner, not the author | A page states last year's position indefinitely |
| Who owns the page if you leave | The firm | An unowned page, still ranking, nobody responsible |
The third row is the one that catches firms out. The SRA Transparency Rules came into force on 6 December 2018 and expect price and service information for specified work types; we checked the position on 3 August 2026. Which of the firm's services fall within scope is a matter for the firm and its own advisers, never for a marketing supplier and never for a single fee earner. A solicitor naming a fee on their own page is publishing on the firm's behalf whether or not anybody intended that.
The sixth and seventh rows are the ones nobody assigns, and they are the two that decay quietly.
What should never go out under an individual's name?
Four things, and the last is the least obvious.
- A fee for work you do not control. If the figure changes and you did not set it, the page is wrong the day it changes and you are the name on it.
- Commentary outside your own area of work. A general statement about an unfamiliar area reads as authoritative because your qualification is printed beside it.
- Anything drawn from a live matter, however anonymised. The client can recognise their own facts even when nobody else can.
- A statement of the law with no date on it. Undated, it claims to be true now, permanently, which is a claim nobody can keep.
The remedy for the fourth is one line: the date the page states the position as at. It costs nothing, it is the difference between a page that ages and a page that misleads, and it gives whoever owns the correction something to sort by.
Who corrects the page when the law changes?
The named owner, on a review date set the day it is published, and it is almost never the author.
Authors move. A solicitor who writes eight pages over two years and then leaves has left eight pages that still rank, still carry a name the firm no longer employs, and still state the position as at a date now well behind. Nobody notices, because a page that is working generates no complaint.
So the review date belongs to the role, not the person: the head of the area of work holds it, and the file lists the page, the date, and who to reassign it to. A quarterly pass through the oldest ten pages is enough. It is clerical, and it is the only part of this that protects the rest.
There is a reason this matters more than it did. Across the keyword set we measured on 3 August 2026, 863 of 1,235 searches carry an AI Overview, and 39 of 54 of the money searches do. A stale sentence under a named solicitor is now liable to be lifted into a generated answer and shown without the page around it, which removes the context a reader would otherwise have used to date it.
What does the firm need to buy for any of this?
Less than most proposals assume, and the prices are published.
| What | Price |
|---|---|
| Price Transparency Pack | £890, ten working days |
| Firm Site | £2,400 |
| Firm Site+ | £4,200 |
| Authority Build | £6,900 |
| Retainer, monthly | £600 · £1,200 · £2,400, no minimum term |
£700 comes off a build taken with six months of retainer. Of 40 legal-marketing suppliers we read in full on 3 August 2026, twelve published a price at all, five showed only a range, eight claimed a guarantee of some kind, and one offered work with no minimum term.
We never charge per enquiry, per lead or per matter. LASPO 2012 section 56 prohibits referral fees in prescribed legal business including personal injury, and it binds the firm paying as well as the party being paid.
What will writing under your own name not do?
Three things, and the first surprises people.
- It does not travel with you. The pages belong to the firm. Keep your own copy of anything you write, because that is the only part you can carry.
- It does not produce instructions this quarter. Positions move in months three and four; clicks follow in months six to nine.
- It does not settle whether the firm should publish prices at all. That is a firm decision taken on its own advice, and no amount of good writing under one name substitutes for it.
What this is worth where you are
In Liverpool, 1,200 people a month search for a family solicitor, and Google charges around £38.60 for one of those clicks, measured 3 August 2026. We hold the same figures for 52 cities.
The free report gives you yours, plus which of the pages the rules ask for are missing from your site, and what 40 suppliers charge.
Where should I read next?
For the firm-scale version of this — who commissions, who checks, and what cadence survives — read content marketing for law firm. That page is the operation; this one is the byline.
On the search side of the same work: lawyer seo marketing and seo services for law firm.
If the firm is choosing a supplier rather than a process: marketing agency for legal firms and law firm digital marketing.
If matters are needed inside the quarter instead: law firm ppc.
Frequently asked questions
Who is answerable for a page published under a solicitor's name?
The author and the firm together, with a supervising solicitor checking before it goes live. A marketing supplier is not in that chain, does not check statements about the law, and cannot approve one.
What should a firm's publishing policy cover?
Seven things: the form of the name, which areas of work each author may cover, whether fees may be named, whether past matters may be described, who checks, who corrects when the law moves, and who owns the page if the author leaves.
Can a solicitor name a fee on their own page?
Only where the firm's owner of price and service information says so. The transparency rules have expected price and service information for specified work types since 6 December 2018, and which services fall within scope is for the firm and its own advisers.
What happens to pages when their author leaves the firm?
They keep ranking under a name the firm no longer employs unless somebody was named as owner at publication. Assign the review date to the role rather than the person, and reassign the pages at the same time as the caseload.
How often should published pages be reviewed?
Quarterly, over the oldest ten pages. It is clerical work, it takes an afternoon, and it is the only part of this that stops the rest becoming a liability.
Why does a page need a date on the statement of law?
Because an undated statement claims to be true permanently. With 863 of 1,235 measured searches carrying an AI Overview on 3 August 2026, a stale sentence can be lifted into a generated answer without the page around it to date it.
Does anything I write follow me to another firm?
No. The pages belong to the firm you wrote them at. Keep your own copy of the text, which is the only part that travels.