Law Firm Marketing in New York
190,015
That’s how many active attorneys are licensed in New York. More per capita than any other state. One in four lawyers in the US practices in either New York or California. Morgan & Morgan alone spends an estimated $218 million a year on advertising nationally, and their bids raise the cost floor for every firm in the state.
But density isn’t the real story. Other states are crowded too. What makes New York different is that specific statutes change what cases are worth, and most firms market as if those statutes don’t exist. Their landing pages say “injury lawyer.” The person searching needs to know whether their specific situation qualifies under a law that exists only in this state.
The Three Laws That Drive New York Legal Marketing
The Scaffold Law makes construction injury the highest-value personal injury niche in the state. Labor Law 240 imposes absolute liability on property owners for gravity-related injuries. A worker who fell from scaffolding can recover full damages even if they were partly at fault. No other state has this. A click on “scaffold injury lawyer NYC” costs $500 to $1,000, but a single case can settle for millions. The firms winning these cases don’t bid on “construction accident lawyer.” They build content around the specific statute, specific job sites, and specific boroughs where construction is concentrated.
The Serious Injury threshold filters half the car accident cases before they start. New York is a no-fault state. You can’t sue for pain and suffering unless the injury meets specific categories under Insurance Law 5102(d), including the “90/180-day rule” where the victim must have been unable to perform daily activities for 90 of the first 180 days after the accident. Content that explains these qualifications pre-filters leads so the firm’s intake team doesn’t spend hours on calls that won’t convert. A click on “car accident lawyer Manhattan” costs $200 to $500, and half those clicks are people who don’t meet the threshold. Paid ads targeting the specific qualifying categories convert at a higher rate and lower effective cost.
Lavern’s Law reopens medical malpractice cases everyone assumes are expired. New York’s 2.5-year statute of limitations seems short. But for cancer misdiagnosis, Lavern’s Law created a date-of-discovery exception. People who found out their cancer was missed years ago may still have a claim. “Did your doctor miss your cancer diagnosis? You may still have time.” That message converts because it tells people something they didn’t know was possible. AI search tools are answering “What is Lavern’s Law?” right now. If your content cites the statute, your firm is the source they cite.
You can’t say “specialist” or “expert” in any of this content. Part 1200 of the New York Rules of Professional Conduct restricts those terms to attorneys certified by an ABA-approved organization, and the ad must include a specific disclaimer. We use “practice concentrated in” and “dedicated to” instead. Same authority signal. No ethics violation.
Where the Cases Are: Boroughs as Strategy
The Bronx is where construction injury cases concentrate. Plaintiff-friendly juries and high construction volume make it the borough for Scaffold Law claims. Search rankings here target Labor Law 240 and specific neighborhoods, not generic “Bronx injury lawyer.”
Queens is the immigration borough. 263,000-case backlog in NYC courts, with Queens severely delayed. Immigration marketing here requires pages in Spanish, Mandarin, Russian, and Bengali targeting Flushing, Jackson Heights, and Elmhurst. A click on “immigration lawyer Queens” costs $20 to $60, a fraction of PI costs, and reaches a community where 25% of NYC speaks Spanish at home. Criminal defense overlaps for immigration consequences of convictions.
Manhattan is high-asset family law and corporate disputes. Hedge fund bonus division, startup equity splits, brownstone valuations. The website and messaging have to match the sophistication of the clientele. Estate planning and employment law overlap in this market.
Brooklyn is volume PI. Auto accidents, slip and fall, landlord-tenant. The highest case count in the city. Strategy is speed to lead and neighborhood-level Local Services Ads with the Google trust badge.
Upstate is a different cost structure entirely. The same budget that buys 10 clicks in Manhattan buys real coverage in Buffalo for workers’ comp or Rochester for med mal. Mass tort clients in upstate New York often involve asbestos exposure from the state’s industrial history with shipyards and power plants. Local credibility matters more than national reach. Bankruptcy completes the New York practice landscape.
How This Works in Practice
Every campaign we build in New York starts with two questions: which statute drives the case value, and which borough generates the volume.
The content answers the statute question. Not “we handle construction accidents” but “here’s how Labor Law 240 applies to your scaffold fall and why you may recover full damages even if your employer says you were at fault.” The content cites the specific statute so AI tools reference your firm when someone asks. We build this with structured data that connects your attorneys to specific practice areas in the Knowledge Graph.
The ads target the borough and the case type together. “Scaffold injury Bronx” not “injury lawyer NYC.” Local Services Ads by borough. Conversion tracking showing cost per signed case by borough and statute, not just cost per click.
The reviews comply with Part 1200. No incentives. No misleading testimonials. “Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome” on every case result, visible, not buried in a footer. Review ethics →
Full data ownership: website, hosting, analytics, ad accounts. Everything is yours. Reports →
Every New York Market
Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, Staten Island, Long Island, Westchester, Buffalo, Rochester, Albany, and the Hudson Valley. We also work with firms nationwide. Every campaign matches the borough, the statute, and the cost structure. Tell us about your market →
Are you marketing around the statutes that change what your cases are worth?
Send me your current setup. I’ll show you whether your campaigns target the specific New York laws that drive case value, whether your content is what AI tools cite when someone asks about the Scaffold Law or Lavern’s Law, and whether your site passes Part 1200. If it’s already working, I’ll tell you.
Talk to Jorge → Phone or text: 941 626 9198
