Web Design for Law Firms

A visitor wants to know whether this firm handles their problem and works where they live. Each page should answer that quickly. These pieces carry most of the weight:

• A homepage that names the firm, the lawyers, the practice areas, the places served, the phone number, the languages spoken, and what to expect after hours.
• One useful page for each main practice area, written around client questions and the jurisdiction.
• An attorney bio page for each lawyer, with practice areas, education, experience, languages, and professional memberships.
• A contact and intake page with a confidentiality warning, a notice that sending a message does not create an attorney-client relationship, labeled fields, spam protection, and clear routing to the firm's own system or inbox.
• Location pages only for real offices or places the firm genuinely serves, with the same name, address, phone number, and hours everywhere they appear.
• A privacy notice that matches the information the site collects, and links to the firm's real Google Business Profile.

Some features are useful but not universal: a legal-information library, Spanish-language pages where the firm really serves Spanish-speaking clients, appointment scheduling, client portal links, online payments, and analytics that count phone clicks and form completions.

For a solo lawyer, a homepage, one attorney bio, two to five practice-area pages, service-area information, a contact page, a privacy notice, and a modest information library is usually proportionate. A small firm may also need several attorney profiles, multiple locations, and Spanish versions. The American Bar Association 2023 Websites and Marketing TechReport found that 60% of solos with websites managed them through one lawyer, and 72% created their own content. A site one person can keep accurate beats a large one that drifts out of date.

The Clio Legal Trends Report lists client reviews, clear and concise information, and law firm websites among the factors people consider when choosing a lawyer, and it notes that referrals remain important. The same ABA report found that only about a third of respondents said their website forms carried disclaimers about security, privilege, or forming an attorney-client relationship.

Put the basics where a visitor can find them without hunting: the exact practice area, whether the firm serves the visitor's city, county, or state, lawyer names and languages, how consultations and fees work, phone, text, email, hours, and a note that an inquiry does not create an attorney-client relationship.

Most firms already keep leads in a legal CRM or practice-management tool, and a website form should feed that tool rather than make staff retype everything. Each of the four systems below has its own way to connect:

• Clio Grow shares custom intake forms on a website, and its WordPress integration captures name, email, phone, reason for contact, and referring URL, then places the inquiry in the Clio Grow lead inbox. The site should use Clio's approved embed, integration, or API method and keep the source information.
• MyCase says its electronic intake forms can sit directly on a firm website or go out by email. The connection should use the firm's own MyCase form, with a check on where submissions are stored and a test of notifications and staff assignments.
• Lawmatics describes custom intake forms embedded in a website that adjust their questions based on answers and route submissions into workflows. The site should use the supplied embed or code snippet and map only the fields the firm needs.
• Smokeball Intake supports website-embedded lead forms, and its information can transfer into Smokeball fields in real time. The site should use the firm's generated form and confirm which plan and intake feature are active.

Whichever system you use, write down which form belongs to which practice area, who receives alerts, what happens when a form fails, whether attachments are accepted, and whether a submission creates a lead, a contact, or a matter. Confidential intake data should not travel through ordinary email.

A public form is not automatically a secure client portal, and prospective clients are protected by ethics rules even when no representation follows. ABA Model Rule 1.18 treats a person who discusses forming a client-lawyer relationship as a prospective client, and it asks the lawyer to take reasonable measures to avoid receiving more disqualifying information than needed. So, a good form asks only what the firm needs for initial screening, warns visitors not to send highly sensitive facts or documents until the firm gives instructions, restricts staff access, and sets retention and deletion practices. In Texas, the Texas Data Privacy and Security Act took effect July 1, 2024, and whether it applies depends on the firm and how it processes personal data.

The Department of Justice's web accessibility guidance of March 18, 2022 says Title III of the ADA prohibits discrimination by businesses open to the public, and it lists poor color contrast, missing alternative text, missing captions, inaccessible forms, and mouse-only controls as examples of barriers. The guidance treats WCAG and Section 508 as useful technical references while noting it is not itself binding, and a DOJ settlement with Springfield Clinic required WCAG 2.1 AA conformance. In practice, that means real form labels, keyboard access, readable error messages, adequate contrast, and captions or transcripts for video, plus a manual review alongside automated scanning.

A firm website is generally treated as lawyer advertising where the rules apply. In Texas, Part VII of the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct governs communications about legal services. Rule 7.02(a) states: "An advertisement of legal services shall publish the name of a lawyer who is responsible for the content of the advertisement and identify the lawyer's primary practice location."

Several other points matter for a site build:

• Rule 7.02(b) lets a lawyer say that the lawyer does or does not practice in particular fields, but it restricts claims of special competence. A lawyer who holds the certificate may use the wording "Board Certified, area of specialization - Texas Board of Legal Specialization."
• Rule 7.04(a) requires a lawyer to file an advertisement with the Advertising Review Committee within 10 days after it is first disseminated, unless Rule 7.05 exempts it. The State Bar's advertising rules state that information and links on a law firm website may be exempt except for the homepage contents, and the whole site must still comply with Rules 7.01 and 7.02.
• Past-success claims need enough information about the nature of the matter and the result, and a disclaimer about the uniqueness of each case does not fix missing substantiation. A person who appears as a client in advertising must be an actual client of that lawyer or firm.
• Texas Professional Ethics Opinion 685 (January 2020) says a lawyer may ask for online reviews if the communications stay truthful, and Opinion 662 (August 2016) allows only a restrained reply to a negative review that reveals no confidential information. Both appear with the State Bar's rules, comments, and opinions.

A firm site should therefore carry the responsible lawyer's name and primary practice location, describe board certification accurately, avoid guaranteed results, and present testimonials and results only after the lawyer has reviewed them. Our attorney advertising page and disclaimer describe how Counselado treats these topics on its own site.

Elsewhere, ABA Model Rule 7.1 bars false or misleading communications about a lawyer's services, and Rule 7.2 says a lawyer must not pay someone to recommend the lawyer's services, with exceptions for reasonable advertising costs. A flat fee for design, hosting, and content differs from paying for a recommendation, and state rules may differ.

Reviews carry federal rules too. The FTC's Consumer Reviews and Testimonials Rule, 16 CFR Part 465, took effect October 21, 2024 and prohibits fake reviews, review buying, and conditioning incentives on a particular sentiment. It applies alongside state lawyer-advertising rules. A designer can put approved material on the page, but the responsible lawyer decides whether a claim, result, or testimonial is permissible and should confirm current Texas requirements for the finished site. This is general information, not legal advice.

A website is a business expense, so its scope should be visible before work begins. Published provider prices vary widely, from low monthly plans to setup fees to multi-year engagements. Ask any provider in writing:

• Is it month-to-month, fixed-term, or a one-time project, and what happens if you cancel?
• Who owns the domain, content, source files, hosting account, analytics, and Google and form accounts?
• What does migration assistance cost if you leave?

A provider's statement that the customer owns the website does not replace a contract that says what is delivered and how it can be moved.

Our starting prices are flat fees, never per-lead, per-case, or referral pricing:

• A website starts at $1,500 for the build plus $99 a month. That covers a full site, typically 60 to 80 pages, with hosting, care, and at least 4 new blog posts a month.
• Google Business Profile management starts at $149 a month.
• Local SEO and AI search start at $395 a month with a 6-month commitment, or $495 a month month to month.
• Social media starts at $295 a month for 3 posts a week on 2 platforms.
• A growth bundle of all three add-ons starts at $595 a month with a 6-month commitment, which is $244 a month less than the $839 they cost separately.

The price moves with the number of pages and locations, intake or scheduling integrations beyond a link or embed, extra blog posts, extra social platforms, and content written from scratch. Details are on our plans and pricing page.

The firm prepares or approves its official names, the responsible lawyer and primary practice location, the jurisdictions where its lawyers are admitted, its real practice areas and service area, office details, biographies, photographs, fee and consultation information, intake routing, and domain and software credentials. It also supplies reviews with permission to republish them, substantiated case descriptions, and the lawyer's review of advertising compliance.

We audit the existing site, plan the structure, build the responsive design, and create practice-area, location, attorney, blog, FAQ, and Spanish pages. We draft copy for lawyer review, connect the firm's approved intake and analytics tools, add accessibility features, test the result, and handle redirects, metadata, an XML sitemap, HTTPS, and backups.

A good site shows in daily operation. It explains the firm's actual work within a few seconds, and its phone number, form, and appointment path all work on a phone. Submissions land in the intended intake system with the expected fields, and staff can tell the source and practice area of each inquiry. Profiles and locations are accurate and easy to update, keyboard and screen-reader users can use the site, and the firm can export its domain, content, accounts, and data.

Google says local results are based mainly on relevance, distance, and prominence and that there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking. Its AI features guidance says ordinary SEO practices still apply, with no special step that guarantees inclusion. These are quality markers, not promises of rankings, leads, cases, or revenue.

If you want to talk through scope, send a message through the contact form and choose "Something else" as the topic, or start from the For law firms page.