ChatGPT answers, unedited

For a midsize Chicago law firm, I’d shortlist vendors that can handle the migration and information architecture as seriously as the visual redesign—not just firms that build attractive WordPress sites.

My shortlist

1. Solid Digital — best overall if you want a sophisticated, mid-market/enterprise process.

Their Chicago team does strategy → UX/UI → development, with SEO and conversion considerations. They’re downtown at 100 N LaSalle and appear better suited to a substantial redesign than a basic brochure-site project.

2. Duo Consulting — best if CMS/migration complexity is the big issue.

They have a strong Chicago digital-consulting background, particularly with Drupal, and explicitly handle content strategy, migration, integrations, UX and larger CMS programs. I'd talk to them if you're migrating a sizable content library or have complicated attorney/practice-area/resource relationships.

3. AttorneySync — best legal-specific option.

They're focused exclusively on law firms and combine website work with SEO, analytics and ongoing marketing. The tradeoff is that they're more of a legal marketing partner than a pure UX/CMS consultancy.

4. Market JD, Inc. — worth getting a proposal from.

They're specifically focused on attorneys/law firms and emphasize mobile-optimized websites, intake-oriented UX and SEO. Their downtown office is at 20 N Wacker. This could be a good fit if lead generation is a major objective alongside the redesign.

5. SEO Design Chicago — particularly worth considering if organic search preservation is critical.

They explicitly offer CMS migrations and describe URL mapping, redirects, technical SEO and post-migration monitoring. seodesignchicago.com

One non-Chicago firm I'd also interview

Black Antelope is unusually relevant if you're considering Drupal. Their legal practice specifically discusses related content such as attorneys, cases and press releases, and they have a published Hagens Berman redesign involving Drupal, responsive design and migration of hundreds of legal-content pages. www.blackantelope.com

What I'd ask in the RFP

Don't just ask, "Can you redesign our site?" Ask them to demonstrate:

• Full URL/content inventory and redirect mapping before launch
• Migration of attorney bios, practice areas, publications, news, case results, etc.
• Preservation of organic rankings, metadata, schema, backlinks and analytics
• Responsive/mobile-first UX—not simply a desktop design that gets squeezed down
• CMS recommendations with a clear explanation of why WordPress vs. Drupal vs. another CMS
• Reusable templates so attorneys/marketing staff can add pages without developers
• Accessibility/WCAG testing
• Staging environment and parallel migration
• Forms/intake/CRM integrations
• Pre-launch crawl and post-launch SEO monitoring
• Actual examples of law-firm migrations, not just website designs

That migration discipline matters: a good redesign can still be a disaster if the firm loses years of accumulated search equity. Agencies specializing in legal migrations explicitly emphasize URL mapping, redirects, metadata preservation and staged QA for this reason. wolfeservices.co

If it were my RFP, I'd interview Solid Digital, Duo Consulting, and AttorneySync first, then use Market JD or SEO Design Chicago as a fourth bid for comparison.

If you tell me your current CMS, approximate page count, practice areas, and whether SEO/lead generation is a priority, I can narrow this to the 2–3 firms I'd actually invite to pitch.

• AttorneySync - 211 W Wacker Dr Ste 300, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Market JD, Inc. - 20 N Wacker Dr Ste 1200, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Clique Studios - 20 N Wacker Dr Ste 1075, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• dNOVO Group | Law Firm Marketing Agency - 545 N McClurg Ct Ste 1808, Chicago, IL 60611, United States
• Brand Vision Marketing - Web Design & Branding - 30 N Michigan Ave #504, Chicago, IL 60602, United States
• Forward Lawyer Marketing - 3553 W Peterson Ave Ste 30, Chicago, IL 60659, United States
• OVC Lawyer Marketing - 750 Warrenville Rd Ste 203, Lisle, IL 60532, United States
• BSPE Legal Marketing - Chicago - 875 N Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60610, United States
• Attorney Web Design | Chicago - 233 S Wacker Dr Ste 4400, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• YourPortal - 2211 N Elston Ave Ste 208, Chicago, IL 60614, United States
• WPrime Agency - 222 W Merchandise Mart Plaza #1212, Chicago, IL 60654, United States
• Flamingo Agency - 3752 N Southport Ave, Chicago, IL 60613, United States
• Alpha Efficiency - Web Design Chicago Agency - 875 N Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60611, United States
• Pattern 6 - 222 W Merchandise Mart Plaza, Chicago, IL 60654, United States
• Marcel Digital - 445 W Erie St #200, Chicago, IL 60654, United States

For a midsize law firm in downtown Chicago, I’d shortlist these rather than going with a generic web-design shop:

• AttorneySync — Best if legal-industry expertise is the priority. They focus exclusively on law firms and offer website design/development alongside SEO, analytics, and broader digital marketing. Their downtown office is at 211 W Wacker.
• Market JD, Inc. — Good fit for a midsize firm wanting a legal-specialist partner. They specifically target attorneys/law firms and combine responsive website work with SEO, paid media, and analytics. They're at 20 N Wacker.
• Clique Studios — My pick if the project is a serious redesign + CMS transformation rather than primarily a marketing website. They're a broader digital agency with UX, responsive design, accessibility, CMS engineering, and migration/modernization capabilities, and they're at 20 N Wacker.
• dNOVO Group | Law Firm Marketing Agency — Worth an RFP slot if you want design, migration, SEO and lead generation under one roof. Their Chicago operation focuses particularly on professional services and law firms.
• Brand Vision Marketing - Web Design & Branding — Worth considering if brand/visual polish is important. They're in the Loop and combine UX-led responsive design with CMS development and SEO.

One I'd investigate beyond the downtown firms

Hype Legal looks particularly relevant to your actual scope. Their published Chicago law-firm case study for Hart McLaughlin & Eldridge explicitly includes UX/UI, website development, CMS implementation, site migration, SEO, hosting and CMS training—which is almost exactly the combination you're describing. Hype Legal

I'd also look at Black Antelope if you're considering something more sophisticated than WordPress. They have a legal-specific practice and describe a Drupal rebuild involving responsive design and large-scale migration of cases, press releases and legal resources. Black Antelope

Who I'd call first

If it were my RFP, I'd invite 3 firms:

1. Hype Legal — strongest apparent match to the precise redesign/migration scope.
2. Clique Studios — strongest candidate for a sophisticated UX/CMS transformation.
3. AttorneySync or Market JD — legal-specialist benchmark, particularly if organic search and lead generation are major objectives.

One important distinction: if your site has hundreds/thousands of attorney, practice-area, case, publication or resource pages, don't select purely on visual design. Make the agencies demonstrate their content-modeling, migration, redirect/SEO preservation, CMS authoring workflow, accessibility, and QA process. That's where these projects tend to succeed or fail. Black Antelope's Hagens Berman case is a good example of the sort of migration complexity to ask about. Black Antelope

If you tell me your current CMS, approximate page count, practice areas, and whether you're trying to preserve/improve SEO, I can narrow this to 2–3 firms and give you a suggested RFP scope/questions.

• Clique Studios - 20 N Wacker Dr Ste 1075, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Americaneagle.com, Inc. - 200 W Jackson Blvd Fl 22, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• AttorneySync - 211 W Wacker Dr Ste 300, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Market JD, Inc. - 20 N Wacker Dr Ste 1200, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Operation Technology - 211 W Wacker Dr 3rd Floor, Chicago, IL 60606
• dNOVO Group | Law Firm Marketing Agency - 545 N McClurg Ct Ste 1808, Chicago, IL 60611, United States
• Forward Lawyer Marketing - 3553 W Peterson Ave Ste 30, Chicago, IL 60659, United States
• BSPE Legal Marketing - Chicago - 875 N Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60610, United States
• SEOLEVELUP Website Design SEO Company Chicago - 355 N Laflin St Ste 101C, Chicago, IL 60607, United States
• Attorney Web Design | Chicago - 233 S Wacker Dr Ste 4400, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• AttorneySync - 400 N May St, Ste 301, Chicago, IL 60642
• Flamingo Agency - 3752 N Southport Ave, Chicago, IL 60613, United States
• Marcel Digital - 445 W Erie St #200, Chicago, IL 60654, United States
• Windy City Web Solutions - 801 S Wells St, Chicago, IL 60607, United States
• WPrime Agency - 222 W Merchandise Mart Plaza #1212, Chicago, IL 60654, United States

For a midsize law firm in downtown Chicago, I’d shortlist agencies that can handle the whole project—not just make the site look better. In particular: responsive UX, CMS architecture, content migration, SEO/redirect preservation, accessibility, and attorney/practice-area content.

My shortlist

1. Clique Studios — strongest overall fit

• 20 N. Wacker Dr.
• More sophisticated digital-experience shop than a typical “law firm marketing” agency.
• Their capabilities include UX/UI, responsive design, accessibility, CMS implementation, and scalable web development.
• I'd talk to them if: your firm has a substantial site, multiple practice groups/offices, complicated content, or wants a genuinely strategic redesign rather than a template refresh.
• Americaneagle.com, Inc. — best for a bigger/complex migration

• 200 W. Jackson Blvd.
• Particularly interesting if the CMS migration is the difficult part. They're positioned for mid-market/enterprise organizations and explicitly handle redesigns, content migration, development, SEO, analytics, and ongoing support.
• I'd talk to them if: you've got hundreds/thousands of pages, integrations, multiple offices, or a legacy CMS that needs a serious migration plan.
• AttorneySync — best legal-specialist option

• 211 W. Wacker Dr.
• They focus specifically on law firms and combine website development with SEO, analytics, and legal marketing.
• I'd talk to them if: the website's primary job is generating qualified matters/leads and you want the redesign tightly connected to legal SEO and marketing.
• Market JD, Inc. — another legal-focused downtown option

• 20 N. Wacker Dr.
• Their positioning combines law-firm web design/development with SEO, paid media and analytics, including mobile-optimized sites and intake-oriented user flows.
• I'd include them in the RFP if lead generation and search visibility are major objectives.
• Operation Technology — good pragmatic downtown option

• 211 W. Wacker Dr.
• Focuses on website design, WordPress development, SEO and lead generation, with a downtown location and a more hands-on-agency profile.

One non-downtown firm I'd seriously consider

Hype Legal is worth putting on the list even though it's not a downtown-location recommendation. Their Chicago legal work is particularly relevant to your brief: their published Hart McLaughlin & Eldridge project included UX/UI, website development, CMS implementation, SEO, hosting, site migration, maintenance and CMS training. Hype Legal

That is unusually close to the project you're describing.

What I'd do

I'd send an RFP to Clique Studios, Hype Legal, AttorneySync, and Americaneagle.com.

The key is to not frame this as simply “redesign our website.” Ask each one to specifically price and demonstrate:

• Responsive/mobile-first redesign
• CMS recommendation and migration
• Full content inventory and migration
• URL/301 redirect mapping so existing SEO isn't destroyed
• Practice-area and attorney-profile content architecture
• WCAG/accessibility compliance
• Page-speed/Core Web Vitals work
• Forms/intake/CRM integrations
• Analytics and conversion tracking
• CMS training for your marketing team
• Staging, QA and launch
• Post-launch SEO monitoring
• Ownership of design files, code and content

For a law firm, the migration architecture is arguably more important than the visual redesign. A beautiful new site that loses years of organic rankings, attorney bio traffic, or practice-area URLs is a bad migration. Agencies that explicitly discuss redirects, metadata preservation, content modeling and staged launch should get extra weight; that's the approach described by specialist legal web firms such as Black Antelope and Wavespace. Black Antelope Wavespace

If you tell me roughly how many pages you have, what CMS you're on now (WordPress/Drupal/Sitecore/etc.), and what CMS you're considering, I can narrow this to the 2–3 firms I'd actually interview and what I think a reasonable Chicago budget would be.

• Responsive/mobile-first redesign
• CMS recommendation and migration
• Full content inventory and migration
• URL/301 redirect mapping so existing SEO isn't destroyed
• Practice-area and attorney-profile content architecture
• WCAG/accessibility compliance
• Page-speed/Core Web Vitals work
• Forms/intake/CRM integrations
• Analytics and conversion tracking
• CMS training for your marketing team
• Staging, QA and launch
• Post-launch SEO monitoring
• Ownership of design files, code and content

For a law firm, the migration architecture is arguably more important than the visual redesign. A beautiful new site that loses years of organic rankings, attorney bio traffic, or practice-area URLs is a bad migration. Agencies that explicitly discuss redirects, metadata preservation, content modeling and staged launch should get extra weight; that's the approach described by specialist legal web firms such as Black Antelope and Wavespace.

For a midsize Chicago law firm, I’d shortlist agencies that can handle the whole job—UX/responsive redesign, CMS migration, content architecture, SEO preservation, accessibility, and post-launch support—rather than a shop that mainly does visual design.

My shortlist

1. Clique Studios — best overall for a sophisticated redesign
   • Downtown at 20 N Wacker.
   • Strong on strategy, UX/UI, responsive design, accessibility, engineering, and multiple CMS platforms.
   • They position themselves as a long-term digital partner rather than simply a website vendor.
   • I'd talk to them if: your firm has a substantial site, multiple practice groups/offices, lots of attorneys, and stakeholders who will need a well-run discovery/content process.

2. Duo Consulting — particularly interesting for CMS-heavy work
   • 200 S Wacker.
   • Their sweet spot is content-managed sites, particularly Drupal, with strategy, UX/design, migration, integrations and ongoing support. Their business listing specifically notes experience with law-firm websites and content migration.
   • I'd talk to them if: the CMS migration is as important as the redesign, especially if you're considering Drupal or have a complicated content model.

3. Marcel Digital — best if SEO/measurement is a major concern
   • 20 N Wacker.
   • Combines web development with SEO, CRO, analytics and digital marketing; they also have significant CMS experience, including Umbraco and HubSpot.
   • I'd talk to them if: you want the redesign tied closely to organic search, analytics, lead generation and measurable business outcomes.

4. AttorneySync — best legal-specialist option
   • 211 W Wacker.
   • They focus specifically on law firms rather than general B2B websites. That's valuable if practice-area architecture, attorney profiles, intake/conversion, legal SEO and the nuances of marketing a firm are central to the project.
   • I'd talk to them if: you'd rather have deep legal-industry expertise than a general digital-experience agency.

5. dNOVO Group — another legal-focused contender
   • Chicago office at 545 N McClurg Ct.
   • Their focus is law-firm acquisition, including website design/development, SEO and conversion optimization.
   • I'd consider them if: lead generation and legal marketing are a major part of the redesign rather than the project being primarily a corporate/institutional rebrand.

One particularly relevant benchmark

There's a useful Chicago law-firm example from Hype Legal: their Hart McLaughlin & Eldridge project combined strategy, UX/UI, development, CMS implementation, SEO, hosting, site migration and CMS training. That's roughly the capability mix I'd want in your RFP. www.hypelegal.com

Also, don't treat the migration as an afterthought. A proper migration should include URL mapping/301 redirects, metadata and content preservation, internal-link checks, crawl/indexation testing and post-launch monitoring. Chicago migration specialists explicitly emphasize these steps because a poorly handled CMS migration can seriously damage organic traffic. seodesignchicago.com

If it were my project, I'd invite three firms to pitch: Clique Studios, Duo Consulting, and AttorneySync. That gives you a useful comparison between a sophisticated generalist, a CMS/migration specialist, and a legal-industry specialist.

For the RFP, I'd make the vendors demonstrate one actual practice-area page, one attorney bio, the proposed CMS editing experience, their migration/redirect methodology, and their accessibility approach—not just show you pretty homepage comps.

For a midsize Chicago law firm, I’d shortlist agencies that understand both legal-industry content architecture and the ugly parts of a CMS migration—redirects, attorney/practice-area taxonomies, SEO preservation, accessibility, and editor training.

My shortlist

1. Great Jakes — best overall fit
   • This would be my first call if the site is substantial and the firm cares about premium design.
   • They work exclusively with law firms, and specifically say most of their clients are midsize and large firms (roughly 50–1,500 lawyers).
   • Their offering covers strategy, UX, CMS development, data migration, hosting and maintenance. www.greatjakes.com
   • Particularly compelling if you have lots of attorneys, offices, practices, publications, or other structured content that needs a better CMS architecture.

2. Clique Studios — best for a sophisticated digital transformation
   • Downtown at 20 N Wacker.
   • More of a broader digital-experience agency than a law-firm specialist, but they do strategy, UX/UI, responsive design, accessibility and scalable CMS implementations.
   • I'd consider them if you're looking beyond a marketing-site facelift toward a more sophisticated digital platform.

3. Solid Digital — strong Chicago option
   • Downtown at 100 N LaSalle.
   • Good fit if you want a structured redesign/build process and ongoing support rather than simply hiring a designer.
   • I'd ask specifically for examples involving large content migrations and law/professional-services sites.

4. AttorneySync — best if lead generation/SEO is central
   • At 211 W Wacker, and focused specifically on law firms.
   • Their offering combines website development with SEO, analytics and broader legal marketing.
   • I'd favor them if the redesign is supposed to materially improve organic acquisition and intake—not just aesthetics.

5. Market JD, Inc. — another legal-specialist option
   • At 20 N Wacker.
   • Focused specifically on attorney/law-firm marketing, with mobile-optimized website work and intake/conversion considerations.

One non-Chicago firm I'd also put in the RFP

LISI is worth including even though it's not a downtown Chicago shop. They explicitly handle custom WordPress, content migration, QA, SEO optimization, training and post-launch support for law firms. www.legalisi.com

And if your migration is particularly complicated, Americaneagle.com has a strong reference point: its McGuireWoods project involved migrating a major law firm's CMS, preserving content/SEO, restructuring attorney and practice-area content, implementing advanced search and improving performance/accessibility. www.legalisi.comwpengine.com

What I'd do

I'd send an RFP to Great Jakes + Clique Studios + AttorneySync + one of Solid Digital/Market JD.

The key is not to ask merely for "a responsive redesign and CMS migration." Make them demonstrate how they'll handle:

• full URL/content inventory and migration mapping
• 301 redirect strategy and preservation of existing rankings
• attorney, office, practice-area and publication content models
• responsive/mobile UX
• accessibility
• page-speed/Core Web Vitals
• analytics and conversion tracking
• CMS editor permissions/workflows
• staging, QA and launch rollback
• post-launch SEO monitoring
• training your marketing team

That's important because a CMS migration can damage search visibility if URL structures, redirects, metadata, internal links and indexing aren't handled properly. seodesignchicago.com

If you tell me your approximate attorney count, current CMS (WordPress/Drupal/Sitecore/etc.), and whether this is primarily a corporate/transactional firm or a consumer-facing firm, I can narrow this to the 3 I'd actually interview and tell you what I think each is likely to cost.

For a midsize law firm, I’d shortlist these rather than hiring a generic Chicago web shop. The important distinction is whether you want a legal-industry specialist or a more sophisticated digital/UX agency that happens to have legal experience.

My shortlist

1. AttorneySync — best if marketing/SEO and lead generation matter
   • Downtown at 211 W Wacker.
   • Focuses exclusively on law firms and offers website design/development alongside SEO, analytics, PPC and ongoing marketing.
   • Good fit if the redesign is supposed to improve intake, search visibility and conversion, not just aesthetics.
   • I would specifically ask them to show you a couple of midsize-firm migrations, not just new builds.

2. Market JD, Inc. — strong legal-specialist option
   • At 20 N Wacker.
   • Focused specifically on attorney/law-firm marketing and offers mobile-optimized website work.
   • Particularly worth talking to if you want the website, SEO and conversion strategy handled together.

3. Clique Studios — best choice if this is a serious digital transformation
   • At 20 N Wacker.
   • More of a sophisticated UX/digital agency than a law-firm marketing shop.
   • Their capabilities include responsive design, accessibility, UX/UI, CMS work and structured discovery/strategy.
   • I'd favor them if you have a large content library, complicated attorney/practice-area relationships, multiple offices, or demanding CMS requirements.

4. Marcel Digital — good CMS/marketing hybrid
   • At 445 W Erie.
   • Particularly interesting if you're considering HubSpot CMS or want the website tightly connected to marketing/sales/CRM workflows.

5. dNOVO Group — worth getting a proposal from
   • Chicago office at 545 N McClurg.
   • Law-firm-focused digital marketing, website design and conversion work.
   • More marketing-oriented than a pure UX/CMS consultancy.

One I'd investigate beyond the Chicago-only list

Black Antelope is particularly relevant if your migration is technically substantial. Their legal practice specifically covers CMS implementation, content migration, UX/UI and Drupal, and they have a published case study involving a large law-firm rebuild with hundreds of case pages, press releases and legal resources. www.blackantelope.com

That's the kind of evidence I'd want to see if your existing site has hundreds/thousands of URLs and complicated content relationships.

What I'd do in your shoes

I'd send the same RFP to AttorneySync, Market JD, Clique Studios and Black Antelope.

I'd make the RFP explicitly require:

• Responsive redesign, including mobile UX
• CMS migration and content inventory
• Preservation of existing URLs where possible
• Full 301 redirect mapping
• Metadata/schema/internal-link migration
• Attorney, practice-area, office and insight/blog content models
• Search functionality
• Accessibility/WCAG considerations
• Page-speed/Core Web Vitals targets
• Analytics/GA4/Search Console preservation
• Staging environment and parallel QA
• Content-editor training
• Post-launch SEO monitoring
• Explicit ownership of code, design files and CMS
• A rollback plan for launch

The migration piece is particularly important: a beautiful redesign can still be a disaster if organic traffic and years of accumulated legal content aren't migrated properly. For comparison, the McGuireWoods migration involved advanced taxonomies, search, attorney profiles, resources and a large content migration—not simply putting a new skin on the old site. wpengine.com

My first calls: Clique if the project is complex/strategic; AttorneySync if client acquisition and legal SEO are central; Black Antelope if the CMS/content migration is the hardest part.

If you tell me your current CMS, approximate page count, number of attorneys/offices, and whether you want WordPress/Drupal/another CMS, I can narrow this to 2–3 and compare their relevant portfolios, capabilities and likely fit.

If you want a Chicago-based shop that can handle both the redesign and the CMS migration, I’d start with these three:

1. Orbit Media Studios — my first call. They specifically market to law firms and handle strategy, UX/design, development, CMS implementation, accessibility/browser testing, migration, and ongoing CMS support. They’re at 4043 N. Ravenswood, so they’re genuinely Chicago-local. Their legal work is positioned around search and conversion rather than simply making the site look newer. www.orbitmedia.com

Orbit Media’s legal website work

2. Hype Legal — worth interviewing if brand/visual design is especially important. Their Chicago case study for Hart McLaughlin & Eldridge covers UX/UI, development, CMS implementation, SEO, site migration, hosting, and CMS training—the combination you're describing. www.hypelegal.com

Hype Legal’s Chicago law-firm case study

3. ArtVersion — a good option if you have a more complicated existing CMS or aren't sure what platform you want to move to. They explicitly work across WordPress, Drupal and other CMSs and offer responsive redesign, CMS enhancements, migration and ongoing maintenance. artversion.com

ArtVersion’s responsive web design work

How I'd choose

For a midsize law firm, I'd lean Orbit first, Hype second, ArtVersion third.

The important thing is not to hire a generic Chicago web-design firm that treats this as “new homepage + prettier mobile layout.” Your RFP/interview should require:

• Full URL/content inventory and migration plan
• 301 redirect mapping for every changed URL
• Preservation of organic rankings, metadata, schema, internal links and backlinks
• Responsive/mobile-first UX
• A CMS your marketing team can actually manage
• Reusable templates for attorney bios, practice areas, offices, insights/news and case results
• Accessibility testing
• Analytics/conversion tracking
• Staging environment and content freeze/launch plan
• Post-launch monitoring and redirect/error checks
• Training for attorneys/marketing staff
• Clear ownership of the CMS, code, content and design

That migration piece matters a lot: Chicago-based SEO Design Chicago, for example, explicitly emphasizes URL mapping, redirects, crawlability and preservation of SEO equity during CMS migrations. seodesignchicago.com

One caution: I wouldn't automatically choose the agency that specializes only in law firms. For a midsize firm, you want someone who understands legal content architecture and has enough UX/CMS engineering maturity to build something your team won't hate maintaining three years from now.

If you tell me (1) your current CMS, (2) approximate number of pages/attorneys, (3) practice areas, and (4) rough budget, I can narrow this to 2–3 Chicago firms I'd actually put on the shortlist and tell you what I would expect each to charge.

For a midsize law firm in downtown Chicago, I’d put these three on the shortlist:

1. Orbit Media Studios — my first call. They have a dedicated law-firm web practice and specifically handle strategy, responsive design, CMS implementation, content migration, accessibility/browser testing, SEO, and post-launch CMS support. Their Chicago office is at 4043 N. Ravenswood. www.orbitmedia.com

Orbit Media’s legal web design practice

2. Hype Legal — strongest law-specific alternative. They have a Chicago law-firm case study and offer the combination you're looking for: UX/UI, development, CMS implementation, SEO, site migration, CMS training, and maintenance. Their Hart McLaughlin & Eldridge project is particularly relevant because it's a Chicago business/injury firm. www.hypelegal.com

Hype Legal case study

3. ArtVersion — worth an RFP if the project is more brand/design-led. They're Chicago-based and emphasize responsive design plus CMS work across WordPress, Drupal and other platforms, including ongoing CMS maintenance. artversion.com

ArtVersion Chicago web design

How I'd choose

For your particular brief, I'd weight the selection roughly:

CMS migration/technical SEO 30% · law-firm UX/IA 25% · responsive design 20% · content migration 15% · ongoing support 10%.

The migration piece is the one I'd scrutinize most. A pretty redesign is relatively easy to demonstrate; preserving URLs, rankings, metadata, internal links, redirects, structured data, analytics, forms, and historical content during the CMS move is where projects can go sideways. Chicago's SEO Design Chicago, for example, explicitly treats URL mapping, redirects, crawlability, internal links and post-migration monitoring as part of its migration process. seodesignchicago.com

My move: get proposals from Orbit + Hype Legal + one design-oriented shop (ArtVersion) and give all three exactly the same requirements. Ask each to show you 2–3 comparable midsize law-firm migrations, not just attractive screenshots.

If you tell me your current CMS, approximate page count, practice areas, and whether you want to stay on WordPress or move to something else, I can narrow this to the best 2–3 firms and give you a realistic Chicago budget/timeline.

For a midsize law firm, I’d prioritize an agency that understands both legal-sector UX/content and the technical risk of a CMS migration—not just a firm that makes attractive responsive sites.

My shortlist

1. Orbit Media Studios — my first call

Orbit is the strongest overall fit I found. They specifically market law-firm website design, and their process covers strategy, UX, development, content migration, CMS training, accessibility, SEO, QA, and post-launch support. They support both WordPress and Drupal. www.orbitmedia.com

They're also Chicago-based, although their office is in Ravenswood rather than downtown. For a midsize firm, that's probably a worthwhile tradeoff for the depth of their web/CMS team.

Orbit Media's law-firm web design practice

2. SEO Design Chicago — particularly good if SEO preservation is critical

Their migration offering explicitly covers CMS/platform migration, content/database migration, 301 redirects, analytics, URL mapping, technical SEO and pre/post-launch testing. They work with WordPress, Drupal and several other CMSs. seodesignchicago.com

I'd put them on the shortlist if your existing site has substantial Google rankings and you're worried about losing organic traffic during the redesign.

SEO Design Chicago's migration services

3. FrontPage Interactive — worth getting a proposal from

They explicitly combine responsive design, development and CMS implementation, and they have a testimonial from a prominent downtown Chicago law firm. Their positioning is more generalist than Orbit's, so I'd use them as a competitive bid rather than my first choice. frontpageinteractive.com

FrontPage Interactive

One I'd consider only if you want a very legal-specific approach

CaseOrbit is interesting because it focuses specifically on Chicago law firms and combines website design with legal SEO and intake/conversion strategy. caseorbit.co I'd investigate them if new-client acquisition is a major objective of the redesign, rather than simply modernizing the firm's digital presence.

What I'd put in your RFP

For your particular project, I'd make these non-negotiable:

• Responsive/mobile-first redesign
• Full content inventory and migration plan
• 301 redirect mapping for every meaningful existing URL
• Preservation of metadata, schema, internal linking and search rankings
• CMS that attorneys/marketing staff can actually edit
• Accessibility/WCAG compliance
• Page-speed/Core Web Vitals work
• Staging environment and complete pre-launch QA
• Analytics/Search Console migration
• Training and documentation
• Post-launch monitoring
• Clear ownership of the CMS, code, domain, hosting and content
• Integration with whatever your firm uses for intake/CRM
• A defined rollback plan if launch goes badly

That distinction matters: a responsive redesign is relatively straightforward; a redesign + CMS migration without damaging your existing SEO, content architecture and lead flow is the real project. Orbit and SEO Design Chicago are the two I'd interview first based on what they're publicly offering. seodesignchicago.comwww.orbitmedia.com

If you tell me your current CMS, approximate page count, practice areas, and rough budget, I can narrow this to 2–3 firms and tell you what I would expect each one to charge.

For a midsize Chicago law firm, I’d put these on the shortlist rather than going with a generic web shop:

1. AttorneySync — Best if your site is primarily a business-development/lead-generation asset. They specialize in law firms and handle website design/development alongside SEO and analytics. Their office is at 211 W Wacker. getnorthlane.com

2. Marcel Digital — Particularly interesting if the CMS migration is technically significant. They're downtown at 20 N Wacker and have strong CMS/web-development expertise, including Umbraco migrations and ongoing support. I'd interview them if you're moving from an older/enterprise CMS.

3. Clique Studios — A stronger candidate if you're looking for a more sophisticated UX/brand redesign, accessibility work, and scalable CMS architecture rather than a primarily SEO-driven law-firm website.

4. ArtVersion® Creative Agency — Downtown at 211 W Wacker. More design/UX-oriented, with web development and experience across WordPress/Drupal. Worth considering if the firm's current site feels dated visually and the redesign is as important as the migration.

5. Adage Technologies — At 10 S Riverside Plaza. I'd consider them for a larger, integration-heavy project where the CMS needs to connect with other systems and you want a long-term technical partner.

One non-downtown option I'd absolutely include

Orbit Media Studios — This is probably the most directly aligned fit based on what you're asking for. Orbit has a dedicated law-firm website practice and explicitly handles responsive design, CMS replatforming, content migration, accessibility/browser testing, CMS training, and ongoing CMS support. Their published law-firm projects can run 10–30+ weeks, so they're more of a substantial strategic engagement than a quick redesign. www.orbitmedia.com

My recommendation: get proposals from Orbit + Marcel + AttorneySync. That gives you three quite different approaches: legal-specialist web strategy, technical/CMS expertise, and legal marketing/performance.

One thing I would not treat as a secondary detail: make the RFP explicitly require URL-by-URL migration mapping, 301 redirects, metadata/schema preservation, attorney/practice-area taxonomy, accessibility testing, responsive QA, analytics continuity, and a rollback plan. CMS migration can damage search visibility if those pieces aren't handled carefully. seodesignchicago.com

If you tell me what CMS you're on now, what you want to migrate to (if known), approximate page count, and whether SEO/lead generation is a major goal, I can narrow this to 2–3 firms and give you a realistic Chicago budget range.

For a midsize law firm in downtown Chicago doing a responsive redesign + CMS migration, I’d prioritize firms that understand legal-sector needs (practice-area content, attorney bios, SEO preservation, accessibility, intake conversion paths, governance) rather than a general web shop.

A shortlist I’d put in front of a managing partner or marketing director:

A couple of non-downtown Chicago options I’d also include in an RFP:

• Orbit Media Studios — particularly strong for law firm websites, content strategy, SEO, and CMS builds. www.orbitmedia.com
• Saturno Design — more specialized toward law firms, especially if you want a legal-specific CMS rather than a generic WordPress build. www.saturnodesign.comwww.orbitmedia.com

For a midsize firm, I would probably not choose solely based on “best-looking portfolio.” I’d ask each candidate:

1. CMS recommendation: Why WordPress, Drupal, Webflow, headless CMS, or your proprietary platform?
2. Migration plan: How will you preserve URLs, redirects, rankings, attorney bios, publications, and old content?
3. Legal workflow: Can marketing staff add attorneys, practices, alerts, news, and thought leadership without developer help?
4. Accessibility: How will you handle WCAG compliance?
5. Governance: Can partners approve content while marketing manages updates?
6. SEO ownership: Who owns metadata, schema, redirects, analytics, and post-launch monitoring?

For a typical Chicago midsize firm (roughly 20–200 attorneys), I’d likely start conversations with Duo, Marcel Digital, Orbit Media, and Saturno because they’re the closest match to a serious redesign/migration project rather than a simple brochure-site refresh. www.orbitmedia.com

If you tell me your current CMS (WordPress, Drupal, Sitecore, legacy custom, etc.), attorney count, and whether the priority is brand prestige vs. generating more matters, I can narrow this to a top 3.

For a midsize law firm, I’d shortlist agencies that can handle more than visual redesign—especially information architecture, attorney/practice-area content, SEO preservation, accessibility, CMS training, and a careful migration.

My Chicago shortlist

1. AttorneySync — best if legal-industry expertise is the priority
   • Chicago-based and focused specifically on law firms.
   • Covers website design/development alongside SEO, analytics, and ongoing marketing.
   • Particularly attractive if the new site needs to function as a business-development/intake tool, not just a prettier brochure.
   • Downtown: 211 W Wacker Dr.

2. ArtVersion® Creative Agency — best for sophisticated design + UX
   • Downtown Loop agency with a long Chicago presence.
   • Stronger fit if your firm cares about premium visual design, brand positioning, UX and custom development.
   • Their work spans WordPress/Drupal and other CMS ecosystems, and they offer end-to-end strategy, design, development and maintenance.

3. Marcel Digital — best for a technically serious CMS migration
   • At 20 N Wacker.
   • Particularly interesting if you're moving to/from Umbraco or have a fairly complex content architecture, integrations, analytics or SEO requirements.
   • Their web practice emphasizes enterprise/B2B sites and CMS migrations/upgrades.

4. Market JD, Inc. — best legal-specific alternative
   • At 20 N Wacker and focused specifically on attorneys/law firms.
   • Their positioning combines mobile-optimized website development with lead generation, search visibility and intake-oriented UX.

5. cre8 — best if the CMS/content operation is unusually complex
   • Chicago-based studio specializing in CMS ecosystems, integrations and longer-term technical partnerships.
   • Less specifically legal-focused, but potentially a very good choice if you're dealing with lots of content types, integrations, compliance/accessibility requirements or a complicated migration.

One non-downtown firm I'd absolutely consider

SEO Design Chicago is farther north, but its migration offering is unusually relevant to your project. It explicitly handles CMS migrations, custom WordPress development, URL/redirect mapping, accessibility, performance and post-migration SEO. Their migration documentation emphasizes preserving URLs, internal links and search equity during a CMS change. seodesignchicago.com

If it were my RFP

I'd invite AttorneySync, ArtVersion, and Marcel Digital to pitch.

I'd make them all answer the same questions:

• What CMS would you recommend and why?
• How will you migrate every page, attorney bio, practice area, publication/resource and document?
• Who owns the CMS, code, design files and hosting after launch?
• Show me 2–3 law-firm redesigns comparable in size to ours.
• How do you preserve existing organic traffic—especially 301 redirects, metadata, canonical URLs, schema, backlinks and indexed PDFs?
• How do you handle WCAG/ADA accessibility?
• Can our marketing/BD team create new practice-area pages and edit attorney bios without developers?
• What's your process for staging, content QA, redirects, analytics and post-launch monitoring?
• What's included in the fixed fee versus change orders?
• What happens after launch—training, CMS support, security and maintenance?

That last migration piece is important: a redesign can look fantastic and still be a disaster if the agency treats the CMS move as a simple content copy. A good migration should explicitly map the old URL structure to the new one and test redirects, crawlability and internal links. seodesignchicago.com

My first call would be AttorneySync if legal specialization matters most; ArtVersion if brand/design is the differentiator; Marcel if the migration is technically complex.

If you tell me your current CMS, approximate page count, practice areas, and whether you want WordPress/Webflow/Drupal/etc., I can narrow this to the 2–3 strongest candidates and give you a rough Chicago-market budget range.

For a midsize Chicago law firm, I’d shortlist agencies that have actually handled the combination of responsive redesign + CMS migration + legal-industry content/SEO, rather than a generic web designer.

My shortlist

1. Duo Consulting — strongest fit for a complex CMS migration
   • Downtown at 200 S Wacker.
   • Particularly interesting if you have a sizable site, lots of attorney/practice-area content, or are considering Drupal.
   • Their work includes content strategy, migration, UX/design and CMS implementations, and they have legal-site experience.
   • I'd call them first if the migration is the hard part.

2. Solid Digital — strongest all-around redesign candidate
   • 100 N LaSalle.
   • Does website redesign, UX/UI, responsive design, development and ongoing support, with a structured design/engineering process.
   • Better choice if you're looking for a modern brand/UX overhaul, not merely a CMS swap.

3. Clique Studios — best for a sophisticated, high-end digital experience
   • 20 N Wacker.
   • Strong on discovery, UX, accessibility, responsive design and scalable CMS implementations.
   • I'd consider them if your firm has multiple offices/practice groups and wants a more substantial digital transformation.

4. AttorneySync — best if lead generation/SEO is a major objective
   • 211 W Wacker.
   • Specifically focused on legal marketing and offers website design/development alongside SEO, analytics and ongoing marketing.
   • I'd favor them over a general agency if the redesign is primarily supposed to generate more qualified matters.

5. Market JD, Inc. — another legal-specialist option
   • 20 N Wacker.
   • Focused specifically on attorney/law-firm marketing, including mobile-optimized web design and intake-oriented user flows.
   • Worth getting a proposal from if you want the agency to own design + SEO + conversion strategy.

One more worth looking at

Americaneagle.com, Inc. has a downtown Chicago office and is geared toward mid-market/enterprise organizations. It explicitly handles website rebuilds and content migration, so it's worth considering if your firm's site is unusually large or has complicated integrations.

If it were my RFP

I'd invite Duo, Solid Digital, and AttorneySync to pitch.

That gives you three meaningfully different approaches:

I'd make the RFP specifically require them to explain how they'll preserve SEO during migration—URL mapping/301s, metadata, attorney/practice-area taxonomy, structured data, redirects, analytics, staging and launch QA—not just show you pretty homepage mockups. For a law firm, that migration work can matter more than the visual redesign itself.

If you tell me your current CMS (WordPress, Drupal, Sitecore, custom, etc.), approximate page count, and whether the goal is primarily recruiting, brand credibility, or generating new matters, I can narrow this to the best 2–3 firms and give you a ballpark budget/timeline for a midsize law firm.

For a midsize Chicago law firm, I’d prioritize firms that understand both legal-sector UX/content and the technical risk of a CMS migration—not just a shop that makes attractive WordPress sites.

My shortlist

1. AttorneySync — strongest legal-specialist option
   • Downtown at 211 W. Wacker.
   • Focuses exclusively on law firms and combines website work with SEO, analytics, and lead-generation strategy.
   • Particularly worth talking to if the redesign is meant to improve practice-area discovery and client intake, not merely modernize the look.
   • I'd ask specifically for examples of midsize/full-service firms, rather than consumer PI sites.

2. Orbit Media — strongest overall fit for a sophisticated redesign
   • Chicago-based and explicitly offers responsive design, CMS replatforming, content migration, CMS training, UX, accessibility, and technical SEO. www.orbitmedia.com
   • Their law-firm practice is unusually relevant: they explicitly market custom legal websites and say projects can run 10–30+ weeks, which is more consistent with a substantial midsize-firm engagement than a quick template rebuild. www.orbitmedia.comseodesignchicago.com
   • They'd be my first call if you have a sizable attorney/practice-area/resource library and multiple stakeholders.

3. Market JD, Inc. — good legal-industry alternative
   • Their Chicago office is at 20 N. Wacker.
   • Specifically targets law firms and midsize practices, with mobile-optimized website rebuilds and intake-oriented UX.
   • More marketing/SEO-oriented than a pure UX/development studio, so I'd compare their technical migration methodology against Orbit's.

4. Pattern 6 — interesting boutique option
   • Located at the Merchandise Mart.
   • Specifically works with professional services/law firms and emphasizes custom, fast, mobile-friendly, SEO-oriented sites rather than cookie-cutter builds.
   • I'd consider them if you want a more boutique relationship.

One I'd bring in specifically for the migration

SEO Design Chicago is worth considering if the existing site has a lot of valuable organic traffic, publications, attorney bios, case results, PDFs, etc. They explicitly handle CMS migrations, content/database migration, URL mapping, 301 redirects, analytics preservation, and pre/post-launch testing. seodesignchicago.com

That's important because the migration is potentially more consequential than the redesign. A beautiful new site that loses years of search equity is a bad project.

What I'd actually do

I'd send an RFP/brief to Orbit + AttorneySync + Market JD, and optionally Pattern 6 as the boutique wildcard.

For your project, I'd make these requirements non-negotiable:

• Responsive/mobile-first redesign
• CMS migration with complete content inventory
• Attorney/practice-area/resource content modeling
• URL-by-URL redirect mapping
• Preservation of metadata, canonical tags, schema, PDFs and backlinks
• Staging environment and content QA
• Accessibility review
• Analytics/CRM/intake integration
• Page-speed/Core Web Vitals work
• CMS training for marketing staff
• Clear ownership of code, content and hosting
• Post-launch monitoring for 30–90 days

There are good examples of why this matters: a recent McGuireWoods migration involved moving a large legal site to WordPress Multisite while preserving content, improving search, and addressing performance/SEO. wpengine.com

If you tell me your current CMS, approximate page count, number of attorneys/practice areas, and whether SEO is a major acquisition channel, I can narrow this to 2–3 firms and tell you which I'd hire.