Many law firms are happy with the way their website looks, but frustrated with how it functions. The culprit is often the platform itself. Proprietary content management systems (CMS) can feel polished on the surface, but restrict what firms can do behind the scenes.
If your team needs to submit a ticket for every update, struggles to add new attorneys or practices, or feels trapped in a rigid system, the platform may be holding you back. The good news is that you don’t need to redesign your site to solve this problem. Migration to an open source website platform will allow you to preserve the design you love while rebuilding the backend on a more flexible CMS.
Why Proprietary Platforms Hold Law Firms Back
Many law firms find themselves locked into a proprietary CMS. On the surface, these platforms often look polished — they showcase attractive designs and promise simplicity. But beneath the surface, they come with trade-offs that limit a firm’s control and flexibility.
With proprietary systems, small updates often require submitting a ticket to the vendor. SEO fields may be locked down, preventing your marketing team from optimizing pages for visibility. Integrations with tools like CRM systems or analytics platforms are often limited or unavailable. Even something as simple as reorganizing practice areas or updating attorney bios can feel cumbersome.
By contrast, open-source platforms like WordPress give firms far more control. You or your marketing team can make changes directly, integrations are easier to configure, and the site can grow with your firm — without waiting for vendor approval or paying extra for every update.
Signs It’s Time to Migrate Your Law Firm Website
It may be time to consider a CMS migration if:
- Every small update requires vendor support.
- Adding or reorganizing content feels cumbersome or impossible.
- Your SEO performance is suffering because the platform limits optimization.
- Site speed is sluggish, frustrating visitors and hurting rankings.
The Migration Process
You can overhaul the functionality of your law firm’s website without sacrificing your brand equity. Migration isn’t about throwing away your design. It’s about preserving the look while improving how your site works under the hood.
- Discovery: First, our team will audit your current website and talk to you about what you want out of a new website – your likes, dislikes, needs, goals, and expectations.
- Glow-up: Our design and development team will often suggest subtle adjustments that may not have been possible on your previous platform to improve the overall look, functionality, and longevity of your website.
- Design Preservation: We will recreate your layouts, branding, and navigation, together with any approved changes, in WordPress, our preferred open-source CMS.
- Backend Improvement: The CMS is completely rebuilt and restructured to make website changes, such as editing attorney bios, adding new practices, or posting news and thought leadership, easy for your marketing team.
- Integrations: We help set up any integrations on your new website that were not possible on your proprietary CMS – CRM (e.g., Hubspot, Clio), intake (Intaker; Lead Docket), analytics (e.g., Google Analytics, Ahrefs), email integrations, and more.
- Compliance: At LISI, we build accessibility (ADA) and state bar advertising requirements into the development process.
- Launch: After a thorough quality assurance review, we launch your new law firm website into the world – with as much (or as little) fuss as you desire.
Benefits of Migrating Without Redesigning
Some of the benefits of migrating your law firm’s website to an open source platform without taking on a full website redesign are:
- Brand Consistency: Your audience – clients, potential clients, referring counsel, media, and others – still recognize the site’s structure and design.
- Efficiency: Your team can make updates quickly and independently, saving time and effort for more productive and impactful work.
- Budget-conscious: If your budget does not stretch to a full visual overhaul this year, you can still improve the functionality and performance of your site with a targeted investment. (Alternatively, you could consider a light brand refresh, as we discussed in a recent LISI blog.).
- Scalability: On a more flexible platform, your website can expand as your law firm grows. You will be able to easily add new attorneys, more practice areas, and other useful pages (e.g., Careers, Community) without starting over again.
Take Control of Your Website
Your website’s design doesn’t have to change for your site to work better. Migration offers law firms the best of both worlds: keeping the visuals you’ve invested in while moving to a platform that’s faster, more flexible, and easier to manage.
If your site looks fine but feels limited, consider migration as the path to greater control and long-term success.
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