The $150 Million Picture
Every month, personal injury law firms across the United States spend more than $150 million on advertising. That number comes from tracking all 210 designated market areas, covering spend across broadcast television, cable, connected TV, and radio.
Most reporting on legal advertising cites the same handful of industry surveys. You get broad estimates, budget percentages, and channel recommendations without specifics. The actual question, where the money goes on a market-by-market basis, almost never gets answered.
This article answers it. We tracked advertising spend across all 210 US DMAs during December 2025. For each market, we have the total monthly spend, the channel mix, the top five advertisers by dollar amount, and the growth rate compared to prior periods. What follows is a detailed look at how $150 million flows through the legal advertising economy each month.
The National Context: A $3 Billion Category
Legal advertising in the United States is projected to exceed $3 billion annually in 2026, with mass tort advertising alone accounting for $220 million on television. That makes it one of the most concentrated advertising categories in local media.
According to AdImpact’s analysis of 3,720 legal advertisers across 150 markets, legal services account for 6.11% of all local broadcast impressions nationally. On connected TV, that share is 2.86% and climbing. CTV spend in the legal category grew 241% between Q1 2023 and Q4 2025.
The broader CTV market reached $33.35 billion in 2025, up from roughly $8 billion in 2020. Legal advertisers are following that shift, but not evenly. Some markets have embraced streaming. Others remain locked in broadcast. The CTV vs broadcast comparison for law firms explains why the gap exists.
That unevenness is where the opportunity lives. The legal advertising breakdown by DMA shows just how wide the gaps are.
Top 10 Markets by Monthly Spend
Here is where the money concentrates. These 10 markets account for the largest share of the $150 million monthly total.
| Rank | Market | Monthly Spend | Growth | CTV % | Top Advertiser |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Los Angeles | $22.5M | +120.3% | 33% | Jacoby & Meyers (19.6%) |
| 2 | New York | $14.5M | +7.3% | 11% | Morgan & Morgan (13.3%) |
| 3 | Atlanta | $12.9M | +118.0% | 48% | Morgan & Morgan (17.4%) |
| 4 | Chicago | $7.3M | +12.3% | 20% | Malman Law (13.7%) |
| 5 | Houston | $7.2M | +20.0% | 18% | Jim Adler (16.8%) |
| 6 | Dallas | $6.9M | +25.5% | 10% | Thomas J. Henry (34.7%) |
| 7 | Tampa | $5.5M | +8.8% | 22% | Morgan & Morgan (24.0%) |
| 8 | San Francisco | $4.7M | +17.5% | 12% | Sweet James (16.9%) |
| 9 | Philadelphia | $4.6M | -4.3% | 12% | Morgan & Morgan (21.4%) |
| 10 | Boston | $3.2M | +14.3% | 9% | Morgan & Morgan (30.4%) |
Several patterns emerge from this table. Los Angeles stands apart at $22.5 million monthly, more than double the next largest market. Its 120% growth reflects aggressive spending by Jacoby and Meyers, Sweet James, and the Barnes Firm in California’s most competitive DMA.
Atlanta’s numbers tell a different story. The market grew 118% to $12.9 million, but what makes Atlanta unique is its channel allocation. Nearly half of all legal ad spend in Atlanta goes to streaming. No other major market comes close.
New York, despite being the nation’s media capital, allocates just 11% to CTV. Boston sits at 9%. Dallas at 10%. Chicago’s $7.3 million market is more moderate at 20%, but still below viewing share. These markets spend heavily on broadcast and radio while streaming inventory goes largely untapped.
The Channel Mix: Broadcast Still Dominates
Across all 210 markets, broadcast television captures the largest share of legal advertising budgets. The national average channel mix looks roughly like this.
| Channel | Average Share | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Broadcast TV | 55-65% | Mass reach, brand awareness |
| Radio | 15-25% | Frequency, commuter audiences |
| CTV/Streaming | 15-25% | Targeted reach, younger demographics |
| Cable | 8-15% | Niche audiences, lower CPMs |
Broadcast remains dominant for a straightforward reason. It delivers unmatched reach among audiences 50 and older, a demographic that files a disproportionate share of personal injury claims. Firms that have built their brands on broadcast, names like Jim Adler, Thomas J. Henry, and Morgan and Morgan, are understandably reluctant to shift budgets away from what built them.
Radio holds a surprisingly large share in certain markets. Houston allocates 34% to radio. Philadelphia and Dallas both sit at 34%. These are markets where commuter audiences remain large and radio personalities carry influence.
Connected TV is the fastest-growing channel, but its share varies enormously by market. The gap between Atlanta (48%) and Washington DC (3%) represents the single largest strategic divide in legal advertising today.
The Streaming Gap: 3% to 48%
The difference in CTV adoption across markets is not gradual. It is a chasm.
At one end sits Atlanta, where 48% of legal advertising spend goes to streaming platforms. Thompson Law runs 69% of its Atlanta budget on CTV. Morgan and Morgan and Montlick battle for broadcast dominance while CTV-forward firms capture the streaming audience.
On the opposite end, Washington DC allocates just 3% to streaming. Boston sits at 9%. Dallas, despite being a nearly $7 million monthly market, puts only 10% into CTV. New York, the largest media market in the country, runs at 11%.
Here is the full picture across CTV adoption tiers.
High CTV adoption (30%+ streaming):
Atlanta (48%), Los Angeles (33%), Las Vegas (33%).
Moderate adoption (20-29%):
Seattle (27%), Spokane (25%), Harrisonburg (23%), Tampa (22%), Charlotte (22%), Indianapolis (21%), and 10 additional markets in this band.
Low adoption (under 15%):
New York (11%), San Francisco (12%), Philadelphia (12%), Dallas (10%), Boston (9%), Washington DC (3%).
The markets with the lowest CTV adoption are often the largest and most expensive. That creates a specific kind of opportunity. Broadcast inventory in New York or Dallas is expensive and crowded. CTV inventory in those same markets is comparatively available and targetable to the household level.
Firm Concentration: Who Owns Each Market
Legal advertising is not evenly distributed. In most markets, a handful of firms control the majority of spend.
The most concentrated market in our data is Dallas. Thomas J. Henry spends $2.4 million monthly there, capturing 34.7% of total market spend. That’s the highest single-firm market share we track in any DMA. Combined with Jim Adler at 12.6%, two firms control nearly half the market’s ad budget.
Jackson, Mississippi tells a similar story. Morgan and Morgan controls 38% of that market at $892,000 monthly. In Boston, Morgan holds 30.4% of a market where streaming sits at just 9%. In Biloxi, Morris Bart commands 36.4%.
Contrast that with Seattle, where the top advertiser holds just 8.1% of the market. Charlotte is similarly fragmented, with no firm above 6%. These markets look fundamentally different from a competitive standpoint. A new entrant faces a very different challenge in a fragmented market than in one where a single firm dominates broadcast.
The Morgan and Morgan Footprint
No discussion of legal advertising spend is complete without addressing Morgan and Morgan’s national presence.
Across our 210 tracked markets, Morgan and Morgan appears as a top-five advertiser in 22 of them. Their monthly spend ranges from $10,178 in Harrisonburg, Virginia to $2.2 million in Atlanta. In several markets, they hold the single largest share.
| Market | Morgan & Morgan Spend | Market Share |
|---|---|---|
| Jackson, MS | $892K | 38.0% |
| Washington DC | $810K | 31.1% |
| Boston | $971K | 30.4% |
| Little Rock | $772K | 29.5% |
| Savannah | $770K | 26.3% |
| Tampa | $1.3M | 24.0% |
| Philadelphia | $986K | 21.4% |
| Birmingham | $436K | 21.5% |
| Hartford | $392K | 19.4% |
Their strategy is primarily broadcast-heavy. In most markets, Morgan and Morgan allocates the majority of its budget to traditional television and radio. This creates a specific competitive dynamic. Firms that can’t match Morgan’s broadcast budget can often find open CTV inventory where Morgan has minimal presence.
AdImpact’s national data reinforces this pattern. Morgan and Morgan recorded 12,000 broadcast airings between Q1 2023 and Q4 2025. That’s notably fewer than Farah and Farah (55,000), Morris Bart (47,000), or Law Brothers (40,000).[^2] Morgan’s dominance comes less from airing frequency and more from market breadth and sustained presence across dozens of DMAs simultaneously.
What the Numbers Tell Us
Three patterns emerge from this data that matter for any firm allocating an advertising budget.
The streaming gap is a market inefficiency. When the nation’s largest markets have single-digit CTV allocation, that means premium streaming inventory is available at reasonable CPMs. Firms willing to shift 20 to 30% of their budget to CTV in low-adoption markets can reach households that broadcast-heavy competitors aren’t reaching.
Market concentration creates predictable openings. In markets dominated by one or two firms, the dominant advertisers have built their brands on broadcast. Their competitive moat is frequency on traditional TV. Challengers who try to outspend them on broadcast will lose. Challengers who build presence on CTV can reach the same audiences through a different channel.
Growth markets reward early movers. Atlanta’s 118% growth and 48% CTV adoption didn’t happen overnight. Firms like Thompson Law committed to streaming early. Markets showing 15 to 20% growth rates with low CTV adoption, cities like Houston, Dallas, Birmingham, and Spokane, are the next wave.
The $150 million flows every month. The question is not whether to participate, but where and through which channel.
References
- AdImpact. "Legal Advertising Trends Report, Q1 2026." 2026.
- IAB. "2025 Digital Video Ad Spend and Strategy Report." 2025.
- eMarketer. "US TV and Connected TV Ad Spending Forecasts, H2 2025." 2025.
- MNTN Research. "CTV Ad Spend Will Grow to $46.89 Billion by 2028." 2025.
- Nielsen. "Streaming Shatters Multiple Records in December 2025 with 47.5% of TV Viewing." 2026.