The volume of AI-generated legal correspondence is “not about to level off any time soon”, according to in-house lawyers interviewed for a new Dentons report. As Legal Futures reported last week, nearly every interviewee raised the flood of polished complaints, subject access requests and legal-style letters that AI now makes quick and cheap to produce. That flood is a clear sign that the first step of many legal problems is now a conversation with a chatbot, not a solicitor.
The bigger picture: AI has become the public’s first legal adviser
The Dentons research comes from the receiving end. It interviewed senior in-house lawyers at Irish and international companies who handle the letters that consumers and claimants now generate with AI. Partner David Kirton argued that these letters often add noise rather than strength. Genuine grievances get buried under exaggerated or poorly grounded arguments, and a confident-sounding letter can encourage a complainant without improving their case.
Consider the same trend from the point of view of a high street firm. Every one of those letters is someone with a legal problem who chose to handle it with a chatbot instead of a solicitor. Some will settle. Many won’t. A landlord ignores the AI-drafted demand. An employer rejects the polished grievance. An insurer replies with a firm refusal. At that point the person needs real help, and many will ask the same AI tool where to find it.
So AI now sits at both ends of the problem. It drafts the first letter, and it is increasingly the tool people ask to recommend a solicitor when that letter fails. The firms named in its answer get the instruction.
What independent solicitors need to know about the DIY-first client
Clients who reach you after trying AI behave differently from those who come to you first. Firms should expect three things:
- They arrive later. By the time they call, a deadline may be close, the other side may have dug in, or a limitation period may be nearer than they realise. Speed of response matters more than ever.
- They arrive with opinions. They have read an AI summary of their rights, and some of it will be wrong. Part of the first conversation is now gently correcting the chatbot without making the client feel foolish.
- They value what AI can’t do. Judgement, negotiation, court representation and accountability. The Dentons authors say trust is the central issue, and clients expect a human to have checked the work. That is the solicitor’s core offer, and firms should say so plainly.
For solicitors, this is a positioning opportunity. Your marketing doesn’t need to compete with free AI on drafting a letter. It needs to be the obvious next step when the free route stops working.
What forward-thinking firms are already doing about AI visibility
GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) is the practice of shaping your online content so AI tools understand it, trust it and cite it. Firms taking it seriously are making a handful of practical changes:
- Writing “what to do next” pages. For example, “My landlord ignored my letter: what now?” or “My employer rejected my grievance.” These match the exact moment a DIY attempt fails, and they are the questions people put to AI tools.
- Leading with clear, quotable answers. AI tools take short, factual statements. A page that opens with a two-sentence answer, then explains the process, costs and timescales, is far more likely to be cited than one that opens with “We are a leading firm…”
- Making expertise visible. Named solicitors, their qualifications, the work types they handle and the towns they serve. AI tools look for signs of real experience and authority before recommending anyone.
- Keeping local signals consistent. The same name, address, phone number and services everywhere, plus an active Google Business Profile with recent reviews. AI assistants rely heavily on these signals when someone asks for a solicitor “near me”.
- Explaining what the human adds. A short section on every key service page about what a solicitor does that a template or chatbot can’t. That answers the client’s real question honestly.
How this connects to growth: be the answer at the second search
Many firms worry that AI will take work away from solicitors. The Dentons findings hint at a different picture for independent law firms. AI is producing more legal disputes, more correspondence and more people who have started a legal process they can’t finish. That creates demand. The open question is who captures it.
Firms that capture it will be visible at the “second search”, the moment someone asks AI or Google for a solicitor because the DIY approach hasn’t worked. That depends on AI SEO and traditional local SEO working together. You need clear, structured pages for every service you want to sell, written in the language clients actually use, on a website quick enough that visitors don’t give up. For regional law firms that is a realistic way to win the work, because local relevance and genuine expertise are exactly what AI tools look for.
Legal marketing that still relies on a homepage and a list of practice areas won’t be cited, and it won’t convert the frustrated, time-pressed visitor who finally decides to get help.
AI is a referral source, so make sure it can find you
The rise of AI-written legal letters isn’t a threat to good solicitors. It is a sign of a growing pool of people who tried to handle a legal problem themselves and will soon need a professional. The firms that win them won’t have the loudest adverts. They will have the clearest answers in the places AI and clients look.
A sensible first step is to fix the pages that matter most. Our Website Performance Boosters are one-off fixes with no long-term commitment, including SEO rewrites of up to three key landing pages, a PageSpeed boost and analytics setup, so the pages clients and AI tools land on answer the question, load fast and show you which ones bring in enquiries.
