Yes, a content agency can write for a law firm, medical practice or financial firm, provided the licensed professional or the firm's compliance staff approves what publishes and the agency does not give advice. Most of the advertising and privacy rules that govern this content are written for the firm, so the workflow has to put approval where that responsibility sits. The agency's job is accurate drafts, sourced claims and a clear record of who reviewed what.
Firms in these fields often hold back on content because the rules feel risky, or they hand the work to a general agency that does not know the rules exist. Neither works well. The practical middle is an agency that knows which rule families tend to apply, drafts with them in mind, and brings the hard questions to the people qualified to answer them.
This page is general information for firm owners and marketing leads, not legal, compliance, medical or financial advice. Rules vary by state, by license and by type of firm, so take every specific question to your own counsel or compliance officer. The rule summaries below reflect the rule text as read on October 17, 2026; rules are amended, so confirm the current version before relying on any of them.
Who carries the responsibility
Most of the rules in these fields address the firm. The ABA's Model Rule 7.1 reads, "A lawyer shall not make a false or misleading communication about the lawyer or the lawyer's services," and treats a communication as misleading if it "omits a fact necessary to make the statement considered as a whole not materially misleading." The ABA says its Model Rules serve as models for the ethics rules of most jurisdictions, so the rule that applies to a given lawyer is the one their own jurisdiction has adopted, which can differ in wording and add requirements.
Financial firms see the same pattern. FINRA Rule 2210, which governs member firms' communications with the public, requires, with limited exceptions, an appropriately qualified registered principal to approve each retail communication before the earlier of its use or filing with FINRA. An agency can write the draft. Drafting is not approval, and a workflow that lets a page go live before the responsible person signs off has the order wrong.
Rule families to bring to counsel or compliance
The table lists rule families that commonly touch marketing content in these fields. It is a starting list of questions, not a compliance checklist, and your counsel may add others, including state rules.
| Field | Rule family | What it touches | Question to bring |
|---|---|---|---|
| Law | State lawyer advertising rules, most modeled on the ABA Model Rules | False or misleading statements, including omissions | "Which of our state's rules apply to web pages, blog posts and email?" |
| Any business using endorsements | FTC Guides Concerning Use of Endorsements and Testimonials (16 CFR Part 255) | Testimonials, reviews, results, material connections | "How do we disclose connections and typical results?" |
| Health care | HIPAA Privacy Rule marketing provisions | Use of protected health information in marketing | "Does this story, photo or reply involve PHI, and is authorization on file?" |
| Broker-dealers | FINRA Rule 2210 | Retail communications, approval, testimonials, projections | "Who is our approving principal, and how is approval recorded?" |
| Investment advisers | SEC Marketing Rule (17 CFR 275.206(4)-1) | Advertisements, performance, testimonials and endorsements | "What substantiation and disclosures does this page need?" |
Testimonials, reviews and results
Most compliance questions about content start here. The FTC's Endorsement Guides say endorsements "must reflect the honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experience of the endorser," and that an advertiser may be liable for a deceptive endorsement even when the endorser is not. The same Guides say advertising agencies, public relations firms and similar intermediaries may be liable for their roles in creating or disseminating endorsements they know or should know are deceptive, so an agency carries part of this responsibility too. Where a connection between an endorser and the business could affect the weight people give the endorsement and the audience would not expect it, the Guides say it must be disclosed clearly and conspicuously. They also state that consumer endorsements themselves are not competent and reliable scientific evidence, which matters for any health claim.
The financial rules add their own conditions. FINRA Rule 2210 requires testimonials about investment advice or performance to disclose that the testimonial may not be representative of the experience of other customers, and says communications may not predict or project performance, with limited exceptions. The SEC Marketing Rule bars advertisements that include any untrue statement of a material fact, or a material statement of fact the adviser has no reasonable basis to believe it can substantiate on the Commission's demand, and sets disclosure conditions for testimonials and endorsements, including whether the person is a client and whether they were paid.
In health care, HHS describes marketing under the Privacy Rule as a communication about a product or service that encourages recipients to purchase or use it, and says the Rule requires an individual's written authorization before protected health information is used or disclosed for marketing, with limited exceptions. Before any patient story appears online, the practice's own team can ask, "Do we have this patient's written authorization on file, and does it cover this use?" The privacy officer, not the agency, answers it.
What a careful agency workflow looks like
A workable process puts the firm's rules in front of the writer before drafting starts and the licensed reviewer at the end.
- Collect the firm's rules first. Required disclaimers, words or claims the firm never uses, approved descriptions of credentials, and who approves what.
- Draft only from approved facts. Practice details, process and proof come from the firm's records, not from the writer's general knowledge.
- Source every outside claim. Laws, rules and statistics are traced to the statute, regulator or agency and logged with the date read.
- Keep general information general. Pages explain how things usually work and what to ask, and tell readers to get advice for their own situation.
- Route the draft to the licensed reviewer or compliance. Their changes are final, and the approval is recorded with the version it applies to.
Step two is where general agencies most often slip. The writer should not have to invent what the firm's attorneys or clinicians know about their own practice, and should never fill a gap with a guess about the law. A good brief marks unknowns as unknowns and sends them back as questions.
A fictional example: a financial advisory page
A fictional SEC-registered investment adviser in Florida asks for a page on retirement income planning. The first draft opens with a client quote praising the firm's results and a headline about never worrying about money again. The firm's chief compliance officer flags both. The quote comes from a current client, so the firm has to decide whether it can meet the rule's disclosure and oversight conditions or should drop the quote. The headline reads as a promise about outcomes, so it goes.
The revised page opens with a plain answer to what retirement income planning involves at this firm, describes the process in the firm's own words, and states that the page is general information, not advice for any individual. The compliance officer approves that version, the approval is recorded, and the page publishes. It is specific about the firm's process and careful about outcomes. More on content work for advisers and accounting firms is on our financial, accounting and tax page.
How Hudson South works in regulated fields
Hudson South uses the same four steps in law, health care and financial services that it uses everywhere. Authority Asset records the expertise the firm already has; Hudson Twenty-One records how the firm communicates across 21 dimensions; Market Intelligence researches the questions buyers ask; AEO Creation produces the pages and posts. Every factual claim is checked against a primary source before a piece goes to the firm for review. In these fields the licensed professional or the firm's compliance staff approves what is published, and Hudson South does not give legal, medical or financial advice.
Hudson South takes one business per trade in each geographic market, and in law, health care and financial services that can be defined by practice area or specialty. The full service is on the AI search content page, and the review process is covered in how content should be checked before it publishes.
See where your firm's site stands
On a free 30-minute call, we compare your site with the competitors your clients also look at and walk through the gaps between them.
Get your free competitor analysisSources
- Rule 7.1: Communications Concerning a Lawyer's Services. American Bar Association. Read 2026-10-17.
- Model Rules of Professional Conduct. American Bar Association. Read 2026-10-17.
- 16 CFR Part 255: Guides Concerning Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising. Electronic Code of Federal Regulations. Read 2026-10-17.
- Marketing. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Read 2026-10-17.
- 2210. Communications with the Public. FINRA. Read 2026-10-17.
- 17 CFR 275.206(4)-1: Investment adviser marketing. Electronic Code of Federal Regulations. Read 2026-10-17.