Start the brief with the enquiry the firm can responsibly accept
A law firm website is often the first point at which someone discloses a sensitive dispute, transaction or personal situation. Before discussing layouts, identify which matter types should generate enquiries, which should be redirected, and which the firm cannot consider. A corporate practice seeking instructions from general counsel needs a different route from a private client team handling urgent circumstances.
Write down what makes an enquiry useful to the intake team. This might include the broad matter category, the other parties involved, an important date, the prospective client’s location and a preferred contact method. Do not turn the first form into a detailed witness statement. The firm should decide which information is appropriate for an ordinary web form and which must wait for an approved secure channel.
Make the boundary explicit: sending a form does not create a solicitor-client relationship, confirm that the firm can act, or mean that a deadline is being monitored. Exact wording about confidentiality, conflicts, data handling and regulatory obligations is business-specific. It should be approved by the firm’s authorised legal and compliance reviewers, not supplied as legal advice by a designer.
Give prospective clients enough context to self-qualify
A serious visitor should be able to decide whether the firm appears relevant before sharing personal details. The brief should list the practice areas, typical client categories, jurisdictions and service limitations that the website must explain. For each priority service, record the questions a prospective client usually asks before the first conversation. These become the basis of page content, navigation and calls to action.
Compare agencies by how well they translate this detail into usable information architecture. A credible proposal for professional web design should explain the reasoning behind page groups and enquiry routes, rather than giving every practice area the same generic contact button.
Credentials, lawyer profiles and accreditations can help a visitor assess the firm, provided each statement is current and verifiable. Testimonials and matter descriptions require appropriate permissions and professional review. Record who signs off this material and future updates.
Map London enquiries to the real intake process
Explain whether the firm receives visitors at a London office, offers remote appointments, serves clients elsewhere, or has restrictions linked to jurisdiction or matter type. Those facts should agree with the firm’s contact information and its wider London service presence.
Then map what happens after submission. Which team sees a new enquiry? Who performs an initial conflict check? What happens outside office hours? How is an urgent date highlighted without implying that the firm has accepted responsibility? Separate departments may need controlled routing rather than a single inbox. Explain these dependencies before an agency recommends integrations.
Specify content, ownership and approval before design begins
“Reuse the existing copy” is not a complete content plan. Audit every important page as keep, revise, combine, replace or retire. Older text may be accurate but poorly structured; other pages may describe former team members, outdated services or an enquiry process the firm no longer follows.
Assign an owner and reviewer to each content group. Practice heads can check technical accuracy, intake staff can flag recurring misunderstandings, and compliance reviewers can assess regulated statements, consent wording and publication risks. The agency should define who edits, uploads and gives final approval.
Review relevant examples in each supplier’s web design portfolio, but ask process questions too. Who conducts discovery? How are content decisions recorded? What is excluded from the fee? A polished example does not establish that the team can manage legal-sector review.
Turn requirements into a procurement checklist
A concise brief can still be specific. Give shortlisted agencies the same information and ask them to identify assumptions, risks and optional items. Include:
- Commercial priorities: name the practice areas and enquiry types the project should support, plus any work the site should not actively solicit.
- Intake rules: describe form fields, routing, conflict-check boundaries, secure follow-up and responsibility for responding.
- Content scope: provide a page inventory, migration expectations, named reviewers and approval stages.
- Technical needs: list integrations, hosting responsibilities, accessibility expectations, analytics consent requirements and security review.
- Delivery decisions: state timing, internal availability, budget parameters, dependencies and the authorised decision-maker.
- Handover: request training, documentation, account access, ownership terms, maintenance options and a clear process for post-launch defects.
Ask each agency to distinguish essential work from optional enhancement. One proposal may include content restructuring, accessibility checks and migration, while another assumes the firm supplies finished copy. Clarify third-party licence, hosting, maintenance and integration costs before appointment.
Measure whether the site produces better enquiry conversations
Form submissions alone are a weak measure because duplicates, recruitment messages and matters the firm cannot take may all be counted. Agree categories that intake staff can record consistently, such as relevant new matter, unsuitable matter, referral, existing client and non-client administration.
Review where suitable enquiries start, which service pages they visit and whether form errors or mobile friction prevent completion. Also assess operational quality: are enquiries reaching the correct team, are required details present, and do acknowledgements set accurate expectations? Analytics and call tracking involve consent, privacy and platform-policy choices that need business-specific approval. The agency should implement the agreed configuration, not make those decisions unilaterally.
Search behaviour is also changing, so structured, clearly attributed legal content may support discovery beyond conventional results. The principles in this guide to AI search optimisation for London can inform content planning, but they do not replace sound intake design or professional review.
Use discovery to test the agency. It should ask how conflicts are handled, which deadlines need special treatment and who approves biographies. Before requesting a proposal through the agency contact route, prepare the page inventory, redacted examples of current enquiries, internal decision-makers and known integration constraints. This gives the firm a fair basis for comparing scope, responsibilities and ownership.
Frequently Asked Questions
What information should a law firm share before requesting a website proposal?
Share the priority matters and client groups, the current page inventory, examples of enquiry routes with sensitive details removed, and any known technical constraints. Explain the intended budget parameters, timing, internal availability and decision-makers. An agency also needs to understand which services should not be actively promoted, so that a proposal reflects the firm’s real commercial and intake priorities.
Which practice areas need their own pages in the initial scope?
Include practice areas that the firm wants suitable prospective clients to find, understand and enquire about, especially where audiences, jurisdictions, matter types or intake routes differ. Give each proposed page a purpose and named content owner. Related services may be grouped where that is clearer, but avoid combining distinct legal needs simply to reduce page numbers before discovery has tested the structure.
Who should approve legal content, design and accessibility decisions?
Set named approval roles before design begins. Practice heads can review legal accuracy, intake staff can assess whether journeys match operational reality, and authorised compliance reviewers can consider regulated statements, privacy wording and publication risks. The firm should also nominate a decision-maker for design trade-offs and an owner for accessibility requirements, testing evidence and remedial priorities.
How can a firm explain its desired enquiry journey to a web designer?
Describe the route from a relevant service page to first contact, including the information a visitor may safely provide, form routing, conflict-check boundaries and secure follow-up. Explain how urgent dates, out-of-hours messages and unsuitable matters are handled. Provide the wording or principles for acknowledgements, making clear that submission does not establish a solicitor-client relationship or confirm that the firm can act.
What compliance requirements should be raised at the briefing stage?
Raise the firm’s requirements for confidentiality, conflict checks, privacy notices, consent management, accessibility, security review and handling of sensitive information. Identify who approves regulated claims, testimonials, credentials and enquiry wording. The brief should also cover analytics, call tracking, hosting, retention and access arrangements where relevant. These choices require the firm’s authorised legal, compliance and technical reviewers rather than assumptions by a web designer.
