Designing Websites for Law Firms: What Marketing Agencies Need to Know

The person visiting a law firm website is usually going through something difficult, maybe they’re getting divorced, maybe they were in a car accident, maybe they’re facing charges. In any case, they’re looking at the website because they need help, and they’re probably pretty anxious about the whole situation.

We’ve worked on websites for lots of different types of businesses. Healthcare, real estate, restaurants, and construction companies. Legal website development has been one of the more interesting challenges. Not harder, exactly, just different. In this blog, we would like to share some of our best practices and tips on how to approach law firm websites. 

Lawyers Care About Credentials, Visitors Care About Understanding Their Problem

Here’s what happens on most law firm website design projects. The attorney wants to talk about their credentials. Where they went to school, what cases they’ve won, what professional organizations they belong to. And that makes sense, they worked hard for all of that.

But the person visiting the website at 2 AM because s/he is in trouble? They’re thinking about completely different things. They’re wondering if this lawyer will judge them. If they can afford it. If this person has actually handled a situation like theirs before. The credentials matter eventually, but not right away.

So you end up trying to make space for both things. The attorney’s professional achievements that mean a lot to them, and the basic human reassurance that the visitor actually needs.

Each Type of Legal Work Needs Its Own Dedicated Page

The structure part is less exciting than design, but it matters more than you’d think. Legal websites work differently than, say, an e-commerce site or a restaurant site.

Practice areas need their own pages. If a firm does personal injury and estate planning and business law, those can’t all live on one “Services” page. Each practice area needs room to actually explain what it involves, because legal terminology is confusing to most people.

Then you probably want to go another level deeper. So under “Personal Injury,” you’d have separate pages for car accidents, medical malpractice, slip and fall cases. Under “Family Law,” separate pages for divorce, child custody, adoption. This helps with search engines, sure, but it also helps the visitor quickly figure out if this firm handles their specific situation.

Attorney profile pages are tricky to place. Some firms want them front and center, some want them tucked away. We’ve found that a lot of visitors do want to see who they’d be working with pretty early on. It doesn’t need to be the first thing, but it shouldn’t be buried.

Law Firms Need Features That Regular Business Sites Don’t

WordPress runs a lot of law firm websites. There are fancier platforms out there, and there are simpler ones, but WordPress keeps showing up in legal. Part of it is the plugins. Law firms need specific functionality: good contact forms, ways to schedule consultations, chat systems, secure areas for clients to access documents. WordPress has plugins that do all of this reliably.

The other part is that law firms generate a lot of content. Blog posts about new laws or court decisions, updates to attorney bios, news about the firm, case results. Someone at the firm needs to be able to update this stuff without calling the web developer every time. WordPress makes that possible without requiring much technical knowledge.

Security is the third reason. Law firms deal with sensitive information. They’re also attractive targets for hackers because of that. WordPress, when it’s set up properly with good hosting and security plugins, can handle the security requirements. But it does need to be maintained, updates can’t just be ignored.

The Design Has to Feel Professional Without Feeling Cold

Law firm website design has to thread a needle. If it looks too old-fashioned, like it was built in 2005, people assume the firm is out of touch. If it looks too modern and flashy, it doesn’t feel serious enough for legal work.

The fonts you pick set a lot of the tone. The traditional serif fonts (the ones that look like they came from a book) feel authoritative. The clean, simple fonts feel more contemporary and approachable. A lot of legal sites use both. Headlines in something traditional, body text in something easier to read on screens.

Color is also weird in legal design. Blue is everywhere because it’s associated with trust and stability. But that doesn’t mean every law firm needs a blue website. A criminal defense attorney might want something bolder. Web design for family lawyer practices might use warmer colors. The colors should reflect what the firm actually does and how they want to come across.

Photography is where a lot of legal sites fall apart too. Stock photos of people in suits shaking hands or pointing at documents look fake because they are fake. If the budget allows for it, real photos of the actual attorneys in their actual office make a huge difference. If you have to use stock photography, at least pick photos that look like real moments rather than obvious staged shots.

Another thing we’ve noticed is that attorneys often want to fill every inch of the page with information. Resist that impulse. Space on the page (areas where there’s just nothing) makes the site feel calmer and more professional. It also makes the important information easier to find.

How to Write Pages That Explain Legal Issues Without Sounding Like a Lawyer

The words on a legal website have to do a lot of work. They need to help with search rankings, they need to satisfy the attorney’s desire to demonstrate expertise, and they need to help a confused visitor figure out if this is the right lawyer for them.

Practice area pages are probably the most important pages on the site besides the homepage. These pages need to explain what this area of law involves without using a bunch of legal jargon. They need to show that the firm has experience with this type of case. And they also have to answer the questions and make it clear how to take the next step.

Here’s a basic structure that tends to work:

Section	What Goes Here	Roughly How Long
Introduction	What is this legal issue in plain language	2-3 paragraphs
How This Firm Approaches It	Their experience and philosophy	2-3 paragraphs
What the Process Looks Like	What happens if you work with them	3-4 paragraphs
Common Questions	The things everyone asks about	4-6 short Q&As
How to Get Started	Clear next step to take	1 paragraph

As for the blogs, this content on legal sites serves two purposes. It helps with search engine rankings by creating fresh content. And it positions the firm as knowledgeable about current developments. But these posts should be written for regular people, not for other lawyers. If you find yourself using a bunch of Latin phrases or references to specific statutes, you’ve probably lost your audience.

Legal Contact Forms Collect Different Information Than Other Industries

Contact forms on legal sites are different than on other sites. You’re not just collecting a name and email. You’re often gathering information about someone’s legal situation so the attorney knows what they’re dealing with before they call back.

Multi-step forms work well for this. Start with basic information: name, phone, email. Then ask more specific questions about their situation. How long ago did this happen? Have they talked to any other attorneys? What outcome are they hoping for?

Scheduling tools have also become pretty standard. Someone who needs a lawyer at 10 PM shouldn’t have to wait until the office opens to schedule a consultation. Integrating something like Calendly or Acuity means they can book a time slot right away, even if it’s for later in the week.

Live chat can work, but it needs to be set up carefully. It’s not for giving legal advice, that creates all sorts of problems. It’s for answering basic questions about the process:

• Do you handle cases like mine?
• What happens in a consultation?
• How quickly can I meet with someone?
• What documents should I bring?

These chats should go to intake staff or an answering service, not to the attorneys themselves.

People Search for Lawyers on Their Phones in Urgent Situations

A lot of legal searches happen on phones, often in urgent situations. Someone searching for a criminal defense attorney on their phone might have been arrested a few hours ago. Someone looking for a personal injury lawyer might be in the hospital.

• The phone number needs to be immediately visible and tappable on mobile. Not just displayed as text, but as a button that initiates a call when you tap it.
• Forms need to be genuinely usable on a phone screen. That means using the right input types so the appropriate keyboard comes up. Breaking longer forms across multiple screens so they don’t feel overwhelming. Making buttons big enough to tap accurately.
• Location information should be prominent. A lot of people searching on mobile are trying to figure out if this firm is nearby enough to actually visit.
• Page load speed matters more on mobile because people are often on slower connections. And in an urgent situation, nobody has patience for a slow website. Compress images, minimize unnecessary code, use caching.

Every State Has Different Rules About What Lawyers Can Say Online

Law firm websites are regulated differently than other business websites. State bar associations have rules about attorney advertising, and websites fall under those rules.

Disclaimers are required in many states. Things like “Previous case results don’t guarantee you’ll get the same outcome” or “Using this website doesn’t create an attorney-client relationship.” These need to be visible but don’t have to dominate the design. Footer placement usually works fine.

Testimonials and reviews are also regulated differently in different states. Some states don’t allow client testimonials at all. Some allow them but require specific disclaimer language. Some have no restrictions. You need to check the rules for the specific state your client practices in before adding any testimonials.

Case results fall under similar restrictions. Some states let you share detailed information about past cases. Others require disclaimers that essentially negate the value of sharing the information. This is worth researching early in the project.

Laws Change, So Legal Websites Need Regular Updates

Legal websites need more ongoing maintenance than a lot of other sites. Laws change. Court decisions come out. Attorneys join the firm or leave it. Practice areas evolve.

Content updates happen fairly regularly. When a new law passes that affects the firm’s practice areas, they usually want to publish something about it quickly. Having a process for these updates matters.

Security updates are also important. WordPress core updates, theme updates, plugin updates, these all need to happen regularly. As we pointed out above, law firms handle sensitive client information, which makes them attractive targets for hackers. Staying on top of updates is part of keeping that information secure.

Performance should be monitored too. Page speed, uptime, whether forms are working correctly. A broken contact form on a law firm site doesn’t just lose a lead, it means someone who genuinely needed legal help couldn’t reach out.

Final Words

A good law firm website balances a lot of different needs. The attorney needs to feel proud of it. Potential clients need to be able to find the information they’re looking for. Search engines need to be able to understand and rank it. And it all needs to comply with legal advertising regulations.

If your marketing agency frequently takes on law clients, White Label Agency is here to help. We have experience working with different verticals, including legal. Our team can serve as a back office, doing all the development work while you take all the credit for it. And you can scale up or down easily, as your workload changes. Contact us today to learn more about our services.