30 September 2026 · 6 min read · Oscar Markham
What actually makes someone choose one firm over another
A prospective client has no way of assessing whether one solicitor is better at the law than another. They are not qualified to, and the outcome will not be known for months. So they decide on the things they can assess, and firms that understand what those are win more instructions than firms that assume it is about expertise.
Whether anyone got back to them
This is first, and it is not close. Clients report choosing a firm because it was the one that replied, and leaving firms because it stopped replying.
It is also the easiest thing in the profession to fix and the most consistently ignored. An enquiry that arrives on Friday evening and is answered Monday morning will frequently already have instructed somebody else.
Whether they could understand the answer
A client who leaves a first call more confused than they arrived will keep looking. One who leaves understanding what happens next will usually stop.
That same quality on the website — plain language, the process set out in order — does the same job before anybody speaks.
Whether the firm looks like it does this specific thing
A page addressing their exact problem beats a list of practice areas, because it answers the only question they have: is this firm for me.
This is why a full-service firm should still present each area separately and substantially. It changes nothing about the firm and everything about how it is found.
What other people said
Reviews matter in law for the same reason they matter in dentistry: the client cannot judge the work, so they borrow somebody else's judgement.
Reviews about responsiveness and clarity are worth far more than reviews about outcomes, and they are the ones clients can honestly give.
How much it will cost, roughly
Not a fixed figure — most legal work cannot be quoted blind. But an explanation of how fees are structured, what drives them up or down, and when the client will be told, removes an anxiety that stops people ringing at all.
Firms consistently overestimate how much clients expect certainty here and underestimate how much they want the mechanism explained.
Written by Oscar Markham, founder of Dublin Growth Digital. We run lead generation for Irish estate agents and trades, reported every Friday in enquiries and booked work.