When San Fernando, California, attorney Arvand Naderi is walking around town, it’s not unusual for random people to greet him enthusiastically. But they don’t say hello. Instead, many shout out the phrase, “Guns n’ dope!”

To which Naderi knowingly responds, “Don’t lose hope!”

The exchange may seem odd to the uninitiated. But ever since the criminal defense attorney started advertising on billboards ~10 years ago, he estimates he’s purchased ~50 of them. He says he spends $100k+ on billboard advertising a year.

|   Why lawyers buy so many billboards

Alongside a picture of Naderi's face, the catchy couplet (“Guns n’ Dope? / Don’t Lose Hope!”) has been plastered on one of his firm’s billboards off the 118 freeway in neighboring Pacoima for seven years, turning him into something of a local celebrity.

Naderi’s ads may be unique, but his reliance on billboard advertising to build his firm is not.

The American Tort Reform Association, a lobbying group that advocates for caps on award damages and changes to current civil liability laws, estimates that in 2024 attorneys spent $541m+ on out-of-home and outdoor ads, a category that includes billboards as well as space on buses, subways, and other public areas. This is an increase of $70m compared to 2023 and nearly $200m from 2022. Morgan & Morgan, the country’s largest personal injury firm, reportedly spends a staggering $350m annually on marketing alone. 

So why are so many law firms, from single-attorney practices to firms with thousands of employees, investing so heavily in billboards?

Eat or get eaten

As our world is increasingly lived online, advertising has shifted along with it. The business intelligence firm Research and Markets reports that in 2024 the value of the global digital marketing industry was $410B, and is projected to reach $1.2T by 2033.

Billboards, on the other hand, are stubbornly, laughably low-tech. They’ve barely changed since the first ones appeared in the US in the 1860s. They’re also not cheap. In Los Angeles, for example, billboards range from $5k to $9k a month (and far more in iconic, highly touristed places such as Sunset Boulevard). So what explains their massive appeal today?

The first reason is competition. According to the American Bar Association, in 2024 there were 1.3m practicing attorneys in the United States, a ratio of one attorney to every 260 Americans. While the number peaked in 2019, with 1.352m practicing attorneys, since 2000 this cohort has grown, on average, by 1% a year.

“If you do not advertise, you will get eaten by people like me,” says Brooke Goff, a personal injury attorney in Connecticut.

Goff, whose firm has eight locations, says she now spends far more time on marketing and operations than litigating. “Any good business owner, especially a good lawyer, realizes that at one point, when your firm gets big enough, you have to make a decision whether you're going to litigate the bigger files and run the business, or you're going to just litigate everything and there's going to be nobody that runs the business and you're just going to hope it all works out.” 

|   Stacked Marketer

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