A law firm website: practice areas, fees and confidentiality

A law firm site has to answer three questions on one screen: do you handle my case, which lawyer will handle it, and what does the first meeting cost. Everything else, from the firm's history to awards, only counts if it supports those three answers.

People who land on that site often have a deadline: a notice, a dismissal, a separation. They search for the practice area, not for the firm's name. That is why the page that brings enquiries is the practice page, written in the client's words, not a list of areas in one line of text.

One page per practice area, with the typical case inside

The practice areas that generate enquiries are few and recurring: family and separation, employment, criminal, succession, contracts, debt recovery. Each page should read as an answer: which situations you handle, which documents the first meeting needs, which court hears the case, how long it usually takes. An «areas of practice» page with six headings and no content is an index, not information.

Quotes: the law says when, the site says how

Article 13 of Italian law 247/2012 requires a lawyer, on the client's request, to state in writing the foreseeable cost of the service. A site that says nothing about fees pushes the whole conversation onto a phone call. You do not need a price list: you need the rules, meaning the parameters of decree 55/2014, what is included, disbursements, VAT and social security contribution, payment timing, and what happens if the case ends early.

Confidentiality: no case data in a form

A form with a «describe your problem» field collects data about judicial proceedings, which article 9 of the GDPR treats as special categories. That needs an explicit legal basis, adequate security measures and limited retention. The practical answer is to ask only for name, phone and practice area: the story is heard on the phone, in the office or over an encrypted channel. Certified email stays the formal channel, not a web form.

Bar registration, certified email, insurance: the details a client checks

• Bar registration number and the bar association, with the year.
• Firm name, office address, VAT number and tax code.
• Certified email: it is the address with legal value and the first thing an experienced client looks for.
• Details of the professional indemnity policy, stated in the client information as article 12 of law 247/2012 requires.
• Any lawyers' partnership or professional company: registered name and partners, without confusing the firm with the individual.

Structured data: LegalService and Attorney

The LegalService type describes the firm; Attorney, a subtype of both LegalService and Person, describes the professional. With name, address, phone, hours in openingHoursSpecification, areaServed and knowsAbout for the practice areas, the engine understands what you are competent in. Each practice area can become a Service with its own page. Structured data promises no special box: it adds context. The method is in how to add schema markup.

curl "https://ui.eneawork.it/api/blocks/category/faq?limit=200" | jq '.category.count, (.blocks | length)'

Reviews and outcomes: the line not to cross

Article 35 of the Italian bar's code of conduct allows informative advertising, but requires it to be truthful, accurate and not self-praising. On a site that means: no promised outcome, no «100% wins», no favourable judgment used as a guarantee for the next case. Reviews can be quoted when they are verifiable and the client agreed; names and case details stay out.

Useful blocks from the catalogue

Four records to start from. Team 01 is the lawyer card grid, with role and bar number. Contact 01 is the three-field form for a first enquiry, with no free text collecting case data. The accordion components carry the FAQs of one practice area, one accordion per page. The faq category holds 24 blocks, to use on one page only so the content is not duplicated.

The limitation

These blocks draw pages, they do not manage files: no client area, no document exchange, no electronic signature. Documents need an encrypted channel or certified email, with a written privacy assessment. There is also no block designed for law firms: the structure has to be assembled by hand, and the full block code sits in the Pro part of the catalogue.

Cost and timing

A six page site with four practice areas, copy written by the firm and team photos sits in the low thousands of euro. Time grows when the copy has to pass the professional conduct check: every sentence that promises an outcome has to be rewritten. The recurring technical lines are updates, backups and form checks; the comparison between technical bases is in WordPress, Wix or React components.

For the requirements every firm shares read what a company website needs, for the mandatory details VAT number and company details on a site, for the FAQs already counted the best FAQ blocks.