Law firm website copy that reads like people, not a list of cases
ThompsonMcMullan, a Richmond law firm with four decades of history, wanted a website that didn’t read like every other firm’s: a list of practice areas, case types and credentials.
All of the site’s copy: attorney bios written as stories about people, practice area descriptions in plain language, and a firm profile built around the firm’s history. The homepage leads with the firm’s values instead of a list of services.
The need
We’ve looked at a lot of law firm websites over the years. Law is a conservative industry, and most firm sites look alike. There’s a list of practice areas, then an even longer list, often in bullet points, of the case types and legal strategies the attorneys handle.
The attorney bios, the most visited pages on any firm’s site, tend to read the same way: a list of case types and awards, then a full paragraph about education.
ThompsonMcMullan, a Richmond firm with four decades of history, asked us to write the copy for its website. The firm didn’t want to sound like everyone else.
Our approach
A law firm is like any other organization. It is made up of people, each with a story and a passion for a particular area of the law.
Many web companies and search-focused writers load firm sites with copy meant to help them get found on Google. But ask attorneys and most will tell you that new business comes mainly through referrals, not search engines, at least not without significant investment. So the best thing a site can do is present the firm and its people at their best. That takes storytelling.
We had one requirement: that the firm let us write freely. That meant biographies people would want to read, practice area descriptions that didn’t sound like every competitor’s, and a firm profile that captured the history of a team that has been practicing together for four decades.
The homepage reflects that thinking. It makes no direct reference to being a law firm. Instead it puts the firm’s values front and center.
The outcome
We admit our bias, but we believe the finished site presents this small firm as one of the region’s most distinguished.