By Mehdi HassanWhat should a law firm ask a website design agency?
A law firm should ask a website design agency twelve questions before signing, and the first four are about ownership and exit, not design. A beautiful site you don't own is a liability. Use this list on every call and get the answers in writing. For what the finished site needs to contain, see our hub on law firm website design.
- Who owns the domain, and is it registered in the firm's name with the firm's login?
- Who owns the design, code and content once we've paid, and does the contract say so?
- Can we leave, and what exactly do we take with us: files, content export, analytics history?
- How long is the contract, and what does early exit cost?
- Who writes the copy for practice areas, attorney bios and the homepage?
- How do you handle attorney advertising rules, disclaimers and the review step?
- Which platform is the site built on, and can our staff edit it without calling you?
- How do intake forms work, where does data go, and who can see it?
- What's included in the price, line by line, and what costs extra?
- Who does the work, and will we speak to the designer and developer directly?
- What happens after launch: support, fixes, updates, and what they cost?
- What SEO work is included, especially if we're replacing an existing site?
Who owns the website, domain and content?
The firm should own the domain, the content, the design files and the code outright once invoices are paid, and the contract should say so in plain words. Anything less means the agency controls your most visible marketing asset, and your negotiating position at renewal is weak.
Check four things specifically. The domain should be registered to the firm, with the firm holding the registrar login. Content you supply or pay for, including practice area pages and blog posts, should be yours. Design files should be handed over in their native format, usually Figma. And the code or platform account should either be in your name or transferable on request. If you're moving off a vendor platform, our guide to hiring a Webflow or Framer migration agency covers the handover.
How do legal marketing vendor contracts create lock-in?
Legal marketing vendors often bundle the website with hosting, SEO and lead services on a monthly contract, and the site lives on a proprietary platform the firm can't take elsewhere. That's not always bad, but it changes what you're buying: a service subscription, not an asset.
Model | How it works | Lock-in risk | Ask this |
|---|---|---|---|
Rented site | Monthly fee covers design, hosting and updates on the vendor's platform | High: cancel and the site goes away | What do we keep if we cancel tomorrow? |
Bundled SEO and content | Content is written under the vendor's program | Medium to high: content may stay with them | Do we own every page you write for us? |
Tracked phone numbers | Vendor-owned numbers on the site to measure calls | Medium: clients keep calling a number you don't control | Can the numbers be ported to us? |
Project build you own | One fee, files and code handed over | Low: you can move to anyone | What's the handover checklist? |
If you're already locked in, plan the exit before you raise it. Export every page and blog post you can, list your current URLs, and confirm who controls the domain and phone numbers. Then a new agency can rebuild with proper redirects instead of starting from zero.
Will the agency handle attorney advertising and ethics review?
A good agency builds the ethics review into the process, but it cannot replace it. Website content about legal services is attorney advertising under your state's version of the ABA Model Rules 7.1 to 7.3, so a responsible attorney at the firm must approve it. The agency's job is to make that review easy and the required elements hard to forget.
Ask the agency how it handles disclaimers, results and testimonials, the words your state restricts, and the "attorney advertising" label where it applies. Ask whether there's a sign-off step before launch and before new pages publish. Our guide to law firm website requirements lists the elements to check, from footer disclaimers to intake form wording.
What a sensible review workflow looks like
The agency drafts copy and flags anything that makes a claim: outcomes, comparisons, credentials, client quotes. The responsible attorney reviews a single document with those flags, marks changes and signs off. Disclaimers are built into page templates so they appear automatically, not added by hand. After launch, new pages go through the same sign-off, and the CMS keeps a record of who published what and when. None of this needs expensive software, just a clear owner and a habit.
Who writes the copy for a law firm website?
Ask who writes the copy before you ask about design, because practice area pages and attorney bios decide whether a prospect calls. Many agencies expect the firm to supply all text, which usually means the site launches late with recycled copy from the old one.
The best answer is a writer who interviews your attorneys, drafts in plain English and leaves the legal precision to you. At Designify, one team writes, designs and builds, so copy shapes the layout rather than being poured into it. Our guide on agency vs in-house website content helps you decide who should own the words long term. For which pages need writing at all, see the must-have pages for a law firm website.
Which platform will the firm be able to edit?
The firm should be able to edit text, publish articles and update attorney profiles itself, without filing a ticket. Ask which platform the agency builds on, then ask for a ten-minute demo of the editing screen your staff will actually use.
Webflow, Framer, WordPress and a headless CMS behind a Next.js site can all work. What matters is that editors can change what they need, that disclaimers sit in templates they can't accidentally delete, and that the platform account can be transferred to the firm. Be wary of any platform you've never heard of that only that agency uses.
How much does a law firm website design agency charge?
Law firm website agency prices vary with scope, ownership model and how much writing is included, so compare quotes line by line rather than by total. A quote that excludes copy, intake setup or SEO migration is cheaper only on paper.
Our prices are fixed and public. A multi-page website is $8,000 for up to 6 pages, plus $500 per extra page, with custom design, a Next.js build, a CMS and animation. A single landing page for one practice area or campaign is $6,000. If you're replacing an existing site, migration work is scoped on the intro call, and we include redirects and SEO checks in any migration we take on. Our law firm website cost guide breaks down what drives the price.
When shouldn't a law firm hire an agency?
A firm shouldn't hire an agency when it can't commit partner time to decisions and copy review, or when a solo practice needs only a clean one-page presence. In those cases a well-chosen template, edited carefully, is the honest answer.
Hire an agency when the site is a real source of new matters, when you're repositioning the firm, or when you need intake forms, multiple practice areas and attorney profiles that staff will maintain. Whoever you choose, our general guide on how to hire a web design agency walks through the shortlist, references and contract stages, and the same ownership questions apply to every one of them.
