A law firm website redesign is not primarily a visual exercise. It is a controlled migration of the firm’s public identity, services, attorney information, evidence, and intake paths. The design matters, but it works only when those underlying decisions have owners.
This checklist narrows the purpose of the earlier complete guide. For broader design, trust, SEO, AI, and ethics guidance, read the current law firm website design guide. Use this article to plan the redesign itself.
1. Define the business reason for the redesign
“The site looks old” may be true, but it is not enough to prioritize a project. Write down the business conditions the new site must address. Examples include an outdated service mix, a merger, recruiting needs, poor mobile intake, a difficult publishing workflow, an identity that no longer fits, or a site that cannot support current search and accessibility requirements.
Choose a small set of outcomes that can be observed or measured. A more coherent practice structure and a maintained attorney directory are observable. More qualified inquiries can be measured if the firm defines “qualified” and records a comparable baseline. A redesigned site should not be credited with revenue or ranking changes that were never isolated and measured.
2. Identify priority audiences and tasks
List the audiences that matter, then rank them. A consumer-facing practice may prioritize prospective clients and family members. A business litigation boutique may prioritize in-house counsel and referral sources. A larger firm may also need distinct paths for recruits, media, and existing clients.
For each priority audience, record the questions they need answered:
- Does the firm handle this type of matter?
- Does it work in the relevant jurisdiction or industry?
- Which attorney has the right experience?
- What evidence can the visitor verify?
- What is the appropriate next step?
These tasks should shape the sitemap and page hierarchy before a visual concept is approved.
3. Inventory the current site and evidence
Create an inventory of every public URL, page title, status, owner, traffic value, inbound-link value, and proposed action. Mark each page keep, revise, consolidate, redirect, or retire. Do not decide from traffic alone. A low-traffic attorney biography or required disclaimer can still serve an essential purpose.
Inventory proof separately: representative matters, results the firm may publish, testimonials or reviews allowed under applicable rules, attorney credentials, awards with current source links, publications, speaking engagements, and real photography. Record the source and approval status. This prevents vague claims from replacing evidence during the copy phase.
4. Set the new sitemap and page responsibilities
Give every page a defined audience, purpose, source material, and owner. Decide which practice pages need original writing, which current pages can be edited, and which firm stakeholders must approve them.
A useful law firm sitemap usually connects:
- services and industries to the attorneys who handle them;
- attorney biographies to representative work and useful writing;
- office and contact information to the correct intake route; and
- articles to the relevant service without turning every article into a sales page.
Avoid an exhaustive menu that mirrors internal administration. Use clear labels and allow cross-links to handle overlap.
5. Decide the content workflow before design is finished
Content is one of the most common redesign constraints. A coded template can be ready while a principal practice page still has no approved draft.
The written scope should state who will gather input from attorneys, write original pages, edit supplied text, migrate existing material, verify citations, enter content in WordPress, and approve the final substance. Website projects I lead include strategy, page planning, framing copy, editing, migration, and utility copy. Original practice pages, biographies, firm stories, FAQ libraries, and articles are quoted separately when required. The firm reviews and approves every substantive draft.
6. Establish the visual and identity constraints
Document what must remain and what may change: logo, colors, type, photography, office imagery, historical elements, and co-branding requirements. Review competitors to understand category conventions, but do not assemble a site from borrowed motifs.
Evaluate design directions against the audience and content. A mediator may need composure and neutrality. A plaintiff practice may need immediate orientation and a clear response path. An institutional firm may need dense credentials and multiple audience routes without feeling bureaucratic.
Approve one coherent design direction, then apply it to real content. Placeholder text and generic stock photos conceal problems that emerge when attorney names, long practice titles, and actual proof enter the layout.
7. Build accessibility and performance into the system
Accessibility is not a final plugin or scan. Plan semantic headings, keyboard behavior, visible focus, sufficient contrast, text resizing, reflow, form labels, status messages, captions, and meaningful image alternatives from the template stage. Use WCAG 2.2 Level AA as the working standard and combine automated checks with manual review.
Set image and script budgets early. Reserve image dimensions to reduce layout shifts, use appropriately sized formats, limit third-party tools, and test real pages. The current Core Web Vitals can help diagnose loading, interactivity, and stability, but user testing and field data matter more than a single lab score.
8. Plan search preservation and improvement
A redesign can improve structure while losing valuable URLs if migration is treated as an afterthought. Preserve useful paths where possible. For changed URLs, map each old page to the closest new equivalent. Do not send every retired page to the home page.
Before launch, verify titles, descriptions, canonical URLs, headings, internal links, indexation directives, XML sitemaps, structured data, and analytics. Retain any approved tracking and consent configuration. Google’s SEO Starter Guide is a sound primary reference for the fundamentals.
Separate the website foundation from ongoing work. The build can establish sound on-page and technical SEO. Continuous publishing, digital PR, link work, local-profile management, paid search, and reporting require their own scope and expertise.
9. Protect privacy, security, and professional obligations
List every form field, analytics tool, embedded service, chat product, scheduling service, and marketing integration that collects or shares data. Collect only what the firm needs, define access and retention, and make the privacy notice match actual practice.
Confirm hosting, backups, software maintenance, administrative roles, spam protection, HTTPS, and incident responsibilities. Review disclaimers, attorney-advertising language, results, testimonials, specialty claims, and jurisdictional statements with the firm’s legal and ethics reviewers. A designer should help identify these issues but should not invent the firm’s legal position.
10. Prepare a controlled launch
Use a written launch checklist and assign each item. At minimum, test:
- desktop and mobile navigation, search, links, forms, errors, and confirmation states;
- keyboard order, focus visibility, zoom, contrast, headings, landmarks, and alt text;
- all priority URLs, redirects, canonicals, status codes, and sitemap entries;
- analytics events and form notification delivery without exposing personal data;
- attorney, service, office, and contact facts against approved source material;
- performance after real images, scripts, and caching are active; and
- backup and rollback procedures.
Launch during a period when the team can monitor the site. Record the old and new environments, DNS changes, cache-clearing steps, and the person authorized to make a rollback decision.
11. Assign post-launch ownership
The redesign is not finished until the firm knows who can update it and who is accountable for keeping it accurate. Provide training for the actual WordPress fields and workflows. Document the boundary between hosting maintenance, content updates, design changes, and ongoing search work.
Schedule reviews based on the content. Attorney and office changes should be handled promptly. Legal and regulatory guidance should be reviewed according to risk. Project notes and evergreen pages need updates when evidence, scope, or linked destinations materially change. Do not change visible dates merely to make pages appear fresh.
The planning deliverables to have before build
- A concise project brief with goals, audiences, scope, constraints, and measures.
- A complete URL and content inventory with keep, revise, consolidate, redirect, or retire decisions.
- An approved sitemap and page-responsibility plan.
- A sourced proof inventory and content approval workflow.
- An agreed visual direction using real content.
- Accessibility, performance, privacy, security, SEO, analytics, and launch requirements.
- A maintenance and ownership plan.
The proposal should then define project-specific fees, schedule, dependencies, and delivered scope. See the DGD process, pricing approach, or request a project discussion when you are ready to plan those details.
Last substantively reviewed: August 1, 2026. This revision narrows the article to redesign planning and removes stale statistics, generic budget ranges, and unsupported absolutes.
Dan Gilroy
Dan Gilroy founded Dan Gilroy Design in 2004 and leads every website engagement. Before starting the studio, he spent 16 years in Washington, including three years with the U.S. Senate Finance Committee and 13 years inside White & Case and Patton Boggs. That background gives him a practical understanding of how law firms work and how clients evaluate them.
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