Web Strategy for Law Firms

Over the past 19 years, SPINX Digital has worked with a wide range of law firms, from members of the Top 30 list to medium-sized and boutique firms as well. In doing so, we’ve amassed a huge amount of experience and web strategy knowhow when it comes to completing projects for these firms. We thought it’d be helpful to share some of the most important considerations a law firm faces when planning these kinds of design projects.

Sites for smaller firms may be simpler, with less pages, content and functionality. But in order to be comprehensive with this exploration, we’re going to consider the essential aspects of building a website for a large, global law firm with ~1,000 attorneys and offices in dozens of countries. Smaller firms may focus on a smaller number of the listed goals and features, but either way, this article should give good food for thought.

We’re going to cover the following:

• The Crucial Functions of your Site
• Key Goals for a Global Law Firm Website
• Essential Features
• Designing for a Global Presence
• Brand Considerations
• Some Technical Considerations

The Crucial Functions of your Site

A website is one of the most important elements of a law firm’s brand and in how it’s perceived by the rest of the world. Your site can do many things for you: It can powerfully present your brand voice and connect with visitors on an emotional level; It can serve as a powerful tool for showcasing your firm’s experience and strengths; it can position you amongst your competition in the marketplace; and bolster your credibility and professionalism. It can also make it easier for prospective clients to learn about your company, your specific expertise, and your attorneys and the kinds of experience they have. Given everything your site can do for your firm, it’s truly one of the most important aspects of your firm’s public life.

To build a site that supports your marketing, clientele building and employee recruiting efforts requires a clear understanding of your organization’s goals, careful planning and consideration of the website’s key elements.

Key Goals for a Global Law Firm Website

The primary objectives for a large, international firm’s site should include:

1. Establishing credibility and authority in the legal industry
2. Communicating your unique brand voice with creative messaging & visuals
3. Converting site visitors into leads and clients
4. Showcasing the firm’s global reach & diverse expertise
5. Providing a clear and powerful introduction and overview of the firm, with intuitive pathways to valuable details about your expertise & experience
6. Highlighting the firm’s values, culture, and commitment to clients
7. Facilitating seamless navigation across practice areas and jurisdictions
8. Helping to attract and engage top legal talent for recruitment purposes
9. AI-driven personalization, to present users with the content that’s most important to them

Essential Features

Whether you have 20 attorneys or a thousand, there are a few important features you’ll want to include on the site:

Comprehensive Attorney Directory

A searchable directory of your attorneys that allows users to filter by practice area, location, language, and expertise. Each attorney profile may include:

• A professional headshot
• Brief biography
• Educational information
• Areas of expertise
• Notable cases or transactions
• Publications & speaking engagements
• Contact information
• Links to thought leadership pieces

Office Locator

If you have multiple offices, your website can highlight your geographic reach. It should also make it easy for clients to find your locations so they can know where you have staff and on the ground and they plan in-person visits.

Depending on your firm, you may just need a well designed list of a few locations. For companies with more locations, you may want a robust directory that showcases your office locations worldwide. An interactive map can help users search the globe in an engaging way. For each office, provide:

• Address and contact details
• Key practice areas
• Local leadership team
• Brief overview of the office’s history & significance

Multilingual Capabilities

For firms that serve a diverse, global clientele, or in markets where more than one primary language is spoken, your site should offer multilingual support:

• Provide content in major languages relevant to the firm’s key markets
• Allow the site to automatically present a specific language based on the user’s location
• Implement a language switcher that allows users to toggle between different language versions seamlessly
• Ensure that critical information, such as practice areas and contact details, is available in multiple languages

A Robust Practice Area Section

There’s no better way to explain the value you can bring to a client, then a clear understanding of the practice areas in which you excel. You should provide:

• A birds-eye view of the main practice areas & specialties
• A clear description of each practice and its significance to your clients
• Key attorneys in each practice areas and their related expertise
• Related cases or transactions
• Relevant publications and thought leadership content
• Client testimonials or success stories

News & Insights Center

A centralized hub for the firm’s thought leadership content will provide a more granular understanding of your firm’s knowledge, case work and successes.

• Recent news & press releases
• Blog posts & articles
• Podcasts & webinars
• Upcoming events & speaking engagements
• Newsletters & legal updates

Career Section

Having resources for effectively recruiting new talent is often one of our clients’ most important goals during a web redesign. Key items can include:

• Current job listings across all offices
• Information about the firm’s culture and values
• Employee testimonials and success stories
• A day in the life of an associate
• Overview of benefits and professional development opportunities
• A listing of upcoming recruitment events

Client Portal

Implement a secure client portal that allows clients to:

• Access case documents and updates
• Communicate with their legal team
• View billing information and invoices
• Schedule appointments or video consultations

Designing for a Global Presence

When building a website for a firm with a broad reach, consider the following strategies:

Unified Brand Identity

Maintain a consistent brand identity across all regions while allowing for subtle localization:

• Use a cohesive design language, color scheme, and typography throughout the site
• Incorporate region-specific imagery or content where appropriate
• Ensure that the overall user experience remains consistent regardless of the user’s location
• AI-driven personalization, to show users the content that’s most important to their region

Geolocation-based Content

Implement geolocation technology to provide users with relevant content based on their location:

• Automatically display the nearest office location and the local language
• Highlight region-specific news and insights
• Showcase attorneys and practice areas relevant to the user’s jurisdiction

Global Navigation Structure

Design a navigation system that allows users to easily access information across different regions and practice areas:

• Implement a mega menu that organizes content by both practice area and geography
• Use breadcrumbs to help users understand their location within the site’s structure
• Provide clear links to switch between regional versions of the site

Performance Optimization

Ensure fast loading times and smooth performance for users worldwide:

• Utilize robust cloud infrastructure and content delivery network (CDN) to serve assets from servers closest to the user
• Optimize images, code and media for quick loading
• Implement lazy loading techniques for content below the fold

Brand Considerations

Every firm has its own story. Your founders and partners came from different places, eras and industries. Your focus, mission and principals are unique. You may serve very specific clients who have their own concerns & goals. The way your site is designed and the messaging and content you use help define all of these important elements of your brand.

If you’re the bad ass, undefeated business litigation team, you may seek to convey that with a sleek, steely and darkly dramatic design. If you’re a hero of small businesses or supporter of nonprofits battling for justice, you may want a warmer tone, or to convey more urgency or humanity in the design. And there are many ways these kinds of themes can be subtly combined when called for.

Brand Themes

Some of the themes we often build into the design, based on our in depth understanding of our clients’ brands are:

• Professionalism & authority
• Expertise and credibility
• Bringing real world results and value to your clients
• Approachability & Client-focus
• Global reach and awareness

The tools we use to convey these ideas can include:

➞Color Palette

A color scheme that conveys professionalism and trust, while aligning with your unique voice

➞Imagery

Images that showcase the firm’s global reach and diverse expertise:

• High-quality photographs of office locations and cityscapes
• Professional headshots of attorneys and key personnel
• Images representing various practice areas and industries served
• Diverse representation in stock photos to reflect the firm’s global clientele
• Well edited video that tells specific stories from within your firm

➞Custom Graphics & Icons

Small graphics to enhance the visual language and user experience:

• Unique icons for each practice area
• Infographics to illustrate complex concepts or firm statistics
• Subtle animations and transitions to add visual interest without compromising professionalism
• Parallax scrolling effects
• 3D animations

Some Technical Considerations

Platform

What is the tech stack, hosting environment and content management system that will allow your team to best host, maintain and grow your site?

Some of platforms we’ve used to build large legal sites:

•. Sitecore

• WordPress

• Custom

• .NET

• Drupal

Accessibility

Ensure that the website is accessible to users with disabilities:

• Follow WCAG 2.1 guidelines for accessibility
• Provide alternative text for images
• Ensure proper color contrast for readability
• Make the site navigable via keyboard
• Provide tools that allow users to adjust their experience

Mobile Responsiveness

Design the website to function seamlessly across all devices:

• Implement a responsive design that adapts to different screen sizes
• Optimize touch targets for mobile users
• Simplify navigation for smaller screens

Conversions & Sales Support

With a well planned design and UX, your site will increase its ability to grow lead form submissions, expand your email list and the number of followers of your podcasts and other thought leadership efforts. Our strategy will think of the full funnel shopping cycle of your clients. This means we need to make sure your CRM or other lead gen tools are well integrated.

• CRM integration
• Newsletter registration
• Event (IRL & Virtual events) sign-up
• Advertising pixels to support remarketing & other campaigns

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Implement SEO best practices to improve the site’s visibility in search results. (I have to say, SPINX has amazing results in this area.)

• Develop a comprehensive keyword strategy for practice areas and locations
• Attorney listings are the most searched content on the site. Plan accordingly
• Create unique, informative meta titles and descriptions for each page
• Implement schema markup for law firm-specific information
• Build a logical internal linking structure

Analytics and Performance Tracking

Set up robust analytics to monitor the website’s performance:

• Implement Google Analytics or a similar platform to track user behavior
• Set up goals and conversion tracking for key actions (e.g., contact form submissions)
• Regularly review and analyze data to inform ongoing improvements

Ongoing Management

• Based on the content you intend to use, what resources will you need on a monthly basis to plan, create and publish site content?
• What is your expected content authoring workflow and how can your new website’s platform make your job easier?
• Do you have the technical expertise to manage security, software updates and resource scaling, or will you need help?

Wrapping it Up

I know this was a lot! But I hope we’ve given you a good sense of the type of site that might best serve a large, global law firm, as well as some important ideas for medium and smaller sized firms as well.

These kinds of web builds require an experienced strategy and design team. It benefits from a consultative and strategic approach from your digital partner. By focusing on key goals, implementing essential features and carefully considering the unique needs of a global audience, you can create a powerful online presence that effectively showcases your firm’s expertise and unique value and attracts clients worldwide. Sounds easy, right? 🙂

Feel free to take a look at some of our work here. And get in touch with questions!