A law firm website in Europe: what it must have and what the rules allow
In February 2023, the European Commission opened infringement proceedings against three EU countries for one reason: they still banned lawyers from advertising altogether. One of them was Poland, whose bar lifted the ban three months later. Today no EU country may forbid lawyer advertising outright. But every bar still decides what lawyers may say, and the rules differ a lot from one country to the next.
What they have in common is that a law firm ad can say very little. No promised outcomes, no misleading claims, in many countries no comparisons and no clients named without consent. Such an ad does one job: it sends people to the website. That is where a potential client reads about the practice area, gets to know the lawyer and decides whether to get in touch. This is why, for a law firm, a fast, credible website that is well prepared for SEO is not an extra. It is the foundation.
Below we explain what EU law says, how a few national bars apply it, what a law firm website must have and how to add online booking. The rules are as of 28 October 2026. This is a guide for planning a website, not legal advice: your own bar’s rules always decide.
What EU law says about lawyer advertising
Three EU sources set the frame. The first is the Services Directive, which ended total bans on advertising by regulated professions.
Member States shall remove all total prohibitions on commercial communications by the regulated professions.
The second is the E-Commerce Directive. It says that online commercial communications by members of regulated professions must be permitted, subject to professional rules on independence, dignity and honour of the profession, professional secrecy and fairness towards clients and colleagues. In 2011 the Court of Justice of the EU confirmed how strict the Services Directive is: in a case about accountants, it ruled that a national law totally prohibiting a regulated profession from canvassing is not allowed. The same logic applies to lawyers.
The third is the CCBE Code of Conduct for European Lawyers, prepared by the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe. It is a common reference for European bars, especially for cross-border work.
A lawyer is entitled to inform the public about his or her services provided that the information is accurate and not misleading, and respectful of the obligation of confidentiality and other core values of the profession.
Same principle, different national rules
EU law says advertising must be allowed. National bars decide what it may contain. Three examples show how much the details differ.
Germany: objective information, clients only with consent
The Federal Lawyers’ Act (BRAO, § 43b) allows advertising if it informs objectively about professional activity in form and content and is not aimed at winning a mandate in an individual case. Courts have narrowed that last condition, and the professional rules (BORA, § 6), rewritten with effect from 1 December 2025, now say: lawyers may not advertise in an unobjective, unfair or misleading way, and within those limits even advertising for a single mandate is allowed. Advertising with mandates or clients needs their express consent, even when the matter is no longer confidential. Lawyers also may not get third parties to advertise for them in ways they could not themselves. Neither text mentions Google Ads or any other medium by name.
France: sincere information and strict rules for websites
Since 2014, French avocats may use advertising and personalised solicitation. Today’s rule, Article 15 of the 2023 code of ethics decree, allows them if they give sincere information about the services and respect the essential principles of the profession, and it excludes any comparative or denigrating element. Personalised solicitation may be sent by post or email, but never as a text message to a mobile phone.
The national rules of the profession (RIN) go further for websites than most countries. An avocat must tell the bar council when opening or substantially changing a website. The domain must contain the lawyer’s or firm’s name, and generic domains evoking a field of law are forbidden. The site may not carry advertising banners other than those of the profession. Words such as “specialist” may only be used with a specialisation certificate, and a lawyer may claim at most three main practice areas.
Poland: from a total ban to a long list of limits
Polish advocates were banned from advertising until 26 May 2023. Since then they may use commercial communication, but their code lists many things it must not be: comparative, intrusive, evaluative, appealing to emotions or likely to create unjustified expectations about the outcome. Polish attorneys-at-law have had a similar regime since January 2023, with one notable extra: client reviews and references may never be shown for criminal, family or guardianship cases, even with consent. We describe the Polish rules in detail in our Polish article.
The lesson: check your own bar’s rules before you publish anything. They are national, and they change. Germany rewrote its rule in 2025, Poland in 2023.
What this means for website copy
Across Europe, many sentences that are normal in other industries are risky on a law firm website:
- “We win 9 out of 10 cases”: a promised outcome, and in most countries misleading.
- “The best employment lawyers in the city”: a comparison and an evaluation. Comparisons are explicitly banned in France and Poland.
- Client logos, names or reviews without documented consent. In France, client names are even covered by professional secrecy.
- A domain like “divorce-lawyer-city.com”, which French rules forbid outright.
What works everywhere is facts: practice areas described specifically, experience stated plainly (languages, publications, talks, the industries you work with), clear information on fees and content that genuinely helps people understand their problem. As it happens, that is exactly what Google rewards.
Why the website does more for a law firm than ads
Paid search ads are allowed: no EU country may ban lawyer advertising outright, and none of the bar rules we looked at excludes online ads. The ad still has to follow your bar’s rules on content. Commercially, it makes sense for example for a new firm or a new practice area. But an ad that cannot promise anything or make comparisons mostly just sends people to the website. Clicks also have to be paid for all the time, while the website and its content stay.
People rarely search for just “a lawyer”. They search for an answer to their problem: how a divorce works when the spouses live in different countries, what happens to an inheritance, how to respond to a payment order. A reliable article answering such a question is ordinary information about the practice, allowed in every country we looked at, and for Google it is a signal that the site knows the subject. Then there is the Google Business Profile, which for searches like “lawyer” plus a city name often appears above the regular results.
Speed matters too. Someone who has just received a claim or a demand for payment looks for help on their phone, under stress. If the page takes several seconds to load or the phone number is hidden in the footer, they will call someone else.
What a law firm website must have
The information EU law requires
The E-Commerce Directive requires every online service provider to make certain information “easily, directly and permanently accessible”: the name, geographic address and email address, the trade register and registration number where applicable, and the VAT number. For regulated professions it adds the professional body, the professional title and the member state where it was granted, and a reference to the applicable professional rules and how to access them. In Germany this is the familiar Impressum. The simplest solution is a legal notice page linked from the footer of every page.
Practice areas, each on its own page
A single “Services” page listing ten practice areas has no chance in search. A separate page for family law, another for inheritance and another for business clients, each describing who you help and how working together looks, with answers to common questions, is what brings in traffic from Google.
Lawyers by name
A photo, professional title, the bar where each lawyer is admitted, practice areas and languages. Clients want to know who they will be talking to, and for cross-border matters, which jurisdictions the firm can actually cover.
Contact without case details
A tappable phone number, email, address with a map and opening hours. Keep the contact form to a minimum: name, phone or email, and the area of the case chosen from a list. No “Describe your case” field. GDPR requires collecting only the data that is necessary, and anything a person writes about their case may already be confidential. It is better to hear the details at the meeting than to keep them in a mailbox and a form database. We wrote more about why law firm data is especially sensitive in our article on building your own CRM with AI.
Privacy notice and cookie consent
Forms, maps, analytics and bookings all involve personal data, so the privacy notice must cover them, as GDPR Article 13 requires. Analytics and advertising cookies need prior consent under the ePrivacy Directive, and with Google tools, Consent Mode v2 as well.
Language versions
If you serve foreign clients, give them real language versions of the key pages, not an automatic translation widget. Each version should have its own address and be marked for search engines, so that someone searching in German or English finds the right page.
Speed, mobile and accessibility
The site should load quickly even on a weak signal, be comfortable to read on a phone and be readable for people with low vision: proper contrast, a large font and meaningful headings. Since 28 June 2025, the European Accessibility Act has applied to e-commerce services offered to consumers, with an exemption for microenterprises (fewer than 10 people and up to 2 million euros in turnover or balance sheet). A website that only presents information is most likely outside its scope. Booking and paying for consultations online with consumers may fall within it, which is our reading of the directive, not settled case law. Either way, accessibility is good practice.
Online booking for a law firm
Online booking saves the phone calls and emails along the lines of “how about Thursday?”. For a law firm it can be set up like this:
- A separate calendar for each lawyer, with their working hours and holidays. The client chooses a person or an area of law, and the system shows free slots.
- Different meeting types: a first meeting at the office, a video or phone call, each with its own length and a break before the next one.
- Calendar sync with Google or Outlook, so that a court hearing does not clash with a booking made on the website.
- Reminders by email or text message, which reduce no-shows.
- Payment up front for online consultations, if the firm charges for them.
A law firm needs two things nobody thinks about when booking a haircut. First, a booking should be a request for a slot that the lawyer confirms manually, after a conflict check. The CCBE Code, like national codes, does not allow a lawyer to act for two clients in the same matter if their interests conflict. Second, reminders should not reveal what the meeting is about. “Meeting at the law office, Thursday, 10:00” is more than enough.
Which plugin to choose
On WordPress, three solutions usually work well:
- Bookly: a comprehensive system with separate staff calendars, Google sync and payments.
- Amelia: a convenient employee panel and, in Standard plans and above, Google and Outlook sync plus Zoom, Google Meet or Teams links.
- Booking Calendar: a simpler plugin with a free version that includes hourly bookings and booking requests. Separate calendars for several people come with the paid versions.
Where the data goes matters more than which plugin you pick. The plugin keeps bookings in your own site’s database, but text messages and calendar sync send data further: the phone number and reminder text to the SMS provider, and the appointment to Google or Microsoft. The CCBE’s 2025 guidelines on cloud computing put it simply: “Lawyers must know where and how client data is processed.” In France, the national rules even list the lawyer’s diary, next to client names, among the things covered by professional secrecy. Check where each provider processes data, whether it is outside the EU, and sign a data processing agreement.
Checklist before publishing a law firm website
- Have you checked your own bar’s rules on advertising and websites, and did the lawyer concerned approve every text?
- Is the site free of promised outcomes, evaluations like “the best” and comparisons with others?
- Do client names, logos and reviews have documented consent, and are they allowed at all in your country?
- Does the domain name follow your bar’s rules?
- Is every lawyer named, with their professional title and the bar where they are admitted?
- Does a legal notice page give the firm’s details, professional body, title and a link to the professional rules?
- Does the contact form avoid asking for a description of the case?
- Does a lawyer confirm bookings after a conflict check, and do reminders avoid revealing the subject?
- Do the privacy notice and cookie banner cover the form, bookings, analytics and maps?
- Does the site load quickly on a phone, with the phone number visible straight away?
Frequently asked questions
Can lawyers in the EU advertise on Google?
No EU country may ban lawyer advertising outright, and none of the rules we checked excludes online ads. What an ad may say is decided nationally: in France it must be sincere and not comparative, in Germany objective, and in Poland it may not compare, evaluate or promise results.
Can a law firm website show client reviews?
It depends on the country. German lawyers need the client’s express consent. Polish advocates need consent in written, electronic or documentary form, and Polish attorneys-at-law may never show reviews for criminal or family cases. In France, client names are covered by professional secrecy.
Does the European Accessibility Act apply to law firm websites?
A purely informational website is most likely outside its scope. If consumers can book and pay for consultations online, the act may apply, unless the firm is a microenterprise. Accessible design is worth doing either way.
Who is responsible for copy prepared by an agency?
The lawyer. German rules forbid lawyers to have third parties advertise for them in ways they could not themselves, and the Polish code makes advocates responsible for commercial communication published on their behalf. This is why the lawyer should always approve agency copy personally.
We design and build fast WordPress websites: with practice areas, a knowledge base, language versions, a well-thought-out contact form and meeting booking. See how we work on WordPress websites, and if you already have a site and want to check its speed, SEO and forms, start with a website audit. You can also describe your firm in our free quote form straight away.
This article describes the rules in force on 28 October 2026 and is not legal advice. The lawyer is responsible for the content of information about their practice.
