Last week, I featured ten uniquely designed small business sites. Third in my Thesis series are lawyers’ web sites running on Chris Pearson’s versatile Thesis theme for WordPress. Designing law firm/legal web sites is a niche market. And working for and with lawyers isn’t for everyone. (I should know; I’ve been a legal secretary for nearly 30 years now!)
Lawyers’ web sites are generally content-rich and should be geared toward the legal consumer. Face it, most white glove law firms write for other lawyers, law students they hope to one day hire, in-house counsel, and mega-corporations. Not the average, everyday consumer. The sites I’m featuring today are sites belonging to lawyers specializing in consumer bankruptcy, debt counseling, family law and other personal legal services. These are not megalaw sites.
Also, as I surfed looking for Thesis-driven lawyers’ web sites, one name kept appearing at the bottom of quite a number of these sites: Rowboat Media. RowBoat Media is operated by Atlanta, Georgia web designer Cynthia LaLuna. If you visit her web design site, you’ll be treated to her very witty and engaging writing style and an in-depth review of the Thesis theme for WordPress. If you’ve been sitting on the fence, wondering if you should shell out the dough for this premium theme, then you owe it to yourself to read what Cynthia has to say about Thesis. But don’t just take her word for it! (Or mine!) See for yourself just how easily Thesis can be used to create a stunning, functional web site suitable for Clarence Darrow himself!
Your Long Island Bankruptcy Lawyer
DESIGN FIRM: Rowboat Media
This is a gorgeous example of a friendly and inviting web site. Granted, bankruptcy is not the most pleasant of reasons to seek out a lawyer. But the site plays off the locale invoking images of sandy beaches, sea shores and lighthouses. The color palette is soothing and sure to calm even the most stressed out client.
Cooper Law Firm
DESIGN FIRM: Rowboat Media
Another legal web site from Rowboat Media, this one is sparsely elegant with a gorgeous scripty font. Retro boxes on the right lure the reader’s eye to contact the law firm either by filling out the contact form or picking up the phone. Well done!
Rutledge, Manion et al.
DESIGN FIRM: Konakiko Designs
Konakiko Designs is responsible for this defense law firm’s web site. The firm is based in Detroit, Michigan, as the banner would suggest. It’s a very nice and sedate looking legal web site. My only complaint is that the banner fonts used are somewhat illegible against the busyish shot of the Motor City at night. I don’t care for the bevel effect on all the attorneys’ headshots. As well, on the Contact page, the email links should have been munged. (It’s a bit late for that now!). And they could have been presented in something other than a table (or the table borders turned off). Otherwise, the site is very well organized.
Joni Mueller has been designing web sites for hire since 2003, when she first blew up her web host’s server by insisting on running Greymatter. Since then, Joni has designed for Blogger and Movable Type, TextPattern, WordPress and CMS Made Simple. She lives with her cat and shoe collection in a bucolic old section of Houston called Idylwood. For some strange reason, Joni likes to refer to herself in the third person. When she’s not working on web design, she’s ordering lawyers around. And blogging about it. Or both.
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