Copy for Originals · Google Ads for law firms · Guide
Google records calls to law firms that come through a Google forwarding number, in the United States and Canada. That covers Local Services Ads and, since Google changed a default setting, call ads and call assets in Google Ads. This guide quotes what Google says it records, how long it keeps recordings in legal categories, what callers hear, what a firm can switch off, what Google’s terms say, and what bar ethics publications have said about it.
Educational only, not legal advice. This page quotes Google’s help pages and terms and four bar publications as read on October 13, 2026. Whether a recorded intake call affects confidentiality or privilege in your state is a question for your own counsel and your state bar.
Yes, in the United States and Canada, when the call goes through a Google forwarding number. Google’s Local Services help page says all inbound calls through the forwarding number are recorded, and its Google Ads help page says the call recording setting is now enabled by default. A firm can turn recording off in Google Ads. The Local Services help pages we read describe no way to turn it off.
| Call comes from | Recorded by Google? | Kept or playable for | Can the firm turn it off? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Local Services Ads | Yes. All inbound calls through the Google forwarding number. | 60 days in legal categories | No setting described in Google’s help pages |
| Google Ads call ads, call assets and tracked website calls | Yes by default, when call reporting is on | Playable for 30 days | Yes, in Account settings |
| The firm’s own number on its ad or website | No. With call reporting off, Google does not track the call. | Not applicable | Not applicable |
| A call tracking number the firm rents | Not by Google. The call tracking company may record it if the firm has that switched on. | Set by that company | Yes, with that company |
This page is part of the Google Ads for law firms guide.
Yes. Google’s Local Services help page says that in the US and Canada all inbound calls from customers through the Google forwarding number are recorded by Google, and that customers are told by a pre-recorded message. Google keeps recordings and messages in legal categories for 60 days.
The sentence on Google’s “Manage leads and jobs” page reads: “in the US and Canada, all inbound calls from customers via the Google forwarding number are recorded by Google to improve quality and support policies and research (and customers are notified of this by a pre-recorded message immediately before you hear the ‘Call from Google’ notification).”
The number on a Local Services ad is always a Google forwarding number, so this covers every call from the ad. The same page says call recordings and messages are not available for health care categories or tax specialists. It names no exception for lawyers.
Google’s “About Local Services data” page lists what Google does with them. It says Google “reviews emails, texts, or call recordings routed through Google’s system on a limited basis” for these purposes: resolving billing disputes, billing advertisers for leads, enforcing policies, detecting spam and unauthorized behavior, collecting customer feedback, product improvement, and monitoring customer and provider experience.
The same page says the monitoring “includes new or follow-up calls, texts, or email-based communications between consumers and providers that are forwarded through Google’s systems.” A callback that goes through the forwarding number is covered like the first call.
The recording is also written into the contract. Google’s Local Services Additional Terms for Providers for the United States, last modified March 20, 2025, read: “You authorize Google, its affiliates, and their agents to access, monitor, and record telephone calls, text messages, live chat, and other communications initiated through the Programs (e.g., click-to-call ads).” They go on: “Google may use information collected under this paragraph in compliance with its Privacy Policy and as Content under Section 3 above.” “Content” is the document’s word for material a provider licenses to Google: “You hereby grant to Google an irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free license to use any data, feeds, or other content that you submit in connection with Local Services.” In the 2017 version the same sentence ended at “Privacy Policy.” The terms do not say how the 2025 wording applies to a recording of a caller.
Change under way, checked October 13, 2026. Google is phasing out the separate Local Services Ads platform and moving existing campaigns into Google Ads as “Performance Max campaigns with pay-per-lead goals,” with professional services listed for late 2026 on one page and 2027 on another. Recording continues after the move. Google’s page on goals and leads for the new campaign type reads: “In the United States and Canada, all inbound calls from customers via the Google forwarding number are recorded by Google.” Google says past lead history, including “older call recordings,” transfers to the Leads page in Google Ads, and its page on leads in the new campaign type says call recordings are unavailable only for tax specialists, US health care categories and Europe. Google’s pages do not say whether the Google Ads call recording setting described below will govern these campaigns, so check that setting again after your account moves. The Local Services Ads vs Google Ads guide for lawyers covers the move.
Yes, by default, when call reporting is on. Google’s help page says the call recording setting is now enabled by default so that its AI can qualify call leads, and that it stays off for advertisers who turned it off earlier and for businesses identified as healthcare or financial services. Legal services are not named as an exception.
Google’s page on call recording settings reads: “The call recording setting is now enabled by default to allow for AI-powered lead qualification.” Recording applies only when all of these are true:
Google’s help pages give no date for the change. Search Engine Roundtable reported on May 7, 2026 that Google had emailed advertisers, and quoted the email: “Starting July 01, 2026, if you haven’t made a selection for your ‘Call recording’ setting, it will automatically default to ‘Yes’.” As quoted there, the email continued: “By leaving this setting empty after June 30, 2026, you consent to Google updating your setting to ‘Yes’ and you accept the associated Call ads Supplemental Terms.” We read the email in that report, not from Google.
Google’s AI then listens to the recording. Google’s page on AI-qualified call leads says that when call recording is on, “all calls will be recorded and evaluated by AI,” and that call reports show “a concise AI-generated summary of the call and specific hashtags (for example, ‘#HighIntent,’ ‘#ConsultationScheduled’).” For a law firm, that means a written summary of what a caller said about their matter appears inside the Google Ads account.
Google says recordings “are used to evaluate lead quality, monitor spam and fraud, and improve the accuracy of your conversion reporting.”
In three places. Older help pages are still live beside the new ones, and the terms use narrower words than the help pages.
This guide follows the settings page and the AI-qualified call leads page, because they describe the default as it is now. A firm should assume that any call through a Google forwarding number can be recorded while the setting is on.
Callers hear an automated notice before a recorded call connects. For Local Services Ads, Google says customers are notified by a pre-recorded message. For Google Ads, Google says callers hear a short automated message at the beginning of the call saying the conversation will be recorded for quality purposes.
Neither help page gives the exact words of the notice. A January 2021 article by the State Bar of Wisconsin’s ethics counsel reported the Local Services messages as they were described to Wisconsin lawyers at the time. The caller heard: “Google and its partners may record or return all calls for quality and research purposes, subject to our privacy policies. This call is not confidential.” The law firm heard: “Call from Google. This call is recorded and may not be attorney-client privileged.” That wording is from 2021 and came through marketing consultants, so call your own ad to hear what plays now.
Google’s page adds that a firm may not hear the “Call from Google” message at all if it has call forwarding or VoIP set up on its business number. Staff may then not know which calls are recorded.
The notice to the caller is Google’s. The notice to the firm’s own people is the firm’s job: Google’s Call Ads Supplemental Terms say the advertiser has told its “agents, employees, and any other party that may participate” that calls may be monitored or recorded by Google, and has their express consent.
The Local Services terms put the same duty on the firm: “You also will obtain the necessary permissions required under local law and will notify your Team that these communications may be recorded and will obtain their consent to the recordings.”
An agency is covered too. Under the Call Ads Supplemental Terms, one that is “advertising on behalf of a third party” must have told that client the calls may be monitored or recorded, must have “obtained the third party’s express consent to such monitoring, recording and use,” and must have required the client to tell its own people. The terms also say the advertiser and everyone else on the call “will comply with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and other applicable laws.”
The caller agrees to recording on paper as well. Google’s Local Services Terms of Service for the United States, the terms for people who use Local Services to find a provider, read: “You acknowledge and agree that Google and its partners may monitor and/or record any telephone calls or live chat messages between you and the provider made through Local Services.” Wisconsin’s ethics counsel did not treat that as informed consent, as the section on confidentiality explains.
Google says Local Services recordings and messages in legal verticals are retained for 60 days, against up to 180 days for other categories. In Google Ads, recorded calls can be played for 30 days after the call. Google’s help pages do not say how long Google itself keeps a Google Ads recording after that.
The sentences on Google’s “About Local Services data” page read: “Call recordings and messages are retained up to 180 days before they are destroyed. Recordings and messages in legal verticals are retained for 60 days.”
For Google Ads, the “Play your call recordings” page reads: “Recorded calls are available for 30 days after the date of the call.” It also says recordings can only be played inside Google Ads and “are not available for download.”
Local Services campaigns that have moved into Google Ads may run on a shorter clock. Google’s page on goals and leads for pay-per-lead campaigns reads: “Call recordings and sensitive conversation history are stored in the Lead Manager for up to 30 days due to data privacy policies.” That page does not mention the 60-day period for legal categories, so check what your own account shows after it moves.
A caller can ask for the record to be removed. The Local Services data page tells consumers: “You can request to delete your phone number, the record of your call, or your messages from Google by contacting support.”
Anything the firm records itself, with its own phone system or a call tracking service, is kept under the firm’s own settings. Google’s data page says providers “may choose to independently record calls” and that Google “is not responsible for any data stored outside of Google.”
The firm can listen, anyone with the right access to the firm’s Google account can listen, and Google reviews recordings for stated purposes. In Google Ads, users with Admin or Standard access and manager-account users with Admin access can play recordings, which includes an agency that manages the account.
| Who | What Google says |
|---|---|
| The firm, for Local Services Ads | “Providers may review call recordings in order to track conversations. Google does not monitor or control how providers use the recordings.” Playback is listed as US only. |
| Google Ads users on the firm’s account | Only Admin users can set up recording. Manager-account users and direct users with Admin access, and direct users with Standard access, can play recordings. |
| Reviews Local Services recordings “on a limited basis” for the purposes listed above. In Google Ads, its AI evaluates every recorded call. |
An agency with a manager account linked to the firm’s Google Ads account is one of those users. The law firm Google Ads agency scorecard shows how to see who has access under Admin, Access and security.
In Google Ads, yes: an Admin can set Call recording to Off under Admin, Account settings, Call ads. A firm can also turn off call reporting so its own number shows on ads, and then Google does not track or record the call. For Local Services Ads, the help pages describe no setting to turn recording off.
Turning recording off has a cost. With it on, Google counts only calls its AI judges to be qualified leads; with it off, any call over the set length counts. Our campaign checklist uses 60 seconds as that length.
One older Google page offers another route. “About call recording,” written for the earlier sampling arrangement, says: “If you have questions about eligibility or can’t participate in call recording for legal or regulatory reasons, contact Google to request an exemption from monitoring and recording.” The newer settings page does not repeat the offer, so ask Google support whether it still stands before relying on it.
For Local Services Ads the forwarding number is how Google counts and bills leads, and the help pages we read offer no recording setting. The provider terms make the recording part of the bargain: the firm authorizes Google to record, and “If you do not accept the Terms, you may not Use the Local Services platform.” A firm that will not accept recorded calls can decide not to run Local Services Ads; that is the choice North Carolina’s committee was weighing.
No formal state ethics opinion we found addresses Google’s recording, and the two bar publications that do address it point in different directions. The State Bar of Wisconsin’s ethics counsel wrote in January 2021 that a lawyer who authorizes the recording violates the duty of confidentiality unless prospective clients give informed consent. North Carolina’s ethics committee proposed an opinion in 2021 that would have barred lawyers from a pay-per-lead advertising program because the platform recorded and kept calls, and withdrew it in April 2022.
The North Carolina State Bar’s journal explained the episode in summer 2022. Proposed 2021 Formal Ethics Opinion 5 concluded that the program’s structure made a lawyer’s participation “prejudicial to the administration of justice in violation of Rule 8.4(d)” because it “does not comply with a person’s reasonable and historic expectations of privacy and exclusivity in communicating with a lawyer.”
After comments from the bar, the committee concluded “that the recordings at issue are not uniquely vulnerable to harmful third-party disclosures” and withdrew the proposal at its April 2022 meeting. The article still reminds lawyers “of their duty to make reasonable investigations into any advertising program—or technology service—before deciding whether to participate.”
The State Bar of Wisconsin’s ethics counsel wrote in January 2021 that to take part lawyers had to authorize Google “to access, monitor, and record telephone calls, text messages, live chat, and other communications,” and that whether this fits the duty of confidentiality “depends whether the person contacting the lawyer through the LSA is a prospective client.”
Where the caller is a prospective client, the article does not hedge: “unless the prospective clients give informed consent, the lawyer violates the duty of confidentiality by authorizing Google to access, monitor and record phone calls and text messages, and by authorizing Google to disclose information to third parties.”
It did not accept Google’s notice as that consent. Of the message callers heard, it says: “This information is insufficient to comply with the requirements of SCR 20:1.0(f),” the Wisconsin rule that defines informed consent. Of the caller’s agreement to Google’s terms, it says that “acknowledgement and agreement for contract purposes does not satisfy the informed consent required by the disciplinary rules.”
The article also notes that the first call comes through a number Google controls, so “the lawyer has no ability under the current structure to provide the appropriate warnings or disclaimer, or to obtain the required informed consent from the prospective client.” It is commentary from the bar’s ethics counsel, not a formal opinion, and it describes the program as it stood in late 2020.
The Connecticut Bar Association’s Professional Ethics Committee took up a close cousin of the question in Informal Opinion 2013-08, approved June 19, 2013. It concerned Yellow Pages, not Google: “a pay-per-call advertising service that records incoming calls from potential clients” and keeps the recordings on its own server. Recording was an optional feature of that service.
The committee set conditions: “the contract must provide that Yellow Pages will not have access to the recordings and the attorney must ensure that no third party (including a representative of Yellow Pages) is allowed to review any recording absent client informed consent.” It added: “This opinion is based on the understanding that all callers will be notified prior to any recording.” Google’s terms run the other way on the first condition, since the firm authorizes Google to access the recordings. The opinion predates Google’s program and does not mention it.
One more publication is related and is not about Google. New York City Bar Association Formal Opinion 2026-2, dated August 5, 2026, covers lawyers who use AI tools to record, transcribe and summarize conversations with people who are not clients, prospective clients among them. Its summary says the opinion “concludes that, as is true with clients, an attorney should obtain consent of all other parties to a call before recording it.” It addresses recording that the lawyer chooses to do, and it comes from a city bar association, not a state bar.
ABA Model Rule 1.18(b) says: “Even when no client-lawyer relationship ensues, a lawyer who has learned information from a prospective client shall not use or reveal that information,” with limited exceptions. The North Carolina article quotes the comment to that rule: to avoid creating a duty, “a lawyer has an affirmative obligation to warn the person that a communication with the lawyer will not create a client-lawyer relationship and information conveyed to the lawyer will not be confidential or privileged.”
Neither the North Carolina article nor the Wisconsin article says a recorded call loses attorney-client privilege, and neither says it keeps it. Privilege is a question of evidence law in your state, and this page does not answer it.
Find out which of the firm’s numbers are Google forwarding numbers, tell the staff who answer them, keep the first call to scheduling and conflict information, decide whether to leave Google Ads recording on, and check who has access to the account. Then confirm the plan with the lawyer who handles the firm’s ethics questions.
The list follows from Google’s pages and the North Carolina article. It is not legal advice, and item 4 in particular is for your own counsel.
Copy for Originals can check the call reporting and call recording settings in your Google Ads account, list which numbers are Google forwarding numbers, and show you who has access to the recordings. We manage Google Ads and do not give legal opinions. Contact Copy for Originals.
Each source was read on October 13, 2026. Eight were added later that day, after nine AI research runs on this question turned them up. Each was read at its source before it was quoted.