About

Why FirmRanker exists

Once we started asking how AI systems decide which law firms to surface, it became clear that manually checking ChatGPT was not enough.

Different prompts can produce different firms. Different AI systems can disagree. Sources vary. Model behaviour changes. FirmRanker was built to measure those questions systematically.

The problem

Discussion of AI and law-firm visibility currently relies heavily on screenshots, one-off prompts, vague “AI rankings”, unclear definitions of what counts as a recommendation, and optimisation claims that assume causes the evidence cannot show. FirmRanker exists to create a more inspectable measurement system.

What FirmRanker is

FirmRanker is a research and intelligence platform studying how AI systems discover, surface, cite and recommend law firms.
  • Measurement — Structured observation of how firms appear across AI systems.
  • Benchmarking — Comparison within defined markets and practice areas.
  • Methodology — Published, versioned rules for how measurement works.
  • Competitive visibility — Which firms share the consideration set.
  • Research — Studies into how AI legal discovery behaves.

What FirmRanker is not

  • Pay-to-play law-firm rankings
  • A legal referral service
  • A directory ranking firms based on payment
  • An AEO agency
  • A claim to know proprietary model reasoning
  • A promise of permanent AI rankings

Dan Toombs

FirmRanker was founded by Dan Toombs, a lawyer, founder and legal-industry entrepreneur who has spent more than 20 years working around how law firms grow, build authority and get discovered.

Dan is also the founder of Practice Proof and publishes research and analysis through Law By Dan.

FirmRanker, Law By Dan and Practice Proof

FirmRanker — Measure → Law By Dan — Understand → Practice Proof — Act

FirmRanker produces research and evidence. Dan interprets the implications through Law By Dan.

FirmRanker is deliberately separate from Practice Proof's implementation work. Where a law firm wants help acting on its findings — across positioning, reputation, content, search, technology and broader client acquisition — that work is delivered through Practice Proof.

Research principles

  • Transparency
  • Repeatability
  • Raw-data preservation
  • Human validation
  • Limitations
  • Corrections
  • Separation of observation and interpretation