Media Relations in the Age of GEO
This piece began as an authentic human conversation between leading voices in legal marketing. We used AI to bring that conversation to you in written form.
Media Relations in the Age of GEO: Why Law Firm Visibility Depends on the Entire Communications Ecosystem
Law firms have long invested in earned media because a credible third party can validate expertise in a way that owned media alone cannot. Coverage in a respected publication, whether through a quoted comment, a substantive bylined article, or an ongoing relationship with a reporter, can reinforce a lawyer’s authority and help build trust with prospective clients. But generative AI is changing what happens after that credibility is created. Instead of always sending a prospective client to an article, website, or biography, AI-powered search tools can synthesize information and deliver an answer directly.
That changes the strategic value of communications. As Becky Bergman explains, “placement isn’t the end game anymore. It becomes an asset in a much larger ecosystem.” The question for law firm leaders is now whether the total body of information surrounding those attorneys consistently establishes the expertise, credibility, and trust necessary for both people and AI systems to recognize what they should be known for.
How Is AI Search Changing the Way Law Firm Expertise Is Discovered?
For law firms, visibility has always depended heavily on trust. Leslie Richards describes searches for legal counsel as high-stakes, low-frequency. and highly trust-dependent. Prospective clients are trying to determine who possesses the experience and credibility necessary to address a consequential problem.
AI search adds another layer to that decision-making process. Tools such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s AI-powered search experiences can act as intermediaries between a prospective client and the sources that inform the answer. Rather than reviewing a list of search results and evaluating each source independently, a user may receive a synthesized response that highlights lawyers, firms, or resources relevant to the issue.
As Leslie puts it, “the AI answer is often the entire interaction.” That makes the information available about a lawyer across the public web more consequential. If an attorney is not strongly connected online to the issues for which they want to be known, that attorney may never be included in the set of sources an AI system considers when formulating its response.
The same dynamic matters even when new business originates through traditional professional referrals. Sarah Larson challenges the familiar argument that online visibility matters less for attorneys whose work comes primarily through personal relationships. A referred prospect may still look at the lawyer’s website, biography, media coverage, or other online materials to validate that recommendation.
“They have to be seen to be awesome online as well,” Sarah says.
In other words, digital visibility does not necessarily replace relationships; it increasingly validates them. A trusted colleague may provide the introduction, but the prospective client can still use publicly available information to confirm whether the lawyer’s visible expertise aligns with the recommendation they received.
For law firm leaders, the strategic implication is that online visibility is part of the trust-building process, whether the original path to the lawyer began with a search engine, an AI platform, or a personal referral.
Why Does Earned Media Matter If the Audience Never Clicks the Article?
The traditional value of earned media remains intact. Becky notes that coverage in publications such as Bloomberg Law, Reuters, or Law360 still reaches important audiences and carries substantial credibility. What has changed is the potential lifespan and function of that coverage.
A strong media placement can now contribute to the larger body of information that establishes what a lawyer is known for, which issues are associated with that lawyer, and whether independent sources recognize that expertise. The initial readership matters, but it is no longer the only audience to consider.
This has important implications for how firms evaluate media opportunities. Leslie recalls attorneys questioning the value of appearing in a publication because their prospective clients may not regularly read it. Through the lens of AI search, however, that calculation becomes more complicated. A credible publication can help create an independently validated association between the lawyer and a particular subject.
That means the media relations strategy has to consider both who reads the placement today and what it establishes about the lawyer over time.
It also changes the value of volume for volume’s sake. Becky argues that ten disconnected quotations may ultimately contribute less to a lawyer’s positioning than a smaller number of substantive appearances focused on the lawyer’s priority practice area or issue.
The objective is not simply to accumulate mentions; it is to build a coherent body of evidence around expertise.
For managing partners, practice leaders, and CMOs, this requires a different way of assessing communications performance. A placement can still be valuable because of readership and reputation, but its strategic value also depends on whether it reinforces the subjects and capabilities around which the firm is intentionally building visibility.
Why Do Focus and Consistency Matter More Than Ever?
AI visibility introduces a tension that communications teams have faced for years: firms need enough content to establish authority, but they also need enough discipline to ensure that content reinforces a clear position.
Leslie describes this as the difference between association and surfacing. A lawyer first needs enough publicly available information to become associated with a particular subject. Once several credible sources are associated with that topic, originality, consistency and trust can help determine which sources become more prominent.
That means the answer to the debate between content volume and content quality is not one or the other.
“It’s both,” Leslie says.
A lawyer with almost no public footprint may struggle to establish a meaningful connection with the topics they want to own. But simply publishing more material does not solve the problem if the resulting content sends inconsistent signals about what that lawyer actually does.
Consistency, therefore, becomes a strategic discipline.
Leslie points specifically to the importance of aligning attorney biographies, LinkedIn profiles, author notes, thought leadership, and earned media. The descriptions do not need to be identical, but together they should reinforce a coherent picture of the attorney’s expertise.
That requires closer coordination between disciplines that firms may historically have treated separately. Media relations, content marketing, email, social media, and attorney biography management are all contributing to the same public identity.
For attorneys themselves, this can require the difficult decision of choosing a lane.
Lawyers often possess broad experience and may be reluctant to define themselves too narrowly. But attempting to be associated with every possible issue can make it harder to build recognizable authority around any one of them.
As Leslie explains, “the attorneys who do pick a lane have a much faster route to visibility.”
That does not mean abandoning other capabilities. It means identifying the subjects that deserve deliberate, sustained visibility, and ensuring that communications efforts reinforce those priorities.
How Is AI Changing the Way Journalists Find Legal Sources?
AI is not only changing how prospective clients search, it is also becoming part of journalists’ research processes.
Sarah explains that journalists are using AI tools in specific ways, including learning the background of complicated issues, identifying potential sources, and exploring themes that may inform future coverage. In the discussion, she references Muck Rack’s 2026 State of Journalism Report and its findings regarding journalists’ use of AI tools.
The important distinction lies in how those tools are used.
According to Sarah, the opportunity for lawyers is not to have AI generate the insight a journalist needs. It is to make genuine expertise easier for journalists to discover.
Reporters evaluating a complex legal or business issue may look for people already publicly connected to the conversation. Media mentions, articles, LinkedIn activity, awards, citations, and other forms of visibility can collectively help establish that connection.
“You as the source, the lawyer, are found online for the things that you want to be talking about,” Sarah explains.
That makes proactive positioning increasingly important. A lawyer cannot wait until a reporter requests a source and expect one reactive pitch to establish a credible public profile. Expertise must exist before the opportunity arises.
Yet AI’s growing role in source discovery is occurring alongside an equally important countertrend: journalists are becoming increasingly sensitive to the authenticity of responses.
Sarah and Becky discuss source requests explicitly stating that AI-generated answers will not be accepted. Sarah also describes an example involving fabricated source personas and notes the growing use of AI-detection tools.
The message for law firms is that technology cannot substitute for the lawyer’s actual point of view.
“Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good,” Sarah advises. Lawyers can become paralyzed by the expectation that everything they publish must represent their definitive statement on an issue. But a sustainable visibility strategy requires a steady flow of credible human insight, with exceptional ideas emerging when circumstances warrant them.
That makes authenticity especially valuable. The goal is not perfectly polished generic commentary. It is recognizable expertise that gives a journalist, client, or AI system a legitimate reason to associate the lawyer with the topic.
Why Does Trust Become More Valuable as AI Expands?
One of the strongest themes in the conversation is that technology is making human relationships more important.
As firms experiment with AI tools that can draft content, summarize research, and assist with communications, it can be tempting to ask whether technology can replace some of the strategic functions traditionally performed by communications professionals.
The discussion reaches the opposite conclusion.
Journalists working under deadlines need confidence in the people they rely on for sources. They need to know that the attorney is real, that the expertise is legitimate, and that the response represents the attorney’s actual thinking. A communications professional who has earned a reporter’s trust can provide that assurance.
Becky summarizes the principle: “It comes down to relationships.”
Sarah describes the same relationship from the journalist’s perspective. A reporter who already trusts a communications professional may be more confident that a recommended attorney is credible than the reporter would be when evaluating an unfamiliar, polished submission with no established relationship behind it.
Leslie extends that concept beyond media relations.
“Trust is a very valuable currency,” she says.
That observation connects the human and technological sides of GEO. Journalists seek trusted people and sources. Prospective clients seek ways to validate referrals and expertise. AI systems draw from bodies of information that can include independent, credible sources.
Trust, therefore, becomes the connective tissue between media relations, content marketing and AI visibility.
Law firms cannot manufacture that trust through one channel. They build it through consistent expertise, credible third-party validation, authentic commentary and relationships maintained over time.
What Should Law Firm Leaders Do First?
The episode concludes with practical advice that begins with focus rather than technology.
Becky recommends identifying three to five issues that the attorney or firm wants to be known for over the next year. Once those priorities are established, firms can ask a straightforward question: if a client, journalist or AI tool were to look for that expertise today, would they find it?
If the answer is no, the visibility gap becomes clear.
From there, Sarah emphasizes consistency without perfection. Lawyers need to contribute genuine insights rather than allowing perfectionism to prevent them from participating in important conversations.
Leslie recommends going one level deeper by examining the firm’s communications process itself. Every piece of content should reinforce consistent descriptions of practices, attorneys and capabilities across media relations, content marketing, email and social channels.
The result is not a GEO campaign operating separately from existing communications.
It is a more integrated communications discipline in which every channel contributes to a coherent, credible and discoverable public identity.
The Takeaway for Law Firm Leaders
GEO does not make traditional media relations obsolete. It makes the strategy behind media relations more important.
The firms positioned to benefit are those that know what they want their lawyers to be known for, create enough authentic content to establish those associations, pursue earned media that reinforces them, and maintain consistency across the channels where that expertise appears.
Most importantly, the conversation makes clear that AI has not eliminated the importance of trust. It has increased the number of places where trust must be established. For law firm leaders, the long-term opportunity is to stop treating media relations, thought leadership, digital presence, and marketing as disconnected activities and begin managing them as one interconnected credibility ecosystem.
Resources Referenced in the Episode
Leslie Richards: https://www.furiarubel.com/our-team/members/leslie-richards/
Sarah Larson: https://www.furiarubel.com/our-team/members/sarah-larson/
Becky Bergman: https://www.furiarubel.com/our-team/members/becky-bergman/
Muck Rack 2026 State of Journalism Report: https://muckrack.com/resources/research/state-of-journalism
From Information to Experience: How Law Firms Can Deliver Real Value in a Saturated Content Market, On Record PR: https://www.furiarubel.com/podcasts/from-information-to-experience-how-law-firms-can-deliver-real-value-in-a-saturated-content-market/
How AI Is Reshaping Where Legal Value Lives, On Record PR: https://www.furiarubel.com/podcasts/how-ai-is-reshaping-where-legal-value-lives/
Why Newswires Matter More in the Age of Generative AI, On Record PR: https://www.furiarubel.com/podcasts/why-newswires-matter-more-in-the-age-of-generative-ai/
5 PR Trends Law Firm Leaders Must Navigate in 2026, On Record PR: https://www.furiarubel.com/podcasts/5-pr-trends-law-firm-leaders-must-navigate-in-2026/
How AI Is Rewriting Media Relations: What Law Firms Must Know About Media, Credibility & Visibility, On Record PR: https://www.furiarubel.com/podcasts/how-ai-is-rewriting-media-relations-what-law-firms-must-know-about-media-credibility-visibility/
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