AI Search Took Your Website Traffic: Rebuilding Law Firm Visibility and Client Intake

David Arato, Founder & CEO | Lexicon Legal Content

David Arato holds a JD from Saint Louis University School of Law and is the founder and CEO of Lexicon Legal Content, an attorney-owned legal content and SEO agency he launched in 2012 with his wife and business partner Erin Fitzgerald, a licensed attorney. Lexicon produces attorney-reviewed, bar-compliant content for law firms across practice areas and serves as the white-label content partner for legal marketing agencies nationwide.

• Education & Credentials

David Arato earned his Juris Doctor (JD) from Saint Louis University School of Law. He is the founder and CEO of Lexicon Legal Content, an attorney-owned legal content and SEO agency established in 2012 alongside his wife and business partner, Erin Fitzgerald, a licensed attorney.

• Recognition & Leadership

David’s commentary has appeared in Attorney at Law Magazine and through the ABA Law Practice Division, and he speaks regularly on legal content strategy, E-E-A-T, and AI search on industry podcasts and panels.

• Professional Involvement

David Arato is actively involved in advancing conversations around legal marketing, content strategy, and emerging AI technologies within the legal industry. Through his published commentary and speaking engagements, he shares insights on legal content strategy, E-E-A-T, AI search, and the importance of creating trustworthy, bar-compliant content for law firms.

• Experience

David built Lexicon around a premise that has only become more relevant with AI: content that any competitor could have published will not earn trust from a reader or a citation from a search engine. His legal training shapes how the agency approaches bar compliance and editorial substance, and his work in recent years has focused on how law firms become the sources AI tools name when a prospective client asks for a recommendation.

Eric Hoffman, Founder & CEO| A.I. Esquire

Eric Hoffman, Esq. is a Connecticut trial attorney, former litigation practitioner, and founder of A.I. Esquire. His legal background includes plaintiff personal injury, civil litigation, subrogation, uninsured and underinsured motorist matters, premises liability, motor vehicle cases, and workplace injuries. Before founding A.I. Esquire, he managed teams and developed operational training programs. He founded A.I. Esquire around the operational challenges he observed in legal intake, developing Intake AI to help law firms manage initial client communications, intake, scheduling, and matter information while keeping professional judgment and consequential decisions with the firm.

• Education & Credentials

Eric Hoffman earned his law degree from Rutgers University School of Law–Newark, where he attended from 2009 to 2013 and participated in the Urban Legal Clinic and Pro Bono Society. His listed professional credentials include admission as an attorney through the Connecticut Bar Association and the Connecticut Judicial Branch, as well as the Certified School Risk Manager (CSRM) designation from The National Alliance for Insurance Education and Research.

• Recognition & Leadership

Eric Hoffman served as Co-Founder of the Rutgers Bankruptcy Pro Bono Project at Rutgers Law School– Newark. His leadership experience also includes managing teams and developing operational training programs prior to founding A.I. Esquire.

• Professional Involvement

Eric Hoffman has served as a Pro Bono Attorney with the Connecticut Bar Association since January 2022. In that role, his listed work includes assisting low-income clients with legal matters involving personal injury claims, housing disputes, and veterans’ benefits, as well as preparing legal documents, assisting clients with hearings and negotiations, and working with local nonprofits and volunteer attorneys on access-to-justice initiatives.

• Experience

Eric Hoffman’s legal experience includes plaintiff personal injury, civil litigation, subrogation, uninsured and underinsured motorist matters, premises liability, motor vehicle cases, and workplace injuries. He also has experience managing teams and developing operational training programs. He is the founder and product architect of A.I. Esquire, where he developed Intake AI around the operational realities of legal intake and the first contact between law firms and prospective clients.

SESSION 1 – Getting Your Law Firm into AI Search Results: What Wins Citations in ChatGPT, Google AI Basics, and Perplexity | 2:30pm – 3:30pm

Prospective clients are increasingly starting their search for a lawyer inside AI tools rather than a list of blue links. When someone asks ChatGPT or Google’s AI Basics to recommend a personal injury attorney in their city, a handful of firms get named and everyone else disappears. This session breaks down how large language models select and cite sources, why traditional SEO tactics no longer map cleanly onto AI visibility, and what practical steps a firm of any size can take to become the answer rather than a footnote. Attendees will leave with a working understanding of AI-driven search behavior, a framework for auditing their own firm’s visibility, and an awareness of the advertising and ethics questions this shift raises for licensed attorneys.

BREAK | 3:30pm – 3:40pm ET

SESSION 2 – Converting AI-Era Leads: Attribution, Response Speed, and the AI-Briefed Client | 3:40pm – 4:40pm

As artificial intelligence increasingly influences how prospective clients research legal issues and select attorneys, law firms must reconsider how they handle client intake. This program examines the challenges created by AI-influenced inquiries, including attribution gaps, response speed, and prospective clients who arrive with AI-generated expectations about their legal matter. Attendees will learn practical methods for identifying how prospective clients discovered a firm, measuring response times, establishing written response standards, and testing their own intake processes. The program also addresses strategies for improving communication with prospective clients while maintaining appropriate expectations regarding legal services, fees, scope, and professional responsibilities in an evolving environment.

The program also addresses the ethical and professional responsibility considerations arising from AIassisted intake and AI-briefed prospective clients. Attendees will examine a five-step consultation protocol for addressing information obtained through AI tools, protecting confidentiality and privilege, identifying appropriate representation limits, and documenting the scope of services. The session further explores AI intake technologies, including automated chat and voice tools, and the risks associated with legal advice, conflicts, solicitation, call recording, vendor data practices, and unauthorized communications. Participants will learn practical controls for evaluating these technologies, measuring their effectiveness, and implementing safeguards consistent with applicable professional conduct rules and jurisdiction-specific requirements.