Beyond AI Search: Building Law Firm Authority, Reputation, and Client Relationships You Own

Annette Choti, Esq., Founder & CEO | Law Quill

Annette Choti, Esq. is the powerhouse founder and CEO of Law Quill, a leading legal marketing agency committed to helping law firms amplify their digital presence with strategy, integrity, and a touch of creative magic. With more than 25 years of legal experience, Annette recognized a major gap between what lawyers think marketing is and what actually moves the needle to grow law firms. She leveraged her deep understanding of the legal industry to build an agency built on integrity and a personalized strategy for all growth-minded law firms that want to grow their practices without compromising ethics or authenticity.

Her mission is simple: empower growth minded law firms to stand out in competitive markets and connect meaningfully with the clients they’re best positioned to serve.

• Education & Credentials

Choti attended the University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Law from 1996 to 2000. During law school, she served as Chair of the Information Technology and Computer Committee of the Moot Court Board and participated in Appellate Advocacy Honors, Trial Advocacy Honors, and mediation and arbitration competitions. She received her law degree from the University of Missouri–Kansas City in May 2000. Her professional credentials are grounded in her legal career and her subsequent work in digital marketing, particularly in SEO, social media marketing, search engine marketing, and digital marketing for law firms.

• Recognition & Leadership

Choti has been recognized for both her professional expertise and her contributions to legal marketing. She received the Secretary of Labor’s Exceptional Achievement Award for work on the ENRON project while at the U.S. Department of Labor. She has been invited to serve as a keynote and CLE speaker for the American Bar Association, multiple state bar associations, legal organizations, corporations, and law firms, and she has been a featured speaker at events including the Missouri Solo & Small Law Firm Conference and Powerhouse Lawyers retreats. She is also the author of the bestselling Click Magnet: The Ultimate Digital Marketing Guide for Law Firms and the creator and host of the Legal Marketing Lounge podcast.

• Professional Involvement

Choti’s professional involvement includes extensive work in legal digital marketing, education, publishing, and professional speaking. She is the founder of Law Quill and Click Magnet Academy and has provided keynotes, presentations, corporate trainings, and educational programs concerning digital marketing strategies, LinkedIn, SEO, content creation, and online visibility. She has been a contributor to Attorney at Work since 2021 and has also been a contributor to Above the Law. Her work has included guest lecturing on digital marketing for lawyers at the University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Law, speaking for the American Bar Association and Missouri Solo & Small Law Firm Conference, and providing legal marketing education through Powerhouse Lawyers and other professional events. She also volunteers with Samaritan’s Purse through Operation Christmas Child.

• Experience

Choti’s professional experience spans both law and digital marketing. She spent 20 years working as a lawyer at the U.S. Department of Labor before moving into digital marketing and search engine optimization for lawyers. She subsequently founded Law Quill, a legal digital marketing agency focused on law firms in the United States and Canada, and founded E-Quill, which provides digital marketing services for service-based businesses in North America. She later founded Click Magnet Academy to provide professionals with training in LinkedIn and digital marketing. Her experience also includes writing and publishing extensively on legal marketing, SEO, social media, AI and digital marketing, and law firm technology, as well as authoring Click Magnet: The Ultimate Digital Marketing Guide for Law Firms.

Sam Bretzmann, Founder & Owner | BretzMedia

Sam Bretzmann is a digital marketing and SEO professional and the owner of BretzMedia, where he helps attorneys and law firms increase leads and website traffic through search engine optimization. His work focuses particularly on SEO, local SEO, content, backlink strategies, and the evolving role of AI and search. Bretzmann has been working in SEO for more than a decade and has developed expertise in helping law firms build their online visibility and generate measurable growth. He is also involved in nonprofit work through Fikisha, where he serves in fundraising and supports Boy With a Ball’s work in Kenya. His professional and community involvement has included digital marketing, nonprofit fundraising, mentoring, and outreach.

• Education & Credentials

Bretzmann attended Concordia University Irvine from 2008 to 2010, where his activities and societies included the Concordia LEAD Program, Young Life, an East Africa Mission Trip, Homeless Outreach, Ultimate Frisbee Club, and FIKISHA. His listed certifications include HTML, CSS and JavaScript through Coursera, issued in March 2017, and Content Marketing Certified through HubSpot, issued in June 2017.

• Recognition & Leadership

Bretzmann has been identified as the owner of BretzMedia and as a Director of SEO at Law Quill, where he leads SEO and backlink strategies for law-firm clients. His professional work has also included public commentary and educational content concerning SEO, including articles and guidance on local SEO, AI search, Google Business Profiles, and SEO strategies for attorneys. Earlier in his career, he was an executive director of Fikisha, a nonprofit organization supporting street children in Nairobi, and he helped found the organization in 2009.

• Professional Involvement

Bretzmann’s professional involvement centers on digital marketing and search engine optimization. Through BretzMedia, which was founded in 2018, his work has included SEO as well as branding, strategy, paid advertising, email marketing, social media management, sales-funnel development, website development and management, content creation, and video production. He is also involved with Law Quill as Director of SEO and with Fikisha/Boy With a Ball, where his responsibilities include fundraising and supporting the organization’s work in Kenya. His volunteer history includes serving as a Young Life student mentor in Milwaukee and Orange County from 2006 to 2012 and participating in homeless outreach through Concordia University Irvine from 2008 to 2010.

• Experience

Bretzmann is the owner of BretzMedia, a digital marketing business that focuses on helping businesses manage and improve their online presence, with his current work particularly focused on SEO for attorneys and law firms. He has been the owner of BretzMedia since September 2018, according to Qwoted, and has more than a decade of experience developing SEO and backlink strategies. He has also served with Fikisha, an organization he helped establish in 2009 to support street children in Nairobi through mentoring, food, scholarships, and connections with local churches. In addition, his professional experience includes his current role as Director of SEO at Law Quill and his earlier volunteer and mentoring work with Young Life and Concordia University Irvine.

SESSION 1 – The Trust Layer: Local Search, Reviews, and Reputation Signals That Win Clients (and Get Cited by AI) | 12:00pm – 1:00pm

While AI answer engines reshape how potential clients research lawyers, one channel remains firmly winnable: the local ecosystem of Google Business Profiles, map results, reviews, and reputation signals that both humans and AI models rely on to decide which firms to trust. Drawing on more than two decades of local search experience and his work auditing hundreds of law firm campaigns, Casey Meraz shows attorneys how to build a defensible local presence — from entity and E-E-A-T signals to review generation, reputation management, and digital PR — that drives cases directly while feeding the trust signals AI platforms cite.

BREAK | 1:00pm – 1:10pm

SESSION 2 – The Client Pipeline You Own: Content, Email, and Community Strategies That Don’t Depend on Search Traffic | 1:10pm – 2:10pm

When search engines answer questions before anyone clicks, the firms that thrive are the ones that build audiences and relationships they control. Attorney and legal marketing strategist Annette Choti — author of the bestselling Click Magnet: The Ultimate Digital Marketing Guide for Law Firms — walks attorneys through building an owned-media pipeline: content that converts rather than just ranks, email newsletters and lead magnets, video and podcast presence, social channels, and intake nurturing systems that turn one-time visitors into signed clients and referral sources, all within the bounds of legal ethics rules.