What does your firm’s website say about you?
Is your law firm website design responsive, easy to navigate, and visually inviting? Does it emphasize your qualifications and recommendations from clients and peers? Is it clear to visitors that your results speak for themselves? And if they’re checking your site from a mobile device, is it easy for them to find exactly what they’re looking for?
With our Law firm Web design Guide, we hope to arm your firm with the most accurate and specific information in regards to:
- Why do firms need quality web design
- Ethical Digital Marketing considerations (Legal Sector)
- Must-have pages
- Top design elements
- Top writing tips
- Visual samples
- And more!
Consultwebs Law firm Website examples:
How Website Design Can Grow Your Law firm
Within the practice of the law, there are other critical functions to acquiring clients. One of them is digital marketing. In here, there’s a wide range of efforts you could apply to your firm but perhaps the best choice to start off is with a web design. Without it, other marketing efforts like SEO fall short.
Firms that decide to invest in a website guarantee the following:
- Making the most of digital marketing, “the new growth engine.”
- Many Law Firms have realized that face-to-face sales have lost impact due to factors like the 2019 pandemic. It’s a fact, online sales and services will keep on growing in the years to come.
- Targeting high-quality leads thanks to data-driven marketing.
- It is no surprise there’s a saying that states, “data is the new oil.” It really is. Firms leveraging data from their website and tools like Google Analytics can make better decisions, faster.
- Building and maintaining your firm’s reputation with branding.
- Strong branding helps firms stand out. This is important because not all firms cater to all types of prospects looking for firms. Branding helps you resonate with the right audience and vice versa.
- Signaling search engines to rank you.
- Great web design converts. It not only showcases your personality to users. It also works hand-in-hand with SEO to signal search engines like Google.
- Showcasing your firm’s expertise.
- Does your firm specialize in a specific practice area? Is there a niche market you focus on? To stand as an authoritative figure, the website should translate this level of expertise into its content.
- Saving time.
- Every minute of your day counts, so what does this have to do with building a website? Well, there’s more than meets the eye. A great website helps save users time. In theory, it should offer valuable information in visible locations. e.g. directions, opening hours, live chats, etc.
- Saving money!
- Think about it, what are users consuming the most? What do they interact with the most on a daily basis? The statistics show that traditional media generates 50% fewer interactions than digital marketing.
The Consultwebs’ Approach to Law firm Web design
Imagine you’re interested in using a law firm’s services. What’s your first move? If you’re like most people, you immediately turn to Google, find their website, and take a closer look at what they have to offer.
Law firm website design is so important because it’s often the first point of contact between a law firm and a potential client. Its design, layout, and overall user experience can make or break that crucial first impression. In fact, Stanford research indicates that 75% of users form judgments about a company’s credibility solely based on their website’s design.
This statistic underscores how a well-crafted website doesn’t just enhance a firm’s online presence – it can ultimately be a deciding factor in a potential client’s decision to engage with a firm’s services. As experts in the field, Consultwebs understands the power of first impressions. This article delves into Consultwebs’ unique approach to web design and unravels a few of the facets we leverage to ensure your website makes the best first impression possible.
So, what makes the Consultwebs approach to web design unique?
We customize the design around your brand.
We work intimately with our clients, incorporating their feedback and input through a series of thoughtful questions like:
- What design examples do you like?
- Are your branded colors staying the same for this project?
- Do you want to change your logo?
- Should we incorporate any new photos?
This dialogue is essential to our process, ensuring each web design genuinely represents the law firm it serves. While many firms prefer to maintain their existing branding, others view this as an opportune moment for reinvention. Whatever the case may be, we’re here to facilitate this transformation, guaranteeing a website that not only looks professional and modern but also authentically reflects the uniqueness of your law firm.
We cater design options to your price point
Consultwebs is mindful that different firms have different needs and price points. This is why we offer both custom designs and a series of more affordable theme-based designs. Theme-based designs are preconstructed website templates crafted to ensure your website reads as accessible, mobile-friendly, and modern. Using our theme-based templates as a launch point, we can then build your website based on your customization preferences, incorporating elements like photographs and your desired color palette.
We make sure your website exclusively belongs to you
Many legal marketing agencies do not give their clients full ownership of their websites. This means that if a law firm ever chooses to switch providers, they need to relinquish their website design.
At Consultwebs, however, we respect your autonomy and ensure that you retain full ownership of the website design we create for you. We want to give you the flexibility to make future decisions in the best interest of your firm without any loss of your digital presence.
If you’re just starting your legal marketing journey, consider checking out this resource:
Discover the Top 12 Questions to Ask a Legal Vendor
Our Web design and SEO teams work closely together
We understand that a good website design is not just about aesthetics but also functionality. The best websites happen at the intersection where beauty meets practicality.
That’s why our design team works closely with our Lawyer SEO experts to ensure that our client’s websites are not only visually appealing but also optimized for search engines. We’re focused on ensuring your site isn’t just a pretty face, but a dynamic, search engine-friendly platform that effectively communicates your firm’s message and engages visitors.
We screen for elements that date your website
Did you know that your website can begin to look outdated in as little as three years?
At Consultwebs, we’re not just building a website for today but also anticipating future trends and developments. We meticulously screen for elements that can prematurely age your website, ensuring its design remains fresh and relevant for years to come.
Some website elements we look at include:
- Font size: A smaller font size not only dates your website but can also negatively impact your SEO. Google incorporates font size into their ranking algorithm, and to avoid penalization most body copy requires a minimum font size of typically around 16 pixels.
- Ample white space: We believe in the principle of “Room to Breathe” – an approach that embraces clean layouts and ample white space, enabling your content to stand out without feeling cramped or overwhelming.
- Accessibility: We ensure that your website has qualities that make it inclusive and easily navigable for all users, regardless of their abilities. This is known as an ADA Compliant website. For example, we always screen for color contrast. Poor color contrast refers to the lack of a clear, distinguishable difference between the background color and the text or design elements’ color on a webpage. This can make the content difficult to read or interpret, particularly for those with visual impairments.
- Mobile-friendliness: We prioritize designing websites that are intuitively navigable on a range of devices, ensuring an accessible user experience whether your potential clients are browsing on a desktop, tablet, or smartphone.
We provide ongoing support and optimization
We see ourselves as a mutual partner in our clients’ marketing journey.
That’s why each Consultwebs client has a team of marketing specialists behind them to support them continuously throughout the process. And, even after the design process is complete, we continue to work with our clients, offering ongoing support and optimization services.
Does Your Law Firm’s Website Meet the 5 Main Business Objectives?
What are you trying to accomplish with your law firm website? Step back for a minute and think about your goals. Your first impression might be that your website’s purpose is much different from that of an online retailer, news source or product manufacturer.
Stop and think about it a bit more closely and you might realize that a law firm’s online goals aren’t so different.
Google identifies five business objectives for websites:
- Selling products or services.
- Collecting contact information for potential leads.
- Encouraging engagement and frequent visitation.
- Providing information users need.
- Driving engagement, awareness and loyalty.
I would argue that every one of those objectives applies to law firm websites. Once you recognize that reality, you can build a stronger online campaign.
Let’s take a look at each objective, and how each one fits with thoughtful and productive legal Web marketing.
1. Selling products or services.
A well-developed law firm website allows the firm to tell its story and inform potential clients about why they should choose it over the competition. Case results, attorney bios, firm ratings and credentials, authoritative content, videos and professional photography are but a few of the elements that can “sell” a firm online.
There is no “add to cart” button on a law firm’s website, but that doesn’t mean there’s no opportunity to land a client online. An effective legal website leads the potential client down the path of “conversion,” which simply means contacting the firm. That may happen in any of several ways, such as through an online chat, submitting a contact form or most commonly calling the firm’s phone number included on the site.
2. Collecting contact information for potential leads.
Since potential clients can’t “buy now” on an attorney’s website, lead generation really is the site’s purpose. Successful Web campaigns are designed to drive the right type of prospective client to the firm’s site, and get them to connect with the firm.
Once a potential client has reached out to the firm, it is crucial that firms have an effective intake system to follow up with leads and prevent them from wandering off (or worse, running) to the competition.
3. Encouraging engagement and frequent visitation.
Google cites this as an important objective for content publishers – in other words, news outlets. You’ve never considered your law firm as a part of the media? You should if you want to get the most out of your online marketing dollars.
Publishing a fresh stream of stimulating content can also build your site’s credibility with Google and other search engines, making your site (and your firm) more visible on the Web. That will deliver more leads and allow you to sign more cases.
4. Providing information users need.
One of the main reasons people search the Internet is to find answers to help them with a problem. Some of these problems are not very dire – searching Google to find a good cup of coffee in a new city, for example. Others – such as questions about a legal matter – deal with crucial life decisions.
A page on a firm’s site might discuss mistakes that claimants make when seeking workers’ compensation benefits. The page would deliver important information to the potential client, while simultaneously highlighting why consulting with a lawyer is crucial for avoiding common pitfalls. Conversion may take several weeks, but you can bet that the attorney’s site that genuinely helped a potential client is the one he or she will return to when it is time to make a hiring decision.
5. Driving engagement, awareness and loyalty.
This objective focuses on what could succinctly be called “branding.” A firm’s website and social media engagement are powerful tools for cultivating and communicating the firm’s image, often working with the firm’s other marketing efforts.
A firm should use its online presence to highlight its involvement in the community, including involvement in charitable organizations and efforts to improve the lives of the public it serves. It can also show how the firm takes direct action to help community members, for example by sponsoring a scholarship competition.
Law firm Website design for Conversion
Do you “like” your law firm’s website design? Are you “happy” with it? Or are you measuring the number of leads your website develops, and basing your feelings off that?
After launching thousands of law firm websites, we’ve learned a few things about successful legal web design, what convinces and converts users into clients. But more importantly, we know how web design choices can confuse clients and cause them to click away, and seek other counsel. The secret lies in something called, Design for Conversion.
First, let’s talk about the subjectivity/objectivity gap in legal marketing and law firm web design and discuss the secret mindset that overcomes these biases. Then we’ll share a few examples to demonstrate the positive (and negative) results possible when you design with conversion in mind.
How to Design for Conversion
The success of a law firm’s web design, marketing, and advertising to the external audience is subjective: “I like it” or “I don’t like it.”
To the ones investing in marketing, the results expected are extremely objective: “How many calls/cases can we expect?” “Leads will increase by what percent?” “Spend = Return.”
Here’s the paradox – most law firms forge their marketing material within a subjective bubble, “I like it/I don’t like it,” rather than a bubble based on objectives.
So, the objective measurements the shareholders will be asking for once the ad campaigns go live, are unattached to the content from the very beginning.
After generating millions of leads and designing thousands of websites for lawyers, Consultwebs has an answer for this paradox – Design for Conversion;
“It’s not what moves us; it’s what moves the needle.”
Designing for conversion is a mindset we employ at Consultwebs that ensures the success of our legal marketing campaigns is measured by conversions, not convictions.
Objective success in legal marketing has always seemed elusive because of the subjectivity paradox in measurement and taxonomy. But once we’re agreed on how we measure conversions and marketing, then our strategy, direction, and next steps become clear.
Conversion is not just selling or getting clicks. It’s about meeting key performance indicators that drive business goals.
Define ‘for Conversion’
Most law firm marketers are only tracking direct conversions, if they are tracking marketing metrics at all.
In an informal Twitter poll, we discovered that more than 70 percent of lawyers don’t know how much it costs to produce a lead for their firm.
So if you’re tracking marketing numbers in anyway, like ROI (return on investment), CPL (cost per lead), and CPC (cost per case), then you’re already light-years ahead of the competition.
Most marketers are too busy marketing to see if anything converted or made an impact. Not only do they need to be paying attention, they need to be looking at the right types of conversions.
A conversion isn’t just a client signing up for representation. It can be steps leading up to and around that main goal. Things like calls, clicks, chats, emails, form fills, downloads, engagements on social, dwell times on blogs – all of these can add up and prove that your marketing is working.
Marketing can have a direct impact on business development efforts, but only when a strategy connected to measurable goals meets the Design for Conversion methodology.
Once you have measurements in place, you can begin controlling your subjectivity around marketing and get to objective measurements that prove the marketing is actually leading to results.
The truth about web design is, sometimes beautiful things don’t work, and ugly gets the phone to ring.
Looks Good – Doesn’t Convert
“Pretty websites rarely convert as well as unpretty ones.” – Seth Godin
With every marketing decision you make for the law firm, there needs to be a reason behind the choice. In the video game Super Mario Bros., every tube you went down, every mushroom and flower you ate, were all steps to get to the one goal, the Princess.
So when it comes to a website, the No. 1 reason it exists is to develop business for the law firm, which is why the Design for Conversion mindset makes a difference.
Law firm web design should be focused on value, not viewpoints.
The true value of a web design is its usability:
- “What do visitors want and/or need to know?”
- “Is everything clear and not confusing?”
- “Do the users know what to do, and what to click next?”
If these three concerns go unaddressed in your web design, then it doesn’t matter that you have a video in the header of you riding a unicorn (which, of course, is super cool, but beside the point)!
One example of something designers and clients love, but actually leads to less engagement from users, is the Carousel. This is a way to show images and flip through them by clicking on big arrows, in an attempt to get people to engage.
Studies show, the engagement numbers for carousels are insanely small. The percentage of users that clicked to the images in Positions 2-5 is well below 1 percent.
This kind of insight is only possible with a Design for Conversion mentality, plus the ability to measure and test the capabilities of your web design choices. You may want a carousel of your dog on the website, but you have to wonder if you “need” it.
Looks Bad – Converts Well
When it comes to “ugly” sites that convert (which really makes them beautiful), there are a few simple design considerations that make conversion more likely.
According to the web design site Crazy Egg, and its LIFT model of conversion, effective websites need to have a strong value proposition, high relevance, and a crystal-clear user experience.
Along with the lift of good UX, there is also a need for web design to reduce distractions and anxiety.
This is a counter-intuitive finding, but studies show, “ugly,” older-looking websites often make technologically inept users feel safer, compared to newer sites designed to look slick.
Let’s look at one of the most trusted and trafficked websites on the internet – CraigsList.
It is not easy on the eyes, but the site earns trusted traffic and links by the thousands everyday. Its secret? Clear navigation, easy usability, a simple page with clear categories.
Law Firm Web Design Isn’t About ‘Pretty’ vs. ‘Ugly’?
The main takeaway from all this is that law firm website design is not a subjective endeavor. It’s not about pretty vs. ugly. The only metric that really matters, is conversion rates.
If you’re considering an expensive redesign because you hate your site, look under the hood and see what the conversion rates are first. Maybe the website you’re sick of converts like a charm. The only way to find out for sure is to use the Design for Conversion methodology.
Website Design Elements Your Law firm Needs
Let’s start with a quick food for thought: in the sea of sameness, how can your firm’s website stand out from the competition? A viable option is by adding the most captivating visuals.
Although there’s the saying we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, the truth is that for users looking at a website; this rule doesn’t apply. The visitors will judge your website by its cover and they’ll do so in seconds or even less than a second. According to statistics, it only takes 50 milliseconds (less than a second!) for users to form an opinion about your website. This can determine whether they’ll stay or leave.
It’s clear to see that the power of visuals is no joke. On this premise, the following are design elements that can boost your firm’s aesthetics and usability.
1 – Simplicity
A firm’s web design should keep the UX (user experience) top of mind. Users are looking to take some form of action like learn more, read more, call now, watch, etc. With that said, the most fitting thing to do is to keep things simple. Avoid adding all the different calls to action at once as it may distract the user from the most important actions.
2 – Visual hierarchy
Visual hierarchy refers to arranging and organizing the web design elements. These are laid out in a way that makes users naturally gravitate towards certain elements first. This is possible through visual hierarchy elements such as the following:
- Sizing and scale – anything you scale larger will attract more attention.
- Balance and symmetry: We are naturally attracted to symmetry. By adding a form of symmetry, you can have a geometrical balance on your website. You can also lack balance on purpose and give it a more flexible flow.
- Colors – There’s a reason why certain businesses lean towards certain colors; there’s science behind colors. For web design for lawyers, the colors blue gives the signal of professionalism, power, security, and success.
There are two viewing patterns that affect the visual hierarchy of the human eye:
- 1. The Z pattern – This works best for content that doesn’t have too much content and/or images.
- 2. The F pattern – This works best for text-heavy content pages e.g. blog posts.
3 – Navigability
Navigability is what helps users get from point A to B fast. As a rule of thumb, the visitors coming in should be able to land on your homepage and know which clear steps to follow.
Here are some of the best navigability tips and tricks:
- Add a navigation bar at the foot of your pages.
- (If possible) include a search bar so users can easily type their search query.
- State the offer(s) clearly.
- Keep a clear structure – think back to component 1, simplicity.
- Create a sitemap, this will give your firm an overview of the main page and subpages. Here’s a sitemap example:
4 – Consistency
Your firm’s web design can have many creative design layouts. Yet, to create a consistent branding the pre-defined components in background, colors and tone of voice should remain consistent.
5 – Responsivity
Responsiveness can make or break it for the visitors. According to statistics, 93% of people leave a website if it doesn’t properly display on mobiles. To decrease the bounce rate and retain more visitors, your firm has to provide the best user experience with a responsive website. This means it’s compatible with the different devices: desktops, tablets, and mobiles.
Here’s an example of our homepage being responsive. You can see it adjusts either to desktop or mobile:
6 – Accessibility
According to the (WCAG) Website Content Accessibility Guidelines, your website must include the following:
- Perceivable: Visitors are clear about your site’s content.
- Operable: This ties back to navigability. In other words: does the user have a clear path in their experience?
- Understandable: Clarity will always win. The best advice here is to avoid legalese and legal jargons that your prospects and clients won’t understand.
- Robust: Your site is responsive on all devices.
7 – Conventionality
One would think that conventionality kills originality; however, this is far from the truth. Although users want to have a unique experience, they also need and follow certain web usability standards.
The following are some basic norms most (if not all) lawyer website designers use in web design:
- Placing the navigation bar at the top.
- Placing the logo at the top left.
- Making the logo clickable and redirecting the user back to the homepage.
- Add buttons that change color when the user hovers on them.
8 – Credibility
Showcasing credibility is a must for firms because prospects looking for law firms want and need to know they are in the hands of the best of the best. People coming in with legal issues are facing a lot of stress and pressure and the first thing they’ll need is a firm that’s problem-solving oriented. One way to fortify this is through credibility.
Credibility helps ideal clients understand what you have done for others and even more, what it is that you can do for them. You can showcase this with:
- The FAQ page: Answering the top questions e.g. what’s a contingent fee?
- Videos: If a picture is worth a thousand words, imagine what a video is worth! Visitors today want visuals like videos because they give the business a face. They show the human side and provide valuable information. e.g. Telling the successful story of a past case.
- Blogs: Remember that clients are looking for answers. By having a blog section you can position yourself as an authoritative figure in all things legal and provide information in areas such as: updates in a certain practice area, news, changes in policies, etc.
9 – User-Centricity
At the end of the day, your firm’s website design should always keep the user top of mind. So, how can you test the user-centricity? To avoid biases when ranking your firm’s design, make use of the following tools:
- Crazy Egg: Track multiple domains and discover how your site’s performance is through intelligent tools like heatmaps.
- Mouseflow: This analytics tool records the visitors’ experience on-site and thus helps the process of identifying patterns and trends e.g. where do they interact the most/least?
- HotJar: This offers all-in-one analytics: from heatmaps, visitor recordings to feedback polls and surveys. In return, this tool aims to help businesses identify confusing areas, remove what doesn’t work, and enhance what does.
“Less is more.”
Adding too many elements at once can backfire. Because of this, designers may practice the “less is more” philosophy. Adding the necessary design elements might be enough.
In websites, the minimalistic approach is called flat design, which focuses on usability. What this means is that the aesthetic is clean, two-dimensional, and gets rid of unnecessary clutter.
Furthermore, this type of outline focuses on harmony and simplicity, helping users understand information rapidly. Flat design has an added value, and it allows pages to load faster! A quick loading time reduces the bounce rate.
Additional factors under the flat design umbrella include:
- Minimalism: Simple colors and text.
- Sans-serifs typography
- Modern, simple appearance
- 3-5 signature bold colors (A popular choice of colors in flat design is monotone. These are color schemes based on one color.)
This is an example of a monochromatic blue palette:
- A hamburger menu, which is a collapsed clickable menu.
Check out our website’s mobile hamburger menu icon below:
The essential pages law firm websites need
A lawyer’s website is an extension of his firm’s personality. It should showcase who you are, what you offer, and what makes you different from other firms. What’s more, it should provide a line that’s connecting you to the ideal clients and vice versa
When implementing all the best design practices, your website can help convert users into calls and cases. However, great website design for attorneys is more than just choosing a color scheme and calling it a day (even though this is also important!) It’s dynamic and should constantly evolve to meet the clients where they currently are.
With that said, a successful law firm website should include the following main pages:
*Please note: For the sake of interpreting the web design concepts with ease, we’ll be providing visual examples using two of our clients as examples:
If you’re ever curious about the rest of our work then feel free to head to our Consultwebs’s portfolio of law firm websites!
Homepage
This is the page. The homepage section is the page that probably most users will see first. This page should tell everyone who your firm is and what you offer. This page should be intriguing and visually captivating. It should also include:
- Logo
- Headline
- Subheadline
- Calls to action
- Captivating images/ videos
- Social Proof and other success indicators.
- Menu bar
- Features/ Benefits
- Contact information
Here’s an example of the previous homepage features which can be found on Jebaily Law Firm’s Homepage:
1
2
3
4
About Us/ Our Firm Page
At the end of the day, people do business with people. For this reason, it’s critical the ‘About Us’ page showcases the journey and human side of your firm. Don’t be afraid to include the story behind the creation of your firm, what drives your firm, who you are and the points of differences.
Here’s a visual example of the About Us:
Lawyer Biographies/ Educational Background Page
Is your team the dream team? This is where you can showcase it. Lawyer biographies are a must. Why you may ask? Remember the ethical rule ABA Rule 7.2 Communications concerning a Lawyer’s Services stated before? In short, it states the following. Attorneys must show their certifications, educational background, and other forms of verifications. They need to prove they’re specialists; more so if they are going into a specific practice area.
Here’s an example of a firm ‘About Us’ showcasing the attorney’s photo and biography. Plus points for them for showcasing their one and only canine executive officer, Rocky!
If a user clicks on one of the attorney’s photos they will find a section with a dropdown menu that displays their:
- educational background
- professional associations
- awards and community involvement.
Here’s the visual representation of the educational background:
Practice Area Page
People looking for a firm’s services need quick answers, solutions and details and this is where the practice area page comes in handy. Here, firms can highlight the legal services and explain in-depth details about the different practice areas there are.
Below you can see a snippet sample of Jebaily’s Practice Area pages:
When clicking on the practice area page for personal injuries, you’re able to find details about this area. You will also find additional information such as calls to action, forms, and more information.
Blog
Besides sharing areas of expertise, it’s also helpful when firms share their knowledge and that’s possible with a blog section. This add-on is helpful because it allows you to control your own voice and it also helps position your firm as a thought leader. If we look at the blog section , it’s clear that they are providing answers as well as sharing news. Here’s a snippet sample:
Testimonials/ Reviews
Remember when we mentioned, people do business with other people? Well, in addition to that people trust other people’s opinions online (even if they are strangers!) Just think back to the countless reviews you’ve personally read and trusted in your buying decision-making process. The same applies to law firms.
Adding testimonials and reviews builds on trust and credibility. These are words coming from the most important influencer you could have, your customers. Having this form of social proof and not showcasing it is like sitting on a gold mine, really. According to statistics, websites with testimonials see a 45% increase in traffic compared to those with no testimonials.
Contact Us
Some of your website visitors will want to contact your firm to ask questions or better yet, they might be ready to become customers. The “Contact Us” page is One of the pivotal pages to convert a visitor into a lead. Some of the first actionable steps they need to take include booking, calling, and/or email your firm.
By providing all this information on one page you are reducing the time it takes for users to contact you.
Check out this Contact Us page sample below:
Ethical Considerations For Your Law Firm Websites
The American Bar Association was founded with the sole purpose of “defending liberty and delivering justice as the national representative of the legal profession.” With that said, when it comes to creating content it’s smart to follow advertising guidelines and ethical practices ABA states. The following are some website design guidelines for attorneys:
- ABA Rule 7.1 Information about your Legal Services
- Lawyers shouldn’t make false or misleading communications about their services. It’s considered false if the material omits certain parts to make a statement appear as the whole truth.
- ABA Rule 7.2 Communications concerning a Lawyer’s Services
Lawyers cannot imply they’re specialists unless he has been certified as a specialist by an organization approved by :
- State or federal authority
- The District of Columbia
- A U.S. territory or the American Bar Association
- The certifying organization is clearly stated
Since the start of the pandemic pushed many law firms to operate virtually. Due to this, the ABA decided to issue two formal opinions in hopes of providing guidance in the remote legal landscape.
Formal Opinion 495 – Lawyers may remotely practice the law of jurisdictions in which they’re licensed while being physically present in a jurisdiction in which they aren’t admitted. This guideline stands as long as attorneys do not hold themselves as being licensed in that specific local jurisdiction and do not advertise, offer, or hold an office in the jurisdiction.
Formal Opinion 498 – When practicing virtually, lawyers must consider their ethical duties regarding competence, diligence, and communication when using technology. Lawyers should take reasonable efforts to prevent unauthorized disclosure of information.
So, what do these two formal opinions have to do with your firm’s website?
According to the ABA Rule 5.5 Unauthorized Practice of Law. Lawyers shall not practice in a jurisdiction that violates the legal profession in that jurisdiction.
However, ABA states that attorneys do not actually violate this rule through remote work. Unless the lawyer represents the public where they’re unlicensed. To clearly communicate the jurisdictions between remote and practicing law; it’s best to emphasize a firm’s jurisdiction via their website.
Have you got a vision for your firm? We have a design.
We want to end our guide with food for thought, what does your firm’s website design say about you? No matter what the answer may be, the overall design should help fortify the answer to this question.
As more firms continue to opt-in on implementing design to communicate important information, can firms like yours stay ahead of the curve? 100%. It’s possible to stay ahead of the curve without the headaches if you opt in and hire law firm digital marketing professionals and have them do it for you. Why is this the best option?
- Save yourself the headaches and pains of having to research and then implement it all. Instead, think of what you could be doing with all this valuable time? Perhaps attend to more calls and cases!
- Guarantee your website is translating all the points of difference and most importantly, that it is converting visitors into customers. We know all the latest technical ins and outs needed in order to have the most unique yet converting looking website.
- Building and fortifying your firm’s branding is possible with a robust website. Remember: your website is an extension of your firm’s personality.
- Maintaining your website is a must, and that is possible with a team of experts. Because a website isn’t a one-time and done-deal; sticking with a team that’ll actively and consistently maintain your firm’s branding is vital.
- Reaching customers where they are today – online. Customers are out there ‘Googling’ firms like yours. Will you be there?
While we have been able to provide a complete law firm website guide, trying to implement all the aforementioned with a DIY approach can be costly and time-consuming.
For this reason, we would like to extend a helping hand. Would you like to know more? Want to know how this applies to your firm’s website? Have any other questions or thoughts you’d like to share? Ready to take the next steps? We’re all ears. Let’s have a chat and strategize a plan to set you firm up for success.