Last week, CEE Legal Matters’ sister publication CEE In-House Matters published an insightful piece on what general counsel are looking for in law firms. It lists seven criteria that keep coming up in conversations with in-house professionals.
A natural question came to mind while reading the piece: Are law firms making it clear on their websites that they measure up?
The good news? They can.
Let’s go through the decisive factors listed in the piece one by one.
#1. Expertise and Specialization
Communicating expertise depth, track record, capacity, and technical excellence on a website:
- Sharpen the language: Define narrow competencies (e.g., cross-border restructuring, complex shareholder disputes).
- Offer examples: This could be anonymized examples, case studies, etc. Whenever possible, mention deal size, complexity, jurisdictions, and regulatory context.
- Demonstrate expertise: Publish analysis pieces, blog articles that translate complex regulatory changes and frameworks into a clean, clear impact language.
- Rewrite individual lawyers’ pages: In addition to their practice/industry expertise, list the types of matters they handled, include links to their thought leadership, etc.
#2. Understanding the Business and Industry
Communicating commercial awareness, industry expertise, and strategic thinking on a website:
- Strengthen industry pages with context: This can include insights on how the industry operates, the regulatory landscape, regulatory pressures, emerging risks, etc.
- Connect legal advice to business impact: Instead of using generic language like “We mitigate risk,” use specific outcomes you help clients achieve – e.g., “We resolve disputes with minimal operational disruption.”
- Analyze regulations: Instead of summarizing legal updates, show prospects what these updates mean in practice, and how they will impact the industry.
#3. Trust and Reputation
Communicating credibility, reliability, and external validation on a website:
- Display the client portfolio: With permission, display relevant clients, showcasing long-standing relationships.
- Offer independent validation: Display rankings and awards, publish testimonials – ideally, the ones that are specific about the impact of the firm (as opposed to the generic “great to work with” type)
- Regularly publish thought leadership: Blog articles, webinars, workshops – show expertise by educating your audience. Publish recaps of conferences, summarize take-aways from events of interest, etc.
#4. Responsiveness and Speed
Communicating accessibility and predictability in collaboration on a website:
- Explain the collaboration style: State clearly what clients can expect from your firm – response time, who leads the collaboration for various practices/industries, and so on.
- Demonstrate the firm's integration mindset: Use the language that clearly communicates your intention to act as an extension of the client’s business – e.g., “We align reporting to your internal governance structure.”
#5. Cost and Efficiency
Communicating value, transparency, and readiness on a website:
- Offer action-focused guidance: Whether on practice pages or via blog articles, focus on offering practical advice and action-oriented insights. Efficiency does not mean cheap. It is about delivering advice that matches the scale and urgency of the problem.
#6. Long-Term Partnership
Communicating consistency, institutional memory, and alignment on a website:
- Emphasize continuity: This can be done in a form of case studies and blog articles, explaining the type of support that was provided to a client (anonymized, if needed) over the years.
- Show understanding of clients' evolving needs: Explain how clients are supported across growth phases, how the relationship evolves in stages over time in line with the changes in clients’ needs, etc.
#7. Proactive and Solution-Oriented Advice
Communicating pragmatism, clarity and forward-thinking on a website:
- Publish actionable insights: Create thought leadership that answers questions like “What does it mean in practice?” and “What should be the next step?”
- Demonstrate advisory mindset: Explain what regulatory changes you anticipate, flag emerging trends, publish executive briefings, and so on.
Here is the conundrum. Many law firms are impressive in person – sharp, responsive, with an excellent track record. In client meetings, they radiate confidence and clarity. They offer expert advice that shows a deep understanding of their clients’ business. Yet, when you visit their website, it feels like it belongs to an entirely different firm. Vague, generic, poorly designed.
Yes, the legal industry runs heavily on relationships, referrals, and reputation. But that’s precisely why your brand should be consistent across every touchpoint. Because if your reputation opens the door, your website shouldn’t be the thing that makes prospects hesitate.
By Saida Ayupova, Founder, Five-o-eight
