Short answer: In Idaho, Rules 7.1 through 7.5 of the Idaho Rules of Professional Conduct govern attorney advertising, administered through the Idaho State Bar. Idaho has a high proportion of solo and very small firms, which makes it the right place to examine the smallest and most common misleading statement on a law firm website: the word “our.” This guide sets out the Idaho attorney advertising rules that apply to a law firm website.
Nobody sets out to misrepresent the size of their firm. The plural arrives through template copy and never leaves.
The plural pronoun problem
Open almost any solo practitioner’s website and you will find “our attorneys,” “our team,” “our offices,” “we have decades of combined experience” and “contact our firm.” The lawyer wrote none of it. It came from a template, a copywriter working from a brief, or an AI draft trained on the copy of larger firms.
Each phrase is a statement about the firm’s size and composition. “Our attorneys” asserts more than one. “Decades of combined experience” asserts that experience is being combined across people. A reader deciding between two firms uses exactly these signals, because size is a proxy for capacity and capacity is what they are actually shopping for.
Rule 7.1 does not have a size exemption for statements that were written by a template.
Why it survives every review
Because it does not read as a claim. “Our team is here to help” registers as tone, not information. The reviewer’s eye slides over it looking for the things that feel like claims: case results, superlatives, fee statements. The pronouns are invisible precisely because they are everywhere.
The second reason is that the lawyer knows the truth, so the sentence reads as accurate to the only person who reviews it. A solo who employs a paralegal genuinely does have a team in the ordinary sense. But “our attorneys” is not the ordinary sense. It is a specific assertion about how many lawyers work there.
The fix, and why it is a marketing upgrade
Switch to the first person singular and name the lawyer. “I have handled custody matters in Ada County for eleven years” is accurate, and it is far stronger copy than “our attorneys bring decades of combined experience to every case.”
Small-firm clients are not looking for a large firm. They are looking for the specific person who will answer the phone. The plural pronoun actively suppresses the thing a solo practice sells, which is direct access to the lawyer. Firms discover this whenever they test it: naming the lawyer and writing in the first person raises consultation requests, because it answers the question the reader actually has.
It also produces a better result in AI search. When an assistant is asked to recommend a lawyer, it needs an identifiable person with an identifiable record. A site written in an anonymous corporate plural gives it nothing to attach.
Plural phrases and their accurate replacements
| Template phrase | What it asserts | Accurate version |
|---|---|---|
| Our attorneys | Two or more lawyers | I, or name the lawyer |
| Our offices | More than one location | My office in Boise |
| Decades of combined experience | Multiple careers added up | Eleven years practising |
| Our team of experts | Staff, plus a claim of expertise | Name the people, drop “experts” |
| We are one of Idaho’s leading firms | Comparative standing | Remove, or substantiate |
Why this matters beyond Idaho
This is the single most widespread inaccuracy on small law firm websites in the country, and it is entirely fixable in an afternoon. Every state’s Rule 7.1 covers it. Idaho is a useful lens only because the proportion of small firms makes the pattern so visible there.
The audit takes ten minutes: search your site for “our attorneys,” “our team,” “our offices,” “we” and “combined,” and check each hit against the actual headcount. Most firms find between fifteen and forty instances. See also the Delaware guide, where the same anonymity causes a different problem.
Idaho attorney advertising rules: frequently asked questions
Which rules govern attorney advertising in Idaho?
The Idaho Rules of Professional Conduct, principally Rules 7.1 through 7.5, administered through the Idaho State Bar. Rule 7.1 prohibits false or misleading communications about a lawyer or the lawyer’s services.
Can a solo practitioner say “our firm” on a website?
“Our firm” is generally read as referring to the practice as an entity and is far less pointed than “our attorneys,” which asserts multiple lawyers. The phrases that assert headcount are the ones worth changing.
Is “combined experience” misleading?
It is accurate only when experience is genuinely being combined across more than one lawyer. Used by a single practitioner it overstates the practice, and it is weaker copy than simply stating how long you have practised.
Does a firm name have to reflect the number of lawyers?
Firm names are governed by Rule 7.5 and must not be misleading. Names using “and Associates” where no associates exist have drawn scrutiny in several jurisdictions. Confirm the current position with the Idaho State Bar.
Will writing in the first person hurt how professional the site looks?
In small-firm practice it usually helps. Prospective clients choosing a solo or small firm are specifically looking for direct access to a named lawyer, and anonymous corporate phrasing hides the thing they are shopping for.
Idaho attorney advertising rules: the short version
If you take one thing from this guide, take this: “our attorneys” is a claim about headcount, and on a solo website it is a false one. Search your site for the plural, replace it with your name, and you will have improved both your compliance position and your conversion rate before lunch.
Official source: the Idaho State Bar.
Legal Web Agency is a marketing agency, not a law firm, and nothing here is legal advice. No required disclaimer wording or firm-name interpretation is quoted here. Confirm current requirements with the Idaho State Bar or your ethics counsel.
Related reading: Attorney Advertising Rules by State, plus the Delaware and Alabama guides. We build criminal defense law firm websites for firms across the USA.
