Managing your owner account

Your owner account is where you control how your firm appears in VerifiedLawFirms. You register once, sign in with email and password, and everything else happens inside the /account workspace: editing your profile, uploading proof for verification checks, choosing a plan, and responding to reviews. This article walks through each of those tasks in order. It also explains which edits go live right away and which ones wait for an editor, so you know what to expect after you click save.

One thing to settle up front. Paying for a plan does not verify your firm, and it never grants a badge. Verification is a separate manual process run by our editorial team. Keep that split in mind as you read, because it shapes how the whole account works.

Registering and signing in

To create an owner account you register with an email address and a password. When you claim a listing by paying, the email you use at checkout becomes the account email for that firm, and it shows on the listing as an automatic "email on file" check (claiming itself is done by paying, not by email). After you register, we send a confirmation message to that address. Open it and click the link to verify the email before you go further.

Signing in uses the same email and password. If you turn on two-factor authentication, you also enter a short code from your authenticator app each time. More on that below. Once you are in, you land in the /account workspace, which holds every tool tied to your firm.

If your confirmation email does not arrive

Check the spam or promotions folder first. The message comes from our system automatically, so filters sometimes catch it. If it is not there after a few minutes, request a new one from the sign-in area. An unconfirmed email address limits what you can do, so clear this step early.

What the /account workspace holds

Think of /account as the private side of your public listing. The public page shows what visitors see. The workspace is where you shape it. Inside you will find these areas:

• Profile editing, where you change your firm details and description.
• Verification uploads, where you submit evidence for each check.
• Plan and billing, where you pick Basic, Pro, or Premium.
• Reviews, where you read published reviews and post responses.
• Account security, where you change your password and manage two-factor authentication.

Your documents stay private to the editorial team. Nothing you upload for verification is shown to the public. The Verification tab on your live page displays only the name of each check, a plain-English description of it, its status, and the date it was last checked. Visitors never see the paperwork behind those statuses.

Claiming your firm listing

Many firms already appear in the directory before an owner arrives. If yours does, you claim the existing listing rather than build a new one. Start from your firm page and use the Claim this listing option there. You choose a plan and pay, and that payment is the claim: your account is created, you receive sign-in details, and you get owner access to the listing right away. There is no separate approval step for the claim itself.

Claiming is done by choosing a plan and paying — the payment connects your owner account to that specific firm so your edits and uploads attach to the right listing. Claiming is still separate from verification: paying grants owner access and management, but changes to key details are held for editorial review, and passing a verification check always requires submitting evidence that an editor approves. You can upgrade the plan later by paying only the price difference, and you submit verification evidence at any time.

Editing your profile

Profile editing is the part you will use most. Some fields update the moment you save. Others are held and reviewed first. The difference comes down to how much a field matters to people trying to identify and reach the right firm.

Edits that publish immediately

Descriptive content that does not change your firm's identity generally goes live when you save it. This covers the body text about your practice, general profile details, and similar copy. You edit, you save, and the change appears.

Critical fields that wait for editorial review

Some fields are treated as critical: your firm name, address, website, and practice areas. When you change any of these, the workspace stores your entry as a pending change. Your live profile keeps its last approved values until an editor publishes the update on the next editorial pass. So if you move offices and update the address, visitors still see the old address until the new one clears review. Smaller fields — like your phone number, hours, or profile copy — publish right away. This protects the directory from bad or mistaken edits to the details people rely on, while keeping routine updates quick. Plan for a short gap between saving a critical field and seeing it live.

Verification and how checks work

Verification is manual and driven by evidence. It is not automatic, and no payment triggers it. For each verification check, you upload proof in the workspace. An editor then reviews that check on its own and approves it individually. Checks are handled one at a time rather than as a single pass or fail. That means your Verification tab can show several statuses at once as different checks move through review.

After a check is approved, the public tab shows its name, a short description, the status, and the last-checked date. The evidence itself never appears. This gives visitors a clear read on what has been confirmed without exposing your private records.

Bar standing

Editors recheck bar standing every quarter against state bar rolls. This one is ongoing rather than a one-time approval. If a disbarment shows up, the system suspends the published profile automatically. That suspension is not a manual choice made case by case; it follows from the change in bar standing.

Docket-verified practice

Docket-verified practice is a Premium-only check. It draws on court records from CourtListener and is confirmed by an editor before it appears. This check is not part of Basic or Pro plans. If you hold Premium and later lose your docket standing, the profile is suspendable on that basis, and Premium does not carry a refund in that situation.

Plans and billing

You manage your plan from the billing area of the workspace. Three tiers exist.

• Verified Basic is a $99/year annual subscription (it renews).
• Verified Pro costs $199 one-time (lifetime). It gives you a richer profile, eligibility to buy News items, and a dofollow link to your website once your profile is published and claimed.
• Verified Premium costs $339 one time for lifetime access. It includes everything in Verified Pro plus the docket-verified practice check and deep links. Premium is suspendable on disbarment or docket-loss, and that suspension does not come with a refund.

News items cost $75 each. Only Pro and Premium plans can buy them. Basic cannot.

Placement on listing pages follows plan tier first: Premium, then Pro, then Basic. Within a tier, firms are ordered by validated-review rating. The site states this openly. Listing pages carry the line: 'Ordered by membership tier; verification is independent of tier.' So a higher tier moves you up the list, but it does not verify you and it does not add a badge. Those two things stay separate on purpose.

Reviews and responses

Client reviews go through their own process before they publish. A client submits a review, attests that they were a client of your firm, and confirms their email address through a link we send. The review sits pending until an editor approves it. Only approved reviews publish, and only approved reviews count toward your rating. From your account, you can submit a response to any review that is published. Every new or edited response returns to pending and appears publicly only after an editor approves it. You cannot edit or remove the reviews themselves, but an approved response gives you a public reply.

Contact and what the directory does not do

A visitor who wants to reach you contacts your firm directly, using the website, phone, and address on your listing's Contact tab. The directory never routes, assigns, or distributes contacts, and it does not match, recommend, or refer clients to firms. It is not a referral service. Nothing on the site is legal advice. Your account gives you control over your listing, not a stream of assigned prospects.

Password changes, resets, and two-factor

You change your password from the security area of the workspace. If you forget it, use the reset flow from the sign-in page, which sends a reset link to your registered email. This is another reason to confirm your email address early; a reset depends on it.

Two-factor authentication is optional and uses a TOTP authenticator app. To turn it on, you confirm a code from the app, and you enter your password to authorize the change. Turning it off also requires your password. Once enabled, sign-in asks for your password and a current code from the app. It adds a second step that makes your account harder to break into if your password leaks.

How account access ties back to your firm

Your owner account is linked to one claimed firm. That link is what makes your edits, uploads, plan, and review responses apply to the right listing. Claiming establishes the connection. Plan upgrades and verification build on top of it, each as its own step. Keep your login secure, keep your email current, and use the workspace as the single place to manage everything about how your firm shows up here.