Social media compliance for solicitors: what you can and can't say

Why social media is worth the effort for law firms

Most clients now look a firm up before they call it. A LinkedIn page that has been quiet since last year does not disqualify you, but it hands the first impression to whichever competitor posted this week. Referrals work the same way: the person who was given your name checks your profile before they act on it.

The reason many solicitors hold back is not laziness. It is a sensible instinct that public statements from a regulated professional carry weight, and that getting one wrong has consequences. That instinct is correct. The good news is that the rules are narrower and more workable than the anxiety suggests, and a firm that understands them can post confidently every week.

The rules that actually apply

There is no separate SRA rulebook for social media. The framework you already work under applies to your posts in the same way it applies to your website and your client letters. The pieces that matter most in practice:

• The SRA Principles. Acting with integrity and maintaining public trust in the profession apply to everything you publish, on any channel, at any time.
• Accuracy in publicity. The SRA Codes of Conduct require that publicity about your practice is accurate and not misleading. A social post promoting the firm is publicity, so this covers your captions as much as your adverts.
• Confidentiality. Your duty of confidentiality to clients does not have a social media exception. Even a war story with the names removed can breach it if the client is identifiable from the details.
• Restrictions on unsolicited approaches.The Codes restrict unsolicited approaches to members of the public to advertise services. Posting to your own feed is fine; sliding into a stranger's DMs to pitch your conveyancing service is not.
• The SRA Transparency Rules. If your posts point at services covered by the price transparency requirements, the page you link to needs to carry the required costs information.
• General advertising law.The ASA's CAP Code applies to marketing by law firms like any other business: substantiate claims, do not mislead.

What you can't say

Nearly every social media problem for a law firm falls into one of five buckets. If your drafts avoid these, you have dealt with most of the risk.

1. Guaranteed outcomes

"We will win your case" and softer variants like "guaranteed settlement" are misleading because no honest litigator can promise a result. Describe your approach and track record accurately instead, and let the reader draw the conclusion.

2. Superlatives you cannot substantiate

"The best employment lawyers in Manchester" is a claim someone can ask you to prove. If it rests on nothing but enthusiasm, it is misleading publicity. "We act for employers and senior executives across Greater Manchester" says something verifiable and reads as more credible anyway.

3. Client stories without consent

Outcomes make persuasive content, but the client owns the story. Get informed consent before posting anything a client could recognise as theirs, and remember that removing the name does not anonymise a matter with distinctive facts.

4. Advice dressed as certainty

General legal information is fine and useful. The line is crossed when a post reads as specific advice for the reader's situation. Phrasing like "the usual position is" and "it depends on the contract, but" keeps explainer content on the safe side of that line.

5. Heat-of-the-moment commentary

The SRA has published warning material about offensive communications precisely because solicitors have been disciplined for posts written in anger. Political dunking, arguments in comment sections and jokes at a client's expense are where careers go to be reviewed by a tribunal.

What you can post, with examples

Everything above still leaves an enormous amount of room. The most effective law firm content is also the safest, because it explains rather than promises.

• Plain-English explainers.What actually happens at an employment tribunal. What "exchange" means in conveyancing and why it takes as long as it does.
• Process and expectation posts. What a client should bring to a first meeting. How long probate typically takes and what affects it.
• Legal changes. A new regulation lands and your clients need to know what it means for them. This is the highest-value content a firm can produce.
• Answers to the questions you hear every week. If three clients asked it this month, hundreds of prospects are typing it into Google.
• Firm news with substance. New hires, accreditations, community work. Humanising, and entirely inside the rules.

Notice what that example does: it teaches, it signals expertise, it invites a conversation, and it promises nothing. You can see more posts in this register, generated for real firms, in our examples gallery.

Personal accounts still count

A common misconception is that the rules stop at the firm's page. They do not. A solicitor posting from a personal account is still a solicitor, and conduct that undermines public trust is reachable by the regulator wherever it happens. The practical rule for fee-earners is simple: if you would not want the post read out at a disciplinary hearing, do not publish it from any account.

A pre-publish checklist

Thirty seconds per post. If a draft passes these six questions, it is very likely fine:

• Is every factual claim accurate, and could we substantiate it if asked?
• Does it promise or imply a guaranteed outcome? If so, rewrite.
• Could any client be identified from the details, even without a name?
• If it mentions a matter or a result, do we have the client's informed consent?
• Does it read as general information rather than specific advice?
• Would we be comfortable if the SRA, a judge, or our next client read it?

Keeping this sustainable

Knowing the rules is one thing. Producing measured, accurate posts every week, in a partner's voice, while running a caseload is the part that defeats most firms. That production problem is what Pillr is built for: it reads your firm's website, drafts a month of compliance-aware posts in your register, and nothing publishes until someone at the firm approves it. You keep the editorial control the rules require, without the weekly writing burden.

If you want to see what that looks like on your own firm, paste your URL on the home page and review the drafts it produces, or look at plans and pricing. The writing style rules described in this guide, measured language, no guarantees, no over-promises, are the defaults Pillr writes with.