A Chicago law firm buying a website is buying three things at once: a marketing asset, a compliance document and a piece of infrastructure it will depend on for years. Most sales conversations cover only the first. This page treats the purchase the way a buyer should, with the questions that can be answered from a vendor's own published work before a single meeting: how fast their existing sites load on a phone, what the firm ends up owning, and who checks the copy against the professional conduct rules that govern lawyer advertising. Nothing here is legal advice, and the rules that bind your firm are your own bar's.
Test the vendor's existing work before the pitch
The best evidence about a web designer is the sites they have already shipped, and it is public. Open three of them on a phone using mobile data, not office wifi. Time how long the first screen takes to become usable, try the contact form, and see whether the text is readable without pinching. Google describes page experience as a set of aspects rather than one signal, and names serving pages securely, displaying well on mobile devices, avoiding intrusive interstitials, and avoiding an excessive amount of advertising that interferes with the main content. It also says Core Web Vitals are used by its ranking systems while cautioning that there is more to page experience than those scores alone. Firm sites rarely fail on advertising; they fail on weight, when a video header, a chat widget, a review carousel and several tracking scripts are all loaded before the phone number appears.
The copy is attorney advertising, so decide the rules first
A law firm website is a communication about a lawyer's services, and state professional conduct rules govern it. Illinois lawyers are governed by the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct, and every state has its own adopted version, so the details vary and your bar's text controls. The shape of the obligations is visible in states that publish their rules in full. North Carolina's Rule 7.2, for example, permits paying the reasonable costs of permitted advertisements and the usual charges of an intermediary organisation, prohibits compensating, giving or promising anything of value to a person for recommending the lawyer's services, requires a communication to include the name and contact information of at least one lawyer or law firm responsible for its content, and restricts claims of specialisation unless a named certifying organisation supports them. Those obligations touch the footer, the biography pages, the testimonial section and any results a designer wants to feature, so they should be settled before layout rather than after approval. This is general information rather than legal advice.
What a Chicago firm should own at the end
Ask, in writing, who owns the domain, the hosting account, the content, the design files and the analytics property, and what happens on the day the relationship ends. The answer separates a build you own from a lease you keep paying for. Proprietary platforms that cannot be exported are the common trap: the monthly fee looks reasonable until a rebuild is the only way to leave. Related questions worth settling early are who holds the registrar login, whether the site can be moved to another host without a rewrite, whether the practice area pages are yours to reuse, and who controls any call tracking numbers printed on the site. None of these are difficult to agree before a deposit, and all are expensive to renegotiate afterwards.
Comparing quotes that are not comparable
Law firm website quotes vary because they bundle different things: a template versus a custom design, the number of practice area pages actually written, photography, migration of existing content, hosting, ongoing maintenance and whether any search work is included. The only fair comparison is a like-for-like scope, so send every finalist the same list of pages and inclusions and ask what is excluded. Two structures deserve extra attention: a low build price with expensive per-page content billed later, and a monthly plan where the site is leased rather than owned. Neither is dishonest, but both change the five-year cost, and both are easier to see before signing. Agencies listed on this site are described only on what their own published pages support, and printed prices, where a firm publishes them, are the most useful anchor a buyer has.
Questions people ask about attorney website design chicago
What should a Chicago law firm expect to pay for a website?
The range is wide because scope varies so much between a template build with a few practice area pages and a custom build with original writing and photography. Ask each candidate to price an identical scope, and use the agencies that publish their prices as anchors for judging the rest.
Do Illinois advertising rules apply to my firm's website?
A firm website is a communication about a lawyer's services and falls under the professional conduct rules of the state where you practise. Illinois has its own adopted rules, requirements differ by state, and a lawyer at the firm rather than the designer should sign off on the copy. This is general information, not legal advice.
Will a redesign hurt my existing search visibility?
It can, if URLs change without redirects or existing content is thinned during the rebuild. Record a baseline before launch, insist on a redirect map, and keep the pages that already attract enquiries substantially intact until there is evidence the new ones perform.
Should I hire a local Chicago designer or a national firm?
Local helps with photography, in-person review and knowing the market; national specialists may bring deeper legal experience. Either way the tests are the same: how their live sites perform on a phone, what you own at the end, and who checks the copy against your bar's rules.