Pricing and Expectations for Law Firm Website Design Projects

Law firms typically have two overarching purposes for their website. One, shared by all, is that the website is for validation. For validation websites, the primary concerns center around the design and content being an authentic representation of the firm and ensuring that it shows up reliably to people who have been referred to the firm, current clients, professional peers, opposing counsel and those with the firm name or attorney name in hand.

When the goal of the website also includes lead generation, this means that the website is going to be paired with a marketing campaign to drive potential customers to the site. At The Modern Firm, we’re fairly unique in that we do not require our clients to sign a marketing service agreement just to get a website. We can start marketing services for our clients at any time over the course of our relationship.

However, if a client knows that organic search optimization is going to be a part of their marketing strategy, we can add a member of our marketing services team to the website design project to kickstart the research, strategy and optimization of content so that the website hits the ground running. This generally adds about $2000-3000 to the website design process but does not impact the overall timeline.

A professional logo and clear brand messaging are foundational elements that influence the design, content and marketing of your website project. They help your firm stand out to your prospective clients. If your law firm does not have a logo or brand identity, this should also be part of your budget.

We have several ways to approach logo design and our pricing ranges from $450 to $1800. Completed logo designs include everything needed to work with any print, sign or merchandise shop.

While not related to the website itself, it’s worth mentioning that we can design both digital (email signature, e-letterhead, Zoom background, social media profile) and physical (business card, letterhead, envelope, note card, gift box) branded collateral for law firms. 

Properly handling a firm’s existing website is one of the most overlooked aspects of a successful new website project. Many law firms are now on the third or fourth iteration of their website, and if they have engaged in online marketing (SEO) there are both strategic and technical considerations that need to be made to minimize the impact on existing website rankings, traffic and leads.

There is no hard-and-fast rule or budget here. Each website is unique. A personal injury law firm with 1000+ pages that rank in a major metro area is going to be a very different proposition from a suburban family law firm generating leads with 50 pages. The bottom line is that if your current website is producing results that you depend on, preserving rankings, traffic and leads needs to be a part of the discussion, planning and budget for a new website. Or, if opting for a wholesale change, you need to budget for how your existing website leads are going to be replaced by new marketing efforts.

Producing well-written text that is on brand and on point for your audience is no small feat. Many website design agencies love to put the burden of text entirely on their clients, or they blindly work with existing copy and potentially carry forward old problems that should be addressed. At The Modern Firm, all of our copywriters are lawyers and we take great pride in drafting, editing and polishing original human copy to ensure it is technically sound, free of ethical pitfalls, and as much a reflection of your firm as the website we design.

If you choose to work with our lawyer copywriters, you can expect a cost of about $300 per website page (up to 1,000 words). Partial pages are less, longer pages are more. We can also review, edit and optimize existing website pages or text that is written by you. When we chat with you about your project, we’ll create an overall content budget for your project that is tailored to your exact goals and needs. 

Considering that the content we draft is created by an attorney who is also trained on writing for the web, we think our price is a solid value. If you plan to write your own content, be sure to set aside the time it requires. Attorney profile and practice area pages will likely take two to five hours of your time per page, so for a website with two attorney bios and five practice areas, that’s 14 to 35 hours. Waiting on client-produced content is one of the primary reasons for project delays.

Since many law firms are multiple years and iterations into their online presence, it is often the case that there is existing content that needs to be migrated to the new website. This shows up as blogs, videos, podcasts, newsletters, practice area pages, bios, FAQs, firm news and more. The content management system (i.e., WordPress) and programming setup of your previous website will determine how much manual effort needs to go into migrating your content to its new home. Content coming from proprietary systems such as those used by FindLaw and Scorpion, or website builders like Wix and Squarespace needs to be cleansed of extraneous code before it can be imported into a new website. Content from WordPress can often be migrated with just a few clicks, but not always.

Much of the migration work can be done programmatically; however, depending on the source of the content and quantity, it still can take a good chunk of time to configure, test and verify the migration. If your website has more than 50 pieces of content, and especially if it’s in a proprietary system, content migration may influence both the budget and timing of your website project.

Beyond validation and lead generation, law firm websites can serve many time-saving functions by allowing clients to pay their invoices, access online portals, complete intake documents, access client-only resources and more. Many integrations are available natively to the WordPress software we use to build websites, but there is often some one-time setup or maintenance to keep all in working order. Budget here can run quite the range depending on the need, or it could simply be the cost of the third-party software you subscribe to (i.e., Clio, Case Status, ShareFile) that creates that functionality.

Professional photographs of the people (pets), building, or the locale of a law firm can really add warmth, credibility and creativity to the website design. While photographers set their own pricing, experience shows us that you can expect to budget around $150 to $300 per person being photographed with some extra for group shots, location photos and travel time. You can often save money by going to the photographer’s studio.

Scheduling for photos, especially group shots, can be one of the more time-consuming aspects of a website design project. It is important to schedule a photographer early in the process, especially if the photos are going to serve as an integral part of the design. (i.e., group or building photo prominently on the homepage)

A note on group shots. You can work with a photographer to compose a group photo in a way that makes it easy to change if the group changes. Today’s editing tools, with the help of AI, also make it much easier to modify group shots after the fact.