Lateral moves are a normal part of a legal career, and most attorneys plan them carefully: the clients, the conflicts, the files, the announcement. Very few plan what happens to their name search, and it is usually the part that goes wrong for longest. Months after the move, a prospect who searches your name can still land on your old firm's bio, with your old title and your old phone number, while the page at your new firm sits on page two because Google has not decided to trust it yet.
This guide explains why that happens, what to do in the weeks around a move, and the one structural change that makes every future move close to painless.
Why a move hurts your search so much
Your firm bio is probably the most authoritative page about you on the web, as far as Google is concerned. It sits on an established domain with years of links, it has been there a long time, and other sites cite it. That authority belongs to the firm's domain, not to you. When you leave, it stays behind.
Your new firm bio starts from nothing. It is a new address on a domain that has never mentioned you before. Google has to discover it, decide it describes the same person as the old page, and then decide which one is current. Until it does, it hedges, and a hedge in a name search usually means the old page keeps ranking.
Meanwhile every other source you appear in carries a timestamp from before the move. The state bar record changes when you file the update. LinkedIn changes when you edit it. Avvo, Martindale, Justia and the others change when you, or someone, remembers to log in. Each one that still shows the old firm is a vote for the old version. And the AI assistants, which build their answers from all of these, will describe you at your old firm for as long as most of the sources do.
What goes wrong in practice
The problems attorneys report after a move are remarkably consistent. Prospects call the old firm, because the old bio has the old phone number and it still ranks. The old firm takes the call. Sometimes they pass it on and sometimes, if you now compete with them, they do not.
The panel or the AI answer names the wrong firm. Google's description of you, and the paragraph an assistant writes, keep citing the old bio. A general counsel who looks you up before a pitch sees a firm you left a year ago and wonders what else is out of date.
The record splits. If the old and new pages describe you slightly differently, a different title, a different headshot, a different form of your name, Google may decide they are two people. Now your history sits under one entity and your present under another. If you also share a name with another lawyer, the confusion can compound into something that takes months to unpick. What a client sees when they search your name describes how that blending looks from the prospect's side.
Before the move
Some of this you can do quietly before anything is announced, and it makes the rest much easier.
- Collect your record while you still have access. Your bio text, your matter list, your publications, your speaking history, your headshot files. Firm systems close quickly when you resign, and you will want all of it.
- Note every profile you have. Bar listing, Avvo, Martindale, Justia, Super Lawyers, Best Lawyers, LinkedIn, court admission records, bar association committee pages, CLE faculty pages, alumni pages. Keep the logins and the URLs in one list.
- Decide your name form. If you have ever appeared as "J. Smith", "Jane Smith" and "Jane A. Smith", pick one and use it everywhere from now on. A move is the cheapest moment to standardize.
- Read your new firm's marketing rules. Some firms restrict what attorneys may publish about themselves outside the firm site. Better to know before you build anything.
The week you move
This is when order matters. The aim is to give Google one clear, consistent story as quickly as possible.
- File the bar record update first. It is the source every directory copies, and the most authoritative statement of where you practice. Everything else should agree with it.
- Get the new firm bio live, with the same name form and headshot you chose, and with your admissions and history stated in full, not just your new title.
- Ask the old firm, in writing, to remove your bio or redirect it to the new one. A permanent redirect from the old address to your new bio is the best outcome, because it passes the old page's authority to the new one. Many firms will agree, since a stale bio is also a liability for them. If they will not redirect, ask for removal, and at minimum for the phone number and email to be taken off.
- Update LinkedIn and every directory profile on your list, with the new firm, address, phone and a link to the new bio.
- Tell Google. If you have a knowledge panel and have claimed it, suggest the edit through the panel. If the old bio is gone but still shows in results, the outdated content removal tool can speed its disappearance.
The weeks after
Expect the first few weeks to be messy, and check rather than assume. Search your name in a private window once a week, ask an assistant who you are, and note which sources still show the old firm. Chase the stragglers. The ones that lag longest are usually the paid directories and the old bar association committee pages nobody remembers editing. Most attorneys find the results settle within two to three months if every source has been updated and the old bio has been redirected, and drag on for a year or more if it has not.
The structural fix: a record that does not move
Everything above is damage limitation, and you will have to do it again at the next move. The better answer is to stop relying on a page you do not own.
A personal record on your own domain, yourname.com or similar, does not change when you change firms. It carries your whole history, not just your current role. It is marked up in the hidden layer so Google can read it as the canonical statement of who you are, with links to your bar listing, your current firm bio and every profile, which is what Person schema and sameAs are for. And because it is the page every other source points to, its authority builds up over your whole career rather than resetting every few years.
When you move with a record like that in place, the work shrinks to a few lines. Update the firm, the title and the contact details on your own page, and it reflects the move the same day. Your history does not split, because the page that holds it never changed address. The new firm bio links to it, the old one redirects, and the directories catch up to a story that was never in doubt.
There is a professional reason to want this too. A record on your own domain is yours to keep accurate, which matters because anything that describes your practice is a communication about your services under your state's version of ABA Model Rule 7.1. A stale bio on a former firm's site, listing matters you no longer handle at a firm you no longer work for, is not something you control. A page you own is.
What your page should and should not say
Keep it factual, which makes it both effective and easy for any firm to accept. Admissions with dates. Education. Your current firm, linked. Practice areas described plainly. Publications and talks, linked to the originals. Matters on the public record, described accurately, with no implication about results. Certifications named only where you hold them, since most states restrict the word specialist. Any disclaimer your state requires. Most firms are comfortable with a personal page like this, and many prefer it to a LinkedIn profile they cannot review, but if your firm has a policy, follow it and let them see the page before it goes live.