Kentucky attorney advertising rules for law firm websites, in plain English.

The short answer

This is not legal advice. I build websites; I am not a lawyer. Read the rules yourself, and for questions about your own site, ask the Kentucky Bar Association’s ethics hotline or your own counsel.

In Kentucky, information containing a lawyer’s name is an advertisement under SCR 3.130(7.01), so a firm website is covered. Since January 1, 2016, a website does not have to be filed with the Attorneys’ Advertising Commission, as the Kentucky Bar Association’s attorney advertising page explains; a lawyer may choose to submit it for an advisory opinion, which carries a seventy-five dollar fee and, if favorable, protection from discipline for using it. The site must include the name and office address of at least one lawyer, or the firm’s name, avoid anything false or misleading, follow Regulation 1 on testimonials and case results, follow Rule 7.40 on specialist claims, explain costs alongside any no-fee-unless-recovery promise, and be kept on file for two years after it stops running.

Who sets the Kentucky attorney advertising rules, and where to read them

Kentucky’s attorney advertising rules come from two places:

• The Kentucky Supreme Court’s Rules of Professional Conduct, SCR 3.130. The advertising rules are in Part 7, listed on the Kentucky Bar Association’s Advertising Rules page: 7.01 definitions, 7.02 the Attorneys’ Advertising Commission, 7.03 advisory opinions, 7.04 records, 7.10 communications about a lawyer’s services, 7.15 advertising of fees, 7.20 advertising, 7.40 fields of practice, 7.50 firm names and letterheads, and 7.60 the disaster response plan. Solicitation of clients moved to Rule 4.5 and fee forfeiture to Rule 4.6 when Part 7 was rewritten by Supreme Court Order 2015-20, effective January 1, 2016.
• The Attorneys’ Advertising Commission’s regulations, published on the Commission’s page at the Kentucky Bar Association. Regulation 1 on false, deceptive and misleading advertising and Regulation 14 on advertising fees matter most for a website. Several of the numbered regulations are marked deleted.

The Kentucky Bar Association’s attorney advertising pages link to the current rule text and the regulations. The rule wording quoted on this page follows the text the Court adopted for 2016. Rules change, so read the current versions there rather than relying on any summary, including this one.

Is a law firm website an advertisement in Kentucky?

Yes. Rule 7.01(1) defines an advertisement as any information containing a lawyer’s name or other identifying information, with only three exceptions:

• a lawyer’s professional card,
• a public service announcement that identifies the sponsoring lawyer or firm by name, address and phone number and nothing else, and
• a sign on or near the office and in the building directory.

A website is not on that list. AAC Regulation 1 also says it applies to communications accessible to the public on the Internet, including home pages and websites.

One useful exception sits in Rule 7.20(4): communications with immediate family or current clients, and responses to an inquiry from someone seeking information, are exempt from the advertising rules and regulations except Rule 7.10, the ban on false, deceptive or misleading communications. A reply to someone who filled in your contact form is a response to an inquiry. Your homepage is not.

Do you have to file your website with the Attorneys’ Advertising Commission?

No. The Commission’s own FAQ says you only submit an advertisement if you want an advisory opinion, and that the advertisement must comply with the rules and regulations either way. The Kentucky Bar Association notes that since January 1, 2016 the rules govern only that one type of review.

If you do want an opinion, Rule 7.03 and the Commission’s FAQ set out how it works:

• A written request signed by a lawyer, citing SCR 3.130(7.03) or asking for an advisory opinion, saying where and how the advertisement will be used.
• A seventy-five dollar filing fee payable to the Kentucky Bar Association, with a one hundred dollar supplemental fee for an advertisement over 100 pages.
• Three copies of the website, printed or as one continuous PDF with the pages numbered, so any problem can be cited by page. For later changes you may submit only the new or revised pages, and for social media you may submit the About or Information page.
• An opinion within 30 days. A corrected version can be resubmitted with no additional fee.

The reason to bother is Rule 7.03(3): a lawyer who receives an opinion that an advertisement complies will not be disciplined for using it, unless it, or the information submitted with it, is false, misleading or deceptive. The FAQ adds that the Commission’s records keep showing a noncompliant advertisement as noncompliant until it is corrected.

What it means for the website: if you plan to submit, ask your web designer for a clean, dated, page-numbered PDF of every page. That is a small job at launch and a big one later.

Every page: who you are and where your office is

The Commission’s FAQ lists the three most common oversights in Kentucky advertisements. Two of them are about identity and location, and both are easy to get right on a website.

• Name and office address. Rule 7.20(3) says any communication must include the name and office address of at least one lawyer, or the name of a law firm, and that the lawyer or lawyers in Kentucky are responsible for the content. On a website, that usually means the firm name and office address in the footer of every page.
• Office location and phone numbers. Regulation 1(C) says an advertisement must not misrepresent where a bona fide office is. A phone number with an area code where the firm has no office needs a statement saying so, and a toll-free number needs the location of the office where much of the work will be done. Location pages for towns where the firm has no office deserve particular care.
• Who will do the work. Rule 7.20(5) says that if a lawyer’s name or image presents the advertisement, that lawyer must be the one who performs the service, unless the advertisement prominently discloses that the service may be performed by other lawyers. If that lawyer is not licensed in Kentucky, that must be disclosed, and so must advertising for the purpose of referring clients elsewhere. A homepage built around one attorney’s photograph in a multi-lawyer firm is the classic place this matters.

The third common oversight is the Advertising Material label on solicitations, covered below.

Testimonials, reviews and case results

This is where most law firm websites need the most thought, and where Regulation 1, Part D, is specific.

• Testimonials in general terms are ordinarily fine. Regulation 1(D)(1) says testimonials about the quality of service or the client’s satisfaction, stated in general terms and not referring to a particular legal matter, will ordinarily not be considered to create unjustified expectations.
• Results need their circumstances. Regulation 1(D)(2) says statements about results, such as the amount of a damage award, cumulative verdicts or a record of favorable verdicts, may create unjustified expectations unless the advertisement includes the specific factual and legal circumstances of the case. It suggests that can include the underlying facts, the applicable law, whether the matter is concluded or on appeal, and any later post-verdict settlement. A testimonial that mentions a particular matter is subject to the same test.
• Claims of being more successful than other lawyers need factual substantiation provided to the Commission, based on objective information and a statistically meaningful volume of data, under Regulation 1(D)(4).
• No promises regardless of merit. Regulation 1(D)(5) says an advertisement should not imply good results regardless of the merits of a client’s matter.
• Client stories in blogs. Kentucky Bar Association Ethics Opinion E-447 (2019) says a lawyer may not reveal information about a current or former client’s representation, or the client’s identity, in a blog or other social media without the client’s consent, and that information being in a public record is not an exception.

What it means for the website: a results page should be built so each result has room for its facts and status, not a grid of bare numbers. Review widgets that pull in whatever clients write deserve a second look, and a blog post about a real case needs the client’s consent.

Specialist, certified and fields of practice

Rule 7.40 is short and worth reading in full. In summary:

• A lawyer may say that they do, or do not, practice in particular fields of law.
• A lawyer admitted to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office may use Patent Lawyer or a substantially similar designation, and a lawyer in admiralty practice may use Admiralty or Proctor in Admiralty.
• A lawyer may not state or imply certification as a specialist in a field unless certified by an organization approved by an appropriate state authority or accredited by the American Bar Association, the certifying organization is clearly named, and the claim runs only while the certification is current.

Regulation 1(D)(4)(b) adds that statements about fields of practice that conform to Rule 7.40, and factual information about a lawyer’s experience in a field, are not treated as claims about success.

What it means for the website: practice area pages are fine. A headline that says certified specialist needs the certifying body named beside it and a reminder to remove it if the certification lapses. I did not find a Kentucky rule that addresses the word expert by name, so treat it under the general misleading-communication test and ask before using it.

Fees: no-fee-unless-recovery promises and percentages

Personal injury sites lean heavily on fee language, and Kentucky has specific rules for it.

• Regulation 14: if a client may have to pay court costs and case expenses, an advertisement that says or implies no fee is owed unless there is a recovery must also say the client may be responsible for court costs and case expenses. If the advertisement states a contingent fee percentage, it must say whether the percentage is computed before or after costs and expenses are deducted.
• Regulation 1(C)(2): an advertisement that refers to recovering money must include an appropriate explanation of the legal requirements for that recovery.
• Rule 7.15: a lawyer who advertises a fee for routine services and accepts the work must perform it for the advertised amount, and supply a detailed description of what is included on request.

What it means for the website: the costs statement belongs next to the promise, in the hero, the sticky call bar and the ad landing page, not only in a footer disclaimer.

Solicitation, email, firm names and paid referrals

A few more rules touch the edges of a website and the marketing around it.

• Rule 4.5, solicitation. No in-person, live telephone or real-time electronic solicitation for pecuniary gain, with exceptions for other lawyers, family, prior clients and public-interest advocacy. Written, recorded or electronic communications soliciting work from someone known to need help with a particular matter must include the words Advertising Material, on the envelope if any and at the beginning and end of any recorded or electronic communication. No communications may go to people involved in a disaster until 30 days have passed.
• Rule 7.50, firm names. A firm name must not be misleading, firms with offices in more than one jurisdiction must show the limits on lawyers not licensed where an office sits, a lawyer holding public office cannot be named while not actively practicing with the firm, and a firm may imply it is a legal entity only if it is one.
• Rule 7.20(2), paying for recommendations. A lawyer may not give anything of value to a non-lawyer for recommending the lawyer’s services, with exceptions including the reasonable cost of advertising. Paying for ads is allowed. Paying per referral is where to slow down and ask.

What it means for the website: an email newsletter to past clients is different from an email campaign to accident victims. Pay-per-lead services deserve a look under Rule 7.20(2) before you sign up.

Records, responsibility and a checklist for your site

Keep copies. Rule 7.20(6) requires a lawyer to keep a copy or recording of every advertisement, with a record of when and where it was used, for two years after its last dissemination, and longer while any disciplinary proceeding is pending. Electronic retention in PDF is permitted. A website changes constantly, so the practical answer is a dated PDF snapshot of each page whenever it changes.

The responsibility stays with the lawyer. Rule 7.20(3) says the lawyer or lawyers in Kentucky are responsible for the content of the advertisement. That holds when a web designer or a marketing company writes the words. On the law firm sites I build, nothing is published until the attorney signs off, and the firm can change its own content the day a rule changes.

A Kentucky law firm website checklist, built from the rules above:

1. Firm name and office address on every page.
2. Phone numbers that match real office locations, or a statement where they do not.
3. A prominent note that services may be performed by other lawyers wherever one lawyer’s name or photo leads the page.
4. Testimonials in general terms, and case results with their facts, status and any later settlement.
5. No claims of being better than other lawyers without data to back them.
6. Specialist or certified only with the certifying body named and current.
7. Costs and expenses explained beside any no-fee-unless-recovery promise, and percentages explained.
8. Client consent before any client appears in a blog post or case story.
9. Dated PDFs of every page kept for two years after it changes.
10. If you want the safe harbor, an advisory opinion request under Rule 7.03.

For how this fits into a whole build, see law firm website design, what a law firm website costs and the best law firm websites, several of which show these rules handled well.

Frequently asked questions

Do Kentucky lawyers have to file their website with the bar?

No. Since January 1, 2016, the Attorneys’ Advertising Commission’s FAQ says you only submit an advertisement if you want an advisory opinion. The website must still comply with the rules and regulations whether or not you submit it.

Can a Kentucky law firm website show client reviews?

Testimonials stated in general terms that do not refer to a particular matter are ordinarily acceptable under AAC Regulation 1(D)(1). Reviews that mention a specific case or result are held to the same standard as case results, which need their factual and legal circumstances.

Can I call myself a specialist on my Kentucky law firm website?

You can say which fields you practice in. You can only claim to be a certified specialist if the certifying organization is approved by an appropriate state authority or accredited by the ABA, is named in the communication, and your certification is current, under Rule 7.40.

Does my website need to say This is an advertisement?

The rules quoted on this page do not require that label on a general firm website. Rule 4.5 requires the words Advertising Material on written, recorded or electronic solicitations to people known to need help with a particular matter. Check the current rules for your own situation.

How long do I have to keep copies of my website?

Rule 7.20(6) requires a copy of every advertisement and a record of when and where it was used for two years after its last dissemination, and longer if a disciplinary proceeding is pending. PDF copies are permitted.

Is this page legal advice?

No. It is a web designer’s summary of public rules so you know what to ask. For advice about your own advertising, contact the Kentucky Bar Association’s ethics hotline or your own counsel.