Which solicitors in Kingston, Richmond and Esher do AI assistants actually recommend?

We put the 14 questions a person in Kingston, Richmond and Esher asks before choosing a solicitor — cost, specialism, who to use, how to check them — to Claude, 3 times each, 42 answers in all, and recorded every firm the answers named. 16 firms in Kingston, Richmond and Esher were checked against those answers. 7 of them were named at least once. The rest were not recommended in a single answer. Below are the 6 firms named most often; the others are told their result privately.

The top of the table

Firms are ranked by the number of answers that named them, then by how many different questions. The top 6 of the 16 firms checked are listed (the top ten, or the top third, whichever is smaller), plus any firm level with the last one in; a rank number that is skipped belongs to a firm that is not named here: it asked not to be, or the name the assistants used is a trade body, a national chain or a description rather than a local firm. The assistants do not give identical answers twice, so a difference of one or two mentions is noise; being named on questions a rival is absent from is not.

A further 10 firms were checked and are not listed here: 1 named in at least one answer but below the cut, 9 not named at all. Each has a private report, sent to the firm on request and to nobody else.

Is this your firm? If anything here is wrong, or you would rather your firm were not listed, email hello@aether-agency.co.uk or use the contact form. We acknowledge within two working days, correct a factual error as soon as it is confirmed, and take a firm off the public page on request; the measurement itself is not changed, because it records what the assistants said on the day.

The questions we asked

1. Which solicitors in Kingston upon Thames handle divorce and financial settlements for separating couples?
2. Which family solicitors in Richmond advise on child arrangements and separation?
3. Which solicitors in Esher do residential conveyancing for house sales and purchases?
4. Which conveyancing solicitors in Kingston upon Thames act for first-time buyers?
5. Which solicitors in Richmond write wills and set up lasting powers of attorney?
6. Which wills and probate solicitors in Esher deal with estate administration after a death?
7. Which employment solicitors in Kingston upon Thames advise on settlement agreements and unfair dismissal?
8. Which solicitors in Richmond act for employers on employment contracts and workplace disputes?
9. Which solicitors in Esher help with trusts and inheritance tax planning?
10. I am separating and need to protect the family home. Which solicitor near Kingston upon Thames can advise me?
11. We have inherited a house near Richmond and need help with probate. Which solicitor can handle it?
12. Which solicitors in Esher advise on commercial property leases for small businesses?
13. Which law firms in Kingston upon Thames advise on civil disputes and debt recovery?
14. Which independent solicitors in Richmond are recommended by local people?

How this was measured

• Date: 10 October 2026, the day the answers were collected. This is one day, not a trend; the index is re-measured monthly and each month’s date is shown.
• Sample: 14 questions × 1 assistant × 3 runs = 42 answers. 16 firms checked.
• Assistants used: Claude (Anthropic’s Sonnet model, through its API, with web search). Answers from these programming interfaces can differ from what the consumer apps show.
• Counting: a firm is counted when its name appears in an answer. Names are picked out of the answer text automatically, then matched to the firm list.
• What is public: the 6 firms named most often, by name. Every other firm’s result is private to that firm. A firm can have itself taken off this page on request (see above).
• Limits: the assistants vary between runs, so small gaps are noise. Firms that were not named may still be recommended by an assistant or a question we did not ask. National chains are left off the list. This measures what the assistants said; it is not a judgement of the quality of any firm’s work.