For a small law firm the website is rarely a vanity project. It is the place where someone with a problem decides whether to pick up the phone or click on - and it is the place where German professional conduct rules suddenly become visible. Lawyers are allowed to advertise, but they are bound by standards the trades business next door does not have to think about. The widespread worry that a lawyer may hardly say anything at all is barely supported by the evidence: for 80 percent (Soldan Institut, Berufsrechtsbarometer 2021) of surveyed lawyers with entrepreneurial responsibility, professional law had not yet been a concrete obstacle to planned marketing activities; only 20 percent (Soldan Institut) report such a case. This guide sorts out what may go on a law firm website, which mandatory details are missing most often, what a contact form looks like that takes confidentiality seriously, and how to structure a small firm site that actually starts client relationships. It is general information and does not replace legal advice in an individual case.
Key takeaways
- Section 43b BRAO sets three limits rather than a ban: advertising must relate to professional activity, inform objectively and not target a specific engagement. In its version of 1 December 2025 (Bundesrechtsanwaltskammer, BORA) the code even allows single-engagement advertising.
- A specialist title is conferred by the bar board for at most three of the 24 fields in the specialist lawyer regulation (Fachanwaltsordnung, Section 1); without one, Section 7 (1) BORA allows naming fields of activity where the knowledge behind them is demonstrable.
- The imprint needs more than name and address: Section 5 (1) no. 5 DDG demands bar association, professional title with state of conferral and professional rules with their source; DL-InfoV adds the liability insurer with address and geographical scope.
- Confidentiality under Section 43a (2) BRAO starts with the first approach: an encrypted route, few fields, a note not to spell out the facts, the opposing party for a conflict check and fixed deletion periods for enquiries that never become engagements.
- Client testimonials, reference names and identifiable case descriptions need express consent (Section 6 (2) BORA), even after the relationship ends; process descriptions, response times and an explanation of statutory fees earn trust without that hurdle.
- The workable structure is one page per field of law plus people, fees, contact and the mandatory pages; departures, newly conferred titles and revised professional rules keep changing the mandatory details, which makes ongoing maintenance part of the job.
What lawyers may say on a website today
The starting point is Section 43b of the Federal Lawyers' Act. The provision is awkwardly worded - it opens with „advertising is permitted to lawyers only insofar as ...“ - and is therefore still read as a prohibition. In fact it describes three limits on a freedom that exists in principle: advertising must relate to professional activity, it must inform objectively in form and content, and it must not be aimed at obtaining an engagement in a specific case (Bundesrechtsanwaltsordnung, Section 43b). Everything that clears those three hurdles is permitted. And that is considerably more than small firms actually use on their sites.
The provision is fleshed out by the professional code for lawyers, adopted by the statutory assembly at the Federal Bar. Its second chapter is now headed „special professional duties in connection with advertising and external presentation“ and covers Sections 6 to 10 BORA. These rules were last revised by a decision of the statutory assembly of 26 May 2025; the code applies in its version of 1 December 2025 (Bundesrechtsanwaltskammer, BORA). Since then Section 6 (1) BORA puts it the other way around: lawyers must not advertise in an unobjective, unfair or in particular misleading manner - and within those limits, advertising for a single engagement is permitted too. For a website that means a page describing a concrete legal problem and a route to the firm is not a borderline case but the normal case.
How strongly professional law actually brakes marketing was measured by the Soldan Institut für Anwaltmanagement in its 2021 professional conduct barometer. Of 1,285 (Soldan Institut) surveyed lawyers with entrepreneurial responsibility, 17 percent (Soldan Institut) stated that professional law had once concretely prevented a planned marketing activity; 68 percent (Soldan Institut) said it had not, and 15 percent (Soldan Institut) could not say. The age pattern is striking: among those up to 50, 23 percent (Soldan Institut) report such a restraint, among those over 70 it is 5 percent (Soldan Institut). The institute's director reads this as a generational effect - whoever probes the limits meets them more often. The second finding of the same study is notable: in the authors' assessment, a number of the abandoned measures would have been unproblematic under professional law. Caution costs visibility.
Section 43b BRAO
Advertising must relate to professional activity, inform objectively and must not target a specific engagement. Three limits, not a ban (Bundesrechtsanwaltsordnung, Section 43b).
Sections 6 to 10 BORA
The professional code governs advertising, naming fields of activity, joint practice, short designations and information duties - in the version of 1 December 2025 (Bundesrechtsanwaltskammer).
Unfair competition law and DDG
Underneath sits general law: the prohibition of misleading statements, the imprint duty under Section 5 of the Digital Services Act (DDG) and data protection - as for any commercially used website.
- The fields of law handled, clearly named and explained on a page of their own
- Specialist lawyer titles that have actually been conferred, plus other demonstrable qualifications
- Fields of activity marked as such (Section 7 (1) BORA)
- Fee models: statutory fees, fee agreements, the framework of an initial consultation
- Organisational detail: availability, languages, video appointments, directions, step-free access
- Factual references to publications, lectures, teaching assignments and memberships
What stays off the page
Specialist titles, focus areas and areas of interest
Hardly any point causes as much blur on small firm sites as the question of what you may call your own specialisation. The specialist lawyer title is conferred: the board of the bar association decides on the application after an expert committee has examined the evidence, and the authorisation may be granted for a maximum of three (Bundesrechtsanwaltsordnung, Section 43c) fields of law. In its version of 1 December 2025 the specialist lawyer regulation lists 24 (Fachanwaltsordnung, Section 1) fields, from administrative law to sports law. On 1 January 2026 there were 167,547 (Bundesrechtsanwaltskammer, membership statistics) admitted lawyers in Germany, with a share of women of 37.90 percent (Bundesrechtsanwaltskammer). A total of 58,177 (Bundesrechtsanwaltskammer, specialist statistics) specialist titles were held: 35,167 (Bundesrechtsanwaltskammer) lawyers held one, 10,714 (Bundesrechtsanwaltskammer) two and 1,555 (Bundesrechtsanwaltskammer) three.
Those without a conferred title are not left speechless. Section 7 (1) BORA expressly permits naming fields of activity independently of specialist titles - provided the corresponding knowledge can be demonstrated, acquired in training, through professional work, publications or otherwise. Anyone using qualifying additions must also possess the corresponding theoretical knowledge and must have worked in the named field to a substantial extent. Section 7 (2) BORA draws the line: such designations are impermissible insofar as they create a risk of confusion with specialist titles or are otherwise misleading (Bundesrechtsanwaltskammer, BORA). In practice this creates a clear hierarchy of language - the specialist title only once conferred, below it the marked field of activity, below that the area of interest as a mere orientation.
| Wording on the website | The problem | A clean alternative |
|---|---|---|
| „Specialist lawyer for traffic law“ without conferral | Title without a bar decision, misleading (Section 7 (2) BORA) | „Field of activity: traffic law“ with demonstrable practice |
| „Specialist in employment law“ | Only tenable where knowledge is demonstrable and confusion is unlikely (Section 7 BORA) | „Focus on employment law: dismissal, settlement, references“ |
| „We enforce your claims“ | A promise of success that cannot be substantiated | „Procedure: review, out-of-court demand, court action“ |
| „The leading firm in the region“ | Unsubstantiated superlative, unobjective (Section 6 (1) BORA) | „In Hildesheim since 2009, two lawyers, family law“ |
| Client quote with photo, without consent | Advertising with clients requires express consent (Section 6 (2) BORA) | Anonymised description of a typical procedure |
| Departed partners still listed under the team | Departure must be made recognisable (Section 8 (3) BORA) | Profile with the note „with the firm until 2024“ |
The difference lies in the evidence, not in the word
The mandatory details small firm sites miss most often
Every commercially operated website needs an imprint under Section 5 of the Digital Services Act. For regulated professions the list goes further: Section 5 (1) no. 5 DDG additionally requires details of the chamber the provider belongs to, the statutory professional title and the state in which it was conferred, plus the designation of the professional rules and information on how they can be accessed (Digitale-Dienste-Gesetz, Section 5). These three points are precisely the ones missing most often on small firm sites - usually because the imprint came from a generic template written for commercial businesses.
Professional title and state
„Rechtsanwältin“ or „Rechtsanwalt“, conferred in the Federal Republic of Germany. Foreign titles additionally require the designation of origin (Digitale-Dienste-Gesetz, Section 5 (1) no. 5).
Competent bar association
Name and address of the bar association the firm belongs to. Where several lawyers belong to different districts, all competent associations go into the imprint.
Professional rules and source
BRAO, BORA, FAO, RVG and the code of conduct for European lawyers - named, with a note on where they can be retrieved (Digitale-Dienste-Gesetz, Section 5 (1) no. 5).
Professional liability insurance
Name and address of the insurer plus the geographical scope of the policy. The minimum sum insured is 250,000 euros (Bundesrechtsanwaltsordnung, Section 51 (4)) per insured event.
VAT identification number
Anyone holding a number under Section 27a of the VAT Act states it (Digitale-Dienste-Gesetz, Section 5 (1) no. 6; Dienstleistungs-Informationspflichten-Verordnung, Section 2 (1) no. 5).
Company and register
For a professional practice company: legal form, authorised representatives and the register with its number; Section 10 (1) BORA additionally requires the names of personally liable partners.
The second source is often overlooked: Section 10 (1) BORA refers to the Service Provider Information Obligations Ordinance and requires that the details under Section 2 (1) DL-InfoV be available before the engagement contract is concluded. These include name and address, contact details allowing quick and direct contact, register data, the VAT identification number, the professional title with issuing state and chamber, any general terms and conditions, clauses on applicable law and jurisdiction, guarantees, the essential features of the service and - the classic gap - details of the professional liability insurance, in particular the name and address of the insurer and the geographical scope (Dienstleistungs-Informationspflichten-Verordnung, Section 2 (1) no. 11). Section 3 DL-InfoV adds details owed only on request, such as the reference to the professional rules and information on out-of-court dispute resolution.
Where the details may sit
Confidentiality meets the contact form
The second big difference to an ordinary company website lies in confidentiality. Lawyers are bound to secrecy; the duty covers everything that has become known to them in the exercise of their profession (Bundesrechtsanwaltsordnung, Section 43a (2)). It applies from the first approach onwards, that is before any engagement exists at all. A website that invites people to tell their story therefore produces exactly the data that subsequently needs the strongest protection.
The duty of confidentiality requires lawyers to take the organisational and technical measures necessary to protect client secrecy, insofar as they are proportionate to the risk and reasonable for the legal profession.
The same provision also governs risky channels. Using a means of communication that carries risks for confidentiality is permitted where the client agrees; agreement is assumed where the client proposes that channel or starts and continues it after the firm has pointed out the risks at least in general terms and without technical detail (Bundesrechtsanwaltskammer, Section 2 (2) BORA). For a website this yields a surprisingly clear set of building instructions: a short notice, a lean form, an encrypted route. How reliably unencrypted mail travels and what delivery paths reveal technically is described in the article on e-mail delivery with SPF, DKIM and DMARC; the basics of your own firm address are covered in the guide to a domain and a professional e-mail address.
- Transport encryption for the whole site, not just for the form page
- Few required fields: name, call-back number or e-mail, field of law, preferred appointment
- Keep the free text field small and add a note not to spell out the facts of the case
- Ask for the opposing party so a conflict check under Section 43a (4) BRAO is possible early
- A note that unencrypted e-mail and messengers do not protect confidential content
- Defined and documented deletion periods for enquiries that do not become engagements
- Do not route enquiries into a shared mailbox that more people can access than necessary
The last item on the list is the underestimated one. An enquiry that does not become an engagement remains information covered by confidentiality and at the same time contains personal data. Leaving it in a mailbox indefinitely accumulates risk without any benefit. A fixed period, a defined location and separation from the actual client file are the sensible answer. The data protection side - legal basis, information duties, processing agreement with the host - is explained step by step in the guide to GDPR basics for small websites. Section 2 (5) BORA expressly states that the rules on the protection of personal data remain unaffected (Bundesrechtsanwaltskammer, BORA).
No client testimonials without consent
For most service providers reviews are the strongest trust signal. In the legal profession a separate rule applies: advertising with matters or with clients is permitted only with express consent - and that holds even where the relationship is no longer covered by the duty of confidentiality (Bundesrechtsanwaltskammer, Section 6 (2) BORA). This concerns more than the classic quote with a photo. A reference logo, the mention of a well-known case or a description from which the parties can be inferred falls under it too. Anyone wanting to collect reviews will find the general ground rules in the article on customer reviews and trust on your website - the professional law limit applies on top of them.
The practical way out is not to abandon trust building but to change the evidence. Instead of other people's voices, the firm site explains its own process: what happens after an enquiry, how quickly a response arrives, what an initial consultation costs, how a typical procedure runs, which documents clients should bring. Such content is factual, verifiable and far more useful for a decision than a superlative. It also answers exactly the questions people ask before they pick up the phone.
Procedure
A short path per field of law: first meeting, review, out-of-court phase, court phase. Name the deadlines without judging the outcome.
Availability
Consultation hours, call-back times, video appointments and how quickly an enquiry is usually answered. Organisational information is factual information.
Cost transparency
Explain the logic of the Lawyers' Remuneration Act: statutory fees, the value in dispute, fee agreements. Where fees follow the value in dispute, this must be pointed out before accepting the engagement (Bundesrechtsanwaltsordnung, Section 49b (5)).
Fees are a trust topic, not a taboo
How to structure a small law firm site
Technically a law firm website is a manageable project. The effort sits in the structure: press every field of law onto the home page and you get a page that fits no search query and answers no visitor. One page per field of law makes sense, because people do not search for „law firm“ but for their problem - for dismissal, custody, a fine notice or a rent reduction. Which pages every company website needs at minimum is described in the article on the five most important pages of a website; law firms add two more.
- Home: who the firm is, which fields of law it handles, how to get in touch - without superlatives
- One page per field of law with typical constellations, procedure, deadlines and documents
- People: professional title, conferred titles, marked focus areas, career, languages
- Fees: statutory fees, value in dispute, fee agreements, initial consultation
- Contact: a lean form, phone, directions, parking, step-free access
- Mandatory pages: imprint with professional rules and liability insurance, privacy policy, accessibility statement
Local findability comes on top. A well-kept business profile with the correct address, opening hours and phone number often answers the question „where do I find a lawyer near me?“ before the website is even opened. How to set up and maintain that profile is shown on our service page for the Google Business Profile. Consistency is what counts: name, address and phone number must be identical on the profile, the website and the imprint, otherwise local visibility suffers.
The last building block is easily forgotten: accessibility. Some clients arrive with impaired vision, others on an old smartphone, a third group under time pressure shortly before a deadline. Sufficient contrast, real text structure instead of type baked into images, operable forms and readable alternatives to PDFs help all three groups. Which requirements the German accessibility act brings for small businesses and which exemptions apply is clarified in the article on an accessible website for small businesses.
What a law firm website costs
For a small firm the price question can be answered surprisingly clearly, because the scope is predictable. A site with a home page, three to five practice area pages, a people page, a fees page, contact and the mandatory pages is a fixed-price project. We build it as a starter website from 390 euros; the full scope and the larger tiers are shown in the overview of packages and prices. The real difference to a website builder is not the look but the prepared building blocks: an imprint with chamber, professional title, professional rules and liability insurance, a data-minimising form, a fees page that explains the logic of the Lawyers' Remuneration Act, and copy that stays factual.
More important than the entry price is maintenance. Lawyers join and leave, specialist titles are conferred, insurers change, the professional code is revised - most recently as of 1 December 2025 (Bundesrechtsanwaltskammer, BORA). Every one of those changes touches the mandatory details. We take over ongoing website maintenance from 49 euros a month, including updates, backups and small content changes. From project experience with small businesses one rule of thumb holds: two to four content changes a year are enough for a firm site once the structure is right from the start (project experience).
When in doubt, ask the bar association
On balance the law firm website is less a legal minefield than a question of care. Professional law demands objectivity, not pallor; the mandatory details are a list you work through cleanly once; and confidentiality can be handled well with a lean form and a clear notice. What remains afterwards is ordinary communication work: explaining what the firm does, how it works and what it costs. Anyone who would like to shorten that path with ready-made building blocks will find the detail on our page for websites for lawyers and law firms or can discuss the scope directly in a free initial conversation.