Who Can Register a .law Domain?

You can register a .law domain only if the registrant is a currently licensed lawyer, a qualifying law firm, a court of law, an approved law school, or a legal regulator. The registry checks the registrant against public records and may request supporting documents. An inactive lawyer, legal publisher, software vendor, consultant, student, paralegal, or general business does not qualify merely because its work concerns law.

The restriction applies to the registrant, not only to the website topic. A marketing agency cannot register a client's .law name in the agency's own identity. A lawyer cannot hide behind “Domain Administrator” during eligibility verification. The official registrant name or organization must match the name used by the relevant governing body.

1) Start with the registrant

The decisive question is not “Will the site publish legal content?” It is “Who will hold the registration, and does that registrant fit an official category?”

The registry's current eligibility FAQ requires the registrant name to match the name used with the governing body. That name must appear in the Registrant Name or Registrant Organization field associated with the domain. The registry then tests the identity against the applicable category.

This distinction prevents several common mistakes:

• an agency registering in its own company name for a law-firm client;
• a group using a holding company that is not itself an eligible law firm;
• a legal-information publisher assuming subject expertise is enough;
• a lawyer using a nickname that cannot be matched to a licensing record; or
• a former practitioner relying on an expired or inactive credential.

Decide ownership before searching. Record the proposed registrant, governing body, public-record URL, current status, official name, registration administrator, and renewal owner. If the ownership structure is uncertain, resolve it with the registry and the relevant professional adviser before paying.

2) Confirm a lawyer's current status

An individual lawyer must be currently licensed to practise law and identifiable in the public records of the relevant legal regulator. The FAQ expressly excludes a lawyer with lapsed, expired, inactive, or non-practising status when that status does not authorize the person to provide regulated legal services.

Do not translate a local professional title into eligibility by guesswork. “Attorney,” “advocate,” “solicitor,” “barrister,” “counsel,” and other titles have different legal meanings across jurisdictions. Use the regulator's own record and status language.

Capture evidence that answers:

1. Which regulator licenses the person?
2. What exact name does the record show?
3. What is the licence or registration identifier?
4. Is the status current and authorized for practice?
5. Does the record show a firm or practising address relevant to the application?
6. Who can respond if the verification agent asks for more information?

A certificate or membership card can support an application, but it should not substitute for checking current status. The verification agent compares applications with public records and may request more documentation when records differ or are unavailable.

3) Test a law firm's entity

The registry defines an eligible law firm as a partnership or incorporated entity formed by one or more qualified lawyers to engage in the practice of law. In jurisdictions that regulate firms directly, the firm must also be authorized by the relevant legal regulator.

That makes the exact entity important. A consumer brand, management company, multidisciplinary consultancy, referral business, claims service, legal-process outsourcer, or software company may sit beside a law firm without being the eligible firm itself.

Prepare a firm record with:

• the complete legal entity name;
• the public trading name;
• entity and professional-registration numbers;
• the authorizing regulator, where applicable;
• the qualified lawyers responsible for the practice;
• current primary domains and public contact details; and
• evidence linking the proposed registrant name to the official record.

If several affiliated entities share a brand, state which one will own the domain and why. Domain control should follow the approved legal and operational structure, not whichever employee reaches checkout first.

For the extension decision itself, compare %%EDITORIAL_0%% with the broader .legal namespace before committing to a public migration.

4) Check institutional categories

Three non-firm categories also qualify under the current policy.

A court of law must be a government-created organization with authority to adjudicate legal disputes and administer justice in a jurisdiction. A private arbitration service, tribunal software product, legal publisher, or commentary site should not assume that the word “court” makes it eligible.

A law school must be approved by a legal regulator or a recognized education regulator to provide academic or vocational legal education as part of the route to becoming a qualified lawyer. A short-course company, tutoring service, legal blog, student society, or general university department may not meet that definition.

A legal regulator must be created or approved through international, national, or state legislation to regulate the provision of legal services. A voluntary association, directory, trade publisher, accreditation business, or professional network is not automatically a regulator.

Institutional applicants should identify the exact enabling law, regulator, approval, or public record that supports the category. Avoid stretching the definition to fit a desirable name.

5) Know who does not qualify

The following applicants are not listed as independent eligibility categories:

• paralegals and legal assistants;
• law students and alumni groups;
• legal journalists and publishers;
• legal-technology vendors;
• document, filing, translation, or research services;
• claims-management and lead-generation businesses;
• consultants who are not currently licensed lawyers;
• general professional associations;
• inactive or non-practising lawyers who are not authorized to provide regulated services; and
• marketing, hosting, or development agencies working for eligible clients.

Some of these organizations may be owned by or work with lawyers, but that does not settle which legal entity should be the registrant. Get a written registry answer if the structure does not map cleanly to an official category.

An ineligible organization can still choose a truthful unrestricted domain. A legal publisher or technology provider can compare %%EDITORIAL_0%%, while a broader professional service can review %%EDITORIAL_1%%. Registration under an unrestricted ending does not confer professional authority, so the site must still identify the responsible entity and avoid misleading claims.

6) Prepare for verification

The registry uses an independent verification agent. It first compares the Registrant Name with public records. When the record is incomplete, inconsistent, unavailable, or difficult to interpret, the agent may contact the applicant and request further information or documents such as an accreditation certificate.

A practical application file should include:

Use current, accurate data. Monitor the contact address supplied to the registrar and respond through verified channels. Do not send sensitive identity documents to an address found only in an unsolicited message; confirm the request through the registrar or registry's official support route.

The FAQ states that there is no separate eligibility-verification fee. That does not mean registration is free, or that professional, document, translation, procurement, and internal review costs disappear.

7) Separate identity from the domain label

The person or organization must be eligible, but the domain label does not have to reproduce the registrant's name, firm name, trademark, or service. The current registry FAQ says an eligible registrant may register any available .law name and does not impose a per-person domain limit.

That flexibility is not permission to ignore trademark rights, professional naming rules, advertising rules, reserved names, passing-off risk, or customer confusion. Registry eligibility and name availability answer only part of the decision.

Evaluate a candidate such as familycounsel.law on several layers:

• Is the registrant eligible?
• Is the label available and ordinarily priced?
• May the firm use that name in the relevant jurisdiction?
• Does the phrase imply a specialty, result, office, or status that needs support?
• Is the name too generic to distinguish the practice?
• Can people say, type, and recognize the full address?
• Does the corresponding email look clear?
• Are close .com, country-code, and social names controlled by another party?

Use the name generator to explore wording, then run the serious legal, professional, and conflict checks outside the generator.

Use the WHOIS lookup to inspect the registrar, registry dates, and public RDAP presentation of comparable names. It cannot prove professional eligibility, beneficial ownership, or permission to use a label, so keep it beside the regulator and conflict checks rather than treating it as a substitute.

8) Handle registrant identity accurately

The registry does not permit a lawyer or firm to replace the eligible registrant with a privacy-service identity or a generic label such as “Domain Administrator” for verification. The verifier needs the qualified lawyer's or authorized institution's real name.

The FAQ also says that personal contact data is redacted from public domain-contact searches. These two statements address different layers: the registry and registrar receive accurate registrant data, while public RDAP presentation may redact personal fields.

Do not promise complete anonymity. Ask the registrar what it collects, what the registry receives, what appears in RDAP, which fields can be disclosed under policy or law, and how access requests are handled. Namecheap's current .law information marks domain privacy as unsupported, which is consistent with the restriction on substituting a privacy registrant. Its public-data handling still needs to be explained precisely by the provider.

Keep domain access institutional even when an individual lawyer is the registrant. Use protected accounts, role-based access where available, strong authentication, recovery records, documented administrators, and a succession plan.

9) Budget with current prices

.law costs more than an ordinary .com at the same registrar, and prices differ between providers. On 16 August 2026, two official registrar pages displayed these standard, non-premium USD prices:

Porkbun's three-year path is 3 × $82.90 = $248.70. Namecheap displays $317.94 for a three-year registration term and $392.94 for three years of renewals. Namecheap also notes a $0.20 ICANN fee and says premium names and promotions can change the checkout total.

These are observations, not a permanent market rate or a guarantee that either registrar will accept a specific application. Recheck the selected label, registrar eligibility workflow, registration term, taxes, currency, premium status, ordinary renewal, transfer, redemption, and service fees before approval.

The domain fee is only one line in the operating budget. Include evidence preparation, professional review, website and email work, DNS, certificates, migration, monitoring, renewals, account recovery, and defensive names.

10) Register and launch in stages

An eligible applicant can search for an available name, proceed through a supporting registrar, provide accurate registrant information, pay, and complete verification. The exact checkout and verification order can differ by provider, so use the provider's current instructions.

Treat the project as distinct stages:

1. confirm the registrant category and status;
2. document the official registrant name;
3. screen the proposed label;
4. compare registrar support and full prices;
5. submit accurate data and payment;
6. respond to verification requests;
7. secure registrar and DNS access;
8. configure website, HTTPS, email, and redirects;
9. test every public endpoint; and
10. launch with clear identity and jurisdiction disclosures.

ICANN contact verification is separate from .law eligibility verification. The registry FAQ says failure to complete ICANN contact verification within 15 days can place the domain on hold. Follow both processes and keep their records distinct.

If replacing an established address, keep the old domain under control. Map old URLs to relevant new pages, preserve email continuity, update directory and regulator records, and tell clients exactly which addresses the firm uses. A suffix change should not break intake, confidentiality notices, court filings, billing, or client communications.

If the technical roles are unclear, review how domains work before assigning registrar, DNS, website, certificate, and email ownership.

11) Make the eligibility decision

Proceed when the exact registrant fits one of the five official categories, the professional record is current, the registrant fields match the governing-body record, supporting evidence is ready, the proposed label passes local review, and the owner can sustain the annual cost and operational controls.

Pause when an eligible firm has a complex group structure, its public record uses another name, the intended owner is unclear, a licence status is changing, or the proposed label makes a specialty or jurisdictional claim that needs review. Ask the registry and relevant professional adviser before checkout.

Do not proceed when the intended registrant is a student, publisher, vendor, agency, inactive practitioner, or other applicant outside the policy. Do not use an eligible lawyer as a nominee for an ineligible business. Choose a truthful unrestricted name and publish the identity, qualifications, jurisdiction, and service scope that visitors need to assess the organization.

.law verification establishes a meaningful registrant boundary. It does not guarantee competence, security, ethical conduct, a successful matter, or the accuracy of every claim. Clients should still confirm the professional in the relevant regulator's current record.