When Australians chose a legal service, the factors they mentioned most were skills and experience (51%), how they could communicate (49%) and location (48%) (X-LULU Survey, 2026). A law firm website's design decides how fast a visitor finds all three.
For a family law firm, good design isn't about looking expensive. It's about a stressed person finding their matter, trusting the people behind it, and making contact without friction, often on a phone, sometimes late at night.
This guide covers the design decisions in a new or rebuilt law firm website: structure, page layouts, look and feel, phones, accessibility and how the project runs. If you're fixing an existing site instead, start with our family law website checklist. It's general marketing information, not legal advice.
Key takeaways
- Design for three questions. Can you help with my matter, can I trust you, how do I start? Australians choosing a legal service most often mentioned skills and experience (51%), communication (49%) and location (48%) (X-LULU Survey, 2026).
- Structure first. One page per matter type, one click from the homepage, with menu labels in the client's words.
- Lay pages out in question order. Service pages do most of the selling: what it is, how it works, fees, who helps, next step.
- Use real photos. Nielsen Norman Group found "users ignore stock photos of generic people" but look at real staff.
- Phones first, accessible always. About half of Australian web traffic is mobile, and 95.9% of home pages fail basic accessibility checks (WebAIM, 2026). Design to WCAG 2.2 Level AA.
- Content before design, testing before launch. Write and check the words first, then watch real people use the site on their phones.
What makes a law firm website design convert?
A law firm website converts when a visitor can answer three questions quickly: can this firm help with my matter, can I trust them, and how do I start? Every design decision either speeds those answers up or gets in the way.
| Design decision | What it does for the visitor | Read more |
|---|---|---|
| Site structure | Finds their matter in one click | Below |
| Page layouts | Gets answers in the order they ask them | Below |
| Look and feel | Sees real people and a calm, credible firm | Below |
| Phone design | Can read, tap and call with one thumb | Below |
| Accessibility | Can use the site whatever their ability | Below |
| Contact and trust details | Feels safe making contact | Website checklist |
| Speed | Doesn't wait for pages to load | 12 website fixes |
How should a family law firm website be structured?
Give every matter type its own page, and make each one reachable in one click from the home page. Structure is the decision that's hardest to change later, so settle it before anyone designs a single screen.
A typical structure for a small family law firm:
- Home
- Services: one page each for divorce, parenting arrangements, property settlement, de facto separation and binding financial agreements (only the work you actually do)
- Our team: one profile page per lawyer
- Fees: how you charge and what the first consultation costs
- Guides: plain-English articles answering common questions
- Contact: one section or page per office, with address, map and hours
Three rules keep it usable:
- Use the client's words in the menu. "Property settlement" beats "Asset division solutions".
- Keep the top menu short. Five or six items, with services in a dropdown.
- Match the structure in your web addresses. For example, /family-law/property-settlement.
This structure also suits Google, which needs one clear page to rank for each service. Our SEO for lawyers guide explains why.
How should a law firm homepage be laid out?
Lay the homepage out in the order a new visitor's questions arrive: who you help, what with, how it works, why trust you, and how to start. Our website checklist covers the first screen in detail. Here's the full page, top to bottom:
- Header. Logo, a short menu, a tappable phone number and one main button, such as "Book a first consultation".
- Opening section. A headline naming who you help and where, a line on what happens next, and the same button.
- Matter types. A card for each service, linking to its page.
- How it works. Three steps from first call to first meeting, so the process feels manageable.
- Proof. Your Google rating with a link to the full profile, a few genuine reviews and photos of the team.
- Fees. A short note on how you charge, linking to the fees page.
- Guides. Your three most useful articles for someone just starting.
- Closing section. The main button again, plus offices, hours and contact details.
Repeat one main action down the page. Four competing buttons ("Call", "Email", "Book", "Download our guide") split attention. Pick the one you most want, and keep the phone number visible beside it.
What should a law firm service page include?
A service page should answer the questions a client asks about that matter, in the order they ask them, with a way to make contact after each section. It's usually the page a visitor lands on from Google, so it does more selling than the homepage.
A reliable order for a family law service page, using property settlement as the example:
- Headline. The matter and the place: "Property settlement lawyers in Brisbane".
- The short answer. What property settlement is and who it's for, in two or three sentences.
- How it works. The usual steps, from first meeting to agreement or court.
- What affects the timeframe. General factors only, with no promised outcomes.
- How fees work. For this matter, including any fixed-fee options you genuinely offer.
- Who will help. Cards for the lawyers who handle this work, linking to their profiles.
- Common questions. Four to six short answers.
- Next step. The main button and phone number, with what happens after someone gets in touch.
Break the page into short sections with clear headings, so a visitor can scan to the part they need. Add a call button after the longer sections, not just at the end.
What should a law firm website look like?
Simple, calm and real. In a Google study, people judged a website's visual complexity and how typical it looked "within the first 50 ms", and simple, familiar layouts were rated most appealing (Tuch et al., Google Research, 2012). A family law site isn't the place for an unusual layout.
What that means in practice:
- Real photos of your team. Nielsen Norman Group found "users ignore stock photos of generic people" but pay attention to "real people who actually work at the company" (NN/g). In one test, a user spent 10% more time on team portraits than on the bios beside them.
- Skip the clichés. Gavels, scales of justice and stock photos of arguing couples say nothing about your firm. A photo of your office or your people does.
- A calm palette. One brand colour for buttons and links, plenty of white space, and nothing that flashes or slides.
- Text people can read. Body text around 16 pixels or larger, short line lengths and dark text on a light background.
- Headings that tell the story. NN/g found people often scan "headings and subheadings and skip the normal text below" (NN/g). A visitor should get the gist from the headings alone.
Tone matters too. Your design should feel steady and approachable, because many visitors arrive anxious. Our advertising rules guide covers what the words on the page can and can't claim.
How do you design a law firm website for phones?
Design the phone version first, then expand it for desktop. About half of Australian web traffic now comes from phones: 48.56% in October 2026, just ahead of desktop (StatCounter, 2026).
Phone design for a law firm comes down to a few habits:
- Keep the call button in reach. A bar at the bottom of the screen with "Call" and your main button, where a thumb naturally rests.
- Make every target big enough to tap. WCAG 2.2 sets a minimum of "24 by 24 CSS pixels" for most buttons and links (W3C). Bigger is better for the main actions.
- Stack, don't shrink. Tables of fees or steps should become stacked cards, not tiny columns.
- Design the form for thumbs. Labels "immediately above the field", no placeholder text standing in for labels, and the right keyboard for phone and email fields (NN/g).
- Test on real phones. Not just a narrow browser window on a desktop.
Our website checklist covers what the form should ask and how to keep contact safe.
Why does accessibility matter for a law firm website?
Because one in five Australians has a disability, and most websites still fail basic checks. In 2022, "5.5 million (21.4%) Australians had disability" (ABS). And in 2026, "95.9% of home pages had detected WCAG 2 failures" across the top million websites (WebAIM, 2026).
The Disability Discrimination Act 1992 covers the provision of services, and the Australian Human Rights Commission's 2025 guidelines say organisations "should aim to avoid discrimination by providing equal access to digital goods and services to everyone" (W3C WAI summary). For a law firm, an inaccessible website is both a lost client and an avoidable risk.
The most common failures are also the easiest to design out. WebAIM found low-contrast text on 83.9% of home pages, missing image descriptions on 53.1% and unlabelled form fields on 51%. Ask your designer to meet WCAG 2.2 Level AA, which includes:
- Contrast. Text needs a contrast ratio of "at least 4.5:1" against its background, or 3:1 for large text (W3C).
- Labels. Every form field has a visible label.
- Alt text. Every meaningful image has a short description.
- Keyboard use. Every link, button and form works without a mouse.
It's much cheaper to build this in than to retrofit it. Our 12 website fixes include a quick accessibility check for an existing site.
What does the website design process look like?
A good law firm website project runs content first, design second and build third. Most delays come from the middle: pages waiting on words, photos or sign-off. Agree the order and who owns each step before you start.
- Brief. What the site must achieve (enquiries, not compliments), the matters and areas you want more of, and what works on the current site. Check Search Console and your enquiry sources first.
- Structure and content. Agree the page list, then write the words. A solicitor should check every page against rule 36 before design starts.
- Wireframes. Plain grey layouts of the homepage, a service page and a team profile. Approve the layout before anyone adds colour.
- Visual design. Your brand, type and real photos applied to the approved layouts. Book a photographer early.
- Build. On the platform that suits you. Our WordPress or Next.js guide compares the two.
- Test and launch. Phones, forms, accessibility and redirects from old pages, covered below.
Budgets vary widely with the number of pages and features. Our guide to small business website costs in Australia explains what drives the price.
How do you test a law firm website before launch?
Test it the way a client would use it, on a phone, before anyone outside the firm sees it. NN/g found "users often leave Web pages in 10–20 seconds" unless the page quickly shows its value (NN/g, 2011). Launch day is too late to find out yours doesn't.
A pre-launch checklist for a family law firm site:
- Watch three people use it. Ask people who've never seen the site to find the fees page and send an enquiry, on their own phones. Say nothing; just watch where they hesitate.
- Send a test enquiry from every form. Check it arrives, the confirmation is discreet, and someone is notified.
- Tap every phone number. On a real phone.
- Run an accessibility check. A free tool such as WAVE catches contrast, label and alt text problems.
- Check the privacy wording. QLS advises firms to "tell individuals what you are collecting, why, who you might disclose it to", at or before collection (QLS). A short note beside the form, linking to your privacy policy, does it.
- Redirect every old page. Map old web addresses to new ones so you keep your rankings. Our guide to keeping your rankings during a website rebuild covers this step by step. It's how MCG Legal moved from WordPress to Next.js and kept its rankings.
What should you ask a law firm web designer?
Ask how they'll make the site bring enquiries, not just how it will look. A portfolio shows taste; the answers below show whether they understand law firms.
- Can you show me sites you've built on a phone? Not just desktop screenshots.
- Who writes the content, and when? If the answer is "you, after the design", expect delays.
- Will the site meet WCAG 2.2 Level AA, and how will you test it?
- How will you protect our current Google rankings? Listen for redirects and a URL map.
- How will we track enquiries? Calls and forms, traced to their source.
- Who owns the domain, hosting and site files? It should be your firm.
Our questions to ask before hiring a digital marketing agency has more, including contracts and reporting.
Frequently asked questions
A design converts when a visitor can quickly tell the firm handles their matter, trust the people behind it and see how to start. When Australians chose a legal service, they most often mentioned skills and experience (51%), communication (49%) and location (48%) (X-LULU, 2026). Put all three where visitors look first.
As many as your services need, and no more. Most small firms need a homepage, one page per matter type, a profile page for each lawyer, a fees page, contact details for each office and a handful of guides. One page per service helps visitors and Google alike.
Avoid stock photos of people. Nielsen Norman Group found users "ignore stock photos of generic people" but pay attention to photos of "real people who actually work at the company". Professional photos of your team and office are one of the best design investments a small firm can make.
The Disability Discrimination Act 1992 covers the provision of services, and 21.4% of Australians had disability in 2022 (ABS). WCAG 2.2 Level AA is the standard to design to. It covers contrast, form labels, image descriptions and keyboard use, and it's far cheaper to build in than to fix later.
No. Start with the site structure and the content, then design the service pages, because that's where most visitors from Google land. The homepage is easier to design once you know what it needs to point to.
Design for the client in a hurry
The best law firm websites aren't the flashiest. They're the ones where a stressed person finds their matter, sees real people, understands how fees work and makes contact in under a minute, on a phone.
Get the structure and content right first, design for phones and accessibility from the start, and test with real people before launch. Then keep improving: our SEO for lawyers guide covers how to bring the right people to the site.
Planning a new website or a redesign? We'll look at your current site, your enquiries and your goals, and tell you what the new one needs. Book a free marketing review.
