Home
INDUSTRY INTELLIGENCE

More qualified case intakes and signed retainers, with ABA Rule 7.1 written into the brief

Hired an agency that has never read Rule 7.1? Built for personal injury, criminal defense, and family law. Call (619) 330-0953.

An example of a custom digital marketing analytics dashboard that can be built by a marketing agency using AgencyAnalytics
An example of a custom digital marketing analytics dashboard that can be built by a marketing agency using AgencyAnalyticsOfficial product example · AgencyAnalytics
01 / THE DETAIL

More qualified case intakes and signed retainers, with ABA Rule 7.1 written into the brief

For managing partners done paying four vendors who never read ABA Model Rule 7.1. One team runs paid traffic, Local Services Ads, legal SEO, and AI case intake under one roof. One dashboard reports qualified intakes by case type. A founder signs the working brief every Monday. No deck. No pitch.

Explore the details +

For managing partners done paying four vendors who never read ABA Model Rule 7.1. One team runs paid traffic, Local Services Ads, legal SEO, and AI case intake under one roof. One dashboard reports qualified intakes by case type. A founder signs the working brief every Monday. No deck. No pitch.

Three firm-audit slots open this week

Intake systems for PI, defense, family, estate firms since 2008 · ABA Model Rule 7.1 review on every deliverable · 50+ years combined SEO and paid media experience

01
THE WORKING DETAIL
A

For managing partners done paying four vendors who never read ABA Model Rule 7.1.

B

Three firm-audit slots open this week

C

Intake systems for PI, defense, family, estate firms since 2008 · ABA Model Rule 7.1 review on every deliverable · 50+ years combined SEO and paid media experience

Evidence → decision → action
02 / THE DETAIL

The questions a careful buyer is already holding

We would rather answer them here than pretend you are not asking them.

Explore the details +

We would rather answer them here than pretend you are not asking them.

02
The questions a careful buyer is already holding
A

We would rather answer them here than pretend you are not asking them.

Evidence → decision → action
03 / THE DETAIL

“This is another agency that overpromises, then disappears after the contract is signed.”

Most do. We do not take a client we cannot move the number for, and a founder signs your brief every Monday. There is always a name attached to the work.

Explore the details +

Most do. We do not take a client we cannot move the number for, and a founder signs your brief every Monday. There is always a name attached to the work.

03
“This is another agency that overpromises, then disappears after the contract is signed.”
A

Most do.

Evidence → decision → action
04 / THE DETAIL

“I have been burned before. Reports full of clicks and impressions, and a calendar that stayed empty.”

We report booked jobs, scheduled consults, and signed cases, reconciled inside your CRM. Rankings and impressions are a side effect. The number we stand behind is revenue you can trace to a source.

Explore the details +

We report booked jobs, scheduled consults, and signed cases, reconciled inside your CRM. Rankings and impressions are a side effect. The number we stand behind is revenue you can trace to a source.

A sample of third-party marketing platform integrations that are on the AgencyAnalytics client reporting software
A sample of third-party marketing platform integrations that are on the AgencyAnalytics client reporting softwareOfficial product example · AgencyAnalytics ↗
05 / THE DETAIL

“At $20,000 to $60,000 a month, this is probably too expensive for us.”

The real question is whether the work returns more than it costs. If the math does not work for your business, we will tell you on the call, and you keep your money. We would rather lose the deal than take an account we cannot grow.

Explore the details +

The real question is whether the work returns more than it costs. If the math does not work for your business, we will tell you on the call, and you keep your money. We would rather lose the deal than take an account we cannot grow.

05
“At $20,000 to $60,000 a month, this is probably too expensive for us.”
A

The real question is whether the work returns more than it costs.

Evidence → decision → action
06 / THE DETAIL

“You probably do not actually understand my business.”

We work in three verticals only: home services, medical and dental, and legal. We are not a generalist agency taking your account as an experiment. The three founders ran service businesses on the operator side of the table before they ever built an agency for one.

Explore the details +

We work in three verticals only: home services, medical and dental, and legal. We are not a generalist agency taking your account as an experiment. The three founders ran service businesses on the operator side of the table before they ever built an agency for one.

Is now a bad time to fix your attribution? Call (619) 330-0953 and ask the hardest version of any of these.

06
“You probably do not actually understand my business.”
A

We work in three verticals only: home services, medical and dental, and legal.

B

Is now a bad time to fix your attribution?

Evidence → decision → action
07 / THE DETAIL

Seven channels. One team. All measured against qualified case intakes and signed retainers on your intake calendar

Legal marketing has a compliance perimeter that most agencies navigate by guessing. We work with firms that need an agency that has already read ABA Model Rules 7.1, 7.2, and 7.3, understands how each state bar layers its own rules on top of the Model Rules, and knows the difference between outcome promises that get attorneys disciplined and workmanship commitments that are permissible. We built a system that produced measurable intake lift for similar firms. We say similar because ABA Model Rule 7.1 is explicit: prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome, and we will not pretend otherwise.

Explore the details +

Legal marketing has a compliance perimeter that most agencies navigate by guessing. We work with firms that need an agency that has already read ABA Model Rules 7.1, 7.2, and 7.3, understands how each state bar layers its own rules on top of the Model Rules, and knows the difference between outcome promises that get attorneys disciplined and workmanship commitments that are permissible. We built a system that produced measurable intake lift for similar firms. We say similar because ABA Model Rule 7.1 is explicit: prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome, and we will not pretend otherwise.

  • 01 SEO Rankings on the queries that become booked calls, not on the ones that look good in a report.
  • 02 Google Ads Search, Performance Max and Local Service Ads built to buy revenue, not clicks.
  • 03 Meta Ads Facebook and Instagram acquisition with server-side conversion and iOS-safe measurement.
  • 04 AI Automation Missed-call recovery, intake scoring and after-hours triage that get more leads booked without more staff.
  • 05 Custom CRM Development Pipeline, routing and reporting built to your workflow, not squeezed into a stock template.
  • 06 Full-Stack Marketing One team across search, paid, automation and the site, so no vendor blame layer eats your budget.
  • 07 Web Design Sites written to convert the traffic we send, instrumented for booked work end to end.
Mike Merlino teaching at SEO Rockstars
Mike Merlino teaching at SEO RockstarsOriginal photography · Merlino Marketing ↗
08 / THE DETAIL

The credentials a careful legal buyer is checking for, named out loud

No bar-rules sleight of hand. No content factories producing keyword-stuffed pages that read like disclaimers. No four-vendor coordination where one team blames another when the LSA account gets suspended. We are the operator-level marketing team running the acquisition and intake stack. The managing partner owns the legal decisions. We own the channel performance.

Explore the details +

No bar-rules sleight of hand. No content factories producing keyword-stuffed pages that read like disclaimers. No four-vendor coordination where one team blames another when the LSA account gets suspended. We are the operator-level marketing team running the acquisition and intake stack. The managing partner owns the legal decisions. We own the channel performance.

  • 01 Intake systems built across PI, criminal defense, family, estate, immigration, and mass tort since 2008 via Infintech Designs
  • 02 ABA Model Rule 7.1 and 7.2 review built into every ad, landing page, and email before sign-off
  • 03 LSA management, verification protection, and reinstatement experience on managed accounts
  • 04 $5M to $200M firm revenue · Three founders sign every weekly brief
08
The credentials a careful legal buyer is checking for, named out loud
A

01 Intake systems built across PI, criminal defense, family, estate, immigration, and mass tort since 2008 via Infintech Designs

B

02 ABA Model Rule 7.1 and 7.2 review built into every ad, landing page, and email before sign-off

C

03 LSA management, verification protection, and reinstatement experience on managed accounts

D

04 $5M to $200M firm revenue · Three founders sign every weekly brief

Evidence → decision → action
09 / THE DETAIL

We work with

We work with law firms that have at least $5M in annual revenue, a managing partner or office administrator who owns the marketing relationship, and a real willingness to run attribution inside their case management system. We work with these specific practice areas: personal injury, criminal defense, family law, estate planning, immigration, business litigation, and mass tort firms operating across the United States.

Explore the details +

We work with law firms that have at least $5M in annual revenue, a managing partner or office administrator who owns the marketing relationship, and a real willingness to run attribution inside their case management system. We work with these specific practice areas: personal injury, criminal defense, family law, estate planning, immigration, business litigation, and mass tort firms operating across the United States.

09
We work with
A

We work with law firms that have at least $5M in annual revenue, a managing partner or office administrator who owns the marketing relationship, and a real willingness to run attribution inside their case management system.

Evidence → decision → action
10 / THE DETAIL

We do not work with

We do not work with firms under $5M in annual revenue. We do not work with first-time marketing buyers who have no baseline analytics in place. We do not work with any firm that wants outcome guarantees in ad copy, comparative success rate claims without documented sourcing, or testimonial language that violates their state bar's advertising rules. Those are not arbitrary restrictions. They are the compliance rules that protect the attorney's bar license, and we will not help a firm market around them.

Explore the details +

We do not work with firms under $5M in annual revenue. We do not work with first-time marketing buyers who have no baseline analytics in place. We do not work with any firm that wants outcome guarantees in ad copy, comparative success rate claims without documented sourcing, or testimonial language that violates their state bar's advertising rules. Those are not arbitrary restrictions. They are the compliance rules that protect the attorney's bar license, and we will not help a firm market around them.

“Through Infintech Designs I have built intake systems for PI firms, criminal defense practices, family law attorneys, and estate planners since 2008. The same pattern shows up every time: the firm is losing qualified callers at the intake handoff, the ads are producing inquiries that never convert to retainers, and nobody has read the state bar's advertising rules closely enough to write copy that survives a compliance review. We fix those three things in the first 30 days before we talk about growing the top of the funnel. That sequencing is not arbitrary. It is why the system works.” Brian Hong · Co-Founder & CEO, Magister Digital · Founder, Infintech Designs · Active in SEO since 2000

“Through Infintech Designs I have built intake systems for PI firms, criminal defense practices, family law attorneys, and estate planners since 2008. The same pattern shows up every time: the firm is losing qualified callers at the intake handoff, the ads are producing inquiries that never convert to retainers, and nobody has read the state bar's advertising rules closely enough to write copy that survives a compliance review. We fix those three things in the first 30 days before we talk about growing the top of the funnel. That sequencing is not arbitrary. It is why the system works.”

  • 01 Qualified case intakes on the calendar, not leads in a spreadsheet.
  • 02 ABA Model Rule 7.1 review on every ad, landing page, and email before sign-off.
  • 03 LSA verification protection and reinstatement management when accounts get suspended.
  • 04 AI intake agents that qualify callers 24 hours a day and route matters to the right associate automatically.
  • 05 A founder on every account. The person you meet on the first call signs your Monday brief.
10
We do not work with
A

01 Qualified case intakes on the calendar, not leads in a spreadsheet.

B

02 ABA Model Rule 7.1 review on every ad, landing page, and email before sign-off.

C

03 LSA verification protection and reinstatement management when accounts get suspended.

D

04 AI intake agents that qualify callers 24 hours a day and route matters to the right associate automatically.

Evidence → decision → action
11 / THE DETAIL

A four-step operating cadence, run every quarter on your account

We will not build a one-page proposal you can take to three other agencies to grind on price. We will run the cadence below, signed by a founder at each step. If the audit says we are not the right team for your firm's intake situation, we say so before you sign anything.

Explore the details +

We will not build a one-page proposal you can take to three other agencies to grind on price. We will run the cadence below, signed by a founder at each step. If the audit says we are not the right team for your firm's intake situation, we say so before you sign anything.

11
A four-step operating cadence, run every quarter on your account
A

We will not build a one-page proposal you can take to three other agencies to grind on price.

Evidence → decision → action
12 / THE DETAIL

Audit your intake funnel and compliance posture

Access your Google Ads, LSA account, GBP, website analytics, CRM, and intake call recordings. We map your current cost per qualified intake by case type before we touch a single setting. We also check every piece of live ad copy and every landing page against ABA Model Rule 7.1 and your specific state bar's advertising rules. Compliance gaps get flagged in writing before we run anything. We will tell you what your current ads are getting wrong on the compliance checklist before the second meeting. We read the receipts before we open our mouths.

Explore the details +

Access your Google Ads, LSA account, GBP, website analytics, CRM, and intake call recordings. We map your current cost per qualified intake by case type before we touch a single setting. We also check every piece of live ad copy and every landing page against ABA Model Rule 7.1 and your specific state bar's advertising rules. Compliance gaps get flagged in writing before we run anything. We will tell you what your current ads are getting wrong on the compliance checklist before the second meeting. We read the receipts before we open our mouths.

12
Audit your intake funnel and compliance posture
A

Access your Google Ads, LSA account, GBP, website analytics, CRM, and intake call recordings.

Evidence → decision → action
13 / THE DETAIL

Build the SEO and intake content layer that compounds

Deploy practice-area content built on topical maps per case type, technical SEO foundation, and Google Business Profile management with review generation inside your state's bar rules on testimonials. We work with firms on Clio, MyCase, and PracticePanther. Michael Merlino, co-founder of CTR Geeks, owns the AI and SEO layer at Magister. Integrations are built inside your case management system, not patched on with a webhook. Legal SEO built using Stealth Code tools including SEO Neo and Omega Indexer accelerates topical authority and indexation at a pace most content-only approaches cannot match.

Explore the details +

Deploy practice-area content built on topical maps per case type, technical SEO foundation, and Google Business Profile management with review generation inside your state's bar rules on testimonials. We work with firms on Clio, MyCase, and PracticePanther. Michael Merlino, co-founder of CTR Geeks, owns the AI and SEO layer at Magister. Integrations are built inside your case management system, not patched on with a webhook. Legal SEO built using Stealth Code tools including SEO Neo and Omega Indexer accelerates topical authority and indexation at a pace most content-only approaches cannot match.

13
Build the SEO and intake content layer that compounds
A

Deploy practice-area content built on topical maps per case type, technical SEO foundation, and Google Business Profile management with review generation inside your state's bar rules on testimonials.

Evidence → decision → action
14 / THE DETAIL

Report weekly, in writing, signed by a founder

One BI dashboard. Ad spend by channel, qualified intakes by case type, intake-to-retainer conversion rate, cost per qualified intake, average case value by practice area. Reviewed by your managing partner or office administrator. Signed by a founder every Monday. If a channel is not producing by the date we committed in the brief, we name it in that report and tell you what we are doing about it. Not three months later.

Explore the details +

One BI dashboard. Ad spend by channel, qualified intakes by case type, intake-to-retainer conversion rate, cost per qualified intake, average case value by practice area. Reviewed by your managing partner or office administrator. Signed by a founder every Monday. If a channel is not producing by the date we committed in the brief, we name it in that report and tell you what we are doing about it. Not three months later.

Ahrefs Rank Tracker: SERP features
Ahrefs Rank Tracker: SERP featuresOfficial product example · Ahrefs ↗
15 / THE DETAIL

The first 30 days, in writing

No vague onboarding language. Four weeks. Four named deliverables. If we miss a milestone in Month 1, you do not pay for Month 2.

Explore the details +

No vague onboarding language. Four weeks. Four named deliverables. If we miss a milestone in Month 1, you do not pay for Month 2.

15
The first 30 days, in writing
A

No vague onboarding language.

Evidence → decision → action
16 / THE DETAIL

Read your intake funnel and flag your compliance exposure

Access ad accounts, analytics, GBP, CRM, call recordings, and every piece of live ad copy. Review all creative against ABA Model Rule 7.1 and your state bar's advertising rules. Map the current cost per qualified intake by case type, documented in writing, before we touch anything. Compliance gaps flagged in the audit document before the week ends.

Explore the details +

Access ad accounts, analytics, GBP, CRM, call recordings, and every piece of live ad copy. Review all creative against ABA Model Rule 7.1 and your state bar's advertising rules. Map the current cost per qualified intake by case type, documented in writing, before we touch anything. Compliance gaps flagged in the audit document before the week ends.

16
Read your intake funnel and flag your compliance exposure
A

Access ad accounts, analytics, GBP, CRM, call recordings, and every piece of live ad copy.

Evidence → decision → action
17 / THE DETAIL

Deploy, do not present

Bid changes, compliant ad copy live, AI intake agents responding to after-hours inquiries and routing by case type inside your CRM. Flowbots-powered agents qualifying case inquiries and syncing to Clio, MyCase, or PracticePanther. No deck. The first intake report with case-type breakdown is ready at the end of week three, not week six.

Explore the details +

Bid changes, compliant ad copy live, AI intake agents responding to after-hours inquiries and routing by case type inside your CRM. Flowbots-powered agents qualifying case inquiries and syncing to Clio, MyCase, or PracticePanther. No deck. The first intake report with case-type breakdown is ready at the end of week three, not week six.

17
Deploy, do not present
A

Bid changes, compliant ad copy live, AI intake agents responding to after-hours inquiries and routing by case type inside your CRM.

Evidence → decision → action
18 / THE DETAIL

90-day intake-growth plan, signed by a founder

A written 90-day plan signed by a founder. Numbered intake targets by channel and case type. Named owner per workstream. Practice-area SEO roadmap built using Stealth Code tools including SEO Neo and Omega Indexer. Next 12 weeks in writing. Reviewed by your managing partner before any spend increases. BigEasyData visitor identification layers into the retargeting stack in week four for PI and mass tort practices where case economics justify it.

Explore the details +

A written 90-day plan signed by a founder. Numbered intake targets by channel and case type. Named owner per workstream. Practice-area SEO roadmap built using Stealth Code tools including SEO Neo and Omega Indexer. Next 12 weeks in writing. Reviewed by your managing partner before any spend increases. BigEasyData visitor identification layers into the retargeting stack in week four for PI and mass tort practices where case economics justify it.

Mike Merlino explaining an SEO concept
Mike Merlino explaining an SEO conceptOriginal photography · Merlino Marketing ↗
19 / THE DETAIL

HVAC, plumbing, roofing, restoration

High intent, weather-driven demand, and a close rate that lives or dies on how fast the phone is answered.

Explore the details +

High intent, weather-driven demand, and a close rate that lives or dies on how fast the phone is answered.

  • Local Service Ads and the map pack
  • Storm and seasonal surge planning
19
HVAC, plumbing, roofing, restoration
A

Local Service Ads and the map pack

B

Storm and seasonal surge planning

Evidence → decision → action
20 / THE DETAIL

Practices and multi-location groups

Patient acquisition without putting protected health information into a pixel payload.

Explore the details +

Patient acquisition without putting protected health information into a pixel payload.

  • HIPAA-aware tracking, BAA in place
  • Server-side conversion measurement
  • Reported as ranges, never single-patient guarantees
20
Practices and multi-location groups
A

HIPAA-aware tracking, BAA in place

B

Server-side conversion measurement

C

Reported as ranges, never single-patient guarantees

Evidence → decision → action
21 / THE DETAIL

Forty-five minutes with a founder. Not a sales rep

We pull up your Google Ads, your LSA account, your intake call recordings, and your existing ad copy live on the call. We flag specific compliance exposure under ABA Model Rule 7.1 and conversion holes where qualified callers are quietly being lost. You leave with a written read on what we would run first, what it costs, and what the first 30 days look like for your specific practice areas. No deck. No pitch.

Explore the details +

We pull up your Google Ads, your LSA account, your intake call recordings, and your existing ad copy live on the call. We flag specific compliance exposure under ABA Model Rule 7.1 and conversion holes where qualified callers are quietly being lost. You leave with a written read on what we would run first, what it costs, and what the first 30 days look like for your specific practice areas. No deck. No pitch.

Marketing services provided by Magister Digital. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Magister Digital does not provide legal advice. Each state bar imposes its own attorney advertising rules and approval requirements; we work within yours.

Reviewed and replied to by a founder inside seven days. Engagements scoped privately. We will not sell your firm's information to any third party.

Mike Merlino at Digital Unfiltered
Mike Merlino at Digital UnfilteredOriginal photography · Merlino Marketing ↗
22 / THE DETAIL

What managing partners ask first. Answered honestly

If something below disqualifies us, we would rather you know now than three months in. We will not sign an engagement we do not believe we can win, and we will not stay on past the point where the math says we are no longer the right team.

Explore the details +

If something below disqualifies us, we would rather you know now than three months in. We will not sign an engagement we do not believe we can win, and we will not stay on past the point where the math says we are no longer the right team.

  • What does this cost? Single-channel engagements start at $20K per month. Full-stack engagements start at $60K per month. We scope from there based on pace, market intensity, number of firm locations, and how much of the stack we operate. We do not publish a single number because the math depends on what your firm actually needs. Most firms we work with run a combination of paid, LSA, legal SEO, and AI intake. The full-stack price reflects that combination. Media spend is paid direct to the ad platforms and is separate from the management fee. How do you stay inside ABA Model Rule 7.1? Every ad, landing page, email, and SMS is reviewed against ABA Model Rule 7.1 and your specific state bar's advertising rules before your managing partner sees it. We pull your state's rules at engagement start and bake them into the compliance checklist. No outcome promises anywhere in any copy. No “specialist” or “expert” claims unless your attorney is board-certified per state. Past-results disclaimers wherever required. Testimonial language reviewed against your state's bar rules before use. The managing partner gets a 48-hour compliance review window on every deliverable before it ships. What can you actually commit to on case volume? We cannot promise specific case wins, intake numbers, or signed-retainer counts. ABA Model Rule 7.1 is clear on outcome guarantees, and any agency that ignores that rule is putting your bar license at risk. What we commit to: every deliverable ships on the timeline documented in the brief. Before-and-after metrics on your intake funnel are tracked and reported weekly. If a channel is not producing by the date we stated, we say so in the weekly report and name the adjustment. We built a system that produced measurable intake lift for similar firms. The intake data will speak for itself in the monthly report. Do you work with my practice area? We work with personal injury, criminal defense, family law, estate planning, immigration, business litigation, and mass tort practices. Same full-stack methodology, tuned per practice area. PI and mass tort get specific state solicitation-rule scrutiny. Criminal defense gets rapid-response intake design. Family law gets inquiry handling built for sensitivity. Estate planning and immigration get educational content SEO and intake flows tuned to longer decision timelines. Business litigation gets enterprise-level content and search positioning per practice niche. We work with solo practitioners and up to 20-attorney firms. How do you handle LSA account problems? We audit your LSA verification status, background-check documentation, and license documentation at engagement start. If the account is suspended, we manage the reinstatement process. If the account is active but underperforming, we tighten case-type bidding alignment, response-time scoring, and budget pacing. Most LSA problems we see trace to either documentation gaps or case-type misalignment where the firm is showing up for intakes they do not actually want. We fix the misalignment before we increase the budget. Do founders stay on the account? Yes. Three founders sign every weekly brief. Brian Hong on strategy, Dimitry Morgan on paid media, and Michael Merlino on AI intake and legal SEO. No account directors presenting someone else's spreadsheet. No pods. The same operators you meet on the first call are the same operators reading the BI report on your account 12 months in. We will not sign an engagement we do not believe we can win, and we will not stay on past the point where the math says we are no longer the right team for the next stage of your firm's growth.
22
What managing partners ask first. Answered honestly
A

What does this cost?

Evidence → decision → action
YOUR NEXT CHAPTER STARTS HERE.

Ambition deserves
an advantage.

Bring your numbers. Your biggest challenge.
And a clear idea of where you want to go.

Start a conversation