Schema for law firms
Which structured data (schema) should a law firm website use?
LegalService for the firm, Person for each lawyer, Service for each practice: the schema a law firm needs in 2026, the rules Google enforces, and what to delete.
By Santiago Alvarez, Founder, Ad Hoc Digital
Last updated
The short answer
If you read one part of this page, read this.
Use LegalService for the firm, Person for each lawyer (inside a ProfilePage on their bio), Service for each practice page, and BreadcrumbList and BlogPosting where they fit, all as one connected block of JSON-LD. Don't use the old "Attorney" type: schema.org marks it deprecated in favor of LegalService.
Keep expectations straight. Google says structured data isn't required for its AI features and there's no special schema for them, and FAQ rich results stopped showing in Google on May 7, 2026. What structured data does is label who the firm is, so machines don't have to guess, and that only works if every label matches what the page visibly says.
The quick win on many law firm sites is deleting markup: star ratings the firm wrote about itself, and details the page never shows. We work with law firms across the US and Canada, and also in Australia and the UK.
What it does
Structured data labels the firm, its lawyers and its services, and it's no shortcut into AI answers.
It's a block of code, usually JSON-LD, that tells search engines in a fixed vocabulary what the page already says in words. Google marks JSON-LD as its recommended format.
- What Google uses it for
Understanding the page, and eligibility for some visual features. For a law firm that means the firm's logo, business details in a knowledge panel, and breadcrumb trails, which Google's breadcrumb page says show on desktop.
- What it does for AI answers
Google's guide to its generative AI features lists "overfocusing on structured data" among things to ignore: it isn't required and there's no special schema to add, though it's still worth keeping for rich results. Bing says structured data may support clearer grounding for Copilot but doesn't promise visibility.
- What it can't do
Google says it doesn't promise that valid markup will show in results, even when its test tool passes it. Labels describe a page; they don't make a thin page good.
The types
Seven types cover almost every law firm site.
They join into one graph: the website, the firm, its lawyers, its services and its pages, each pointing at the others by ID.
| Type | Where it goes | What it carries |
|---|---|---|
| LegalService | Once, describing the firm (or one per staffed office) | Exact name, URL, logo, phone, address the site shows, social profiles the site links |
| Person | Each lawyer's bio page | Name, job title as the bio states it, worksFor the firm, license, education, languages |
| ProfilePage | Wrapping each bio page | The Person as mainEntity; Google lists an employee page as a valid use |
| Service | Each practice or case type page | The service name, with the firm as provider |
| WebSite | Once, site-wide | Site name and URL, published by the firm |
| BreadcrumbList | Every inner page | The path from home to the page |
| BlogPosting or Article | Articles and guides | Headline, author, dates published and modified |
- Why not "Attorney"
schema.org lists "Attorney" as a narrower type under LegalService and marks it deprecated, saying LegalService is more inclusive and less ambiguous. Plenty of plugins still output it. Replace it.
- Why LegalService and not plain Organization
Google's Organization page recommends "the most specific schema.org subtype", and for a local business it points to the LocalBusiness subtypes. A firm with an office clients visit is a local business; LegalService is its specific type.
- When Organization is right
When the site doesn't publish an address. schema.org describes LocalBusiness as a particular physical business or branch, and Google's local business markup requires an address. Our own agency site uses Organization for exactly that reason.
The rules
Google enforces one principle above the rest: the markup must match what a reader can see.
Most law firm schema problems break this rule. They label facts, ratings or areas that appear nowhere on the page.
- Only mark up visible content
Google's general guidelines say not to mark up content that isn't visible to readers, and that structured data must be a true representation of the page. Hours, a fee range or a bar association membership go in the label only if the page shows them.
- No star ratings about yourself
Google's review snippet rules say that if the business being reviewed controls the reviews about itself, its LocalBusiness or Organization pages aren't eligible for review stars. Its local business page recommends rating markup only for sites that collect reviews about other businesses.
- No fake or incentivized reviews in markup
Google added a guideline in July 2026: don't include fake or undisclosed incentivized reviews on the page or in the markup. Its general guidelines warn that reviews or ratings not written by actual users may lead to a manual action.
- What a manual action costs
Google says a structured data manual action removes the page's eligibility for rich results, and doesn't affect how it ranks in web search. The bigger cost for a law firm is the false claim sitting in its code, which is still marketing.
What we find
On the law firm sites we audit, most schema fixes are deletions.
When we checked the 16 client sites we host on October 1, 2026, the label problems fell into three patterns, and two of them were fixed by removing code.
| Problem | Sites | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| The retired "Attorney" type | 5 of 16 | LegalService for the firm, Person for each lawyer |
| Star ratings the firm wrote about itself | 3 of 16 | Remove them; real reviews live on the Business Profile |
| No firm labels at all | 6 of 16 | One connected graph built from the firm's confirmed facts |
The individual findings are more telling than the counts. One older build labeled the firm with map coordinates and a price range the site never showed, and listed a county the firm doesn't mention anywhere. Another bio label claimed a bar association membership that appeared nowhere on the page. Each is a statement the firm can't point to.
Our own site wasn't clean either. Our October audit found a star rating we had written about ourselves on our reviews page; the rebuild removes it.
How we build it
Seven steps, in the order we build a firm's labels.
The order matters because the facts come first. Code written before the facts are settled is how invented coordinates end up in a label.
Settle the facts
One master record per firm: exact name, address, phone, hours, lawyers, licenses, practice areas. A fact goes into a label only if the site visibly shows it and the firm's record agrees. Any conflict stays out until the firm confirms it.
Describe the firm once
One LegalService node with a fixed ID on every page, so the firm is one entity, not a dozen fragments. Street address only when the site and the record agree.
Add each lawyer
A ProfilePage and Person on each bio, linked to the firm. The license goes in as a credential recognized by the bar or law society, for example "Licensed to practise law in Ontario" for a Canadian lawyer, and only where the bio says it.
Add each practice page
A Service node with the firm as provider, for every practice page the site has. Never for a practice the site doesn't offer.
Add breadcrumbs and articles
BreadcrumbList on every inner page; BlogPosting on articles with the visible dates and author.
Delete what doesn't belong
Old firm-level blocks from previous builds, "Attorney", self-written ratings, and anything the page doesn't show. Two firm blocks on one page describe two firms.
Test, then check after launch
Google's Rich Results Test during the build, the Schema Markup Validator for types Google doesn't show as rich results, and Search Console's rich result reports after launch. On built sites, confirm a rebuild keeps the labels.
What changes the answer
Offices, countries and languages change the details, not the types.
The seven types stay the same. How many firm nodes, which wording and which addresses depend on the firm.
- More than one office
Each staffed office is its own physical business, so give each one its own node with its own address and phone, matching its own Business Profile. Our guide on one Business Profile per office or per lawyer covers the profile side.
- Canada, the UK and Australia
The vocabulary is international. The wording isn't: job titles and credentials follow the bio page and the regulator, such as "Lawyer" and the Law Society of Ontario for an Ontario lawyer, or "Solicitor" and the SRA in England and Wales.
- Pages in other languages
A WebPage node with the page's language on each translated page, pointing at the same firm and lawyers. One firm, several languages, not several firms.
- Video
Where a lawyer's video is embedded on a practice page, a VideoObject with the title, description, thumbnail and upload date the page shows.
A worked example
Hypothetical: cleaning up a plugin's output on a family law site.
This is an illustration, not a result. The firm and its markup are invented, but every problem in it is one we've seen.
More on how family law clients choose a firm in family law marketing.
What we see
In our client work, accurate labels are part of a consistent picture, not the reason a firm gets named.
We build labels on every site we run because they remove guesswork. We don't credit them with results.
The firms AI tools name are the ones whose website, Business Profile, listings and reviews agree. One family law firm now shows up first in ChatGPT, adding 50 to 100 calls a month over the last three months, and another moved into estate planning and started being found inside ChatGPT and similar tools. Labels were one small, accurate part of each.
Structured data is built into every one of the websites we make and checked monthly as part of AI search. If someone sells "AI schema" as the fix, read our guides on AI search vs SEO and llms.txt first: Google says neither special schema nor AI files are needed.
Common mistakes
Where firms go wrong.
We see these on law firm sites every month.
Star ratings in the firm's own markup
Google says a business that controls its own reviews isn't eligible for review stars. The markup earns nothing and states something the firm can't stand behind.
Labels that say more than the page
Hours, coordinates, price ranges, memberships or service areas the page doesn't show break Google's visible-content rule. Delete them or add them to the page first.
Two or three firm blocks on one page
A plugin, a theme and an old developer can each add their own. Machines then read several versions of the firm. Keep one.
Still using "Attorney"
schema.org deprecated it in favor of LegalService. It's a five-minute fix that most older sites still need.
Adding FAQ markup to win the dropdown
Google stopped showing FAQ rich results on May 7, 2026. Write the questions for readers; the markup is optional.
Real results
What this looked like for real firms.
Two firms clients now find inside ChatGPT, where accurate labels were one small part of a consistent picture across the web.
Identifying details are anonymized to protect our clients. Individual result, not a promise or prediction of any specific outcome for your firm.
FAQ
Questions lawyers ask us.
Straight answers to the questions that come up most.
Should a law firm use the "Attorney" schema type or LegalService?
LegalService. schema.org marks "Attorney" as deprecated and says LegalService is more inclusive and less ambiguous. Use LegalService for the firm and a Person for each lawyer, with their license as a credential. If your site still outputs "Attorney", usually from an old plugin, replace it rather than adding a second block next to it.
Does schema help a law firm show up in ChatGPT or Google's AI answers?
No platform says it does. Google says structured data isn't required for its AI features and there's no special schema for them, and Bing says markup may support clearer grounding without promising visibility. Accurate labels remove guesswork about who the firm is; pages, listings and reviews do the heavier lifting.
Do FAQ rich results still work for lawyers?
No. Google limited them to well-known government and health sites in 2023, and said they would stop appearing in Google Search from May 7, 2026. FAQ sections are still useful to readers, and Google hasn't said accurate FAQ markup does harm, but it no longer adds anything to a law firm's listing.
Can we add our Google review stars to our website's schema?
Google says pages where the business controls the reviews about itself aren't eligible for review stars, and its local business page recommends rating markup only for sites that collect reviews about other businesses. Show real reviews on the page if you like; leave them out of the markup. Our guide on reviews and AI search covers where reviews do count.
What schema should each lawyer's bio page have?
A ProfilePage with a Person as its main entity: name, job title as the bio states it, the firm as employer, the license as a credential recognized by the bar or law society, and education and languages only if the bio shows them. Google lists an employee page on a company website as a valid profile page.
How do I check my firm's structured data?
Paste a page into Google's Rich Results Test to see what Google reads and whether anything is broken, and into the Schema Markup Validator to check every type, including ones Google doesn't turn into rich results. After launch, Search Console's rich result reports flag errors across the site. Then compare each label against the visible page.
Does my Business Profile replace website schema?
They do different jobs. The Business Profile is Google's own listing for the firm; website labels describe your pages to every search engine and tool that reads them. Both should carry the same name, address and phone. Our Business Profile guide covers the profile.
Can you audit our site's schema?
Yes. We read every label block, compare it with the visible pages and the firm's confirmed facts, and list what to delete, fix and add. To have us look at yours alongside what AI tools say about your firm, schedule a consultation.
Where we do this
The services this guide touches.
What this looks like when we run it for a firm, with a demo for your practice on each page.
Sources
Where these facts come from.
Official pages we read when writing this page. Platforms and rules change, so check the current version before you act on any of it. This is marketing guidance, not legal advice.
- schema.org, LegalService
- schema.org, Attorney (deprecated)
- schema.org, LocalBusiness
- schema.org, Person
- Google Search Central, General structured data guidelines
- Google Search Central, Local business structured data
- Google Search Central, Organization structured data
- Google Search Central, Review snippet structured data
- Google Search Central, Profile page structured data
- Google Search Central, Breadcrumb structured data
- Google Search Central, Introduction to structured data markup
- Google Search Central, Latest documentation updates (FAQ rich result removal)
- Google Search Central, Optimizing your website for generative AI features on Google Search
- Google Search Central Blog, Top ways to ensure your content performs well in Google's AI experiences on Search (May 2025)
- Bing Webmaster Tools, Webmaster Guidelines
- Schema.org, Schema Markup Validator
Written by
Founder of Ad Hoc Digital. Leads strategy and works directly with every client firm on AI search, Local Services Ads, Google Ads and Meta ads.
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