ChatGPT answers, unedited

For a mid-sized River North law firm, I’d interview agencies that can handle CMS migration, information architecture, attorney/practice-area content, SEO preservation, accessibility, security, and a polished professional brand—not just visual redesign.

Shortlist:

1. Orbit Media Studios — strong fit for legal/professional services. They specifically market law firm website redesigns, CMS builds, SEO, content strategy, migrations, and training. Orbit Media Studios

Interview for: WordPress strategy, SEO migration plan, attorney bio/practice templates, analytics.

2. Hype Legal — legal-focused shop with Chicago law firm case studies and experience spanning UX, CMS implementation, SEO, migration, and support. Hype Legal

Interview for: firms wanting a legal-industry specialist and brand-forward redesign.

3. Builden Partners — focused exclusively on law firms and offers redesigns from audit through launch, including CMS and strategic marketing considerations. Builden Partners

Interview for: partner-level guidance, stakeholder management, and minimizing attorney time.

4. Americaneagle.com — larger agency option with web design, development, integrations, hosting, and support capabilities.

Interview for: complex migrations, integrations, or a larger-scale CMS environment.

5. Eastern Standard — experienced with legal organizations and CMS platforms including Drupal and WordPress, plus migrations and optimization. Eastern Standard

Interview for: firms considering Drupal or enterprise-grade CMS needs.

6. Alliance Interactive — broader Chicago agency with CMS, UX, SEO, and redesign capabilities. Alliance Interactive

Interview for: a custom digital experience beyond a standard law firm template.

My suggested interview slate

Invite 5 agencies:

• Orbit Media
• Hype Legal
• Builden Partners
• Americaneagle.com
• Eastern Standard

Ask each for:

• CMS recommendation and rationale (WordPress, Drupal, headless, etc.)
• URL migration/redirect methodology
• SEO loss-prevention plan
• accessibility approach (WCAG)
• attorney bio/practice-area content model
• examples of law firm redesigns launched in the last 2–3 years
• ongoing maintenance/security costs

For a typical mid-sized firm, I’d expect the strongest contenders to be the agencies with law-firm experience plus migration discipline, rather than a general creative studio. Orbit Media Studios Builden Partners

• Orbit Media Studios - 4043 N Ravenswood Ave #316, Chicago, IL 60613, United States
• Duo Consulting - 20 W Kinzie St, Ste 1510, Chicago, IL 60654
• Sandstorm Design - 4422 N Ravenswood Ave #50, Chicago, IL 60640, 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
• 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
• Attorney Web Design | Chicago - 233 S Wacker Dr Ste 4400, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• OVC Lawyer Marketing - 750 Warrenville Rd Ste 203, Lisle, IL 60532, United States
• Brand Vision Marketing - Web Design & Branding - 30 N Michigan Ave #504, Chicago, IL 60602, United States
• Forward Lawyer Marketing - 460 N Main St Unit 209, Glen Ellyn, IL 60137, United States
• Marcel Digital - 445 W Erie St #200, Chicago, IL 60654, United States

For a mid-sized Chicago law firm in River North, I’d interview a fairly tight group rather than a generic “Chicago web design” shortlist. Your project has three distinct requirements: law-firm UX/content architecture, a genuine CMS migration, and preservation of SEO/analytics equity.

Agencies I’d put on the interview list

1. Orbit Media Studios — Chicago

• Strong candidate if you want a sophisticated strategy/design partner rather than a legal-marketing-only shop.
• They explicitly offer law-firm website design, development, CMS implementation, accessibility, SEO, analytics and ongoing support. Their legal practice also says projects can include migration and a user-friendly CMS. Orbit Media Studios
• Good fit if the redesign needs to elevate the firm's brand and information architecture substantially.
• Duo Consulting — River North

• Particularly worth interviewing if Drupal is involved or you're considering Drupal.
• They're actually in River North on W. Kinzie and specialize in Drupal-based digital platforms, including building, migrating and supporting them.
• I'd make this a priority if your current CMS is Drupal, Sitecore, or another more complex platform rather than a straightforward WordPress migration.
• Great Jakes

• A very relevant specialist if you want a law-firm-specific agency rather than a general web agency.
• They say they work primarily with mid-sized and large firms, typically 50–1,500 lawyers, and handle strategy, UX, CMS development, data migration, hosting and maintenance in-house. Great Jakes Marketing Company
• Their emphasis on scalable CMS architecture is particularly relevant if you're expecting practice groups, attorneys, offices or content to expand.
• Hype Legal

• Worth including for a more boutique, legal-specialist approach.
• Their Chicago law-firm work encompasses strategy, branding, UX/UI, CMS implementation, SEO, hosting, site migration and CMS training. Hype Legal
• I'd want to see how their capabilities and project-management depth compare with the larger firms above.
• Sandstorm Design — Chicago

• This is the wildcard I'd interview if the project is technically substantial.
• They have experience with Drupal/Acquia, WordPress, Kentico and Sitecore and focus heavily on UX, engineering and scalable digital platforms.
• They're less specifically legal-focused, so I'd require them to show comparable professional-services/legal work.
• Builden Partners

• Another Chicago professional-services specialist worth a conversation.
• Their website-redesign offering emphasizes minimizing attorney/leadership involvement, managing the project against schedule and budget, and producing a structurally sound site with a long useful life. They're at 150 S. Wacker. Builden Partners
• I'd particularly investigate their experience with actual CMS migrations, rather than primarily redesign/rebrand engagements.

A couple of more specialized alternatives

• AttorneySync — Chicago, Wacker Drive. Legal-only agency with website development and conversion/SEO capabilities. I'd consider them if growth, SEO and lead generation are as important as the redesign itself.
• Market JD, Inc. — 20 N Wacker. Another legal-focused Chicago shop offering website rebuilds and SEO, particularly oriented toward small/midsized firms.
• MileMark Legal Marketing — worth adding if you want a national legal specialist. Their mid-sized-firm offering specifically discusses multi-practice architecture, attorney-level differentiation and migrations from legacy CMSs while protecting existing SEO equity. MileMark

My interview slate

If I were creating an RFP for your firm, I'd probably invite five:

That gives you a useful spread: generalist premium digital agency → legal specialist → CMS engineering specialist → boutique legal agency → technical UX agency.

The most important thing I'd test in the interviews

Don't let the agencies turn this into a beauty-contest for homepage designs.

Give each agency the same requirement:

“Show us exactly how you would migrate our existing site without losing its accumulated SEO value, analytics history, important URLs, backlinks, content, forms, integrations and internal editing workflows.”

Then ask for a proposed approach covering:

• Complete URL/content inventory
• Old-to-new URL/301 redirect mapping
• What content gets migrated, rewritten, consolidated or retired
• CMS/platform recommendation and why
• Information architecture for practices, attorneys, industries and offices
• Preservation of metadata, schema, canonicals and XML sitemaps
• Google Search Console/Analytics continuity
• Forms, CRM/intake and marketing integrations
• Accessibility and performance requirements
• Staging/QA process
• Launch-day procedure and rollback plan
• Post-launch monitoring for 30/60/90 days
• Who actually performs the migration versus subcontractors

That's important because a redesign can look excellent while quietly destroying years of accumulated search equity. Even legal-web specialists explicitly identify redirect mapping and migration as critical parts of a mid-sized firm's redesign. MileMark

One additional consideration: since you're in River North, I'd give Duo an especially close look if your existing CMS is Drupal or another enterprise-ish system; otherwise I'd start with Orbit + Great Jakes + Hype Legal as the three most useful contrasts, then add Duo/Sandstorm depending on the technical complexity.

If you tell me your current CMS, approximate attorney count, number of pages, and whether the site generates meaningful organic traffic, I can narrow this to a 3–4 agency RFP shortlist and give you a specific interview scorecard/questions for each.

“Show us exactly how you would migrate our existing site without losing its accumulated SEO value, analytics history, important URLs, backlinks, content, forms, integrations and internal editing workflows.”

Then ask for a proposed approach covering:

• Complete URL/content inventory
• Old-to-new URL/301 redirect mapping
• What content gets migrated, rewritten, consolidated or retired
• CMS/platform recommendation and why
• Information architecture for practices, attorneys, industries and offices
• Preservation of metadata, schema, canonicals and XML sitemaps
• Google Search Console/Analytics continuity
• Forms, CRM/intake and marketing integrations
• Accessibility and performance requirements
• Staging/QA process
• Launch-day procedure and rollback plan
• Post-launch monitoring for 30/60/90 days
• Who actually performs the migration versus subcontractors

That's important because a redesign can look excellent while quietly destroying years of accumulated search equity. Even legal-web specialists explicitly identify redirect mapping and migration as critical parts of a mid-sized firm's redesign.

• Duo Consulting - 20 W Kinzie St, Ste 1510, Chicago, IL 60654
• Solid Digital - 100 N LaSalle St #1400, Chicago, IL 60602, United States
• AttorneySync - 211 W Wacker Dr Ste 300, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• One North, A TEKsystems Company - 227 W Monroe St #3500, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Americaneagle.com, Inc. - 200 W Jackson Blvd Fl 22, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Marcel Digital - 445 W Erie St #200, Chicago, IL 60654, United States
• Praella - eCommerce Agency - 203 N LaSalle St Suite 2100, Chicago, IL 60601, United States
• OVC Lawyer Marketing - 750 Warrenville Rd Ste 203, Lisle, IL 60532, United States
• dNOVO Group | Law Firm Marketing Agency - 545 N McClurg Ct Ste 1808, Chicago, IL 60611, United States
• Forward Lawyer Marketing - 460 N Main St Unit 209, Glen Ellyn, IL 60137, United States
• Brand Vision Marketing - Web Design & Branding - 30 N Michigan Ave #504, Chicago, IL 60602, United States
• Alpha Efficiency - Web Design Chicago Agency - 875 N Michigan Ave, 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
• Millennial Web Development - 329 W 18th St Ste 413, Chicago, IL 60616, United States

For a mid-sized River North law firm doing both a CMS migration and a substantive redesign, I’d interview a mix of legal-specialist agencies and stronger generalist/enterprise CMS shops. The migration discipline matters as much as the visual design: URL preservation, attorney/practice-area content modeling, search visibility, redirects, accessibility, integrations, and an editor-friendly CMS all need to survive the transition.

My interview shortlist

• Duo Consulting — Strong candidate if you have a complex content architecture or are considering Drupal. They're in River North and specialize in Drupal-based digital platforms, migrations, UX, and content management. Their portfolio specifically includes legal work, which makes them particularly relevant for a sophisticated firm site.
• Solid Digital — Worth interviewing for the design/strategy + CMS combination. They're Chicago-based and focus heavily on B2B websites, UX/UI, WordPress, CMS migrations, and making sites manageable by internal teams. That can translate well to a mid-sized professional-services firm.
• AttorneySync — Legal-industry specialist. They work exclusively with law firms, including small and midsize firms, and emphasize website conversion, SEO, and ownership of the firm's digital assets. I'd include them specifically to see what a legal-specialist approach looks like against the more technically oriented agencies.
• Orbit Media — Probably one of the most directly relevant Chicago agencies to put on the RFP list. Orbit has a dedicated law-firm website practice and explicitly handles redesigns, CMS implementation/training, UX and content work. Its Chicago headquarters are on Ravenswood, so it's local but not River North. Orbit Media Studios
• Black Antelope — Particularly interesting if your site is large/content-heavy. Its legal practice specifically discusses CMS/content migration, UX, SEO and Drupal, and its Hagens Berman case study involved migrating hundreds of legal-content pages into a new Drupal architecture. Black Antelope
• One North, A TEKsystems Company — Consider if this is a relatively sophisticated digital transformation rather than a simple website refresh. They work with mid-market/enterprise organizations and major CMS/DXP platforms including Sitecore and AEM, along with content migration and digital-experience work.
• Americaneagle.com, Inc. — A bigger-agency option. The Chicago team handles complex web builds/rebuilds, UX, integrations, migration, hosting/security and ongoing support. I'd use them as a benchmark if your firm's site has substantial integrations or hundreds/thousands of content objects.

How I'd narrow it

For your particular situation, I'd probably start with five interviews:

1. Duo Consulting — technical/content architecture benchmark
2. Orbit Media — law-firm + UX/content benchmark
3. Solid Digital — modern B2B/professional-services benchmark
4. AttorneySync — legal-specialist/SEO benchmark
5. Black Antelope — sophisticated legal-content migration benchmark

That gives you a useful spread rather than five agencies selling essentially the same thing.

I would not choose solely on the visual comps. For a law firm migration, I'd make each finalist answer the same technical questions.

What I'd put in your RFP

Ask every agency to address:

• CMS recommendation: WordPress vs. Drupal vs. another platform, and why for your firm's content model.
• Migration methodology: How will they inventory and map every existing URL, PDF, image, attorney bio, practice-area page, publication and resource?
• SEO preservation: 301 mapping, metadata, canonicals, structured data, XML sitemap, redirects, internal linking and launch monitoring.
• Content modeling: How will attorneys, practices, industries, offices, matters/cases, publications, news and awards relate to one another?
• Editorial experience: Show your marketing/communications team exactly how they'll create a new attorney, update a practice page, publish an alert and add a related resource.
• Accessibility: WCAG target, testing methodology and who is responsible for remediation.
• Performance: Core Web Vitals/performance targets and how they prevent the CMS from becoming bloated.
• Integrations: CRM/intake, analytics, marketing automation, search, forms, events, careers and any existing third-party systems.
• Hosting/security: Managed hosting, backups, patching, staging, uptime, WAF/CDN and incident response.
• Ownership: Your firm owns the domain, hosting account, CMS, code, analytics, content and design files—not the agency.
• Post-launch: What happens during the first 30/60/90 days after launch, particularly if organic traffic or indexing changes?
• Migration testing: Require a URL-by-URL migration/redirect report and a pre/post-launch crawl.

One particularly important point: don't let an agency treat this as "we'll copy the existing pages into the new CMS." A good migration should use the redesign to determine what content should exist, how it should be structured, and how different content types connect before the build begins.

If you tell me roughly your current CMS, number of URLs/pages, practice areas, whether you have multiple offices, and your approximate project budget, I can narrow this to 3–4 agencies and build you a side-by-side interview scorecard/RFP tailored to the firm.

• Logical Media Group - 445 W Erie St #208, Chicago, IL 60654, United States
• Thirdwave - 15 W Hubbard St, Chicago, IL 60654, United States
• Solid Digital - 100 N LaSalle St #1400, Chicago, IL 60602, United States
• Orbit Media Studios - 4043 N Ravenswood Ave #316, Chicago, IL 60613, 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
• 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
• 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
• Forward Lawyer Marketing - 460 N Main St Unit 209, Glen Ellyn, IL 60137, United States
• Chicago Website Design SEO Company - 10 S Riverside Plaza #875, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Alpha Efficiency - Web Design Chicago Agency - 875 N Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60611, United States
• Brand Vision Marketing - Web Design & Branding - 30 N Michigan Ave #504, Chicago, IL 60602, United States
• Proceed Innovative - 520 W Erie St Apt 440, Chicago, IL 60654, United States
• Marcel Digital - 445 W Erie St #200, Chicago, IL 60654, United States

Yes. For a mid-sized River North law firm doing both a CMS migration and a substantive redesign, I’d avoid treating this as a generic “web design” RFP. You want an agency that can simultaneously handle legal-industry UX, CMS architecture, content migration, SEO/redirect preservation, accessibility, analytics, and attorney/stakeholder management.

Based on current Chicago agencies and their demonstrated capabilities, I’d interview 5–6 firms, with this shortlist:

My Chicago shortlist

1. Logical Media Group — strongest local generalist

DirectionsWebsite[Call](tel:+1 312-465-2911)

They're actually in River North, at 445 W Erie St, and offer the kind of broader digital capability I'd want for a mid-sized firm: UX, website development, SEO and marketing rather than simply designing pages.

Why interview them: Good candidate if the redesign needs to integrate with your broader marketing/lead-generation operation.

Watch for: Ask specifically for two or three comparable law-firm CMS migrations, not just attractive website examples.

2. Thirdwave — strongest technical/CMS candidate

DirectionsWebsite[Call](tel:+1 312-329-1960)

Thirdwave is also in River North, and its positioning is much more technology/development-oriented: CMS-driven sites, integrations, engineering, hosting and ongoing support.

I'd put them high on the list if you're migrating from something like Sitecore, Drupal, Joomla, an old custom CMS, or a heavily customized WordPress installation, rather than simply moving a brochure site.

Why interview them: They look particularly appropriate when the CMS architecture and integrations are as important as the visual redesign.

3. Solid Digital — strongest B2B/strategy alternative

DirectionsWebsite[Call](tel:+1 877-899-9981)

Solid Digital is downtown and specializes in B2B website strategy, UX/UI and development.

A law firm is somewhat analogous to B2B professional services: complex offerings, multiple audiences, credibility-heavy buying decisions and lots of stakeholders.

Why interview them: I'd consider them if your goal is a premium, strategic redesign rather than a legal-marketing-template website.

4. Orbit Media Studios — strongest law-firm-specific contender

DirectionsWebsite[Call](tel:+1 773-348-4581)

This would be my must-interview.

Orbit has a dedicated law-firm website practice and explicitly describes work spanning strategy, design, development, CMS implementation, accessibility, SEO, QA, migration and ongoing CMS support. Their current legal portfolio/process is unusually well aligned with what you're describing. Orbit Media Studios

They also say a full redesign typically takes 10–30+ weeks, which is useful context for evaluating proposals that promise a suspiciously fast turnaround. Orbit Media Studios

Why interview them: Probably the best all-around fit if you want legal-industry experience + sophisticated UX/content strategy + SEO + CMS implementation.

5. Hype Legal — strongest specialist for a polished legal brand

Hype Legal has a Chicago law-firm case study for Hart McLaughlin & Eldridge that is particularly relevant: its scope included strategy, branding, UX/UI, website development, CMS implementation, SEO, hosting, site migration, maintenance and CMS training. Hype Legal

That's essentially your project in miniature.

Why interview them: I'd strongly consider them if the firm wants the new site to feel distinctive and premium rather than like a conventional law-firm website.

6. Builden Partners — worth adding if stakeholder management is a major concern

Builden explicitly markets its redesign process around minimizing the time burden on law-firm leadership and keeping projects on schedule and budget. It is headquartered at 150 S Wacker. Builden Partners

Why interview them: Particularly attractive if partners are going to have strong opinions and you need an agency capable of shepherding a relatively political/complex approval process.

The wildcard: a law-firm SEO specialist

I'd also consider interviewing AttorneySync or Market JD, Inc. as a specialist benchmark.

AttorneySync is Chicago-based and works specifically with law firms, with an emphasis on qualified consultations/cases rather than generic traffic metrics. Market JD likewise focuses on attorney/law-firm websites and digital marketing and is located at 20 N Wacker.

I wouldn't automatically choose a legal-marketing specialist over the larger web agencies. Instead, I'd use one in the RFP to answer an important question:

Does the generalist agency actually understand law-firm SEO and intake, or are they just good at making websites?

That's a very useful competitive check.

Who I'd actually invite to the first round

If this were my RFP, I'd make it:

Then I'd probably narrow it to three finalists.

One important point about the migration

Don't let agencies give you a proposal that says essentially “we'll migrate the content and launch the new site.”

The RFP should explicitly require a migration/SEO plan covering:

• Complete URL inventory and redirect mapping
• Preservation of organic rankings and backlinks
• Metadata migration
• Attorney/practice-area/location taxonomy
• Canonicals, XML sitemap and robots.txt
• Structured data/schema
• Image/document migration
• PDF and legacy-content handling
• Analytics/GTM/Search Console continuity
• Staging and QA
• Crawl-before/crawl-after comparisons
• 301 testing
• Launch-day monitoring
• Rollback plan
• CMS training and documentation
• Accessibility testing
• Content ownership and portability after termination

This matters because a CMS migration can destroy years of accumulated search equity if URL architecture and redirects are handled poorly. SEO Design Chicago, for example, specifically offers CMS migration work centered on preserving rankings, redirects and site structure. SEO Design Chicago

My initial ranking for your particular situation: Orbit → Thirdwave → Hype Legal → Logical Media → Solid Digital → Builden.

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 objective, I can turn this into a much tighter Chicago agency shortlist with estimated project tiers, relevant case studies, interview questions, and an RFP scorecard.

Solid Digital is downtown and specializes in B2B website strategy, UX/UI and development.

A law firm is somewhat analogous to B2B professional services: complex offerings, multiple audiences, credibility-heavy buying decisions and lots of stakeholders.

Why interview them: I'd consider them if your goal is a premium, strategic redesign rather than a legal-marketing-template website.

4. Orbit Media Studios — strongest law-firm-specific contender

This would be my must-interview.

Orbit has a dedicated law-firm website practice and explicitly describes work spanning strategy, design, development, CMS implementation, accessibility, SEO, QA, migration and ongoing CMS support. Their current legal portfolio/process is unusually well aligned with what you're describing. Orbit Media Studios

They also say a full redesign typically takes 10–30+ weeks, which is useful context for evaluating proposals that promise a suspiciously fast turnaround. Orbit Media Studios

Why interview them: Probably the best all-around fit if you want legal-industry experience + sophisticated UX/content strategy + SEO + CMS implementation.

5. Hype Legal — strongest specialist for a polished legal brand

Hype Legal has a Chicago law-firm case study for Hart McLaughlin & Eldridge that is particularly relevant: its scope included strategy, branding, UX/UI, website development, CMS implementation, SEO, hosting, site migration, maintenance and CMS training. Hype Legal

That's essentially your project in miniature.

Why interview them: I'd strongly consider them if the firm wants the new site to feel distinctive and premium rather than like a conventional law-firm website.

6. Builden Partners — worth adding if stakeholder management is a major concern

Builden explicitly markets its redesign process around minimizing the time burden on law-firm leadership and keeping projects on schedule and budget. It is headquartered at 150 S Wacker. Builden Partners

Why interview them: Particularly attractive if partners are going to have strong opinions and you need an agency capable of shepherding a relatively political/complex approval process.

The wildcard: a law-firm SEO specialist

I'd also consider interviewing AttorneySync or Market JD, Inc. as a specialist benchmark.

AttorneySync is Chicago-based and works specifically with law firms, with an emphasis on qualified consultations/cases rather than generic traffic metrics. Market JD likewise focuses on attorney/law-firm websites and digital marketing and is located at 20 N Wacker.

I wouldn't automatically choose a legal-marketing specialist over the larger web agencies. Instead, I'd use one in the RFP to answer an important question:

Does the generalist agency actually understand law-firm SEO and intake, or are they just good at making websites?

That's a very useful competitive check.

Who I'd actually invite to the first round

If this were my RFP, I'd make it:

Then I'd probably narrow it to three finalists.

One important point about the migration

Don't let agencies give you a proposal that says essentially “we'll migrate the content and launch the new site.”

The RFP should explicitly require a migration/SEO plan covering:

• Complete URL inventory and redirect mapping
• Preservation of organic rankings and backlinks
• Metadata migration
• Attorney/practice-area/location taxonomy
• Canonicals, XML sitemap and robots.txt
• Structured data/schema
• Image/document migration
• PDF and legacy-content handling
• Analytics/GTM/Search Console continuity
• Staging and QA
• Crawl-before/crawl-after comparisons
• 301 testing
• Launch-day monitoring
• Rollback plan
• CMS training and documentation
• Accessibility testing
• Content ownership and portability after termination

This matters because a CMS migration can destroy years of accumulated search equity if URL architecture and redirects are handled poorly. SEO Design Chicago, for example, specifically offers CMS migration work centered on preserving rankings, redirects and site structure.

My initial ranking for your particular situation: Orbit → Thirdwave → Hype Legal → Logical Media → Solid Digital → Builden.

• Orbit Media Studios - 4043 N Ravenswood Ave #316, Chicago, IL 60613
• SEO Design Chicago | Digital Marketing & Web Design Agency - 2068 N Western Ave 1F - Front, Chicago, IL 60647, United States
• Attorney Web Design | Chicago - 233 S Wacker Dr Ste 4400, Chicago, IL 60606
• Flamingo Agency - 3752 N Southport Ave, Chicago, IL 60613
• Brand Vision Marketing - Web Design & Branding - 30 N Michigan Ave #504, Chicago, IL 60602
• SEOLEVELUP Website Design SEO Company Chicago - 355 N Laflin St Ste 101C, Chicago, IL 60607
• Coleman Immigration - 4809 N Ravenswood Ave Ste 311, Chicago, IL 60640
• John Schuster - 1531 N Wells St, Chicago, IL 60610
• McEntee Law Group - 4245 N Knox Ave, Chicago, IL 60641
• Alpha Efficiency - Web Design Chicago Agency - 875 N Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60611
• Scott Global - 417 W Eugenie St, Chicago, IL 60614
• Global Immigration Associates, PC - 230 W Monroe St Ste 2800, Chicago, IL 60606

Yes. For a mid-sized River North law firm, I’d interview a small field rather than a generic “Chicago web design” shop. Your project has three unusually important requirements: legal-sector UX/content architecture, a real CMS migration, and SEO-safe restructuring.

My Chicago shortlist

• Orbit Media Studios — my first interview. Orbit has a dedicated law-firm web practice and explicitly handles strategy, redesign, CMS implementation, content, SEO, and training. They say legal redesigns commonly run 10–30+ weeks, which is realistic for a serious mid-sized firm. Orbit Media Studios

orbitmedia.com

• Hype Legal — strongest specialist alternative. Their work is specifically focused on law firms, and their Chicago case study for Hart McLaughlin & Eldridge covers UX/UI, CMS implementation, SEO, site migration, hosting, and CMS training—the combination you're looking for. Hype Legal

hypelegal.com

• JusticeArch — worth interviewing if marketing performance and SEO are as important as visual redesign. Their case studies include a substantial Chicago law-firm rebuild involving 81 pages, 35,000+ words, geographic pages, and an SEO overhaul. JusticeArch

justicearch.com

• SEO Design Chicago | Digital Marketing & Web Design Agency — the technical/SEO candidate. Their migration practice explicitly covers WordPress, Drupal and other CMSs, URL restructuring, redirects, canonicalization, content migration and post-launch monitoring. SEO Design Chicago

seodesignchicago.com

• Marcel Digital — I'd add them if your current site is large, technically complicated, or integrated with other systems. They specifically handle CMS/framework migrations and emphasize the SEO risks of changing URLs, navigation and CMS platforms. Marcel Digital

marceldigital.com

One non-Chicago firm I'd seriously consider

Great Jakes is worth putting into the RFP even though I wouldn't limit the search geographically. They're unusually focused on law firms—typically firms from roughly 50 to 1,500 lawyers—and build modular CMS architectures around practice groups, attorneys, offices, industries and acquisitions. That's particularly relevant if your firm expects to grow or add practices. Great Jakes Marketing Company

greatjakes.com

How I'd narrow it

I'd probably invite 4 firms to pitch:

1. Orbit — best overall balance of strategy, design, content and legal experience.
2. Hype Legal — best if you want a highly legal-specific partner.
3. JusticeArch — best if organic search/lead generation is a major objective.
4. Marcel Digital or SEO Design Chicago — best technical counterweight, particularly if the migration is complicated.

I would not choose solely based on who produces the prettiest homepage mockup. For a law firm, the expensive mistakes happen in the information architecture, attorney/practice taxonomy, CMS modeling, redirects, metadata, search, permissions, integrations and content migration.

What I'd ask every agency

Give every finalist the same seven questions:

• Show us a law-firm migration you've actually launched. How many URLs, and what CMS did you migrate from/to?
• Who does the migration? Named technical people, not just an account manager.
• Give us your URL-migration methodology. I want to see an actual redirect/URL mapping example.
• How will you model attorneys, practices, industries, offices, insights and related content in the CMS?
• What happens to our existing SEO equity? Ask specifically about redirects, canonicals, XML sitemaps, structured data, internal links and post-launch monitoring.
• What CMS would you recommend and why? Make them justify WordPress/Drupal/etc. against your firm's actual needs rather than selling you their preferred platform.
• Show us the editor experience. Have one of your attorneys or marketing staff actually perform common tasks in the proposed CMS.

One especially useful benchmark: Americaneagle.com's McGuireWoods project involved replacing a law firm's CMS, migrating a large amount of legal content, implementing WordPress Multisite, improving search, and preserving SEO/performance. That's the kind of migration case study I'd expect a serious finalist to be able to discuss at a similar level of specificity. wpengine.com

If you tell me roughly how many attorneys/pages you have and your current CMS (WordPress, Drupal, Sitecore, etc.), I can narrow this to a 3-agency shortlist and give you an RFP/interview scorecard.

• Marcel Digital - 20 N Wacker Dr Ste 1285, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Solid Digital - 100 N LaSalle St #1400, Chicago, IL 60602, United States
• AttorneySync - 211 W Wacker Dr Ste 300, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• dNOVO Group | Law Firm Marketing Agency - 545 N McClurg Ct Ste 1808, Chicago, IL 60611, United States
• BSPE Legal Marketing - Chicago - 875 N Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60610, United States
• Orbit Media Studios - 4043 N Ravenswood Ave #316, Chicago, IL 60613, United States
• OVC Lawyer Marketing - 750 Warrenville Rd Ste 203, Lisle, IL 60532, United States
• Forward Lawyer Marketing - 3553 W Peterson Ave Ste 30, Chicago, IL 60659, United States
• Forward Lawyer Marketing - 460 N Main St Unit 209, Glen Ellyn, IL 60137, United States
• Market JD, Inc. - 20 N Wacker Dr Ste 1200, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• YourPortal - 2211 N Elston Ave Ste 208, Chicago, IL 60614, United States
• Marcel Digital - 445 W Erie St #200, Chicago, IL 60654, United States
• Attorney Web Design | Chicago - 233 S Wacker Dr Ste 4400, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Alpha Efficiency - Web Design Chicago Agency - 875 N Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60611, United States
• Windy City Web Solutions - 801 S Wells St, Chicago, IL 60607, United States
• Pattern 6 - 222 W Merchandise Mart Plaza, Chicago, IL 60654, United States

For a mid-sized Chicago law firm doing a true CMS migration + redesign, I’d interview a fairly short list rather than a generic “top web agencies” roster. The migration piece changes the evaluation: you need strong information architecture, SEO/redirect preservation, CMS engineering, accessibility, and enough experience with professional-services stakeholders to survive attorney review cycles.

My shortlist

1. Marcel Digital — best technical/CMS-heavy option

DirectionsWebsite[Call](tel:+1 312-255-8044)

They’re in River North at 20 N Wacker and have substantial experience with CMS implementations, migrations and web development, particularly Umbraco, along with SEO, analytics and CRO.

Interview them if: your current site is complicated, has lots of content/practice areas, integrations, multiple audiences, or you're considering a more sophisticated CMS than standard WordPress.

Question to ask: “Show us a migration where you inherited a large professional-services site and had to preserve organic traffic, URLs, metadata and analytics.”

2. Solid Digital — best overall agency-style candidate

DirectionsWebsite[Call](tel:+1 877-899-9981)

Solid Digital is downtown at 100 N LaSalle and has experience with website rebuilds, CMS migrations, WordPress and complex integrations, with strategy/design/engineering all under one roof.

I'd put them high on the list if you want a polished redesign without sacrificing serious technical execution.

Interview them if: the site needs a substantial brand/UX upgrade and you want a mature agency rather than a legal-marketing shop.

3. AttorneySync — best legal-specialist comparison

DirectionsWebsite[Call](tel:+1 773-828-8878)

AttorneySync is at 211 W Wacker and works exclusively with law firms, including website development and digital marketing.

That makes them useful as a counterpoint to the generalist agencies: they'll understand practice-area architecture, attorney bios, intake, legal SEO and the peculiarities of law-firm marketing.

Interview them if: organic search and qualified consultations are major objectives, not just aesthetics.

4. dNOVO Group | Law Firm Marketing Agency — legal marketing + website

DirectionsWebsite[Call](tel:+1 855-908-0588)

dNOVO has a Chicago office at 545 N McClurg Ct and focuses heavily on law firms, combining website work with SEO, paid acquisition and content.

I'd include them if you want the website project to become part of a broader client-acquisition program.

Caveat: I'd scrutinize exactly who does the CMS engineering and migration work versus marketing/creative.

5. Marcel Digital — particularly compelling if you're on Umbraco

DirectionsWebsite[Call](tel:+1 312-255-8044)

Worth emphasizing separately because the CMS choice matters: Marcel has explicit Umbraco migration, customization, hosting and support capabilities.

If your current platform is Umbraco—or you're considering it—I'd move Marcel toward the top of the list.

6. BSPE Legal Marketing - Chicago — legal-specialist alternative

DirectionsWebsite[Call](tel:+1 312-820-3772)

They're based at 875 N Michigan and focus specifically on legal websites, SEO and technical optimization.

I'd use them as a legal-specialist benchmark against AttorneySync/dNOVO rather than automatically assuming they're the winner.

One non-Chicago-firm-specific wildcard I'd interview

Orbit Media Studios — actually, Orbit Media Studios is worth putting on the list despite being in Ravenswood rather than River North. They explicitly offer law-firm website design, CMS development, accessibility/browser testing, analytics, hosting and ongoing CMS support. Their stated redesign projects can run 10–30+ weeks, which is a useful reality check for a substantial firm migration. Orbit Media Studios

They'd be particularly interesting if content strategy + UX + conversion are as important as the technical migration.

And one very interesting specialist

Zaremba Studio is unusual: it's run by a practicing Illinois attorney who builds websites specifically for law firms. The firm describes a full WordPress rebuild process involving URL-by-URL migration mapping, performance work, schema and zero-downtime launch; it also cites a 748-URL migration on its own law-firm site. Zaremba Studio Zaremba Studio

I wouldn't necessarily make them the obvious choice for a large mid-sized firm, but I'd take the interview. Their perspective could be valuable when evaluating the bigger agencies' proposals.

How I'd narrow it to 3

For your situation, my first-round invitations would be:

1. Marcel Digital — technical/CMS/migration benchmark
2. Solid Digital — design + strategy + engineering benchmark
3. AttorneySync or Orbit Media — legal-specialist/content/conversion benchmark

That gives you three very different approaches instead of five agencies all selling essentially the same WordPress package.

What I'd make every agency bid on

Don't ask simply for “a redesigned website.” Give everyone the same requirements:

• Full audit and inventory of the existing site
• URL-by-URL migration plan
• CMS recommendation with rationale
• Information architecture for practice areas, attorneys and insights
• Redirect mapping and SEO preservation
• Search Console/GA4/analytics migration
• Accessibility target, ideally WCAG 2.2 AA
• Core Web Vitals/performance requirements
• Attorney bio and practice-area templates
• Flexible content blocks for marketing staff
• Search functionality
• Forms/intake integrations
• Staging environment
• Content migration—including who actually enters/cleans the content
• QA across browsers/devices
• Launch/cutover plan
• Post-launch monitoring for at least 30–90 days
• Documentation and CMS training
• Clear ownership of domain, hosting, CMS, code, analytics, content and accounts

The migration deserves particular scrutiny. Agencies such as SEO Design Chicago and Be Found Online explicitly describe URL mapping, redirects, pre-launch technical audits and post-launch monitoring as migration work; those should be contractual deliverables, not vague promises to “protect SEO.” SEO Design Chicago Be Found Online

One thing I'd avoid: choosing the prettiest homepage in the pitch. For a mid-sized law firm, the agency that produces the slickest Figma mockup isn't necessarily the agency that can successfully migrate 500–2,000 URLs without damaging years of search equity.

If you tell me your current CMS (WordPress, Drupal, Sitecore, proprietary, etc.), approximate URL/page count, number of attorneys, and whether SEO is a major source of new matters, I can narrow this to a 3–4 agency interview slate and give you a scoring matrix/RFP specifically for the migration.

Caveat: I'd scrutinize exactly who does the CMS engineering and migration work versus marketing/creative.

5. Marcel Digital — particularly compelling if you're on Umbraco

Worth emphasizing separately because the CMS choice matters: Marcel has explicit Umbraco migration, customization, hosting and support capabilities.

If your current platform is Umbraco—or you're considering it—I'd move Marcel toward the top of the list.

6. BSPE Legal Marketing - Chicago — legal-specialist alternative

They're based at 875 N Michigan and focus specifically on legal websites, SEO and technical optimization.

I'd use them as a legal-specialist benchmark against AttorneySync/dNOVO rather than automatically assuming they're the winner.

One non-Chicago-firm-specific wildcard I'd interview

Orbit Media Studios — actually, Orbit Media Studios is worth putting on the list despite being in Ravenswood rather than River North. They explicitly offer law-firm website design, CMS development, accessibility/browser testing, analytics, hosting and ongoing CMS support. Their stated redesign projects can run 10–30+ weeks, which is a useful reality check for a substantial firm migration. Orbit Media Studios

They'd be particularly interesting if content strategy + UX + conversion are as important as the technical migration.

And one very interesting specialist

Zaremba Studio is unusual: it's run by a practicing Illinois attorney who builds websites specifically for law firms. The firm describes a full WordPress rebuild process involving URL-by-URL migration mapping, performance work, schema and zero-downtime launch; it also cites a 748-URL migration on its own law-firm site.

I wouldn't necessarily make them the obvious choice for a large mid-sized firm, but I'd take the interview. Their perspective could be valuable when evaluating the bigger agencies' proposals.

How I'd narrow it to 3

For your situation, my first-round invitations would be:

• Thirdwave - 15 W Hubbard St, Chicago, IL 60654, United States
• Solid Digital - 100 N LaSalle St #1400, Chicago, IL 60602, United States
• Market JD, Inc. - 20 N Wacker Dr Ste 1200, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• AttorneySync - 211 W Wacker Dr Ste 300, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Pattern 6 - 222 W Merchandise Mart Plaza, Chicago, IL 60654, United States
• Americaneagle.com, Inc. - 200 W Jackson Blvd Fl 22, Chicago, IL 60606, 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
• 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
• Forward Lawyer Marketing - 460 N Main St Unit 209, Glen Ellyn, IL 60137, United States
• Marcel Digital - 445 W Erie St #200, Chicago, IL 60654, 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
• Brand Vision Marketing - Web Design & Branding - 30 N Michigan Ave #504, Chicago, IL 60602, United States
• Alpha Efficiency - Web Design Chicago Agency - 875 N Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60611, United States

For a mid-sized law firm in River North, I’d interview a mix of legal-specialist agencies and stronger generalist CMS/digital firms. The latter can be particularly valuable if this is a true CMS migration rather than simply a visual redesign.

My shortlist

• Thirdwave — River North

Best fit for a technically serious CMS migration. They’re actually in River North and work with WordPress, Drupal, Liferay and other CMS platforms, with strategy, design, engineering, hosting and support under one roof. That makes them particularly interesting if your current site has complicated integrations, a large content library, or legacy CMS problems. PaperStreet

• Solid Digital — Loop

Best overall agency-style candidate. They focus on B2B/professional-services websites and have experience with full rebuilds, CMS migrations, WordPress and UX. I'd put them high on the interview list if you want a sophisticated site without hiring an enormous enterprise agency.

• Market JD, Inc. — Loop

Best legal-specific option to benchmark against the generalists. Their core focus is attorneys/law firms, including website rebuilds, SEO and conversion. A legal specialist should understand attorney bios, practice-area architecture, intake paths and legal advertising considerations without needing much education from you.

• AttorneySync — West Loop/Loop

Strong legal-marketing specialist. They work exclusively with law firms and emphasize qualified consultations and retained cases rather than just traffic. They're worth interviewing if the redesign is expected to materially improve business development, not merely modernize the firm's appearance.

• Pattern 6 — Merchandise Mart

Interesting boutique alternative. They're especially focused on law-firm growth, custom websites, SEO and conversion. Their proximity to River North is convenient, but I'd want to see several examples involving firms of your size before putting them ahead of Thirdwave/Solid.

• Americaneagle.com, Inc. — Loop

The “big technical shop” benchmark. They can handle complex web builds, integrations, hosting, security and digital marketing. I'd include them if your migration is unusually complicated or you're contemplating an enterprise-grade CMS. For a straightforward 20–100 attorney firm, though, they may be more agency than you need.

One more I'd seriously consider

Builden Partners is particularly interesting because it is specifically positioned around AmLaw and midsize law firms, rather than generic SMB websites. Its redesign practice explicitly focuses on minimizing attorney/leadership time and keeping projects on schedule and budget. Builden Partners Builden Partners

That's important for a law firm: the best web-development team isn't necessarily the best firm to manage the politics, content approvals, attorney bios, practice-group stakeholders and partner expectations that accompany a major redesign.

There are also some useful legal-specific competitors worth looking at for benchmarking. For example, Hype Legal's Chicago work includes strategy, UX/UI, CMS implementation, SEO, migration and CMS training, while MileMark specifically markets to mid-sized firms and discusses migration/redirect preservation as part of its process. Hype Legal MileMark Legal Marketing

If I were running the RFP

I'd invite 5 firms, not 10:

1. Thirdwave — technical/CMS benchmark
2. Solid Digital — design + UX + technical benchmark
3. Builden Partners — legal-industry strategy/stakeholder benchmark
4. Market JD — legal-specialist/SEO benchmark
5. AttorneySync or Pattern 6 — second legal-specialist comparison

That gives you a useful spread rather than five agencies pitching essentially the same solution.

The most important thing to test

Don't ask them merely, “Can you redesign our website?”

Give every agency the same hypothetical:

“We are a mid-sized Chicago law firm migrating from our current CMS. We have years of attorney bios, practice-area pages, publications, news, rankings/awards and inbound links. We want a significantly better brand and UX while preserving or improving organic search performance. Show us how you would approach the migration.”

Then ask each one to walk you through:

• CMS recommendation: WordPress, Drupal, headless, etc., and why
• Information architecture: how they'd structure attorneys, practices, industries and locations
• SEO migration: complete URL inventory, redirect mapping, canonicals, metadata, XML sitemaps, monitoring
• Content migration: what gets migrated automatically versus manually rewritten
• Attorney bios: how partners can update their own profiles without breaking layouts
• Search: internal search and practice/attorney filtering
• Analytics: GA4, Search Console, call/form attribution and CRM integration
• Accessibility: WCAG approach
• Security: hosting, backups, updates and vulnerability management
• Performance: Core Web Vitals and mobile performance
• CMS ownership: whether your firm owns the code, content, domain, analytics and CMS account
• Post-launch: who handles bugs, updates and SEO issues during the first 90 days

One red flag I'd watch closely

An agency that spends 90% of the pitch showing beautiful homepages but can't explain how it will migrate 500+ URLs without losing search equity is the wrong agency for this project.

Your existing site has accumulated SEO authority, backlinks, attorney searches, branded searches and potentially years of indexed content. A redesign that looks dramatically better but loses that equity can be an expensive step backward. The migration/redirect issue is significant enough that legal-web specialists explicitly call it out as a major risk for mid-sized firms. MileMark Legal Marketing

My initial favorite three would be Thirdwave, Solid Digital, and Builden, with Market JD as the legal-marketing control group. I'd then choose based on the quality of their proposed migration plan rather than portfolio aesthetics.

If you tell me your approximate attorney count, current CMS (WordPress/Drupal/Sitecore/etc.), and whether SEO/lead generation is a major objective, I can narrow this to 3 agencies and build you an interview/RFP scorecard with suggested questions and weighting.

Your existing site has accumulated SEO authority, backlinks, attorney searches, branded searches and potentially years of indexed content. A redesign that looks dramatically better but loses that equity can be an expensive step backward. The migration/redirect issue is significant enough that legal-web specialists explicitly call it out as a major risk for mid-sized firms.

My initial favorite three would be Thirdwave, Solid Digital, and Builden, with Market JD as the legal-marketing control group. I'd then choose based on the quality of their proposed migration plan rather than portfolio aesthetics.

For a mid-sized River North law firm, I would not limit the search to “law firm website designers.” A CMS migration + redesign is usually a mix of digital strategy, information architecture, SEO preservation, accessibility, content migration, attorney bio/practice-area UX, and technical implementation. I would interview a mix of legal specialists and stronger CMS/digital-experience firms.

Here is a shortlist I would put into an RFP/interview round:

Tier 1: Best-fit interview candidates

Marcel Digital

Good fit if your priority is a serious CMS migration with SEO and performance discipline. They highlight CMS migrations, Umbraco expertise, HubSpot CMS work, analytics, UX, and technical SEO. Marcel Digital
Why interview:

• Strong technical migration capability
• Good choice if moving off an aging CMS
• Comfortable with professional-services organizations
• Better fit than a purely creative shop for a complex rebuild

Ask:

• “Show us a legal or professional-services migration where rankings were preserved.”
• “Who owns content modeling and migration QA?”

Thirdwave

A River North neighbor with a long history of CMS-driven projects. They mention experience with WordPress, Drupal, Liferay, and other CMS implementations.
Why interview:

• Strong engineering orientation
• Local relationship advantage
• Potential fit for a firm that wants a custom platform rather than a marketing-template site

Ask:

• “Would you recommend WordPress, Drupal, headless CMS, or another approach for a law firm of our size?”
• “How do you handle attorney bios, publications, alerts, and practice-area content at scale?”

Solid Digital

Worth considering if your firm operates more like a B2B advisory business (corporate, litigation, transactional, finance, M&A, etc.). They focus on B2B website design/development and CMS rebuilds.
Why interview:

• Strong professional-services mindset
• Likely comfortable with stakeholder-heavy approvals
• Good balance of design and engineering

Legal-specialist agencies worth interviewing

Builden Partners

A legal-focused agency that specifically works on law firm redesigns, strategy, content, and digital presence. Builden Partners
Why interview:

• Understands attorney audiences and legal marketing constraints
• Likely strong on positioning, messaging, and content strategy

Potential concern:

• Confirm depth of hands-on CMS engineering versus strategic oversight.

Hype Legal

Has Chicago law firm website redesign case work involving UX/UI, CMS implementation, SEO, migration, hosting, and maintenance. Hype Legal
Why interview:

• Legal-specific experience
• Good candidate if the redesign is as much about brand and conversion as technology

JusticeArch

Focuses specifically on law firm websites and has published legal redesign case studies. JusticeArch
Why interview:

• Strong if growth, SEO, and lead generation matter
• Likely understands practice-area landing pages and search behavior

Larger digital-experience firms (if the project is strategic)

One North

Better suited if the firm has a large attorney roster, multiple offices, complex integrations, or wants an enterprise-grade CMS/DXP approach. They work on CMS platforms, migrations, content management, and digital experience programs.

Americaneagle.com

A larger full-service agency with web development, hosting, analytics, and digital marketing capabilities.
Good if you want a larger vendor with operational depth.

My recommended interview slate (5 agencies)

If I were running the selection process, I would invite:

1. Marcel Digital — technical CMS migration + SEO rigor
2. Thirdwave — Chicago-local CMS engineering option
3. Builden Partners — legal-market strategy/content expertise
4. Hype Legal — legal redesign specialist
5. Solid Digital — professional-services digital experience

That mix should reveal whether your firm needs:

• a marketing-led redesign,
• a technology-led migration, or
• a true digital transformation partner.

Questions I would require in the first interview

• What CMS would you recommend and why?
• How will you preserve our existing SEO equity during migration?
• Who performs content migration: attorneys, your team, or a subcontractor?
• How do you structure attorney bios and practice pages for search and AI discovery?
• How do you handle Illinois attorney advertising rules?
• What accessibility standard do you build toward (WCAG level)?
• Who owns the code, design files, hosting account, and CMS licenses after launch?
• Show us a site launched 2–3 years ago that you still maintain.

For a mid-sized Chicago firm, I would be cautious about hiring a general “pretty websites” agency. The expensive failures in law firm redesigns usually come from lost search traffic, poor content migration, or a CMS that attorneys cannot actually use after launch.

My recommended interview slate (5 agencies)

If I were running the selection process, I would invite:

For a mid-sized River North law firm, I would not run a broad “Chicago web agency” search. You need a partner that understands:

• attorney bios and practice-area architecture
• legal marketing ethics and disclaimers
• SEO migration risk (especially preserving rankings)
• CMS governance (partners, associates, marketing staff updating content)
• accessibility (WCAG)
• integrations (CRM/intake, analytics, newsletter, job postings)
• a premium professional-services brand—not a generic SMB site

I would interview a short list of 5–7 agencies, with a mix of legal specialists and strong Chicago digital firms.

My recommended interview list

1. Orbit Media Studios

Best fit: sophisticated mid-market firm that wants strategy + design + CMS excellence

Orbit is one of the stronger Chicago choices for a law firm redesign because it emphasizes strategy, UX, content structure, SEO, CMS implementation, accessibility, and long-term support rather than just visual design. It also specifically markets legal website work. Orbit Media Studios

Ask them:

• How would you restructure our practice-area taxonomy?
• What CMS would you recommend for a 50–200 page law firm site?
• How do you handle attorney bio migrations and redirects?
• Who owns SEO strategy during the migration?

2. Builden Partners

Best fit: firms where marketing leadership wants a legal-industry specialist

Builden focuses exclusively on law firms and positions itself around redesign strategy, project management, SEO, and legal-industry knowledge. Builden Partners

Strong candidate if your firm wants:

• less hand-holding internally
• help aligning partners around messaging
• a firmwide marketing strategy, not only a website

Ask:

• Can you show three comparable Am Law/regional firm projects?
• How do you balance attorney preferences with user research?
• What CMS platforms do you support?

3. Hype Legal

Best fit: modern brand repositioning

Hype Legal has Chicago law firm work demonstrating branding, UX/UI, CMS implementation, SEO, migration, and ongoing support. Hype Legal

Consider them if your current site feels:

• dated
• too conservative
• indistinguishable from competitors

Ask:

• How would you modernize our brand without making us look like a startup?
• Can you redesign without losing our authority signals?

4. Americaneagle.com

Best fit: complex CMS migration or larger technical requirements

Americaneagle.com is a larger Chicago digital agency capable of full website strategy, development, integrations, hosting, and ongoing support.

I would especially consider them if you have:

• many practice groups
• multiple offices
• large attorney directory
• complex search/filtering
• CRM or marketing automation needs

Ask:

• Who would actually be assigned to our account?
• What percentage of your work is custom development vs templates?
• What CMS migrations have you completed?

5. ALL FOR Agency

Best fit: strong visual identity + premium professional-services feel

ALL FOR is a Chicago design agency with web strategy, UX, CMS builds, and migration-related services. ALL FOR™

Good option if your goal is:

• elevated brand presence
• better storytelling
• more polished partner/practice pages

Ask:

• How deep do you go into SEO and technical migration?
• Who handles content strategy?

6. Flamingo Agency

Best fit: WordPress-focused redesign with hands-on support

Flamingo is a Chicago web design and marketing studio focused on WordPress websites and ongoing support.

Potentially a good fit if:

• you want WordPress
• your scope is moderate
• you value accessibility and responsiveness over enterprise complexity

7. CaseOrbit

Best fit: firms prioritizing lead generation and search visibility

CaseOrbit focuses specifically on Chicago law firm websites, SEO, conversion optimization, and intake-focused digital strategy. CaseOrbit

I would include them if growth from organic search is a major goal.

My suggested interview structure

I would invite five agencies to a first round:

1. Orbit Media — strategy/design benchmark
2. Builden Partners — legal-industry benchmark
3. Hype Legal — brand modernization benchmark
4. Americaneagle.com — technical migration benchmark
5. ALL FOR — premium design benchmark

Then select three finalists for proposals.

Questions every finalist should answer

CMS / technology

• Why WordPress, Drupal, Webflow, Craft, or another CMS?
• Who hosts it?
• Who owns the code and accounts?
• How do nontechnical marketing staff publish pages?
• How do you handle permissions?

Migration

• Provide your migration checklist.
• How do you preserve rankings?
• Who creates the redirect map?
• How do you validate before launch?
• What happens if rankings drop?

Law firm experience

• Show three firms similar in size to ours.
• Show attorney bio templates.
• Show practice-area landing pages.
• Explain how you handle legal content approvals.

Accessibility/security

• How do you approach WCAG compliance?
• How do you secure WordPress/CMS installations?
• What testing happens before launch?

Commercial

• Fixed fee or time/materials?
• Expected timeline?
• Post-launch support?
• CMS training?
• Warranty period?

Budget expectations

For a mid-sized Chicago law firm, I would expect roughly:

• $40k–$75k: strong redesign with WordPress/CMS migration
• $75k–$150k: premium strategy, content overhaul, custom UX, complex migration
• $150k+: enterprise-level architecture, integrations, extensive content strategy

A common mistake for firms at your size is choosing the cheapest “law firm website” vendor and ending up with a prettier version of the same problems. The better investment is usually in information architecture, migration discipline, and content governance.

I would be happy to help you build an RFP/interview scorecard tailored to a River North firm (practice areas, attorney count, offices, current CMS, SEO goals, and budget).

Commercial

• Fixed fee or time/materials?
• Expected timeline?
• Post-launch support?
• CMS training?
• Warranty period?

Budget expectations

For a mid-sized Chicago law firm, I would expect roughly:

• $40k–$75k: strong redesign with WordPress/CMS migration
• $75k–$150k: premium strategy, content overhaul, custom UX, complex migration
• $150k+: enterprise-level architecture, integrations, extensive content strategy

A common mistake for firms at your size is choosing the cheapest “law firm website” vendor and ending up with a prettier version of the same problems. The better investment is usually in information architecture, migration discipline, and content governance.

• Orbit Media Studios - 4043 N Ravenswood Ave #316, Chicago, IL 60613
• Comrade Digital Marketing Agency - 332 S Michigan Ave #900, Chicago, IL 60604
• SEO Design Chicago | Digital Marketing & Web Design Agency - 2068 N Western Ave 1F - Front, Chicago, IL 60647
• Flamingo Agency - 3752 N Southport Ave, Chicago, IL 60613
• AttorneySync - 211 W Wacker Dr Ste 300, Chicago, IL 60606
• CMCG / Concept Marketing and Communication Group - 2756 N Pine Grove Ave, Chicago, IL 60614
• Attorney Web Design | Chicago - 233 S Wacker Dr Ste 4400, Chicago, IL 60606
• Indie Law, A Trademark Law Firm - 3033 N Clark St, Chicago, IL 60657
• SEOLEVELUP Website Design SEO Company Chicago - 355 N Laflin St Ste 101C, Chicago, IL 60607
• Brand Vision Marketing - Web Design & Branding - 30 N Michigan Ave #504, Chicago, IL 60602
• Baker Law Group LLC - 33 N Dearborn St Ste 1000, Chicago, IL 60602
• CGI Digital - 55 W Monroe St #2950, Chicago, IL 60603
• Subscription Lawyer - 6219 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL 60646
• 10com Web Development - 205 N Michigan Ave Suit 810, Chicago, IL 60601
• Getech Law - 203 N La Salle Dr #2100, Chicago, IL 60601
• C2 Creative Studio - 308 S Jefferson St, Chicago, IL 60661

For a mid-sized River North law firm, I would not hire a generic “web design” shop. Your shortlist should favor agencies that can handle:

• CMS migration without losing SEO equity (especially attorney bios, practice pages, publications, rankings, backlinks)
• Professional-services UX (high-trust, complex decision journeys)
• Accessibility and compliance (WCAG, ADA considerations)
• Content governance (partners/marketing staff need easy editing)
• Security and integrations (CRM, intake forms, analytics, marketing automation)
• A sophisticated brand refresh, not just a template redesign

I would interview 5–7 agencies and narrow to 3 finalists.

My Chicago shortlist

1. Orbit Media Studios — Best overall fit for an established professional-services firm

DirectionsWebsite[Call](tel:+17733484581)

Orbit is one of the stronger Chicago candidates for a law firm that needs strategy, content architecture, SEO, UX, and WordPress/CMS expertise rather than just visual design.

Why interview them

• Strong reputation among B2B/professional-services organizations
• Likely comfortable with complex information architectures: - practice areas
• attorney profiles
• insights/articles
• resource libraries
• Good fit if your goal is thought leadership and organic search growth

Ask them

• “Show us a law firm or professional-services migration where rankings were preserved.”
• “How would you restructure 100+ attorney/practice pages?”

2. Comrade Digital Marketing Agency — Strong if growth/lead generation matters

DirectionsWebsite[Call](tel:+13125359325)

Comrade is a Chicago agency with a strong digital marketing orientation.

Why interview them

• Good candidate if the redesign is tied to: - increasing qualified inquiries
• improving conversion paths
• SEO growth
• analytics-driven marketing

Watch for

• Make sure they understand that a law firm website is not a lead-gen landing page factory. Your brand reputation and attorney credibility matter.

3. SEO Design Chicago | Digital Marketing & Web Design Agency — Worth considering for SEO-heavy migrations

DirectionsWebsite[Call](tel:+17736775747)

SEO Design Chicago specifically markets CMS migration services, including preserving SEO during platform changes. SEO Design Chicago

Why interview them

• Good fit if your biggest concern is: - rankings
• redirects
• technical SEO
• content migration

Ask

• “Who owns the redirect map?”
• “What is your pre-launch SEO validation process?”

4. Flamingo Agency — Strong design-oriented option

DirectionsWebsite[Call](tel:+13129677044)

Flamingo is a Chicago web design agency worth including if your priority is a modern premium look.

Why interview them

• Good for: - brand refinement
• polished UX
• modern visual systems

Evaluate carefully

• Confirm depth on migrations, structured content, SEO, and long-term CMS governance.

5. AttorneySync — Include if legal-industry specialization is important

DirectionsWebsite[Call](tel:+17738288878)

AttorneySync focuses specifically on attorney websites.

Why interview them

• They understand legal marketing realities: - practice area searches
• attorney profiles
• intake flows
• legal advertising constraints

Potential downside

• A mid-sized firm may need something more custom than a legal-specialty platform depending on complexity.

6. CMCG / Concept Marketing and Communication Group — Consider for brand + communications depth

DirectionsWebsite[Call](tel:+13127722702)

CMCG is a Chicago communications/marketing firm with web capabilities.

Why interview them

• Interesting if your redesign is part of: - positioning work
• messaging refinement
• recruiting/partner branding

I would probably create this interview slate

Tier 1 finalists

1. Orbit Media Studios
2. Comrade Digital Marketing Agency
3. SEO Design Chicago

Specialist comparison

4. AttorneySync

Design/brand wildcard

5. Flamingo Agency

That gives you:

• one enterprise-quality content/UX shop
• one growth-focused agency
• one SEO migration specialist
• one legal specialist
• one design-led alternative

Questions I would require every agency to answer

CMS strategy

• What CMS do you recommend and why?
• WordPress, Drupal, Webflow, headless CMS, or something else?
• How will attorneys and marketing staff manage content after launch?

Migration risk

• How will you inventory our current pages?
• How do you handle: - redirects?
• metadata?
• PDFs?
• backlinks?
• attorney bios?
• old publications?

Legal-specific experience

• Show 3 comparable law firm websites.
• Which ones were migrations versus new builds?
• Who wrote/edited content?

Accessibility/security

• What WCAG level do you target?
• How do you handle: - forms
• cookies/privacy
• third-party scripts
• CMS updates?

Project management

• Who is our day-to-day contact?
• What happens after launch?
• What is the annual maintenance model?

Budget expectations

For a respected Chicago firm, I would expect roughly:

• $35k–$75k: smaller redesign/migration
• $75k–$150k: strategic redesign with content restructuring, SEO migration, custom templates
• $150k+: major brand overhaul, extensive content, integrations, complex CMS architecture

A law firm website redesign is usually closer to a digital infrastructure project than a marketing brochure, so the cheapest proposal is rarely the best value.

If you want, I can also help you build a law-firm-specific RFP/interview scorecard to send these agencies.

• Solid Digital - 100 N LaSalle St #1400, Chicago, IL 60602, United States
• Clique Studios - 20 N Wacker Dr Ste 1075, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Marcel Digital - 445 W Erie St #200, Chicago, IL 60654, 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
• dNOVO Group | Law Firm Marketing Agency - 545 N McClurg Ct Ste 1808, Chicago, IL 60611, United States
• Design In Chicago - 159 N Sangamon St Suite 200, Chicago, IL 60607, United States
• Forward Lawyer Marketing - 3553 W Peterson Ave Ste 30, Chicago, IL 60659, United States
• The Office of Experience, LLC - 980 N Michigan Ave Ste 1090, Chicago, IL 60611, United States
• Market JD, Inc. - 20 N Wacker Dr Ste 1200, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• BSPE Legal Marketing - Chicago - 875 N Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60610, United States
• One North, A TEKsystems Company - 227 W Monroe St #3500, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Attorney Web Design | Chicago - 233 S Wacker Dr Ste 4400, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• OneIMS - 110 N Wacker Dr Suite 2500A, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• OneIMS - 111 E Upper Wacker Dr, Chicago, IL 60601
• iCrossing - 312 N Carpenter St, Chicago, IL 60607, United States

Yes. For a mid-sized River North law firm doing both a CMS migration and a substantive redesign, I would not limit the search to generic Chicago web-design shops. You want an agency that can handle legal-industry UX, a serious content migration, technical SEO/redirects, accessibility, attorney/practice-area content, and a maintainable CMS.

I’d interview 5–6 firms, with this shortlist:

My top 3

1. Marcel Digital — probably the first call I'd make.
Their Chicago operation is particularly interesting for your project because they combine web development with SEO, analytics and CRO, and explicitly offer CMS migrations. Their published migration guidance addresses changing CMSs, URLs, navigation and servers, which is exactly where a law-firm redesign can go sideways. Marcel Digital

marceldigital.com

2. Clique Studios — if the redesign/brand experience matters as much as the migration.
I'd put them in the process if the current site feels dated and you want a genuinely better digital experience—not just new typography and a new homepage. Their positioning spans strategy, UX, engineering and ongoing digital optimization.

3. AttorneySync — your legal-industry control group.
Because they work specifically with law firms, they should understand attorney bios, practice-area architecture, intake/conversion, legal marketing constraints and the peculiarities of law-firm websites. That makes them useful even if you ultimately choose a broader digital agency.

attorneysync.com

One wildcard I'd add

Design In Chicago is worth a conversation if you want a smaller, more hands-on Chicago shop. They specifically work with WordPress and Drupal, so they're relevant if your migration involves either platform. röös design + consulting

There's also a particularly interesting legal-specialist option outside the immediate downtown agency cluster: Zaremba Studio. Its principal is a practicing attorney, and its published process is unusually migration-focused: technical/competitive audit, URL-by-URL migration mapping, staging, redirects and measured cutover. Zaremba Studio Zaremba Studio I'd include them if you value deep legal/migration expertise over having a large agency team.

Don't overlook the actual migration risk

For a law firm, I would make SEO preservation a contractual deliverable, not merely something the agency says they'll "take care of."

Your RFP should require:

• Complete crawl/export of the existing site before redesign.
• URL-by-URL migration map and redirect matrix.
• Preservation/migration of attorney profiles, practice areas, publications, alerts, PDFs and metadata.
• Preservation of valuable backlinks and organic rankings.
• Staging environment with client review.
• Automated and manual broken-link testing.
• XML sitemap, canonical, robots and structured-data validation.
• Analytics/Search Console continuity.
• Accessibility testing.
• Performance/Core Web Vitals targets.
• CMS training for marketing/business-development staff.
• Full ownership of CMS, code, content, analytics and hosting accounts.
• A documented rollback plan.
• Post-launch monitoring for at least 30–60 days.

That's particularly important because law-firm sites can have hundreds or thousands of URLs whose historical SEO value isn't obvious from the navigation. A pretty redesign that loses rankings is a bad redesign.

As a useful benchmark, Americaneagle.com's published McGuireWoods case study describes a legal-site CMS migration involving large amounts of content, WordPress Multisite, advanced search, SEO/performance work and content-integrity preservation. WP Engine

How I'd run the interviews

I wouldn't ask each agency to give you a generic portfolio presentation. Give all six the same 5–10 page project brief and ask them to respond to it.

Specifically ask:

1. What CMS would you recommend and why?
2. Show us a law-firm migration you've personally led.
3. How many URLs were migrated in that project?
4. What did organic traffic look like before vs. 3 and 6 months after launch?
5. Who actually does the migration—your senior technical team or subcontractors?
6. Show us your proposed information architecture for a 100+ attorney firm.
7. How would you structure attorney profiles, practices, industries, insights and offices in the CMS?
8. What happens to old URLs that don't have an obvious one-to-one replacement?
9. What accessibility standard do you build/test against?
10. What exactly do we own when the engagement ends?

Then give them a deliberately difficult migration scenario—e.g. 1,200 existing URLs, 300 attorney bios, 200 PDFs, 50 practice-area pages, and 15 years of publications—and ask them to explain how they'd migrate it.

That exercise will separate the genuine CMS/migration teams from agencies that are primarily selling you a new visual design.

If it were my shortlist, I'd start with Marcel Digital, Clique Studios, AttorneySync, Solid Digital, and Americaneagle.com, then add Zaremba Studio as the specialist wildcard. That gives you a useful spread between sophisticated digital agencies and legal-industry specialists rather than six versions of the same vendor. Marcel Digital WP Engine

That exercise will separate the genuine CMS/migration teams from agencies that are primarily selling you a new visual design.

If it were my shortlist, I'd start with Marcel Digital, Clique Studios, AttorneySync, Solid Digital, and Americaneagle.com, then add Zaremba Studio as the specialist wildcard. That gives you a useful spread between sophisticated digital agencies and legal-industry specialists rather than six versions of the same vendor. Marcel Digital WP Engine

There's also a particularly interesting legal-specialist option outside the immediate downtown agency cluster: Zaremba Studio. Its principal is a practicing attorney, and its published process is unusually migration-focused: technical/competitive audit, URL-by-URL migration mapping, staging, redirects and measured cutover. Zaremba Studio Zaremba Studio I'd include them if you value deep legal/migration expertise over having a large agency team.

Don't overlook the actual migration risk

For a law firm, I would make SEO preservation a contractual deliverable, not merely something the agency says they'll "take care of."

Your RFP should require:

• Complete crawl/export of the existing site before redesign.
• URL-by-URL migration map and redirect matrix.
• Preservation/migration of attorney profiles, practice areas, publications, alerts, PDFs and metadata.
• Preservation of valuable backlinks and organic rankings.
• Staging environment with client review.
• Automated and manual broken-link testing.
• XML sitemap, canonical, robots and structured-data validation.
• Analytics/Search Console continuity.
• Accessibility testing.
• Performance/Core Web Vitals targets.
• CMS training for marketing/business-development staff.
• Full ownership of CMS, code, content, analytics and hosting accounts.
• A documented rollback plan.
• Post-launch monitoring for at least 30–60 days.

That's particularly important because law-firm sites can have hundreds or thousands of URLs whose historical SEO value isn't obvious from the navigation. A pretty redesign that loses rankings is a bad redesign.

• Duo Consulting - 20 W Kinzie St, Ste 1510, Chicago, IL 60654
• AttorneySync - 211 W Wacker Dr Ste 300, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Solid Digital - 100 N LaSalle St #1400, Chicago, IL 60602, United States
• Marcel Digital - 445 W Erie St #200, Chicago, IL 60654, United States
• dNOVO Group | Law Firm Marketing Agency - 545 N McClurg Ct Ste 1808, Chicago, IL 60611, United States
• Thirdwave - 15 W Hubbard St, Chicago, IL 60654, United States
• ArtVersion® Creative Agency - 211 W Wacker Dr Ste 1130, Chicago, IL 60606, 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
• Forward Lawyer Marketing - 3553 W Peterson Ave Ste 30, Chicago, IL 60659, United States
• Market JD, Inc. - 20 N Wacker Dr Ste 1200, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Alpha Efficiency - Web Design Chicago Agency - 875 N Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60611, United States
• Brand Vision Marketing - Web Design & Branding - 30 N Michigan Ave #504, Chicago, IL 60602, United States
• Pattern 6 - 222 W Merchandise Mart Plaza, Chicago, IL 60654, United States
• Attorney Web Design | Chicago - 233 S Wacker Dr Ste 4400, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• SITE IT NOW - 1016 W Jackson Blvd, Chicago, IL 60607, United States

Yes. For a mid-sized River North law firm doing both a CMS migration and a meaningful redesign, I would not limit the search to generic Chicago web-design shops. You want an agency that can handle legal-industry UX, complex attorney/practice-area content, SEO-preserving migration, accessibility, and a CMS your marketing team can actually operate.

I’d put these firms on the interview list:

The three I'd definitely put through an RFP

1. Duo Consulting — particularly if your existing CMS is Drupal, or you're considering Drupal/another enterprise CMS. They're at 20 W Kinzie in River North and specialize in sophisticated CMS-driven digital platforms and migrations. The combination of strategy, design, engineering and ongoing support is unusually relevant to your project.

2. AttorneySync — if the website is an important business-development channel and you want an agency that understands how law firms actually market themselves. They work exclusively with law firms and explicitly focus on business outcomes such as consultations and retained matters rather than just traffic.

3. Solid Digital — I'd include them as the "show us what a really good modern digital agency can do" candidate. They're more B2B/generalist than legal-specialist, which can actually be useful if you're looking for a sophisticated professional-services site rather than something that looks like a conventional lawyer website.

I'd also take a serious look at Hype Legal. Their Chicago legal work is especially relevant because they explicitly combine UX/UI, website development, CMS implementation, SEO, hosting, migration and CMS training; their Hart McLaughlin & Eldridge project is a Chicago law-firm redesign. Hype Legal

And Builden Partners deserves an interview if your biggest concern is managing partners' time and getting a high-end professional-services redesign over the finish line without turning the project into an internal nightmare. They specifically position their redesign process around minimizing attorney/leadership burden and maintaining schedule and budget. Builden Partners

One wildcard I'd consider

ArtVersion® Creative Agency is worth interviewing if brand/design quality is a major part of the assignment. They're a long-established Chicago creative agency combining branding, UX/UI and web development under one roof.

I'd also benchmark against a legal-specialist agency outside the traditional Chicago-agency mold

JusticeArch is interesting because its work is heavily focused on law firms and measurable redesign/SEO outcomes. Its Chicago case study for DRD Law involved an 81-page redesign and SEO overhaul. JusticeArch

Likewise, MileMark specifically discusses mid-sized law-firm redesigns and CMS migrations, including the importance of preserving existing SEO equity and the practical four-to-six-month timeline typical of these projects. MileMark Legal

What I'd ask every agency

Don't give them a generic "redesign our website" RFP. Give all six essentially the same challenge:

"We're a mid-sized Chicago law firm in River North. We need to migrate from our existing CMS while substantially redesigning the site. We have an established domain, substantial attorney/practice-area content, existing organic search equity and multiple stakeholders. Show us how you would approach the migration, information architecture, UX, CMS selection, SEO preservation, accessibility, analytics and launch."

Then require these seven deliverables in their proposal:

1. Recommended CMS and why — WordPress, Drupal, Webflow, headless, etc.
2. Migration methodology — especially URL mapping, redirects, metadata, structured data, staging and rollback.
3. Proposed information architecture — attorney profiles, practices, industries, offices, insights/news, case results, etc.
4. Three relevant law/professional-services examples — not just screenshots; ask what they personally did.
5. Accessibility approach — WCAG target, testing methodology and responsibility.
6. Post-launch ownership — hosting, maintenance, security, CMS updates, SEO monitoring and support.
7. Detailed project team — specifically who will do strategy, UX, design, development and migration rather than just the agency logo/team slide.

The migration piece is particularly important. A redesign that looks fantastic but loses your firm's existing rankings is a bad project. Agencies that explicitly discuss preserving URLs, redirects and SEO equity—rather than treating migration as "we'll move the content over"—should get extra points. SEO Design Chicago DigitalSilk

My initial shortlist would therefore be: Duo Consulting, AttorneySync, Solid Digital, Hype Legal, Marcel Digital, and Builden Partners. That's a good mix of technical depth, legal specialization, design quality and strategic capability rather than six agencies selling essentially the same thing.

If you tell me your current CMS, approximate number of pages/attorneys/practice areas, and whether the site is primarily business-development/BD or recruiting/brand-oriented, I can narrow this to a 3–4 agency shortlist and give you a weighted interview/RFP scorecard.

2. AttorneySync — if the website is an important business-development channel and you want an agency that understands how law firms actually market themselves. They work exclusively with law firms and explicitly focus on business outcomes such as consultations and retained matters rather than just traffic.

3. Solid Digital — I'd include them as the "show us what a really good modern digital agency can do" candidate. They're more B2B/generalist than legal-specialist, which can actually be useful if you're looking for a sophisticated professional-services site rather than something that looks like a conventional lawyer website.

I'd also take a serious look at Hype Legal. Their Chicago legal work is especially relevant because they explicitly combine UX/UI, website development, CMS implementation, SEO, hosting, migration and CMS training; their Hart McLaughlin & Eldridge project is a Chicago law-firm redesign. Hype Legal

And Builden Partners deserves an interview if your biggest concern is managing partners' time and getting a high-end professional-services redesign over the finish line without turning the project into an internal nightmare. They specifically position their redesign process around minimizing attorney/leadership burden and maintaining schedule and budget. Builden Partners

One wildcard I'd consider

ArtVersion® Creative Agency is worth interviewing if brand/design quality is a major part of the assignment. They're a long-established Chicago creative agency combining branding, UX/UI and web development under one roof.

I'd also benchmark against a legal-specialist agency outside the traditional Chicago-agency mold

JusticeArch is interesting because its work is heavily focused on law firms and measurable redesign/SEO outcomes. Its Chicago case study for DRD Law involved an 81-page redesign and SEO overhaul. JusticeArch

Likewise, MileMark specifically discusses mid-sized law-firm redesigns and CMS migrations, including the importance of preserving existing SEO equity and the practical four-to-six-month timeline typical of these projects. MileMark Legal

What I'd ask every agency

Don't give them a generic "redesign our website" RFP. Give all six essentially the same challenge:

"We're a mid-sized Chicago law firm in River North. We need to migrate from our existing CMS while substantially redesigning the site. We have an established domain, substantial attorney/practice-area content, existing organic search equity and multiple stakeholders. Show us how you would approach the migration, information architecture, UX, CMS selection, SEO preservation, accessibility, analytics and launch."

Then require these seven deliverables in their proposal:

1. Recommended CMS and why — WordPress, Drupal, Webflow, headless, etc.
2. Migration methodology — especially URL mapping, redirects, metadata, structured data, staging and rollback.
3. Proposed information architecture — attorney profiles, practices, industries, offices, insights/news, case results, etc.
4. Three relevant law/professional-services examples — not just screenshots; ask what they personally did.
5. Accessibility approach — WCAG target, testing methodology and responsibility.
6. Post-launch ownership — hosting, maintenance, security, CMS updates, SEO monitoring and support.
7. Detailed project team — specifically who will do strategy, UX, design, development and migration rather than just the agency logo/team slide.

The migration piece is particularly important. A redesign that looks fantastic but loses your firm's existing rankings is a bad project. Agencies that explicitly discuss preserving URLs, redirects and SEO equity—rather than treating migration as "we'll move the content over"—should get extra points.

• Americaneagle.com, Inc. - 200 W Jackson Blvd Fl 22, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Solid Digital - 100 N LaSalle St #1400, Chicago, IL 60602, United States
• Pattern 6 - 222 W Merchandise Mart Plaza, Chicago, IL 60654, United States
• AttorneySync - 211 W Wacker Dr Ste 300, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Flamingo Agency - 3752 N Southport Ave, Chicago, IL 60613, United States
• Market JD, Inc. - 20 N Wacker Dr Ste 1200, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• BSPE Legal Marketing - Chicago - 875 N Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60610, United States
• dNOVO Group | Law Firm Marketing Agency - 545 N McClurg Ct Ste 1808, Chicago, IL 60611, United States
• YourPortal - 2211 N Elston Ave Ste 208, Chicago, IL 60614, 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
• Windy City Web Solutions - 801 S Wells St, Chicago, IL 60607, United States
• SITE IT NOW - 1016 W Jackson Blvd, Chicago, IL 60607, United States
• Chicago Website Design SEO Company - 10 S Riverside Plaza #875, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Attorney Web Design | Chicago - 233 S Wacker Dr Ste 4400, Chicago, IL 60606, United States

For a mid-sized River North law firm, I’d avoid treating this as a generic “new website” project. You want an agency that can handle CMS migration + information architecture + premium legal-brand redesign + SEO preservation + attorney/practice-area content + accessibility + integrations.

I’d interview 5 agencies, with a mix of legal specialists and stronger generalist/enterprise shops:

My Chicago shortlist

1. Americaneagle.com, Inc. — best for a complex, high-stakes migration

This is the heavyweight option. They have a Chicago office and experience with large, content-heavy law-firm migrations: their McGuireWoods work involved moving a substantial legal site to WordPress Multisite, preserving content, improving search, and creating a scalable multisite structure. WP Engine

Interview if: you have hundreds/thousands of pages, multiple offices, sophisticated attorney/practice-area directories, integrations, or expect the site to become a major digital platform.

Concern: potentially more agency than you need for a mid-sized firm, and likely a higher budget.

2. Solid Digital — best generalist I'd put in the finals

Chicago-based, with a strong focus on WordPress/custom development, performance, security, integrations and sites that marketing teams can actually manage.

Interview if: you want a sophisticated redesign without hiring a huge enterprise agency. I'd particularly probe them on legal-industry experience and large-scale content migration.

3. Pattern 6 — interesting River North-adjacent specialist

They're in the Merchandise Mart and specifically position themselves around law-firm marketing and custom websites rather than generic templates.

Interview if: you want someone who understands legal buyer journeys, SEO and conversion—not just visual design.

Question I'd ask: “Show us three mid-sized firms where you redesigned the information architecture, not merely the homepage.”

4. AttorneySync — best legal-marketing specialist to pressure-test against the design agencies

They're Chicago-based and work specifically with law firms. Their positioning emphasizes qualified consultations/cases rather than vanity web metrics, and they explicitly emphasize firms retaining ownership of their digital assets.

Interview if: business development/SEO/intake performance is a major reason for the redesign.

Caveat: I'd want to see substantial examples of mid-sized, sophisticated firm branding and UX, not just lead-generation sites.

5. Flamingo Agency — wildcard for a more design-forward, smaller-agency relationship

They're a Chicago WordPress shop that works with professional-service businesses and handles design, SEO and ongoing support.

Interview if: your site isn't enormous and you value senior-level attention and a less bureaucratic process.

Caveat: I'd rank the first four ahead of them for a significant legal CMS migration.

One specialist I'd add to the RFP

Hype Legal is worth contacting even though it didn't surface as one of the local-business results. Their Chicago legal work is unusually relevant: their Hart McLaughlin & Eldridge project included strategy, UX/UI, website development, CMS implementation, SEO, hosting, site migration, maintenance and CMS training. Hype Legal

That is almost exactly the competency stack I'd want for your project.

How I'd narrow them

I'd actually run a 5-agency mini-RFP, rather than asking for generic proposals.

Give everyone the same brief:

“We are a mid-sized Chicago law firm in River North. We are migrating from our current CMS and redesigning the site. We need a materially better user experience, stronger attorney/practice-area architecture, preservation of existing organic search equity, improved accessibility/performance, and a CMS our marketing team can independently manage.”

Then require each agency to provide:

• Proposed CMS and why
• Migration methodology and URL/redirect strategy
• Proposed information architecture
• Example attorney/practice-area content model
• Accessibility approach
• SEO migration plan
• Analytics/conversion tracking plan
• Hosting/security approach
• Editorial permissions/workflows
• Who actually does the work
• 2–3 comparable client references
• Fixed-fee estimate broken into discovery, design, development, migration and launch
• Post-launch support terms
• What happens if you terminate the relationship

I'd pay particular attention to migration methodology. A redesign can look fantastic while quietly destroying years of search equity. A Chicago migration specialist, for example, explicitly calls out URL mapping, redirects, canonicalization, internal links and post-launch monitoring as migration workstreams. SEO Design Chicago

My initial ranking

If this were my firm, my first three calls would be Americaneagle.com, Solid Digital, and Hype Legal. I'd use Pattern 6 and AttorneySync as the two comparison bids to make sure the finalists aren't overlooking legal-specific UX/SEO requirements.

One other point: don't let the agencies choose the CMS solely based on what they happen to sell. For a mid-sized firm, WordPress is often a sensible answer, but the important questions are the content model, editorial governance, portability, security, performance and whether the firm actually owns the site and underlying data. Americaneagle's McGuireWoods migration is a useful example of why those architectural decisions matter. WP Engine

If you tell me roughly how many attorneys, offices, pages, and which CMS you're migrating from, I can turn this into a much tighter 3–5 agency shortlist with likely project-budget bands and a scoring matrix/RFP you can send them.

For a mid-sized River North law firm, I would not treat this as a generic “new website” project. A CMS migration/redesign has three high-risk areas for a law firm:

1. SEO equity preservation (practice-area pages, attorney bios, rankings, backlinks)
2. Content governance (many attorneys/contributors, approvals, disclaimers)
3. Professional-services UX (credibility, conversion paths, accessibility, compliance)

I’d interview a mix of legal-experienced agencies and strong Chicago CMS/digital agencies rather than only “law firm website” vendors.

Shortlist to interview

1. Marcel Digital

Best fit if you want a sophisticated CMS migration with SEO, analytics, and ongoing optimization. They are a Chicago-based agency with CMS migration experience (including Umbraco), website development, hosting, and technical SEO capabilities. Marcel Digital

Ask them about:

• WordPress vs Umbraco vs headless CMS recommendation
• Migration plan preserving attorney/practice-area SEO
• Structured content models for hundreds of pages
• Analytics and conversion measurement

Why interview: A good candidate if your firm is closer to “professional services enterprise” than “small law firm marketing site.”

2. Stem Legal

A strong legal-specific option. Stem focuses on law firm websites, including information architecture, SEO, usability, and WordPress CMS implementations. Stem Legal

Ask them about:

• Examples of firms similar in size to yours
• How they handle attorney departures/arrivals
• Editorial workflows and attorney approvals
• Legal advertising compliance experience

Why interview: They understand law-firm content patterns better than many general agencies.

3. Click5 Interactive

A Chicago-based agency with design, WordPress development, UX, and custom software capabilities. They also show legal-related work in their portfolio. click5 Interactive

Ask them about:

• CMS architecture recommendations
• Custom integrations
• Accessibility testing
• Long-term maintainability

Why interview: Potentially a good middle ground between creative quality and technical capability.

4. Alliance Interactive

Worth considering for a redesign where branding, UX, SEO, and CMS flexibility matter. They work across platforms including WordPress and Drupal. Alliance Interactive

Ask them about:

• Large content migrations
• Design systems
• Accessibility/WCAG process
• CMS training for nontechnical staff

Why interview: Good candidate if your firm wants a more polished, modern brand presence.

5. Alpha Efficiency

A Chicago agency focused on web design, development, SEO, and performance optimization.

Ask them about:

• Professional-services case studies
• Conversion optimization
• Technical SEO during migration
• Who specifically will build the site

Why interview: Useful if growth/lead generation is a major goal.

6. AT Web Studios

Positions itself around professional-services websites and a structured discovery/design/development process. AT Web Studios

Ask them about:

• Law firm references
• CMS ownership and portability
• Content migration methodology
• Post-launch support

Why interview: Could be a strong design-led option.

If I were running the RFP, I’d probably invite 5 firms:

Tier 1 (most aligned):

1. Marcel Digital
2. Stem Legal
3. Click5 Interactive

Tier 2 (compare strategic/design approaches):

4. Alliance Interactive
5. Alpha Efficiency

Questions I would require every agency to answer

CMS strategy

• What CMS do you recommend and why?
• Who owns the code, hosting accounts, plugins, and licenses?
• How easy is it for marketing staff to update attorney bios and practice pages?

Migration risk

• Will you crawl and inventory every existing URL?
• Will you provide a URL redirect map?
• How will you protect current Google rankings?
• Who monitors Search Console after launch?

Law-firm workflow

• Can we have attorney-specific approvals?
• Can different practice groups manage their own content?
• How do you handle archived attorneys, matters, publications, and alerts?

Accessibility/security

• Do you build to WCAG 2.2 AA?
• What security hardening is included?
• How are backups, updates, and vulnerability patches handled?

Deliverables

Require:

• sitemap
• content model
• wireframes
• design system
• migration plan
• QA checklist
• analytics plan
• CMS training

Budget expectations

For a mid-sized Chicago law firm, I would expect roughly:

• $40k–$75k: strong WordPress redesign/migration
• $75k–$150k+: sophisticated CMS rebuild, custom templates, integrations, extensive content migration, SEO work

A quote far below that range often means the agency is doing a template refresh rather than a true CMS migration.

One additional suggestion: before interviewing agencies, decide whether the firm’s priority is brand prestige, organic search growth, client intake conversion, or internal content management. The best agency choice changes depending on that priority.

Deliverables

Require:

• sitemap
• content model
• wireframes
• design system
• migration plan
• QA checklist
• analytics plan
• CMS training

Budget expectations

For a mid-sized Chicago law firm, I would expect roughly:

• $40k–$75k: strong WordPress redesign/migration
• $75k–$150k+: sophisticated CMS rebuild, custom templates, integrations, extensive content migration, SEO work

A quote far below that range often means the agency is doing a template refresh rather than a true CMS migration.

• Market JD, Inc. - 20 N Wacker Dr Ste 1200, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• AttorneySync - 211 W Wacker Dr Ste 300, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Marcel Digital - 20 N Wacker Dr Ste 1285, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Duo Consulting - 200 S Wacker Dr #625, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Digital Authority Partners - 420 W Huron St Fl 1, Chicago, IL 60654, United States
• SEO Design Chicago - 2068 N Western Ave 1F - Front, Chicago, IL 60647, United States
• BSPE Legal Marketing - Chicago - 875 N Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60610, United States
• Forward Lawyer Marketing - 3553 W Peterson Ave Ste 30, Chicago, IL 60659, United States
• Sixth City Marketing - 620 N La Salle Dr Ste 415, Chicago, IL 60654, United States
• Comrade Digital Marketing Agency - 332 S Michigan Ave #900, Chicago, IL 60604, United States
• dNOVO Group | Law Firm Marketing Agency - 545 N McClurg Ct Ste 1808, Chicago, IL 60611, United States
• OVC Lawyer Marketing - 750 Warrenville Rd Ste 203, Lisle, IL 60532, United States
• Marcel Digital - 445 W Erie St #200, Chicago, IL 60654, United States
• Chicago Website Design SEO Company - 10 S Riverside Plaza #875, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• cre8 - Chicago, IL 60607
• Pilot Digital Marketing - 4753 N Broadway Ste T110, Chicago, IL 60640, United States

For a mid-sized law firm in River North, I would interview a mix of legal-industry specialists and strong enterprise CMS agencies. That gives you a benchmark between firms that understand attorney marketing and firms that excel at complex content migrations, governance, accessibility, and integrations.

Here's a shortlist I'd consider.

If your priorities lean toward legal-specific experience, I'd also consider:

• BSPE Legal Marketing - Chicago
• Forward Lawyer Marketing
• Hype Legal (they've completed website redesigns and CMS implementations for Chicago firms). Hype Legal

Since you're in River North

Several of these firms are within a few minutes of your office, making workshops much easier:

• Marcel Digital
• Digital Authority Partners
• Market JD, Inc.
• AttorneySync
• Sixth City Marketing

Questions I'd ask every agency

1. Have you migrated a law firm with 500+ pages without losing organic traffic?
2. Which CMS do you recommend (WordPress, Drupal, Umbraco, Sitecore, etc.), and why?
3. How do you handle redirect mapping and SEO preservation?
4. How do attorney bios, publications, representative matters, and practice pages become structured content instead of static pages?
5. What's your accessibility process (WCAG 2.2 AA)?
6. Who performs content migration—manual, automated, or hybrid?
7. What QA do you perform before launch?
8. What happens during the first 90 days after go-live?
9. Can you integrate with CRM/intake systems such as HubSpot, Salesforce, Clio, or others?
10. Can we speak with two law firm clients that completed a CMS migration in the last 18 months?

My recommendation

For a mid-sized Chicago firm (roughly 20–100 attorneys), I'd probably interview five firms:

• Marcel Digital
• Market JD, Inc.
• Duo Consulting
• AttorneySync
• Digital Authority Partners

That group gives you a useful mix of legal-industry expertise, enterprise CMS experience, UX strategy, and SEO-conscious migration capabilities.

If you can share a few details—your current CMS (WordPress, Drupal, Sitecore, Kentico, etc.), approximate page count, number of attorneys, and whether the site is mainly business litigation/corporate or consumer-facing—I can narrow this to the two or three firms that are likely to be the best fit.

• Duo Consulting - 20 W Kinzie St, Ste 1510, Chicago, IL 60654
• Orbit Media Studios - 4043 N Ravenswood Ave #316, Chicago, IL 60613, United States
• Marcel Digital - 20 N Wacker Dr Ste 1285, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• ArtVersion® Creative Agency - 211 W Wacker Dr Ste 1130, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Solid Digital - 100 N LaSalle St #1400, Chicago, IL 60602, United States
• AttorneySync - 211 W Wacker Dr Ste 300, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Duo Consulting - 200 S Wacker Dr #625, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• SEO Design Chicago - 2068 N Western Ave 1F - Front, Chicago, IL 60647, United States
• dNOVO Group | Law Firm Marketing Agency - 545 N McClurg Ct Ste 1808, Chicago, IL 60611, United States
• SITE IT NOW - 1016 W Jackson Blvd, Chicago, IL 60607, United States
• OVC Lawyer Marketing - 750 Warrenville Rd Ste 203, Lisle, IL 60532, United States
• Marcel Digital - 445 W Erie St #200, Chicago, IL 60654, United States
• Alpha Efficiency - Web Design Chicago Agency - 875 N Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60611, United States
• Forward Lawyer Marketing - 3553 W Peterson Ave Ste 30, Chicago, IL 60659, United States
• Millennial Web Development - 329 W 18th St Ste 413, Chicago, IL 60616, United States
• Market JD, Inc. - 20 N Wacker Dr Ste 1200, Chicago, IL 60606, United States

For a mid-sized River North law firm, I’d interview a fairly tight field rather than a generic list of Chicago web shops. The key is finding a partner that can handle CMS migration + sophisticated legal-site IA/content + SEO preservation + accessibility + a genuinely better design, not just make the homepage prettier.

My Chicago shortlist

1. Duo Consulting — strongest technical/migration candidate

• Particularly compelling if you're on Drupal, an older enterprise CMS, or have complicated integrations/content.
• Duo specializes in Drupal and CMS migrations, and its Chicago business profile specifically references a law-firm project involving migration/custom functionality; the client reported an eightfold increase in site traffic.
• I'd put them on the shortlist if the migration itself is the risky part of the project.
• Orbit Media Studios — strongest all-around independent agency

• One of the more established Chicago web agencies, with substantial WordPress/Drupal expertise.
• They explicitly position their work around replatforming/redesign without sacrificing traffic, SEO or performance, and have deep Drupal capability. Orbit Media Studios
• Good choice if you want a sophisticated marketing site rather than a "law-firm website template."
• Marcel Digital — strongest data/SEO/CMS option

• River North/Loop proximity is convenient.
• Particularly interesting if the firm wants the new site tied closely to SEO, analytics, CRO and marketing automation, rather than treating the website as a standalone design project.
• They have strong enterprise/B2B CMS experience, including Umbraco migrations and ongoing support.
• ArtVersion® Creative Agency — strongest design/brand-led option

• Downtown Chicago, with a long-established creative/design practice.
• Worth interviewing if the firm's primary concern is that the current site looks and feels behind the firm's actual market position.
• They have WordPress/Drupal and enterprise web experience, so they're not merely a branding shop.
• Solid Digital — strong modern WordPress contender

• Good fit if you're leaning toward WordPress and want a polished, maintainable system for attorneys, practices, insights, publications, etc.
• Their positioning emphasizes custom WordPress, performance/security, integrations and marketing-team manageability.
• AttorneySync — specialist legal-marketing alternative

• Unlike the generalist agencies above, AttorneySync focuses specifically on law firms.
• I'd interview them specifically to see how much of their approach is genuinely strategic versus the typical legal-marketing-site formula.
• Their offering spans legal websites, SEO, paid search, maintenance and broader digital marketing.

Two more I'd consider

Duo Consulting is worth especially serious consideration if your current CMS is Drupal or your site has unusual technical requirements. Their migration/documentation discipline is exactly what I'd want to test in an RFP.

SEO Design Chicago is a more SEO-centric option. They explicitly handle CMS migrations, URL/redirect preservation, WordPress development, accessibility and performance. SEO Design Chicago

If it were my RFP

I'd probably invite 5 firms:

That mix will tell you whether you actually need a legal specialist, a digital agency, or a technical CMS partner.

One important caveat

I would not let the agencies define the CMS requirement before discovery. For a mid-sized law firm, WordPress may be the right answer—but if you're currently on Drupal, Sitecore, Umbraco, a proprietary CMS, etc., the right question is why change, what does the firm need five years from now, and what content/workflows have to survive the migration?

The RFP should require each agency to demonstrate:

• A URL-by-URL migration/redirect strategy
• How they preserve existing organic rankings and backlinks
• Content modeling for attorneys, practices, industries, offices, insights and case results
• Attorney bio and practice-area search/filtering
• WCAG accessibility approach
• Performance/Core Web Vitals targets
• CMS authoring experience for nontechnical marketing staff
• Analytics, Search Console and conversion tracking
• Security, hosting and maintenance responsibilities
• Who owns the code, design system and CMS configuration
• A staging/UAT process and rollback plan
• Two comparable law-firm references, preferably firms with 30–150 attorneys
• A detailed post-launch SEO monitoring plan

And I'd make them show you the migration plan before you show them your preferred CMS. That tends to expose very quickly which agencies actually understand migrations versus agencies that primarily sell redesigns.

One other Chicago firm that caught my attention in the research is Builden Partners. It's unusually focused on law firms and explicitly discusses website redesigns while minimizing attorney/leadership involvement; its published case studies include AmLaw 20/50/100 firms. Builden Partners Builden Partners If your firm has a substantial marketing/BD function and wants the website project integrated into a broader positioning exercise, I'd add Builden to the interviews.

My initial ranking for your particular brief: Orbit / Duo / Builden as the three I'd most want to hear from, then Marcel and ArtVersion to create useful alternatives.

That mix will tell you whether you actually need a legal specialist, a digital agency, or a technical CMS partner.

One important caveat

I would not let the agencies define the CMS requirement before discovery. For a mid-sized law firm, WordPress may be the right answer—but if you're currently on Drupal, Sitecore, Umbraco, a proprietary CMS, etc., the right question is why change, what does the firm need five years from now, and what content/workflows have to survive the migration?

The RFP should require each agency to demonstrate:

• A URL-by-URL migration/redirect strategy
• How they preserve existing organic rankings and backlinks
• Content modeling for attorneys, practices, industries, offices, insights and case results
• Attorney bio and practice-area search/filtering
• WCAG accessibility approach
• Performance/Core Web Vitals targets
• CMS authoring experience for nontechnical marketing staff
• Analytics, Search Console and conversion tracking
• Security, hosting and maintenance responsibilities
• Who owns the code, design system and CMS configuration
• A staging/UAT process and rollback plan
• Two comparable law-firm references, preferably firms with 30–150 attorneys
• A detailed post-launch SEO monitoring plan

And I'd make them show you the migration plan before you show them your preferred CMS. That tends to expose very quickly which agencies actually understand migrations versus agencies that primarily sell redesigns.

• Orbit Media Studios - 4043 N Ravenswood Ave #316, Chicago, IL 60613, United States
• Americaneagle.com, Inc. - 2600 S River Rd, Des Plaines, IL 60018, United States
• BSPE Legal Marketing - Chicago - 875 N Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60610, United States
• Marcel Digital - 445 W Erie St #200, Chicago, IL 60654, United States
• ArtVersion® Creative Agency - 211 W Wacker Dr Ste 1130, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• dNOVO Group | Law Firm Marketing Agency - 545 N McClurg Ct Ste 1808, Chicago, IL 60611, United States
• SEO Design Chicago - 2068 N Western Ave 1F - Front, Chicago, IL 60647, United States
• OVC Lawyer Marketing - 750 Warrenville Rd Ste 203, Lisle, IL 60532, United States
• YourPortal - 2211 N Elston Ave Ste 208, Chicago, IL 60614, United States
• Flamingo Agency - 3752 N Southport Ave, Chicago, IL 60613, United States
• AttorneySync - 211 W Wacker Dr Ste 300, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Forward Lawyer Marketing - 3553 W Peterson Ave Ste 30, Chicago, IL 60659, United States
• SITE IT NOW - 1016 W Jackson Blvd, Chicago, IL 60607, United States
• Millennial Web Development - 329 W 18th St Ste 413, Chicago, IL 60616, United States
• Forward Lawyer Marketing - 460 N Main St Unit 209, Glen Ellyn, IL 60137, United States
• Alpha Digital Marketing - 4043 N Ravenswood Ave #316, Chicago, IL 60613, United States

Yes. For a mid-sized law firm in River North, I’d avoid treating this as a generic “Chicago web design” search. You want an agency that can handle legal-sector UX/content, a real CMS migration, SEO preservation, attorney/practice-area architecture, accessibility, and a polished professional-services brand.

I’d put 5–7 firms into the interview round, with the following as my shortlist.

My Chicago shortlist

1. Orbit Media Studios — strongest overall agency candidate

DirectionsWebsite[Call](tel:+1 773-348-4581)

This would be one of my first calls.

Orbit is a substantial Chicago web strategy/design/development shop with a strong reputation for content-heavy, lead-generation websites, typically involving WordPress, UX, SEO, analytics, and conversion optimization.

Why I'd interview them:

• Strong information architecture/content strategy capabilities
• Sophisticated UX rather than just “make us a prettier website”
• Good fit for a firm with lots of attorneys, practice areas, publications and resources
• Chicago-based
• Likely capable of running a fairly disciplined migration/launch process

Potential downside: probably not the cheapest option, and they aren't law-firm specialists.

Interview question: “Show us two complex professional-services migrations where you preserved organic traffic and explain exactly what happened to rankings during the first 90 days.”

2. Americaneagle.com, Inc. — best for a complex/enterprise migration

DirectionsWebsite[Call](tel:+1 847-789-5070)

If your firm's site is large, old, highly customized, multi-office, heavily integrated, or sitting on a problematic CMS, I'd absolutely interview Americaneagle.

They are much larger than a typical Chicago web studio and have experience with complex CMS implementations. Most relevantly, they have documented work migrating McGuireWoods, a major law firm, from its existing CMS to WordPress Multisite while preserving content and improving search, performance and usability. WP Engine

Why I'd interview them:

• Actual large law-firm CMS migration experience
• Deep development/QA resources
• CMS/platform expertise
• Better suited to complicated integrations and large content inventories
• Lower perceived execution risk on a technically difficult migration

Potential downside: You may get enterprise-agency pricing and process for a project that doesn't actually need it.

My take: If you're talking about hundreds/thousands of URLs, multiple offices, sophisticated search, integrations or a legacy CMS, move them near the top.

3. BSPE Legal Marketing - Chicago — specialist legal-marketing option

DirectionsWebsite[Call](tel:+1 312-820-3772)

This is the opposite strategy: instead of hiring a general digital agency, hire someone who lives in the legal vertical.

BSPE focuses specifically on law-firm marketing, including websites, SEO and local search.

Why interview them: They should understand the peculiarities of legal websites—practice-area positioning, attorney profiles, intake/conversion, ethical advertising considerations and local search—without needing a crash course in how a law firm works.

Potential concern: I'd probe pretty hard on the technical migration/development side. A law-marketing specialist isn't automatically the same thing as a sophisticated CMS migration partner.

4. Marcel Digital — particularly interesting if you're HubSpot/CRM-heavy

DirectionsWebsite[Call](tel:+1 312-255-8044)

Marcel is based right in River North and combines web development with SEO, CRO, analytics and digital marketing. They also work with HubSpot CMS and CRM implementations.

This becomes especially interesting if your website isn't just a brochure but is tied into HubSpot, CRM, marketing automation, intake, analytics or business-development workflows.

Why interview them:

• Very strong measurement/analytics orientation
• CMS + marketing technology
• Good fit if marketing wants more sophisticated attribution and conversion reporting
• Conveniently local

Question I'd ask: “Would you recommend WordPress, Drupal, HubSpot or something else for our firm, and why? Please don't start with the platform you sell.”

That answer will tell you a lot.

5. ArtVersion® Creative Agency — design/brand-forward contender

DirectionsWebsite[Call](tel:+1 312-837-7466)

ArtVersion is another downtown Chicago option, on Wacker, with a particularly strong brand, UX and visual-design orientation. They also have WordPress VIP credentials, which is interesting if you're considering a more sophisticated WordPress deployment.

I'd put them on the RFP if the firm's problem is partly:

“Our website makes us look like a generic law firm and doesn't reflect the quality of our lawyers.”

They could be particularly good for a high-end professional-services redesign, rather than a purely SEO-driven rebuild.

6. dNOVO Group | Law Firm Marketing Agency — legal-specialist comparison bid

DirectionsWebsite[Call](tel:+1 855-908-0588)

dNOVO is actually in River North, at 545 N McClurg Court, and focuses heavily on law-firm marketing, including websites, SEO and conversion optimization.

I'd interview them primarily as your legal-specialist benchmark.

That gives you a useful comparison against Orbit/ArtVersion/Marcel:

• Legal specialist: dNOVO
• General high-end digital agency: Orbit
• Marketing/technology: Marcel
• Brand/UX: ArtVersion

That contrast will make your final decision much easier.

One wildcard I'd seriously consider

SEO Design Chicago

DirectionsWebsite[Call](tel:+1 773-677-5747)

They're explicitly strong on CMS migrations, WordPress development, technical SEO, redirects, accessibility and performance. Their migration practice specifically addresses CMS changes, URL mapping, redirects and preserving search visibility. SEO Design Chicago

They aren't as obvious a “premium law-firm brand” choice as Orbit or ArtVersion, but I'd consider them if migration/SEO risk is your #1 concern.

And one very interesting law-specific option

I'd also have a conversation with Zaremba Studio.

It's unusual because the person behind it is a practicing Illinois attorney who builds websites for law firms. The firm's process explicitly starts with a technical/competitive audit and URL-by-URL migration plan, and it documents a 748-URL law-firm migration with preserved URLs and zero-downtime launch. Zaremba Studio Zaremba Studio

That's a very different proposition from hiring a 30-person agency, but for a mid-sized firm it could be compelling.

My interview slate

If this were my firm's RFP, I'd probably interview these six:

I'd keep Zaremba Studio as the interesting smaller/specialist alternative.

What I would not do

I wouldn't simply ask each agency:

“How much for a new law-firm website?”

That's likely to produce six wildly different proposals that aren't comparable.

Instead, give them the same brief:

“We are a mid-sized Chicago law firm migrating from our current CMS and redesigning our website. We need a modern, sophisticated professional-services experience, preservation of existing organic search equity, improved attorney/practice-area navigation, accessibility, strong performance, an editor-friendly CMS, analytics/intake integration, and a low-risk launch.”

Then require each agency to provide:

• Recommended CMS and why
• Proposed information architecture
• Migration methodology
• URL inventory/redirect methodology
• SEO preservation plan
• Accessibility standard they will commit to
• Performance targets/Core Web Vitals approach
• Attorney/profile and practice-area content model
• Search functionality
• Integrations
• CMS editing experience
• QA/UAT process
• Launch/cutover procedure
• Post-launch monitoring
• 12-month support model
• 3 comparable case studies with client references
• Fixed/estimated project fee and assumptions

The question I'd use to separate the good agencies from the salespeople

Ask each one:

“Show us the migration plan you would use to move our existing site without losing search equity. Don't give us a slide about 301 redirects—we want to see how you inventory URLs, map old-to-new URLs, handle pages that disappear, preserve metadata/schema/internal links, test redirects, stage the migration, and monitor organic traffic after launch.”

The agencies that immediately get specific are the ones I'd pay attention to.

Also, because you're in River North, you have an unusually good local pool: Marcel, dNOVO and several of the other candidates are genuinely Chicago-based rather than agencies using “Chicago web design” as an SEO landing page.

If you tell me your current CMS, approximate number of URLs, practice areas, number of attorneys/offices, and whether SEO/lead generation or brand prestige is the bigger priority, I can narrow this to a top 3 and give you a vendor scorecard/RFP you can actually send to them.

• Recommended CMS and why
• Proposed information architecture
• Migration methodology
• URL inventory/redirect methodology
• SEO preservation plan
• Accessibility standard they will commit to
• Performance targets/Core Web Vitals approach
• Attorney/profile and practice-area content model
• Search functionality
• Integrations
• CMS editing experience
• QA/UAT process
• Launch/cutover procedure
• Post-launch monitoring
• 12-month support model
• 3 comparable case studies with client references
• Fixed/estimated project fee and assumptions

The question I'd use to separate the good agencies from the salespeople

Ask each one:

“Show us the migration plan you would use to move our existing site without losing search equity. Don't give us a slide about 301 redirects—we want to see how you inventory URLs, map old-to-new URLs, handle pages that disappear, preserve metadata/schema/internal links, test redirects, stage the migration, and monitor organic traffic after launch.”

The agencies that immediately get specific are the ones I'd pay attention to.

Also, because you're in River North, you have an unusually good local pool: Marcel, dNOVO and several of the other candidates are genuinely Chicago-based rather than agencies using “Chicago web design” as an SEO landing page.

• Orbit Media Studios - 4043 N Ravenswood Ave #316, Chicago, IL 60613, United States
• Duo Consulting - 200 S Wacker Dr #625, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• ArtVersion® Creative Agency - 211 W Wacker Dr Ste 1130, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• AttorneySync - 211 W Wacker Dr Ste 300, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• dNOVO Group | Law Firm Marketing Agency - 545 N McClurg Ct Ste 1808, Chicago, IL 60611, United States
• Marcel Digital - 20 N Wacker Dr Ste 1285, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• OVC Lawyer Marketing - 750 Warrenville Rd Ste 203, Lisle, IL 60532, United States
• Brand Vision Marketing - Web Design & Branding - 30 N Michigan Ave #504, Chicago, IL 60602, United States
• Marcel Digital - 445 W Erie St #200, Chicago, IL 60654, United States
• EDUCO Web Design - 128 Chicago Ave, Oak Park, IL 60302, United States
• Forward Lawyer Marketing - 3553 W Peterson Ave Ste 30, Chicago, IL 60659, United States
• Alpha Efficiency - Web Design Chicago Agency - 875 N Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60611, United States
• Market JD, Inc. - 20 N Wacker Dr Ste 1200, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• SITE IT NOW - 1016 W Jackson Blvd, Chicago, IL 60607, United States
• cre8 - Chicago, IL 60607
• Millennial Web Development - 329 W 18th St Ste 413, Chicago, IL 60616, United States

For a mid-sized River North law firm, I’d avoid treating this as a generic “website redesign.” You want an agency that can handle CMS migration + information architecture + legal-industry UX + SEO preservation + accessibility + attorney/team content + long-term CMS governance.

I’d put 6 firms on the interview list, with three as my first calls:

My Chicago shortlist

1. Orbit Media Studios — strongest overall candidate

• Chicago-based, established web strategy/design/development shop.
• Particularly compelling if you're considering Drupal or WordPress and have a substantial content library.
• Explicitly handles migrations/replatforming while protecting SEO and performance. Orbit Media Studios
• I'd interview them if you want a strategic, sophisticated site rather than a law-firm template.
• Duo Consulting — particularly strong for a serious CMS migration

• Chicago firm with deep Drupal/CMS experience, including content migration, UX, development and ongoing support.
• Their published portfolio includes a law-firm project, and the client specifically praised their methodical approach and project leadership.
• I'd move them to #1 if you're currently on Drupal or have complicated content/data requirements.
• ArtVersion® Creative Agency — best design/brand-oriented option

• Downtown Chicago agency with substantial UX, branding and web-development capabilities.
• A good choice if the redesign needs to materially elevate the firm's brand positioning and visual sophistication, not merely modernize the CMS.
• Their capabilities include WordPress and Drupal/enterprise implementations.

Two legal-specialist options

1. AttorneySync

• Worth interviewing specifically because they focus on law firms, rather than treating legal as one industry among dozens.
• Stronger candidate if organic search, lead generation, intake and ongoing digital marketing are major objectives.
• dNOVO Group | Law Firm Marketing Agency

• Chicago-based and explicitly focused on law firms/professional services.
• Combines website redesign with SEO, paid acquisition and conversion optimization.
• I'd include them as the legal-marketing specialist against which you can benchmark the generalist agencies.
• Marcel Digital — interesting if you want a more enterprise/marketing-technology approach

• River North/Loop-adjacent and particularly interesting if you're considering Umbraco or want the website tightly integrated with analytics, SEO, CRM and marketing operations.
• They emphasize enterprise/B2B web development and CMS migrations/support.

One wildcard

Hype Legal deserves a look if your priority is specifically legal-industry positioning and design. Their Chicago law-firm case study covers strategy, UX/UI, CMS implementation, SEO, migration, hosting and CMS training—essentially the whole lifecycle you're describing. Hype Legal

How I'd structure the interviews

I'd actually not tell agencies exactly what CMS you want yet. Give all of them the same brief and ask them to recommend the platform.

For example:

“We're a mid-sized Chicago law firm looking to migrate and substantially redesign our website. We need to preserve organic search equity, improve attorney/practice-area UX, make content management substantially easier for our marketing team, improve accessibility and performance, and create a platform we can maintain for the next 5–7 years.”

Then make them answer:

• What CMS would you recommend and why?
• How many CMS migrations of comparable complexity have you actually completed?
• Show us a migration where the old site's SEO traffic was preserved or improved.
• How do you inventory and migrate existing URLs, metadata, PDFs, attorney profiles and practice-area content?
• Who owns the 301 redirect map?
• How do you handle old URLs that don't have an obvious one-to-one replacement?
• How do you approach WCAG 2.2 accessibility?
• Who actually designs the information architecture?
• Can attorneys/marketing staff edit pages without developers?
• How do you model attorneys, practices, offices, industries, publications, cases/results and insights?
• What happens to our CMS after launch?
• Who will actually be on our account six months after launch?
• What is your process for staging, QA, redirects, DNS cutover and post-launch monitoring?
• Give us a fixed-fee range, assumptions and likely change-order triggers.

The biggest thing I'd test

Ask each agency to spend 15 minutes walking through your current site's content architecture, rather than showing you their prettiest portfolio.

A mediocre agency will talk about colors, animations and “modernizing the brand.”

A very good agency will immediately start talking about:

practice-area architecture → attorney profiles → internal linking → search intent → content model → URL preservation → redirects → structured data → accessibility → CMS governance → analytics → launch/rollback plan.

For a law firm, that's the difference between buying a pretty website and actually buying a better digital platform.

If this were my shortlist, I'd start with Orbit, Duo and Hype Legal, then use AttorneySync/dNOVO as the legal-specialist benchmarks. That gives you three different philosophies to compare rather than interviewing six essentially identical agencies.

A mediocre agency will talk about colors, animations and “modernizing the brand.”

A very good agency will immediately start talking about:

practice-area architecture → attorney profiles → internal linking → search intent → content model → URL preservation → redirects → structured data → accessibility → CMS governance → analytics → launch/rollback plan.

For a law firm, that's the difference between buying a pretty website and actually buying a better digital platform.

• Americaneagle.com, Inc. - 200 W Jackson Blvd Fl 22, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Marcel Digital - 445 W Erie St #200, Chicago, IL 60654, United States
• Solid Digital - 100 N LaSalle St #1400, Chicago, IL 60602, United States
• ArtVersion® Creative Agency - 211 W Wacker Dr Ste 1130, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• YourPortal - 2211 N Elston Ave Ste 208, Chicago, IL 60614, United States
• Flamingo Agency - 3752 N Southport Ave, Chicago, IL 60613, United States
• Chicago Website Design SEO Company - 10 S Riverside Plaza #875, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• SEOLEVELUP Website Design SEO Company Chicago - 355 N Laflin St Ste 101C, Chicago, IL 60607, United States
• SEO Design Chicago - 2068 N Western Ave 1F - Front, Chicago, IL 60647, United States
• SITE IT NOW - 1016 W Jackson Blvd, Chicago, IL 60607, United States
• Brand Vision Marketing - Web Design & Branding - 30 N Michigan Ave #504, Chicago, IL 60602, United States
• 10com Web Development - 205 N Michigan Ave Suit 810, Chicago, IL 60601, United States
• Alpha Efficiency - Web Design Chicago Agency - 875 N Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60611, United States
• Windy City Web Solutions - 801 S Wells St, Chicago, IL 60607, United States

For a mid-sized River North law firm, I would not limit the search to generic Chicago web shops. A law firm CMS migration/redesign has unusual requirements: attorney bios, practice-area taxonomy, thought leadership, publications, rankings/awards, SEO preservation, ethical advertising considerations, accessibility, security, and an editorial workflow that partners and marketing staff can actually use.

I’d interview a shortlist of 5–7 agencies, mixing legal specialists with higher-end B2B/digital firms.

My recommended interview list

1. Americaneagle.com — best for complex CMS migrations

Americaneagle.com, Inc.

DirectionsWebsite[Call](tel:+1 312-291-5970)

Why interview them

• Strong fit if your current site is large (hundreds/thousands of pages), has complicated content types, integrations, or needs enterprise-grade governance.
• They position themselves around web design, development, digital marketing, hosting, and ongoing support for mid-market and enterprise organizations.

Ask them about

• Drupal vs. WordPress vs. another CMS recommendation
• Migration plan preserving URLs, metadata, rankings, and redirects
• Editorial permissions and partner approval workflows

2. Marcel Digital — best for SEO + analytics-driven redesign

Marcel Digital

DirectionsWebsite[Call](tel:+1 312-255-8044)

Why interview them

• A good fit if the goal is not just a prettier website but improved visibility for practice areas and thought leadership.
• They combine web development with SEO, analytics, CRO, and measurement capabilities.

Ask them about

• How they would handle a law firm migration without losing organic traffic
• Their approach to practice-area landing pages
• Analytics dashboards after launch

3. Solid Digital — best for a sophisticated professional-services brand

Solid Digital

DirectionsWebsite[Call](tel:+1 877-899-9981)

Why interview them

• Professional-services firms often need a more restrained, credibility-focused experience rather than a consumer lead-gen website.
• Their positioning is oriented toward B2B organizations, website redesigns, UX, branding, and ongoing support.

Ask them about

• Examples involving professional services
• Content strategy for partner bios and insights
• CMS training for nontechnical staff

4. Hype Legal — best legal-industry specialist

Hype Legal

Why interview them

• They have specific law firm website work, including CMS implementation, migration, SEO, content strategy, and attorney-focused redesigns. Hype Legal

Ask them about

• Whether they have worked with firms similar to yours (business law, litigation, transactional, etc.)
• Their CMS architecture for attorneys, offices, industries, and publications
• Who owns the content strategy

5. JusticeArch — best if growth/SEO is a major goal

JusticeArch

Why interview them

• They focus specifically on law firm redesigns and SEO-oriented rebuilds. Their portfolio highlights law firm redesigns and content/SEO overhauls. JusticeArch

Ask them about

• How they balance SEO with a premium law-firm brand
• Whether they have experience with sophisticated corporate firms versus consumer-facing practices

6. ArtVersion — best for premium visual redesign

ArtVersion® Creative Agency

DirectionsWebsite[Call](tel:+1 312-837-7466)

Why interview them

• Good candidate if the firm’s issue is brand perception: outdated design, weak storytelling, inconsistent visuals.
• They emphasize branding, UX, web design, and development.

Ask them about

• Law/professional services examples
• CMS implementation partner relationships
• Long-term maintenance model

I would probably skip (unless your needs are smaller)

Many Chicago agencies can build a WordPress site, but a law firm migration is usually not a “nice homepage refresh” project. Be cautious with shops that cannot show:

• prior CMS migrations,
• large content inventories,
• SEO preservation work,
• accessibility processes,
• security practices,
• editorial workflows.

Suggested RFP/interview questions

Give every agency the same questions:

1. CMS recommendation

• “Why WordPress, Drupal, Craft, Webflow, or another platform for our firm?”
• “What would make you not recommend your preferred CMS?”
• Migration

• “How will you inventory and migrate our existing content?”
• “How do you protect rankings during launch?”
• “Who owns redirect mapping?”
• Law firm experience

• “Show us three legal/professional-services sites you built.”
• “How did you structure attorneys, practices, industries, insights, and publications?”
• Content

• “Will you rewrite content, restructure it, or only migrate it?”
• “Who interviews partners?”
• Operations

• “How will marketing staff add attorneys, articles, awards, and news?”
• “What training is included?”
• Security/compliance

• Hosting?
• Backups?
• Plugin governance?
• Accessibility testing?
• Privacy/security considerations?

My initial interview slate for your situation

If I were narrowing to five first meetings:

1. Americaneagle.com — complex migration capability
2. Marcel Digital — SEO + measurement
3. Solid Digital — premium professional-services positioning
4. Hype Legal — legal specialization
5. JusticeArch — legal growth focus

For a River North firm, I’d expect a serious redesign/migration engagement to be evaluated less on “who makes the prettiest homepage” and more on information architecture, SEO retention, CMS usability, and whether the agency understands how law firms sell trust.

• Orbit Media Studios - 4043 N Ravenswood Ave #316, Chicago, IL 60613, United States
• Duo Consulting - 20 W Kinzie St, Ste 1510, Chicago, IL 60654
• AttorneySync - 211 W Wacker Dr Ste 300, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• dNOVO Group | Law Firm Marketing Agency - 545 N McClurg Ct Ste 1808, Chicago, IL 60611, United States
• Marcel Digital - 20 N Wacker Dr Ste 1285, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• ArtVersion® Creative Agency - 211 W Wacker Dr Ste 1130, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Duo Consulting - 200 S Wacker Dr #625, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• OVC Lawyer Marketing - 750 Warrenville Rd Ste 203, Lisle, IL 60532, United States
• Brand Vision Marketing - Web Design & Branding - 30 N Michigan Ave #504, Chicago, IL 60602, United States
• Marcel Digital - 445 W Erie St #200, Chicago, IL 60654, United States
• EDUCO Web Design - 128 Chicago Ave, Oak Park, IL 60302, United States
• Forward Lawyer Marketing - 3553 W Peterson Ave Ste 30, Chicago, IL 60659, United States
• Alpha Efficiency - Web Design Chicago Agency - 875 N Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60611, United States
• Market JD, Inc. - 20 N Wacker Dr Ste 1200, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• SITE IT NOW - 1016 W Jackson Blvd, Chicago, IL 60607, United States
• cre8 - Chicago, IL 60607

Yes. For a mid-sized River North law firm, I’d interview a mix of legal-specialist agencies and stronger generalist CMS/web shops rather than automatically choosing the agency that markets itself exclusively to lawyers.

My shortlist would be:

My recommended interview slate

If you're going to talk to 4 firms, I'd make it:

1. Orbit Media — benchmark for strategy, UX, SEO and overall quality. Their Drupal practice explicitly covers migration/replatforming and protecting existing traffic during redesigns. Orbit Media Studios
2. Duo Consulting — especially compelling if the existing site is Drupal or has a complicated content architecture. Their local business profile specifically describes CMS migration and a law-firm engagement. Duo Consulting
3. AttorneySync — the "they understand lawyers and their clients" counterweight. AttorneySync
4. ArtVersion or Marcel Digital — I'd choose ArtVersion if brand/design is the priority, Marcel if SEO, analytics, CRM and measurable lead generation are the priority.

There's also a wildcard I'd consider: Zaremba Studio. It's unusually specialized: the principal is himself a practicing Illinois trial attorney and says he builds law-firm sites in both WordPress and Drupal, including migrations with URL preservation and SEO considerations. Zaremba Studio It may be smaller than what you're envisioning, but I'd take a conversation with them precisely because they understand the intersection of legal credibility + technical migration.

What I would not optimize for

I wouldn't make "has built lots of attorney websites" the primary selection criterion. Legal-specialist shops can be excellent, but some produce fairly interchangeable lawyer-marketing templates.

For a mid-sized firm, I'd prioritize:

• Information architecture: Can they make 8–20 practice areas, attorneys, industries/sectors, publications, insights and offices easy to navigate?
• Migration discipline: Complete URL inventory, redirect mapping, metadata migration, canonical handling, XML sitemap, analytics/GA4 continuity and post-launch monitoring.
• SEO preservation: They should show you an actual migration plan, not merely say "SEO is included." A poor CMS/URL migration can seriously damage organic visibility. SEO Design Chicago
• Attorney profiles: Your lawyers are probably one of the firm's biggest conversion/credibility assets. Ask how they'll handle attorney bios, credentials, publications, speaking engagements and related-content relationships.
• CMS usability: Partners and marketing staff should be able to add attorneys, matters/case studies, alerts and thought leadership without calling the agency.
• Accessibility: WCAG-conscious design, keyboard navigation, semantic markup, forms, PDFs and third-party embeds.
• Security: Especially important if contact/intake forms collect potentially sensitive information.
• Content strategy: A beautiful site with the same weak practice-area copy isn't much of a redesign.
• Analytics/conversion: Calls, consultation requests, contact forms, attorney-profile engagement and practice-area journeys should be measurable.
• Ownership: Your firm should own the domain, hosting account, CMS, analytics properties, code repository and design files.

One important question for the interviews

Give every agency the same hypothetical:

"We have a 500–1,000-page law-firm website. We're changing CMS and redesigning it without losing organic traffic. Walk us through exactly what happens from discovery through 90 days after launch."

Then make them whiteboard:

crawl → content inventory → IA → URL strategy → redirects → CMS architecture → design system → migration → QA → staging → launch → monitoring

The best agency will get very specific very quickly.

I'd also ask each one for two references from firms roughly your size, rather than accepting references from a Fortune 500 company or a tiny solo-practitioner site.

If you tell me your current CMS (WordPress, Drupal, Sitecore, custom, etc.), approximate page count, and whether the primary objective is recruiting, business development, thought leadership, or all three, I can narrow this to a 3-agency shortlist and give you an interview/RFP scorecard.

I'd also ask each one for two references from firms roughly your size, rather than accepting references from a Fortune 500 company or a tiny solo-practitioner site.

• Orbit Media Studios - 4043 N Ravenswood Ave #316, Chicago, IL 60613, United States
• ArtVersion® Creative Agency - 211 W Wacker Dr Ste 1130, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Marcel Digital - 445 W Erie St #200, Chicago, IL 60654, United States
• AttorneySync - 211 W Wacker Dr Ste 300, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Pattern 6 - 222 W Merchandise Mart Plaza, Chicago, IL 60654, United States
• SEO Design Chicago - 2068 N Western Ave 1F - Front, Chicago, IL 60647, United States
• Market JD, Inc. - 20 N Wacker Dr Ste 1200, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• OVC Lawyer Marketing - 750 Warrenville Rd Ste 203, Lisle, IL 60532, United States
• Market JD, Inc. - 3400 Dundee Rd Ste 210, Northbrook, IL 60062, United States
• SITE IT NOW - 1016 W Jackson Blvd, Chicago, IL 60607, United States
• dNOVO Group | Law Firm Marketing Agency - 545 N McClurg Ct Ste 1808, Chicago, IL 60611, United States
• Deviant Marketing - 20 W Kinzie St Ste 12022, Chicago, IL 60654, United States
• AttorneySync - 400 N May St, Ste 301, Chicago, IL 60642
• Alpha Efficiency - Web Design Chicago Agency - 875 N Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60611, United States
• Forward Lawyer Marketing - 3553 W Peterson Ave Ste 30, Chicago, IL 60659, United States
• Windy City Web Solutions - 801 S Wells St, Chicago, IL 60607, United States

Yes. For a mid-sized law firm, I’d interview a mix of legal-specialist firms and higher-end Chicago digital agencies rather than choosing purely on “best web design.” The important combination is law-firm UX + CMS migration discipline + SEO preservation + sophisticated brand/design + an editable CMS your marketing team can actually own.

My Chicago shortlist

1. Orbit Media Studios — strongest generalist/strategic candidate

• Chicago-based, established web strategy/design/development shop.
• Particularly interesting if you want a substantial redesign rather than a cookie-cutter legal site.
• Their positioning emphasizes custom WordPress builds, accessibility, speed and maintainability.
• I'd put them on the interview list if the firm wants the new site to feel like a sophisticated professional-services brand rather than a typical attorney website.
• ArtVersion® Creative Agency — strongest design/brand option

• Downtown Chicago creative agency with web, UX and branding capabilities.
• Worth interviewing if your firm's problem is partly positioning and visual differentiation, not merely an outdated CMS.
• Their reported experience includes WordPress and Drupal, which is useful if you're coming from a more complex CMS.
• Marcel Digital — strongest technical/digital-marketing option

• River North agency with substantial web, SEO, analytics and development capabilities.
• Particularly worth considering if the migration needs to connect with analytics, CRM/marketing automation, SEO and ongoing performance measurement, rather than being a standalone design project.
• AttorneySync — strongest law-specific option

• Chicago firm focused exclusively on law firms.
• This is useful as your “legal specialist” benchmark: they understand attorney buying journeys, practice-area architecture and legal marketing rather than learning those things during your project.
• I'd interview them even if you ultimately choose a generalist agency, because they'll give you a useful comparison point.
• Pattern 6 — interesting River North legal-marketing option

• Based in the Merchandise Mart and specifically markets to law firms.
• Their positioning emphasizes custom, conversion-oriented websites rather than generic legal templates.
• Worth including if lead generation and differentiation are important alongside the CMS migration.
• SEO Design Chicago — strong migration/SEO candidate

• Their published migration practice explicitly covers CMS migrations, URL mapping, redirects, technical SEO, WordPress and Drupal. SEO Design Chicago
• I'd consider them particularly if your existing site has significant organic traffic/equity that absolutely cannot be put at risk.
• Market JD, Inc. — legal-specialist alternative

• Law-firm-focused agency with a Chicago office and emphasis on websites, SEO, intake and performance.
• A good comparison against AttorneySync if you want a more marketing/lead-generation-oriented partner.

One wildcard I'd absolutely interview

Zaremba Studio is unusually interesting for a law firm. It's run by a practicing Illinois trial attorney who builds law-firm sites and works with both WordPress and Drupal. Its published case study describes a 748-URL migration with rankings preserved and zero downtime, which is exactly the sort of evidence I'd want to see from anyone touching a mature firm's site. Zaremba Studio Zaremba Studio

It's not the same type of organization as Orbit or ArtVersion, so I'd treat it as a specialist benchmark, not necessarily the presumed winner.

How I'd narrow the interviews

For your situation, I'd probably invite 5 firms to pitch:

Then keep SEO Design Chicago as the sixth if the migration itself is particularly complicated.

I would not make the decision based primarily on their portfolio. Ask every finalist to respond to the same hypothetical migration brief.

The questions I'd put in the RFP

The most revealing ones are:

• Show us a CMS migration of a site with 500+ URLs. What happened to organic traffic after launch?
• Give us your URL-by-URL migration/redirect methodology.
• Who owns the CMS, hosting account, domain, analytics, Search Console and source code after launch?
• What CMS would you recommend for a 50–150-attorney firm, and why?
• Show us the proposed content model for attorneys, practices, offices, industries and insights.
• How would you handle attorney bios with dozens of practice-area relationships?
• How do you prevent attorneys from turning the CMS into an unmaintainable mess?
• What accessibility standard are you building toward?
• How do you handle staging, redirects, canonicalization, XML sitemaps and post-launch monitoring?
• What happens if we terminate the relationship two years later?
• Give us three references from firms roughly our size—not a 5-person boutique and not a Fortune 500 client.

That last point is important. A lot of agencies can make a beautiful 20-page law-firm website. A mid-sized firm is a different problem: hundreds/thousands of pieces of content, complex attorney/practice relationships, governance, SEO equity, multiple stakeholders and a CMS that has to survive years of additions.

One useful benchmark: Americaneagle.com's work migrating McGuireWoods involved replacing the firm's CMS, moving a large legal-content estate, improving search, creating a multisite architecture and preserving SEO/performance; the resulting platform was WordPress Multisite on WP Engine. WP Engine That's the level of migration experience I'd want demonstrated if your current site is substantial.

My initial ranking for a serious mid-sized Chicago firm: Orbit → Marcel → ArtVersion → AttorneySync → Zaremba, with SEO Design Chicago added if SEO/migration risk is the dominant concern.

If you tell me roughly how many attorneys you have, what CMS you're on now (WordPress/Drupal/Sitecore/custom/etc.), approximate number of URLs, and whether the goal is primarily recruiting/brand or business development, I can narrow this to 3 agencies I'd actually invite to the RFP and give you a scoring matrix for the interviews.

The questions I'd put in the RFP

The most revealing ones are:

• Show us a CMS migration of a site with 500+ URLs. What happened to organic traffic after launch?
• Give us your URL-by-URL migration/redirect methodology.
• Who owns the CMS, hosting account, domain, analytics, Search Console and source code after launch?
• What CMS would you recommend for a 50–150-attorney firm, and why?
• Show us the proposed content model for attorneys, practices, offices, industries and insights.
• How would you handle attorney bios with dozens of practice-area relationships?
• How do you prevent attorneys from turning the CMS into an unmaintainable mess?
• What accessibility standard are you building toward?
• How do you handle staging, redirects, canonicalization, XML sitemaps and post-launch monitoring?
• What happens if we terminate the relationship two years later?
• Give us three references from firms roughly our size—not a 5-person boutique and not a Fortune 500 client.

That last point is important. A lot of agencies can make a beautiful 20-page law-firm website. A mid-sized firm is a different problem: hundreds/thousands of pieces of content, complex attorney/practice relationships, governance, SEO equity, multiple stakeholders and a CMS that has to survive years of additions.

• dNOVO Group | Law Firm Marketing Agency - 545 N McClurg Ct Ste 1808, Chicago, IL 60611, United States
• Orbit Media Studios - 4043 N Ravenswood Ave #316, Chicago, IL 60613, United States
• Promet Source - 3322 N Ashland Ave, Chicago, IL 60657
• ArtVersion® Creative Agency - 211 W Wacker Dr Ste 1130, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Marcel Digital - 445 W Erie St #200, Chicago, IL 60654, United States
• AttorneySync - 211 W Wacker Dr Ste 300, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Flamingo Agency - 3752 N Southport Ave, Chicago, IL 60613, United States
• Windy City Web Solutions - 801 S Wells St, Chicago, IL 60607, United States
• OVC Lawyer Marketing - 750 Warrenville Rd Ste 203, Lisle, IL 60532, United States
• Brand Vision Marketing - Web Design & Branding - 30 N Michigan Ave #504, Chicago, IL 60602, United States
• SEOLEVELUP Website Design SEO Company Chicago - 355 N Laflin St Ste 101C, Chicago, IL 60607, United States
• Promet Source - 4809 N Ravenswood Ave #126, Chicago, IL 60640, United States
• Forward Lawyer Marketing - 3553 W Peterson Ave Ste 30, Chicago, IL 60659, United States
• SITE IT NOW - 1016 W Jackson Blvd, Chicago, IL 60607, United States
• Symmetri Technology Chicago (Acquired by Yes&) - 233 N Michigan Ave #765, Chicago, IL 60601, United States
• cre8 - Chicago, IL 60607

Yes. For a mid-sized River North law firm, I’d avoid treating this as a generic “Chicago web design” RFP. You want an agency that can handle legal-industry UX/content, a real CMS migration, SEO preservation, accessibility, attorney/practice-group content, and a polished professional-services brand.

Based on current Chicago-area capabilities and relevant legal work, I’d interview 5–6 firms, with these at the top:

My shortlist

1. dNOVO Group | Law Firm Marketing Agency — best local legal-marketing fit

DirectionsWebsite[Call](tel:+1 855-908-0588)

This would be one of my first calls. They're in Streeterville and specialize heavily in law firms, combining website design/development with SEO, paid acquisition and conversion optimization.

Why interview them: They understand the legal buyer journey rather than treating your site like a generic B2B brochure.

Ask: Have them show you 2–3 mid-sized firms whose sites they substantially redesigned, including before/after organic traffic, lead quality and CMS architecture.

2. Orbit Media Studios — best sophisticated generalist

DirectionsWebsite[Call](tel:+1 773-348-4581)

Orbit is the Chicago agency I'd put on the shortlist if you want a strategy/UX/content-led redesign rather than a legal-marketing template. Their positioning is strongly oriented around conversion-focused websites and measurable business outcomes.

Why interview them: A mid-sized firm often needs something more sophisticated than a typical attorney-site vendor can provide: information architecture, practice-area journeys, attorney profiles, resources, thought leadership, recruiting and business-development content all working together.

Caveat: I'd specifically test their experience with law-firm migrations and legal content governance, rather than assuming it.

3. Promet Source — best technical/CMS candidate

DirectionsWebsite[Call](tel:+17735258255)

If your existing site is large, complicated, Drupal-based, or has lots of structured content, I'd absolutely include Promet.

They specialize in Drupal and WordPress and have substantial experience with complex content architectures, migrations, performance and ongoing CMS support.

Why interview them: They're the counterweight to agencies that are primarily designers/marketers. If your migration is technically difficult, I'd want someone like this in the mix.

Particularly attractive if: you have hundreds/thousands of pages, sophisticated attorney/practice taxonomy, integrations, multiple offices, or a complicated legacy CMS.

4. ArtVersion® Creative Agency — best design/brand option

DirectionsWebsite[Call](tel:+1 312-837-7466)

ArtVersion is downtown at Wacker and has a stronger brand + UX + enterprise web orientation. Its public work includes WordPress and Drupal, and it has enterprise WordPress expertise.

Why interview them: If the current site feels dated and the firm wants a meaningful elevation in perceived sophistication, I'd want a design-heavy agency in the competition.

I'd give them a particularly tough assignment: show us how you'd make a 100+ attorney/practice-area site feel premium without becoming flashy or difficult to navigate.

5. Marcel Digital — best data/SEO/growth-oriented option

DirectionsWebsite[Call](tel:+1 312-255-8044)

Marcel is particularly interesting if the website is supposed to become a measurable business-development channel, rather than simply a better-looking website. They're based in River North and work across SEO, CRO, analytics, web development and marketing technology.

Why interview them: I'd consider them if you're serious about attribution, analytics, CRM integration, organic search and ongoing conversion optimization.

This is especially compelling if your partners will ask, “What did we get for the $250K?” and you want a defensible answer beyond screenshots of the new homepage.

6. AttorneySync — legal-specialist benchmark

DirectionsWebsite[Call](tel:+1 773-828-8878)

I'd include AttorneySync as a legal-specific benchmark, particularly if organic acquisition and lead generation are major objectives. They're at Wacker and focus specifically on law firms.

The important reason to include a specialist like this is comparison: you'll quickly discover whether the generalist agencies understand legal SEO, intake and practice-area search behavior as well as they claim.

One wildcard I'd seriously consider

Great Jakes isn't a Chicago agency, but I'd put them on the RFP list if you're willing to work with a national specialist.

They exclusively serve law firms and explicitly work with mid-sized and large firms (roughly 50–1,500 lawyers). Their services include strategy, UX, CMS development, data migration, hosting and maintenance. Great Jakes Marketing Company

That is unusually close to your situation.

I'd actually use Great Jakes as a quality benchmark even if you ultimately hire a Chicago shop.

An interesting smaller specialist

There's also Jack Zaremba / Zaremba Studio. He's unusual because he's himself a practicing Illinois attorney and builds law-firm sites on WordPress and Drupal. His published process specifically includes technical audits, URL-by-URL migration maps, architecture rebuilding, performance optimization and zero-downtime launches. Zaremba Studio Zaremba Studio

I wouldn't automatically choose a solo/small shop for a complex mid-sized-firm project, but I'd consider getting his audit as an independent second opinion. It's potentially useful before handing a $100K+ migration to an agency.

Who I'd actually put into the RFP

If it were my firm, I'd make the initial interview group:

1. dNOVO — legal-specialist/local
2. Orbit — sophisticated UX/content/generalist
3. Promet — technical CMS/migration specialist
4. ArtVersion — premium design/brand
5. Marcel Digital — SEO/data/growth
6. Great Jakes — national law-firm benchmark

Then narrow to 3 finalists.

I wouldn't choose based on portfolio aesthetics. I'd make the finalists solve the same migration problem.

The RFP questions I'd use

Give every agency the same information and ask for:

• Recommended CMS and why
• Proposed information architecture
• Migration methodology
• Complete URL-mapping/301 strategy
• How they will preserve existing rankings
• Content inventory and content-modeling approach
• Attorney/practice-group taxonomy
• Accessibility approach, ideally targeting WCAG 2.2 AA
• Page-speed/Core Web Vitals targets
• Analytics/GA4/Search Console implementation
• CRM/intake integration options
• Who actually does the writing, UX, design and development
• Exact CMS ownership after launch
• Hosting ownership
• Source-code ownership
• Whether the firm owns its analytics/Search Console/domain accounts
• Post-launch support and SLA
• CMS training for marketing staff
• 3 references from similarly sized law firms
• Three examples of CMS migrations, not merely redesigns
• A realistic project timeline
• Fixed-fee estimate with assumptions and exclusions

And I'd make SEO migration a contractual deliverable, not something buried in “best efforts.”

That's important because a CMS/URL restructuring can destroy years of accumulated search equity if handled poorly. Chicago-based SEO Design Chicago, for example, explicitly describes URL mapping, redirects, internal-link cleanup, technical SEO and post-migration monitoring as migration work rather than treating the job as simply moving content between platforms. SEO Design Chicago

One thing I'd change about the brief

Don't tell agencies “we need a new WordPress site” unless you've already decided that.

For a mid-sized firm, the right question is:

What CMS and content architecture will let our marketing team independently manage attorneys, practices, industries, offices, insights, cases/results and recruiting content for the next 5–7 years?

Then make the agencies defend WordPress, Drupal, or whatever they recommend.

If you tell me roughly how many attorneys you have, what CMS you're on now, approximate page count, whether SEO/organic search is important, and your rough budget ($50–100K / $100–200K / $200K+), I can narrow this to a 3-agency Chicago shortlist and give you a scoring matrix/RFP structure tailored to the firm.

Marcel is particularly interesting if the website is supposed to become a measurable business-development channel, rather than simply a better-looking website. They're based in River North and work across SEO, CRO, analytics, web development and marketing technology.

Why interview them: I'd consider them if you're serious about attribution, analytics, CRM integration, organic search and ongoing conversion optimization.

This is especially compelling if your partners will ask, “What did we get for the $250K?” and you want a defensible answer beyond screenshots of the new homepage.

6. AttorneySync — legal-specialist benchmark

I'd include AttorneySync as a legal-specific benchmark, particularly if organic acquisition and lead generation are major objectives. They're at Wacker and focus specifically on law firms.

The important reason to include a specialist like this is comparison: you'll quickly discover whether the generalist agencies understand legal SEO, intake and practice-area search behavior as well as they claim.

One wildcard I'd seriously consider

Great Jakes isn't a Chicago agency, but I'd put them on the RFP list if you're willing to work with a national specialist.

They exclusively serve law firms and explicitly work with mid-sized and large firms (roughly 50–1,500 lawyers). Their services include strategy, UX, CMS development, data migration, hosting and maintenance. Great Jakes Marketing Company

That is unusually close to your situation.

I'd actually use Great Jakes as a quality benchmark even if you ultimately hire a Chicago shop.

An interesting smaller specialist

There's also Jack Zaremba / Zaremba Studio. He's unusual because he's himself a practicing Illinois attorney and builds law-firm sites on WordPress and Drupal. His published process specifically includes technical audits, URL-by-URL migration maps, architecture rebuilding, performance optimization and zero-downtime launches. Zaremba Studio Zaremba Studio

I wouldn't automatically choose a solo/small shop for a complex mid-sized-firm project, but I'd consider getting his audit as an independent second opinion. It's potentially useful before handing a $100K+ migration to an agency.

Who I'd actually put into the RFP

If it were my firm, I'd make the initial interview group:

1. dNOVO — legal-specialist/local
2. Orbit — sophisticated UX/content/generalist
3. Promet — technical CMS/migration specialist
4. ArtVersion — premium design/brand
5. Marcel Digital — SEO/data/growth
6. Great Jakes — national law-firm benchmark

Then narrow to 3 finalists.

I wouldn't choose based on portfolio aesthetics. I'd make the finalists solve the same migration problem.

The RFP questions I'd use

Give every agency the same information and ask for:

• Recommended CMS and why
• Proposed information architecture
• Migration methodology
• Complete URL-mapping/301 strategy
• How they will preserve existing rankings
• Content inventory and content-modeling approach
• Attorney/practice-group taxonomy
• Accessibility approach, ideally targeting WCAG 2.2 AA
• Page-speed/Core Web Vitals targets
• Analytics/GA4/Search Console implementation
• CRM/intake integration options
• Who actually does the writing, UX, design and development
• Exact CMS ownership after launch
• Hosting ownership
• Source-code ownership
• Whether the firm owns its analytics/Search Console/domain accounts
• Post-launch support and SLA
• CMS training for marketing staff
• 3 references from similarly sized law firms
• Three examples of CMS migrations, not merely redesigns
• A realistic project timeline
• Fixed-fee estimate with assumptions and exclusions

And I'd make SEO migration a contractual deliverable, not something buried in “best efforts.”

That's important because a CMS/URL restructuring can destroy years of accumulated search equity if handled poorly. Chicago-based SEO Design Chicago, for example, explicitly describes URL mapping, redirects, internal-link cleanup, technical SEO and post-migration monitoring as migration work rather than treating the job as simply moving content between platforms.

• Clique Studios - 20 N Wacker Dr Ste 1075, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Adage Technologies - 10 S Riverside Plaza Ste 1500, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• cre8 - Chicago, IL 60607
• Flamingo Agency - 3752 N Southport Ave, Chicago, IL 60613, United States
• Comrade Digital Marketing Agency - 332 S Michigan Ave #900, Chicago, IL 60604, United States
• YourPortal - 2211 N Elston Ave Ste 208, Chicago, IL 60614, United States
• Sixth City Marketing - 620 N La Salle Dr Ste 415, Chicago, IL 60654, United States
• Virgo Web Design - 5874 N Ridge Ave, Ste G, Chicago, IL 60660
• Chicago Website Design SEO Company - 10 S Riverside Plaza #875, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Digital Authority Partners - 420 W Huron St Fl 1, Chicago, IL 60654, United States
• SEOLEVELUP Website Design SEO Company Chicago - 355 N Laflin St Ste 101C, Chicago, IL 60607, United States
• Pilot Digital Marketing - 4753 N Broadway Ste T110, Chicago, IL 60640, United States
• Clique Studios - 20 N Wacker Dr, Ste 1075, Chicago, IL 60606

For a mid-sized River North law firm, I would not run a generic “website redesign” agency search. You are really looking for a partner that can handle:

• CMS migration without losing SEO equity
• attorney/practice-area content architecture
• legal-industry compliance considerations
• accessibility (WCAG/ADA)
• secure hosting and maintenance
• attorney bios, thought leadership, alerts, publications, and recruiting workflows
• a design that feels like a sophisticated professional-services firm—not a consumer lead-gen site

I would interview a shortlist of 5–7 agencies, split between legal specialists and stronger digital/CMS shops.

My recommended interview list

1. Clique Studios

DirectionsWebsite[Call](tel:+1 312-379-9329)

Best fit: A firm that wants a premium redesign plus serious CMS engineering.

Why interview:

• Strong Chicago presence and experience with custom digital experiences, CMS implementations, integrations, accessibility, and QA.
• Likely a good match if you want something beyond a templated law-firm website.

Ask them:

• “Show us a law firm or professional-services CMS migration.”
• “How would you structure attorney profiles, practice areas, publications, and newsroom content?”
• “Who owns the CMS architecture after launch?”

2. Adage Technologies

DirectionsWebsite[Call](tel:+1 312-258-1200)

Best fit: A firm with complex content, integrations, or enterprise-level requirements.

Why interview:

• Focuses on CMS/DXP strategy, implementation, and ongoing support.
• A stronger candidate if your firm has integrations with CRM, recruiting systems, document systems, analytics platforms, or multiple content workflows.

Ask them:

• “Would you recommend WordPress, Drupal, Craft, or another CMS for a 100+ page law firm site?”
• “What migration tooling and QA process do you use?”

3. cre8

DirectionsWebsite[Call](tel:+13123153335)

Best fit: A technically sophisticated B2B/professional-services firm.

Why interview:

• Positions itself around CMS ecosystems, migrations, integrations, and complex B2B organizations.
• Worth considering if your firm has a lot of content or wants a highly maintainable backend.

Ask them:

• “Can you migrate our existing URLs while preserving rankings?”
• “How do you train marketing staff and attorneys to manage content?”

4. Hype Legal

Best fit: A law-firm-focused redesign where brand, UX, and legal positioning matter.

Why interview:

• Has Chicago legal website work, including CMS implementation, migration, SEO, branding, and content strategy services. Hype Legal

Ask them:

• “How do you balance attorney credibility with conversion-focused design?”
• “How do you handle bar advertising rules and attorney marketing restrictions?”

5. SEO Design Chicago

Best fit: If organic search performance is a major goal.

Why interview:

• Specifically markets CMS migrations, SEO preservation, redirects, technical audits, and WordPress migration work. SEO Design Chicago

Ask them:

• “Will SEO strategy happen before design?”
• “Show us an example where traffic was preserved or improved after migration.”

6. Be Found Online

Best fit: If your current site has significant Google visibility you cannot risk losing.

Why interview:

• Specializes in migration-related SEO planning, URL mapping, redirects, technical audits, and launch monitoring. Be Found Online

Potential role:

• Could be the migration/SEO partner paired with a design-development agency.

7. RubyLaw

Best fit: If you prefer a legal-specific CMS rather than a general-purpose CMS.

Why interview:

• Built specifically around law-firm websites and discusses migrations from WordPress to its platform. RubyLaw

Tradeoff:

• More specialized and potentially less flexible than a custom CMS approach.

I would probably start with this interview slate

For a 50–150 attorney Chicago firm, my first five calls would be:

1. Clique Studios — premium digital experience + engineering
2. Hype Legal — legal-industry expertise
3. Adage Technologies — CMS architecture and scalability
4. SEO Design Chicago — migration/SEO rigor
5. RubyLaw — compare against a legal-specific CMS option

That mix will quickly reveal whether you should choose:

• WordPress/Craft/Drupal + custom build (agency-owned architecture)
• legal CMS platform (RubyLaw-type approach)
• hybrid approach (premium redesign + specialized SEO migration support)

Questions I would require every agency to answer

Before hiring, make them provide:

1. CMS recommendation

• Why this CMS?
• Why not the alternatives?
• Migration plan

• Full URL inventory?
• Redirect mapping?
• Metadata migration?
• Image/document migration?
• Staging environment?
• SEO protection

• Baseline rankings?
• Traffic benchmarks?
• Launch monitoring period?
• Security

• Hosting responsibility?
• Patch management?
• Backups?
• Incident response?
• Legal-specific workflow

• Attorney approvals?
• Practice-area governance?
• Publications/news management?
• Accessibility

• WCAG target?
• Accessibility testing process?

A strong agency should be able to discuss migration risk in detail before talking about colors, animations, or homepage concepts.

• Marcel Digital - 20 N Wacker Dr Ste 1285, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Orbit Media Studios - 4043 N Ravenswood Ave #316, Chicago, IL 60613, United States
• YourPortal - 2211 N Elston Ave Ste 208, Chicago, IL 60614, United States
• AttorneySync - 211 W Wacker Dr Ste 300, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Marcel Digital - 445 W Erie St #200, Chicago, IL 60654, United States
• OVC Lawyer Marketing - 750 Warrenville Rd Ste 203, Lisle, IL 60532, United States
• dNOVO Group | Law Firm Marketing Agency - 545 N McClurg Ct Ste 1808, Chicago, IL 60611, United States
• Millennial Web Development - 329 W 18th St Ste 413, Chicago, IL 60616, United States
• Market JD, Inc. - 20 N Wacker Dr Ste 1200, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• SITE IT NOW - 1016 W Jackson Blvd, Chicago, IL 60607, United States
• BSPE Legal Marketing - Chicago - 875 N Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60610, United States
• Americaneagle.com, Inc. - 200 W Jackson Blvd Fl 22, Chicago, IL 60606, United States

For a mid-sized River North law firm, I would not limit the search to generic “Chicago web designers.” A firm website redesign + CMS migration has unusual requirements: attorney bios, practice-area architecture, publications/alerts, thought leadership, SEO preservation, accessibility, analytics, compliance review, and a clean editorial workflow for marketing staff.

I would interview a mix of law-firm specialists and strong Chicago digital agencies:

Shortlist to interview

1. Builden Partners — law-firm-first option

Best fit if you want a partner who understands how firms buy, how partners make decisions, and how legal content should be structured. They specifically position website redesigns around law firms, including CMS implementation, migration, SEO, and ongoing support. Builden Partners

Interview if you need:

• Strong legal-industry strategy
• Attorney bios/practice-area UX
• Content governance
• A partner who can manage partner expectations

2. Marcel Digital — enterprise CMS + analytics strength

DirectionsWebsite[Call](tel:+1 312-255-8044)

A good candidate if your firm has a complex site, lots of content, integrations, or wants a more sophisticated measurement program. Marcel Digital highlights CMS implementation, web development, SEO, analytics, and platforms such as Umbraco.

Interview if you need:

• A more technical CMS migration
• Analytics maturity
• CRM/marketing automation integration
• Long-term optimization

3. Orbit Media Studios — excellent Chicago UX/content agency

DirectionsWebsite[Call](tel:+1 773-348-4581)

Orbit is a respected Chicago web firm focused on strategy-led redesigns, UX, conversions, and measurable business outcomes.

Interview if you need:

• A premium redesign
• Better information architecture
• Thought leadership/content strategy
• A modern but professional brand presence

4. AttorneySync — legal marketing specialist

AttorneySync focuses specifically on law firms and offers website, SEO, and digital marketing services.

Interview if you need:

• Legal SEO expertise
• Lead-generation focus
• A firm familiar with attorney marketing constraints

5. Americaneagle.com — larger-scale implementation partner

Americaneagle.com is a larger Chicago digital agency capable of web design, development, CMS work, hosting, and ongoing support.

Interview if you need:

• A robust implementation team
• Complex migrations
• Enterprise-level project management

6. dNOVO Group — legal-focused growth partner

dNOVO has a Chicago presence and focuses heavily on law-firm marketing, including website design, SEO, and conversion optimization.

Interview if you need:

• Website + ongoing acquisition strategy
• SEO/content support after launch

7. CaseOrbit — conversion-focused legal specialist

CaseOrbit positions its work around law firm websites, search visibility, conversion strategy, and legal-specific website structures. CaseOrbit

Interview if you need:

• A site designed around intake/conversion
• Practice-area landing pages
• SEO-driven growth

My suggested interview slate (5 firms)

For a mid-sized business law firm / litigation firm in River North, I would start with:

1. Builden Partners — strongest legal-fit benchmark
2. Orbit Media Studios — strongest Chicago UX/content benchmark
3. Marcel Digital — strongest technical CMS benchmark
4. AttorneySync — strongest legal SEO benchmark
5. Americaneagle.com — strongest scale/implementation benchmark

That mix will quickly reveal whether you need a marketing-led rebuild, a design-led transformation, or a technical CMS migration.

Questions I would ask every agency

• What CMS do you recommend and why? (WordPress, Drupal, Webflow, HubSpot CMS, Sitecore, etc.)
• Show us three law firm migrations you completed, not just redesigns.
• How do you preserve SEO during migration? - URL mapping
• redirects
• metadata
• rankings monitoring
• Who owns the code, hosting accounts, CMS licenses, and analytics?
• How will attorneys update: - bios
• practice areas
• alerts
• publications
• events
• How do you handle accessibility (WCAG)?
• What does post-launch support look like?
• Who is actually doing the work versus selling the project?

For a firm in River North, I would expect a serious engagement to include discovery, content audit, UX architecture, CMS build, migration plan, QA, SEO validation, and training—not just a visual redesign. Builden Partners

For a mid-sized law firm in River North, I would not run a generic “Chicago web design agency” search. Your requirements are closer to a professional-services digital transformation project:

• CMS migration without losing SEO equity
• attorney/practice-area content architecture
• strong UX for referrals and prospective clients
• attorney bios, publications, alerts, insights, and thought leadership workflows
• accessibility/WCAG risk management
• governance so marketing staff can update content without developers
• brand refinement appropriate for a sophisticated firm

I’d interview a shortlist of 5–7 agencies, weighted toward firms that understand legal/professional services.

Tier 1: Strongest law-firm fit

Hype Legal

Good fit if you want a firm-specific partner with strong Chicago legal experience. They have a Chicago law firm redesign case study involving strategy, UX, CMS implementation, SEO, migration, hosting, and maintenance. www.hypelegal.com

Interview for:

• How they handle attorney bio architecture
• Migration methodology
• Content strategy (especially practice pages)
• Whether they can support a sophisticated mid-market firm rather than a template build

Great Jakes

A national legal-specialist agency worth interviewing even though it is not Chicago-only. They explicitly focus on law firms and describe work with mid-sized and large firms, including CMS development and data migration. www.greatjakes.com

Best if:

• Your firm cares heavily about positioning, differentiation, and attorney branding
• You want a partner who already understands law firm stakeholder dynamics

PaperStreet Web Design

Another legal-focused option with Chicago law firm portfolio examples. www.paperstreet.com

Best if:

• You want a proven law-firm website process
• Your project is primarily marketing-site redesign rather than a complex digital platform

Tier 2: Chicago agencies with stronger CMS/technical depth

Marcel Digital

Located downtown and focused on measurable digital growth, SEO, analytics, and CMS implementations. Their capabilities include enterprise/B2B websites and CMS work.

Good candidate if you need:

• Analytics maturity
• SEO preservation
• Marketing automation/CRM integration
• A more data-driven redesign

Clique Studios

A strong Chicago digital transformation shop with UX, design, development, CMS, and accessibility capabilities.

Good candidate if:

• You want a premium custom experience
• You may need more than a marketing website (portals, integrations, complex content workflows)

Americaneagle.com

A larger Chicago-based agency that handles website rebuilds, migrations, development, and ongoing support.

Good candidate if:

• Your firm has complex integrations
• You want a larger delivery organization

Tier 3: Migration/SEO-heavy specialists

SEO Design Chicago

Worth considering if your current site has meaningful organic traffic and the migration risk is high. They specifically market CMS migration and SEO preservation services. seodesignchicago.com

Orbit Media Studios

A respected Chicago web firm focused on content-driven websites, redesigns, and lead generation.

Good fit if:

• Your site is content-heavy
• You publish articles, alerts, newsletters, and insights regularly

My recommended interview slate

For a River North mid-sized law firm, I’d probably invite:

1. Hype Legal — legal specialization
2. Great Jakes — law-firm strategy/branding depth
3. Marcel Digital — SEO + analytics + CMS rigor
4. Clique Studios — premium UX and technical capability
5. Orbit Media Studios — content/marketing excellence
6. SEO Design Chicago — migration and SEO-risk perspective

That mix should expose you to different philosophies rather than six similar vendors.

Questions I would ask every agency

1. “Show us three law firm migrations you personally managed. What CMS did they migrate from and to?”
2. “How do you preserve rankings during migration?”
   • URL inventory
   • redirect mapping
   • metadata migration
   • schema
   • Search Console monitoring
3. “Who owns the CMS, hosting, code, analytics accounts, and design files after launch?”
4. “What would your recommended information architecture be for a 50–150 attorney firm?”
5. “How do you handle attorney bios that need to serve both SEO and referral audiences?”
6. “What accessibility standard do you build toward?”
7. “What CMS would you recommend and why?”
   • WordPress
   • Drupal
   • Craft CMS
   • Webflow
   • headless CMS
8. “What does post-launch support look like?”

CMS preference for your type of firm

For many mid-sized firms, I would expect finalists to propose:

• WordPress (custom build) — usually the best balance of editor usability, SEO, and cost
• Drupal — if you have complex governance, many offices/practice groups, or institutional publishing needs
• Craft CMS — if you want a more premium editorial experience and have budget for it

I would be cautious about agencies pushing proprietary CMS platforms unless they clearly explain why the lock-in is beneficial.

For a River North firm specifically, I’d also ask finalists to walk through how they would make the site feel like a peer to Chicago’s strongest Am Law and boutique firms, not simply “a nicer law firm template.”

• Orbit Media Studios - 4043 N Ravenswood Ave #316, Chicago, IL 60613, United States
• ArtVersion® Creative Agency - 211 W Wacker Dr Ste 1130, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Caxy - 212 W Van Buren St #1000, Chicago, IL 60607, United States
• Marcel Digital - 445 W Erie St #200, Chicago, IL 60654, United States
• Solid Digital - 100 N LaSalle St #1400, Chicago, IL 60602, United States
• AttorneySync - 211 W Wacker Dr Ste 300, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• dNOVO Group | Law Firm Marketing Agency - 545 N McClurg Ct Ste 1808, Chicago, IL 60611, United States
• C E Anderson & Associates - 175 N Franklin St Unit 410, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Brand Vision Marketing - Web Design & Branding - 30 N Michigan Ave #504, Chicago, IL 60602, United States
• OVC Lawyer Marketing - 750 Warrenville Rd Ste 203, Lisle, IL 60532, United States
• SITE IT NOW - 1016 W Jackson Blvd, Chicago, IL 60607, United States
• Forward Lawyer Marketing - 3553 W Peterson Ave Ste 30, Chicago, IL 60659, United States
• Millennial Web Development - 329 W 18th St Ste 413, Chicago, IL 60616, United States
• Market JD, Inc. - 20 N Wacker Dr Ste 1200, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Alpha Digital Marketing - 4043 N Ravenswood Ave #316, Chicago, IL 60613, United States
• cre8 - Chicago, IL 60607

Yes. For a mid-sized River North law firm doing a real CMS migration + redesign, I’d interview a mix of legal-specialist agencies and stronger generalist/enterprise web shops rather than limiting yourselves to firms that mainly sell law-firm SEO.

My Chicago shortlist

1. Orbit Media Studios — my first interview

• Best overall fit if the site is an important business-development asset.
• They specifically market legal website redesigns and have substantial law-firm experience.
• Their process covers discovery, IA/content strategy, custom design, development, content migration, accessibility, SEO/redirect strategy, CMS training and post-launch support. Orbit Media Studios Orbit Media Studios
• They support WordPress, HubSpot and other CMSs, so they shouldn't force the migration into a particular platform. Orbit Media Studios
• Watch-out: likely a premium engagement. I'd still get the proposal because their strategy/content/SEO depth could make them worth it.
• ArtVersion® Creative Agency — strongest design/brand alternative

• Particularly interesting if the firm wants to look substantially more sophisticated rather than simply "modernize the website."
• They combine brand, UX research, design and development and are CMS-agnostic, with experience across WordPress, Drupal, AEM, HubSpot and headless CMSs. ArtVersion
• Their downtown location also makes in-person collaboration easy.
• Best for: a firm where brand positioning and visual differentiation are major parts of the redesign.
• Caxy — interview if the migration has serious technical complexity

• This is the one I'd bring in if your current site has unusual integrations, authentication, CRM/DMS connections, custom applications, complicated content structures, or other "this isn't just a website" requirements.
• Caxy emphasizes custom engineering, CMS migrations, CRM/ERP integration, AWS, testing and zero-downtime migration rather than simply building a marketing site. Caxy
• Best for: technically complicated migration; probably overkill if you're essentially moving a conventional law-firm brochure/content site.
• Marcel Digital — strong measurement/marketing candidate

• Worth interviewing if the firm cares heavily about organic search, analytics, conversion optimization and connecting the website to marketing/sales systems.
• They also work with HubSpot CMS, which could be interesting if your firm's marketing stack is HubSpot-oriented.
• Best for: website + SEO + analytics/CRM integration rather than design alone.
• Solid Digital — good B2B/professional-services contender

• A solid alternative if you want a structured strategy → UX → design → development engagement with ongoing optimization.
• Their positioning is particularly geared toward sophisticated B2B/professional-services organizations.
• Best for: a polished, conversion-oriented professional-services site without necessarily going as technically deep as Caxy.

I'd also get one legal-specialist proposal

AttorneySync is worth including as a benchmark because it's explicitly focused on law firms rather than being a general web agency. Its Chicago office is at 211 W Wacker.

I'd also consider dNOVO Group | Law Firm Marketing Agency because it specifically combines law-firm website work with SEO, paid acquisition and conversion optimization.

The reason I'd include one of these specialists is not necessarily because I'd hire them. Their proposal gives you a useful control against the generalist agencies: What does a firm that lives and breathes legal marketing think your site needs?

The four I'd actually invite to the pitch

If you don't want to waste your attorneys' and marketing team's time sitting through six nearly identical presentations, I'd narrow it to:

Then optionally add AttorneySync or dNOVO as the legal-marketing specialist benchmark.

One thing I'd insist on in the RFP

Don't ask merely for "a redesigned website."

Ask each agency to demonstrate how it will migrate your existing site without destroying its accumulated search equity. Specifically, require them to address:

• URL inventory and redirect mapping
• preservation of rankings/backlinks
• attorney/practice-area/content taxonomy
• CMS recommendation and rationale
• content migration methodology
• metadata/schema migration
• staging and QA
• accessibility
• page-speed/Core Web Vitals
• analytics and conversion tracking
• integrations with your CRM, intake, DMS and other systems
• permissions/governance for attorneys vs. marketing staff
• post-launch monitoring
• rollback plan
• ownership of code, CMS, hosting and design assets

I'd also give them your current sitemap, CMS, approximate page count, traffic/search data and list of integrations before the pitch. That will make the proposals much more comparable.

My instinct: start with Orbit, ArtVersion, Caxy and Marcel, and make them all respond to exactly the same technical/strategic brief. Orbit is the one I'd expect to be hardest to beat for your particular combination of law firm + redesign + migration + SEO + CMS. Orbit Media Studios Orbit Media Studios

If you tell me your current CMS, approximate number of pages, whether you're on WordPress/Drupal/etc., and whether the site generates meaningful leads, I can narrow this to 2–3 and give you a vendor-by-vendor interview scorecard and RFP requirements.

Then optionally add AttorneySync or dNOVO as the legal-marketing specialist benchmark.

One thing I'd insist on in the RFP

Don't ask merely for "a redesigned website."

Ask each agency to demonstrate how it will migrate your existing site without destroying its accumulated search equity. Specifically, require them to address:

• URL inventory and redirect mapping
• preservation of rankings/backlinks
• attorney/practice-area/content taxonomy
• CMS recommendation and rationale
• content migration methodology
• metadata/schema migration
• staging and QA
• accessibility
• page-speed/Core Web Vitals
• analytics and conversion tracking
• integrations with your CRM, intake, DMS and other systems
• permissions/governance for attorneys vs. marketing staff
• post-launch monitoring
• rollback plan
• ownership of code, CMS, hosting and design assets

I'd also give them your current sitemap, CMS, approximate page count, traffic/search data and list of integrations before the pitch. That will make the proposals much more comparable.

My instinct: start with Orbit, ArtVersion, Caxy and Marcel, and make them all respond to exactly the same technical/strategic brief. Orbit is the one I'd expect to be hardest to beat for your particular combination of law firm + redesign + migration + SEO + CMS.

• Orbit Media Studios - 4043 N Ravenswood Ave #316, Chicago, IL 60613, United States
• AttorneySync - 211 W Wacker Dr Ste 300, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Marcel Digital - 445 W Erie St #200, Chicago, IL 60654, United States
• dNOVO Group | Law Firm Marketing Agency - 545 N McClurg Ct Ste 1808, Chicago, IL 60611, United States
• Pattern 6 - 222 W Merchandise Mart Plaza, Chicago, IL 60654, United States
• Digital Third Coast - 2540 W North Ave, Chicago, IL 60647, United States
• R29 - 227 W Monroe St, Fl 29, Chicago, IL 60606
• Brand Vision Marketing - Web Design & Branding - 30 N Michigan Ave #504, Chicago, IL 60602, United States
• AttorneySync - 400 N May St, Ste 301, Chicago, IL 60642
• OVC Lawyer Marketing - 750 Warrenville Rd Ste 203, Lisle, IL 60532, United States
• Chicago Website Design SEO Company - 10 S Riverside Plaza #875, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• LawFull Marketing - 150 S Wacker Dr, Ste 2400, Chicago, IL 60606
• Millennial Web Development - 329 W 18th St Ste 413, Chicago, IL 60616, United States
• Affordable Web Design Chicago - 5141 W Altgeld St, Chicago, IL 60639, United States
• Forward Lawyer Marketing - 3553 W Peterson Ave Ste 30, Chicago, IL 60659, United States

Yes. For a mid-sized River North law firm, I’d interview a relatively small field rather than 10+ agencies. Your project is not just a visual redesign—you need CMS migration, attorney/practice-area content architecture, SEO preservation, accessibility, security, and a CMS your marketing team can actually operate.

My Chicago shortlist

1. Orbit Media Studios — my first interview

• Chicago-based and unusually well aligned with this exact project.
• They explicitly market law-firm website redesigns, including attorney bios, practice-area content, SEO, accessibility, security, content migration and CMS training. Orbit Media Studios
• They work with WordPress, HubSpot and other CMS platforms, and explicitly offer website replatforming/content migration. Orbit Media Studios Orbit Media Studios
• Their legal-industry process covers discovery → design → development/content migration → launch, including URL/redirect strategy and preservation of SEO value. Orbit Media Studios
• Best fit: a sophisticated mid-market firm wanting a premium, strategy-led redesign rather than a templated "lawyer website."
• AttorneySync — interview for legal-industry depth

• They focus specifically on law firms and offer website design/development alongside SEO, paid search and analytics.
• This is attractive if the website is primarily a business-development/lead-generation asset rather than simply an institutional presence.
• Their downtown Chicago location also makes them convenient for a River North firm.
• Caveat: I'd pressure-test them on the technical complexity of your CMS migration. Their legal-marketing specialization is a major plus, but I'd want to see comparable migrations—not just redesigns.
• Marcel Digital — strong technical/marketing alternative

• Chicago-based, with capabilities spanning web development, SEO, CRO and analytics.
• Particularly interesting if you're considering HubSpot CMS or want the new website tightly integrated with marketing/sales/CRM workflows.
• Best fit: a firm that wants the website to become part of a measurable digital-marketing stack rather than a standalone website.
• dNOVO Group | Law Firm Marketing Agency — legal-specialist wildcard

• Specifically oriented toward professional services/law firms, with website redesign, CMS, SEO, paid advertising and conversion work.
• Worth including as a benchmark against the larger/generalist agencies.
• Best fit: if client acquisition and organic search are major objectives and you want a legal-specialist partner.
• Pattern 6 — interesting local boutique option

• Located at the Merchandise Mart, so it's particularly convenient geographically.
• Their positioning is around service businesses, including law firms, with custom websites, SEO-ready architecture, practice-area pages and lead tracking.
• Best fit: if you want a smaller, more hands-on agency and your migration isn't exceptionally complex.

One "big agency" I'd keep in reserve

Americaneagle.com is worth an interview if your migration is technically substantial—multiple integrations, complicated information architecture, enterprise CMS, significant security requirements, etc. Its Chicago team explicitly handles CMS implementation, integrations, web development, hosting/security and migrations, and the company is platform-agnostic. Americaneagle.com Americaneagle.com

For a typical mid-sized law firm, though, I'd probably prefer Orbit over Americaneagle unless your technical requirements push you toward the latter.

Who I'd actually put in the RFP

I'd make the first round:

Then I'd narrow to 3 finalists after the discovery calls.

The questions I'd use to separate them

Don't ask merely, "Can you redesign our website?" Every agency will say yes. Ask:

• Show us two CMS migrations where you preserved organic traffic and rankings. What happened to traffic 3, 6 and 12 months afterward?
• Who actually performs the content migration—your team or ours?
• How will you map our existing URLs to the new site?
• Who owns the redirect strategy and QA?
• What CMS would you recommend for a 100–500-person law firm, and why?
• Can our marketing/business-development team create attorney, practice-area, insight and case-result pages without developers?
• How do you handle attorney bios and dozens/hundreds of practice-area/location combinations without creating a maintenance nightmare?
• What accessibility standard do you build against?
• How do you handle legal-industry confidentiality/security concerns?
• What happens to our existing metadata, schema, internal links, PDFs and backlinks?
• Can you provide a staging environment and a complete pre-launch crawl?
• What happens after launch? Who owns emergency fixes?
• Give us the names of the actual designer, strategist, developer and PM who would work on our account.

Most importantly, ask each finalist to audit your current site before proposing the redesign. You'll learn a lot from what they notice—and what they completely miss.

My initial ranking

Orbit → AttorneySync → Marcel Digital → Americaneagle → dNOVO

If your firm is particularly corporate/transactional and referral-driven, rather than dependent on consumer SEO, I'd move Marcel higher. If organic search and individual matter acquisition are major growth channels, I'd put considerably more weight on Orbit and AttorneySync.

If you give me your current website/CMS, approximate number of attorneys, number of pages, practice areas, and whether SEO/lead generation is a major objective, I can narrow this to 3 agencies and give you a suggested RFP scorecard and likely budget range.

• Show us two CMS migrations where you preserved organic traffic and rankings. What happened to traffic 3, 6 and 12 months afterward?
• Who actually performs the content migration—your team or ours?
• How will you map our existing URLs to the new site?
• Who owns the redirect strategy and QA?
• What CMS would you recommend for a 100–500-person law firm, and why?
• Can our marketing/business-development team create attorney, practice-area, insight and case-result pages without developers?
• How do you handle attorney bios and dozens/hundreds of practice-area/location combinations without creating a maintenance nightmare?
• What accessibility standard do you build against?
• How do you handle legal-industry confidentiality/security concerns?
• What happens to our existing metadata, schema, internal links, PDFs and backlinks?
• Can you provide a staging environment and a complete pre-launch crawl?
• What happens after launch? Who owns emergency fixes?
• Give us the names of the actual designer, strategist, developer and PM who would work on our account.

Most importantly, ask each finalist to audit your current site before proposing the redesign. You'll learn a lot from what they notice—and what they completely miss.

My initial ranking

Orbit → AttorneySync → Marcel Digital → Americaneagle → dNOVO

If your firm is particularly corporate/transactional and referral-driven, rather than dependent on consumer SEO, I'd move Marcel higher. If organic search and individual matter acquisition are major growth channels, I'd put considerably more weight on Orbit and AttorneySync.

If you give me your current website/CMS, approximate number of attorneys, number of pages, practice areas, and whether SEO/lead generation is a major objective, I can narrow this to 3 agencies and give you a suggested RFP scorecard and likely budget range.

• Duo Consulting - 200 S Wacker Dr #625, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Americaneagle.com, Inc. - 200 W Jackson Blvd Fl 22, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Marcel Digital - 445 W Erie St #200, Chicago, IL 60654, United States
• Adage Technologies - 10 S Riverside Plaza Ste 1500, 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
• AttorneySync - 211 W Wacker Dr Ste 300, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• OVC Lawyer Marketing - 750 Warrenville Rd Ste 203, Lisle, IL 60532, United States
• Market JD, Inc. - 20 N Wacker Dr Ste 1200, Chicago, IL 60606, 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
• cre8 - Chicago, IL 60607
• Attorney Web Design | Chicago - 233 S Wacker Dr Ste 4400, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
• Plego Technologies - 8 W Monroe St APT 424, Chicago, IL 60603, United States
• YourPortal - 2211 N Elston Ave Ste 208, Chicago, IL 60614, United States
• Millennial Web Development - 329 W 18th St Ste 413, Chicago, IL 60616, United States

Yes. For a mid-sized River North law firm doing both a CMS migration and a meaningful redesign, I’d interview a fairly narrow group rather than a generic Chicago web-design shop.

My shortlist would be:

1. Duo Consulting — best technical/CMS candidate

• Particularly compelling if you're on Drupal now or considering Drupal.
• Chicago-based, with experience in content strategy, UX, CMS work and data/content migration.
• Their business listing specifically notes legal-site experience and an award-winning law-firm website.
• Interview them if: the migration is complicated, the site has lots of content/types/integrations, or you want a sophisticated CMS architecture.
• Americaneagle.com, Inc. — best enterprise-grade option

• Much larger than you may need, but they have a particularly relevant legal precedent: they migrated McGuireWoods from its existing CMS to WordPress Multisite, including substantial legal content, multisite architecture, search, SEO and performance work. WP Engine
• Interview them if: you're talking hundreds/thousands of pages, multiple offices/practice groups, sophisticated integrations, or you want a highly structured migration process.
• Potential downside: you could be buying more agency than a mid-sized firm actually needs.
• Marcel Digital — best Chicago option for CMS + SEO + measurement

• Their Chicago team works across web development, SEO, CRO and analytics, with particular strength around enterprise CMS implementations including Umbraco.
• They're at 20 N Wacker, so geographically convenient, but more importantly they bring a measurable-growth orientation rather than treating the site as purely a branding project.
• Interview them if: organic search, analytics, lead attribution and marketing/CRM integration are important parts of the redesign.
• Adage Technologies — best custom digital-product contender

• Chicago-based strategy/design/development firm with experience in complex websites, integrations and ongoing support.
• I'd put them on the list if your website has unusual functionality or integrations rather than being primarily a marketing/content site.
• Interview them if: the CMS migration is really a broader digital-platform project.
• Clique Studios — best design/experience contender

• Stronger emphasis on strategy, UX, accessibility and digital experience than a typical legal-marketing agency.
• Good candidate if the firm wants the new site to feel substantially more sophisticated rather than simply replacing the existing site with a newer template.
• Interview them if: partner/brand perception, UX, accessibility and design quality are high priorities.

I'd also interview one law-firm specialist

dNOVO Group | Law Firm Marketing Agency is worth putting into the mix because it's specifically focused on law-firm acquisition and website/SEO work, and its Chicago office is at 545 N McClurg Ct. Its emphasis is more marketing/conversion-oriented than the enterprise agencies above.

I'd also look at Hype Legal. They have a particularly relevant Chicago law-firm redesign case for Hart McLaughlin & Eldridge covering strategy, UX/UI, CMS implementation, SEO, hosting, site migration and CMS training. Hype Legal

And if you're considering a legal-specific CMS rather than WordPress/Drupal, I'd put RubyLaw on the comparison list even though it's not the same type of Chicago agency. It specifically markets migration of law-firm sites and has built its CMS around legal content relationships such as attorneys, practices and bar admissions. RubyLaw

My actual interview slate

If I were running your RFP, I'd keep it to 5 finalists:

I'd deliberately have one generalist/enterprise agency and one law-firm specialist compete against each other. That will quickly reveal whether you're getting a genuinely tailored digital strategy or a legal-industry website package.

One thing I'd be very careful about

Don't let the RFP be framed as simply "redesign our website and migrate the content."

For a law firm, the dangerous part is the migration. Your agency should be contractually responsible for things like:

• complete URL inventory and redirect mapping
• preservation of existing organic rankings
• attorney/practice-area content relationships
• metadata, schema and internal linking
• analytics/tag preservation
• accessibility
• page-speed/Core Web Vitals
• staging and content QA
• form/intake integrations
• pre-launch crawl and post-launch crawl
• 404 monitoring and redirect correction
• SEO monitoring for at least 60–90 days after launch
• your firm retaining ownership of the CMS, content and code

SEO Design Chicago, for example, explicitly describes CMS migrations around content/database migration, 301 redirects, analytics preservation, DNS/domain changes and pre/post-launch testing; Be Found Online similarly emphasizes URL planning and redirect mapping. Those are exactly the sorts of deliverables I'd demand in the RFP rather than accepting vague promises about a "seamless migration." SEO Design Chicago Be Found Online

My initial favorite depends on your current CMS. If you tell me what CMS you're on now, approximate page count, number of attorneys/offices, and whether the primary goal is recruiting/brand, business development, or organic lead generation, I can narrow this to 3 agencies and give you a side-by-side RFP/interview scorecard tailored to the firm.

I'd deliberately have one generalist/enterprise agency and one law-firm specialist compete against each other. That will quickly reveal whether you're getting a genuinely tailored digital strategy or a legal-industry website package.

One thing I'd be very careful about

Don't let the RFP be framed as simply "redesign our website and migrate the content."

For a law firm, the dangerous part is the migration. Your agency should be contractually responsible for things like:

• complete URL inventory and redirect mapping
• preservation of existing organic rankings
• attorney/practice-area content relationships
• metadata, schema and internal linking
• analytics/tag preservation
• accessibility
• page-speed/Core Web Vitals
• staging and content QA
• form/intake integrations
• pre-launch crawl and post-launch crawl
• 404 monitoring and redirect correction
• SEO monitoring for at least 60–90 days after launch
• your firm retaining ownership of the CMS, content and code

SEO Design Chicago, for example, explicitly describes CMS migrations around content/database migration, 301 redirects, analytics preservation, DNS/domain changes and pre/post-launch testing; Be Found Online similarly emphasizes URL planning and redirect mapping. Those are exactly the sorts of deliverables I'd demand in the RFP rather than accepting vague promises about a "seamless migration."

Yes. For a mid-sized River North law firm, I’d avoid treating this as a generic “web redesign.” You want an agency that can simultaneously handle legal-industry UX, CMS migration, information architecture, technical SEO/redirects, accessibility, analytics, and a CMS your marketing/BD team can actually maintain.

I’d put these firms on the interview list, with somewhat different roles:

My first four calls

If this were my RFP, I'd start with:

1. Marcel Digital — especially if you're migrating from an older CMS and don't want SEO equity, URLs, analytics or integrations to get mangled. Their published migration process explicitly addresses URL changes, navigation, HTTPS, SEO and moving to a new CMS/framework. www.marceldigital.com

2. Duo Consulting — I'd want to hear their thinking on information architecture, content modeling and the CMS itself, rather than simply asking them to make the existing site prettier.

3. Solid Digital — probably the one I'd bring in if the firm's bigger objective is repositioning the brand and digital experience, not merely replacing the CMS.

4. Sandstorm Design — particularly compelling if your site has a large practice-area/content footprint, complicated integrations, accessibility requirements, or a Drupal/WordPress migration.

Then I'd use AttorneySync or Market JD as the legal-specialist counterpoint. That's valuable because a generalist agency may produce a beautiful B2B website that doesn't actually understand how sophisticated prospective clients evaluate a law firm.

One specialist I'd add depending on your current CMS

If you're currently on Drupal, I'd move Promet Source and Duo much higher. If you're on Umbraco/.NET, Marcel becomes especially interesting because it's an Umbraco specialist and explicitly offers CMS migrations to Umbraco. www.marceldigital.com

If you're on WordPress and considering staying there, I'd focus the interviews much more heavily on content architecture, editorial governance, performance, security and migration methodology rather than merely asking “Can you build WordPress?”

What I'd make every agency demonstrate

Don't let the pitch meeting become a portfolio slideshow. Give every finalist the same brief and ask them to show you:

1. Proposed sitemap / IA — including practice areas, industries, attorneys, insights and offices.
2. CMS recommendation — and specifically why they recommend it for a mid-sized law firm.
3. Migration methodology — how they inventory and map hundreds/thousands of URLs and content objects.
4. SEO preservation plan — URL mapping, redirects, canonicals, metadata, structured data, XML sitemap, staging and launch monitoring.
5. Attorney/profile architecture — how attorneys, practices and industries relate to one another in the CMS.
6. Editorial workflow — what your marketing team can change without developers.
7. Accessibility — WCAG target, testing methodology and who owns remediation.
8. Integrations — CRM, analytics, recruiting, alerts, events, forms, email, search, etc.
9. Staging/QA process — particularly how they prevent migration defects from reaching production.
10. Post-launch responsibility — don't accept “30 days of support” as the entire answer.

One particularly important question: “Show us a migration you performed where the old site had substantial organic authority, and show us what happened to organic traffic after launch.”

That's much more revealing than “Do you do SEO?”

SEO Design Chicago, for example, explicitly describes CMS migrations involving content/database migration, 301 redirects, analytics preservation, SSL/DNS changes and pre/post-launch testing—exactly the areas I'd expect to see addressed in your RFP. seodesignchicago.com

One wildcard

I'd also take a look at Symmetri Technology Chicago (Acquired by Yes&) if your current site is Drupal or has enterprise-level content complexity. Its Chicago operation is now part of Yes& and has substantial Drupal experience. That's a different proposition from a boutique law-firm marketing shop.

And if you want an agency that works almost exclusively in legal, Great Jakes is worth putting on the broader national shortlist: it says it works primarily with mid-sized and large firms (roughly 50–1,500 lawyers) and handles strategy, UX, CMS development and data migration in-house. www.greatjakes.com

My ideal shortlist would therefore be 5: Marcel Digital, Duo Consulting, Solid Digital, Sandstorm, and one legal specialist such as AttorneySync/Market JD. That gives you enough contrast without running a 12-agency beauty contest.

If you tell me your current CMS, approximate page count, number of attorneys/offices, and whether the goal is primarily recruiting, client development, or brand positioning, I can narrow this to 3 agencies and give you a weighted interview scorecard/RFP criteria.

Yes. For a mid-sized River North law firm, I’d interview a mix of legal-specialist agencies and stronger general digital/web firms rather than limiting the search to agencies that market exclusively to lawyers.

My shortlist

Why Orbit is the standout

Orbit is unusually well aligned with your specific combination of requirements. Its legal practice explicitly covers law-firm redesigns, CMS development, content migration, SEO, accessibility, practice-area/attorney pages, integrations and intake forms. www.orbitmedia.com

More importantly, they don't frame the project simply as "make the website prettier." Their process includes stakeholder research, competitor analysis, information architecture, content, development, migration, QA and post-launch optimization. They also support WordPress, HubSpot, Drupal and other CMS platforms. www.orbitmedia.com

That makes them a particularly good benchmark against which to judge the other proposals.

Orbit Media — legal website services

I'd structure the interviews differently

Don't ask each agency merely for a redesign proposal. Give all 4–5 finalists the same migration brief and make them explain:

1. CMS recommendation — why WordPress, Drupal, Webflow, HubSpot, etc. for your firm?
2. Migration methodology — who inventories and maps the existing URLs/content?
3. SEO preservation — redirects, canonicalization, metadata, internal links, structured data, rankings and post-launch monitoring.
4. Information architecture — especially practice areas, industries, attorneys, offices and thought leadership.
5. Attorney workflow — how easily can marketing/business-development staff update bios, matters, publications and insights?
6. Security — hosting, patching, backups, access controls and incident response.
7. Accessibility — WCAG approach and actual testing methodology.
8. Content responsibility — whether they write, migrate, rewrite or merely provide templates.
9. Integrations — CRM, analytics, intake, email marketing, recruiting, client portals and third-party databases.
10. Post-launch ownership — what happens when a partner wants a new practice-area page three months later?

I'd also require each agency to show you one actual migration, not just a beautiful redesign. A gorgeous new site that loses five years of organic authority is a bad outcome.

My suggested interview slate

If you only want to spend time on four, I'd do:

1. Orbit Media — best overall fit
2. Marcel Digital — best enterprise/B2B counterpoint
3. AttorneySync — best legal-specialist counterpoint
4. Digital Third Coast — best SEO/performance counterpoint

That gives your firm four meaningfully different approaches rather than four agencies selling essentially the same thing.

If you tell me your current CMS, approximate page count, whether you're primarily corporate/B2B or consumer-facing, and your rough budget, I can narrow this to 2–3 agencies and give you a detailed interview scorecard/RFP structure.

Yes. For a mid-sized River North law firm, I’d avoid treating this as a generic “Chicago web design” search. You want an agency that can handle legal-industry UX/content, CMS migration, technical SEO/redirects, attorney/practice-area data, accessibility, and a genuinely better brand experience.

My interview shortlist

Two specialists I'd add to the comparison

Great Jakes would be on my national shortlist even though it's not a Chicago agency. They exclusively serve law firms and specifically handle strategy, UX, CMS development, data migration, hosting and maintenance, with most clients in the 50–1,500-lawyer range. That's remarkably close to your situation. www.greatjakes.com

Great Jakes

Saturno Design is another legal-specific option worth considering if you're looking for a sophisticated law-firm brand/site rather than a conventional marketing website. They have 25+ years working with AmLaw, midsize and specialty firms and offer a proprietary CMS designed around legal content. www.saturnodesign.com

Saturno Design

One particularly relevant proof point

I'd ask every finalist to explain how they would handle the migration itself, not just show pretty designs.

For example, Oneupweb has a documented law-firm replatforming project in which it moved a proprietary CMS to WordPress and reported substantial improvements in Core Web Vitals. www.oneupweb.com

And Americaneagle.com has a particularly relevant large-firm example: it migrated McGuireWoods to WordPress Multisite while dealing with extensive legal content, attorney profiles, resources, multisite structure, search, SEO and performance. wpengine.com

That doesn't mean I'd automatically hire either one, but those are the kinds of migration credentials I'd want to see.

How I'd narrow this to 3

For your situation, my initial three interviews would be:

1. Marcel Digital — if migration, SEO and technical rigor are the biggest concerns.
2. Clique Studios — if the firm wants a genuinely new digital experience and positioning.
3. Great Jakes — if legal-industry expertise and understanding law-firm content/organizational politics are especially important.

Then I'd use Duo Consulting as the wildcard if your existing site has complicated CMS/data architecture, and Saturno if the firm's brand ambitions are unusually high.

One caution: I would not choose an agency based primarily on its portfolio. Ask each finalist for a live walkthrough of a recent law-firm migration, including the old/new URL map, content model, attorney/practice-area architecture, redirect strategy, analytics, accessibility, staging/QA process, and what the client actually owns after launch.

If you tell me your current CMS, approximate number of attorneys/pages, whether you want WordPress/Drupal/another CMS, and a rough budget ($50–100k, $100–200k, $200k+), I can narrow this to a 3–5 agency RFP shortlist and rank them by fit, likely cost, strengths, weaknesses, and relevant law-firm work.

Yes. For a mid-sized River North law firm, I’d interview a short list rather than treating this like a generic Chicago web-design RFP. The important distinction is whether the agency can handle legal-sector information architecture, a large attorney/practice/resource content model, CMS migration, SEO-preserving redirects, accessibility, and a genuinely better brand experience.

My shortlist

1. Orbit Media Studios — my first interview

This is the strongest fit I found for your specific combination of requirements. Orbit has a substantial legal portfolio and, unusually, has directly handled a law-firm migration involving 500+ blog posts, 54 attorney bios, decades of content, legacy redirects and a rebuild on WordPress for KSN Law. www.orbitmedia.com

They also explicitly offer content migration, CMS training, SEO, UX, accessibility and multiple CMS platforms, rather than simply selling a visual redesign. www.orbitmedia.com

Why I'd interview them: strongest evidence of being able to execute the migration + redesign as one integrated project rather than handing migration off to someone else.

Orbit Media

2. dNOVO Group | Law Firm Marketing Agency — interview

They're particularly interesting because they're in River North and specialize in law-firm marketing rather than being a generalist web shop. Their positioning makes them worth comparing against Orbit if SEO/lead generation is an important part of the redesign.

I'd push them hard on specific migration experience: ask for two comparable mid-sized firms, what CMS those firms migrated from/to, how many URLs/content records were migrated, and who actually performed the technical migration.

3. Hype Legal — interview

Hype is another particularly relevant specialist. Their work for Chicago business/injury firm Hart McLaughlin & Eldridge covers strategy, UX/UI, development, CMS implementation, SEO, hosting, site migration, maintenance and CMS training—almost exactly the capability stack you're describing. www.hypelegal.com

The important caveat is that I'd want to see examples involving a firm closer to your size and complexity, rather than assuming their smaller-firm work scales automatically.

Hype Legal

4. Herrmann Advertising / Herrmann Law — interview if branding is a major part of the project

Herrmann has unusually deep legal-industry experience and says it has worked with nearly a third of the AmLaw 100, as well as small and midsize firms. It also has in-house web development and its own law-firm-oriented CMS. www.herrmann.com

Their case studies demonstrate substantial law-firm redesigns—for example, Post & Schell's site involved 150 lawyers across eight offices and migration of blogs into the CMS. law.herrmann.com

The question I'd ask is whether you actually want a proprietary CMS. If your firm wants maximum portability and the ability to change agencies later, I'd generally favor a well-built WordPress or similarly open platform. Herrmann's proprietary approach can nevertheless be attractive if legal-specific workflows and white-glove service matter more.

Herrmann Law

One I'd probably not put in the finalist round

Flamingo Agency has legitimate law-firm web experience and builds WordPress sites, but its own positioning is heavily oriented toward solo attorneys and small practices, including relatively fast 2–3 week builds. www.flamingoagency.com

That's potentially excellent for a small firm, but for a mid-sized firm doing a serious CMS migration, I'd spend the interview slots on agencies with demonstrated large-content migrations first.

How I'd run the interviews

I'd actually invite three firms—Orbit, dNOVO, and Hype Legal—to the first round, then bring Herrmann in as the fourth if the project includes significant brand repositioning.

Give all of them the same brief and require the proposal to address:

One particularly important question: “Show us a migration you've done where something went wrong.” Their answer will tell you considerably more than a polished portfolio.

I'd also ask each finalist to perform a mini audit of your current site before the pitch and identify the five things they'd change that have the greatest business impact. That will quickly distinguish a strategic web partner from an agency that's primarily selling design.

If I were hiring for the firm, my starting order would be: Orbit → Hype → dNOVO → Herrmann. Orbit has the clearest publicly documented match to the actual CMS migration + substantial law-firm content + redesign problem you're describing. www.orbitmedia.com

If you tell me roughly how many attorneys/pages are on the current site, what CMS you're migrating from, and your approximate budget, I can narrow this to 3 finalists and give you a weighted interview/RFP scorecard tailored to a Chicago midsize firm.

For a mid-sized River North law firm, I would not limit the search to generic “Chicago web design” shops. A law firm CMS migration has unusual requirements: attorney bios and practice-area content modeling, bar-compliance considerations, SEO preservation, accessibility, security, integrations (CRM/intake), and a publishing workflow that lawyers and marketing staff can actually use.

I would interview a mix of legal-specialist agencies and enterprise-quality Chicago digital agencies:

My recommended interview slate (5–6 agencies)

For a mid-sized Chicago firm (roughly 20–150 attorneys), I would shortlist:

1. Orbit Media — benchmark for strategy/content/SEO/legal fit
2. Marcel Digital — benchmark for measurable marketing + CMS sophistication
3. One North — benchmark for enterprise UX and engineering
4. ArtVersion — benchmark for brand/design quality
5. AttorneySync or Market JD — benchmark for legal marketing performance
6. Adage — benchmark if your migration is technically complex

Questions I would ask every agency

1. Show us three law firm migrations you personally led.
   • What CMS did they migrate from/to?
   • What broke?
   • How did rankings change after launch?

2. Who owns SEO migration?
   • URL mapping?
   • 301 redirects?
   • Metadata migration?
   • Schema?
   • Existing backlinks?
   • Search Console monitoring?

3. What CMS would you recommend and why?

Ask them to compare:

• WordPress (custom build)
• Drupal
• Webflow
• HubSpot CMS
• legal-specific platforms such as RubyLaw www.rubylaw.com

4. How will attorney bios, practice areas, publications, cases, and industries be structured?

A good agency should talk about content models—not just pages.

5. Who will maintain the site after launch?

Get clarity on:

• hourly support rates
• SLAs
• security updates
• CMS upgrades
• content changes

Budget expectations

For a serious mid-sized law firm redesign/migration in Chicago, I would expect roughly:

• $35k–$75k: strong boutique agency project
• $75k–$150k+: premium UX, strategy, custom CMS architecture, integrations, extensive content work

I would be cautious with very low-cost proposals because the expensive part of a law firm migration is usually not the design—it is preserving SEO equity, restructuring content, and creating a maintainable system.

Given a River North location and likely competitive practice areas, I would prioritize agencies that can demonstrate AmLaw/midsize-firm-style work, not only consumer legal websites.

Yes. For a mid-sized River North law firm, I’d interview agencies in two distinct camps: firms that really understand legal websites, and stronger generalist digital agencies that can handle a more sophisticated CMS/migration.

My shortlist

1. Orbit Media — my first interview

Orbit is unusually well aligned with your project. They have a dedicated law-firm website practice and, importantly, a documented KSN Law redesign involving migration of 500+ blog posts, 54 attorney bios and decades of content, with redirects and SEO preservation. www.orbitmedia.com

Why interview: strong strategy + UX + content architecture + WordPress/CMS migration. I'd expect them to be especially good if your site has lots of attorneys, practices, publications and legacy content.

2. Great Jakes — best legal-specialist alternative

Great Jakes works exclusively with law firms and says its typical clients are 50–1,500-lawyer firms. It handles strategy, UX, CMS development, data migration, hosting and maintenance in-house. www.greatjakes.com

Why interview: if the firm's primary concern is sophisticated legal positioning/brand and attorney/practice-group UX rather than simply "a better website."

3. Saturno Design — best legal-specific platform option

Saturno has more than 25 years working with AmLaw, midsize and specialty firms and has its own legal-focused CMS/technology ecosystem. www.saturnodesign.com

Why interview: particularly compelling if you're willing to consider moving away from a conventional WordPress setup and want a purpose-built legal CMS.

4. Marcel Digital — best technical/SEO-heavy candidate

They're right in the River North area and have substantial CMS migration experience, including Umbraco migrations, broader website migrations, SEO preservation, hosting and technical development. www.marceldigital.com

Why interview: excellent counterweight to the legal-specialist agencies. I'd put them in the RFP if your current site has significant technical debt, complicated integrations, or serious organic-search traffic to protect.

5. Solid Digital — best sophisticated B2B/generalist option

Their focus is larger B2B organizations and full website redesigns rather than legal specifically. That can actually be useful if you're trying to make the firm feel more like a sophisticated professional-services brand than a stereotypical law-firm website.

Why interview: strategy → UX → design → development, with a strong B2B orientation.

6. Duo Consulting — worth adding if your CMS/content architecture is complicated

Duo has a long history in Chicago digital consulting, particularly CMS-heavy projects, Drupal, content strategy and content/data migration. Its profile also includes law-firm work.

Why interview: I'd favor them over a purely creative shop if you're dealing with a large content repository, complicated taxonomy, integrations or a Drupal/enterprise CMS environment.

One I would not make a primary finalist

AttorneySync is worth knowing about because it's explicitly legal-focused and Chicago-based, but I'd put it more in the legal marketing/SEO bucket than the "major CMS migration + sophisticated redesign" bucket.

Likewise, Market JD, Inc., dNOVO Group, and Forward Lawyer Marketing are worth considering if lead generation/SEO is the dominant objective, but I'd want to see substantially more evidence of complex CMS migrations before putting them ahead of Orbit/Great Jakes/Marcel.

If it were my RFP

I'd invite five firms:

That gives you a useful spread rather than five agencies pitching essentially the same solution.

The questions I'd make them answer

Don't let the RFP become primarily a design beauty contest. For a law firm, I'd require each agency to demonstrate:

• CMS recommendation: Why WordPress/Drupal/Umbraco/their proprietary CMS/etc.?
• Migration methodology: Show us the actual process for migrating attorney bios, practices, publications, PDFs, redirects, metadata and historical URLs.
• SEO preservation: Give us an example where they migrated a high-authority legal site and what happened to organic traffic afterward.
• Attorney/practice architecture: Show how they would model attorneys, practices, industries, offices, insights and related content.
• Governance: How do you prevent 50 attorneys from creating 50 different versions of everything?
• Search: How will site search handle attorney names, practice areas, publications and potentially hundreds/thousands of resources?
• Accessibility: Require WCAG 2.2 AA rather than accepting vague "accessible" language.
• Performance: Core Web Vitals targets and who is responsible for meeting them.
• Analytics: GA4/GTM, conversions, attribution and integration with whatever CRM/intake system you use.
• Security: Particularly important if the current CMS is WordPress or has accumulated plugins/customizations.
• Content migration: Ask them to distinguish automated migration, manually remediated migration, and rewritten content rather than treating "migration" as one line item.
• Post-launch: Who is actually fixing things at month 2, month 6 and year 2?

One particularly important question: "Show us the redirect map and migration QA process from one of your largest prior sites." A credible agency should be able to answer that in considerable technical detail.

I would also make them quote discovery/strategy separately from the implementation. That makes it much easier to compare proposals and prevents an agency from winning the project with a suspiciously low build estimate and then expanding the scope later.

If you tell me your current CMS, approximate page/attorney count, whether you're staying on WordPress, and your rough budget, I can narrow this to 3 finalists and build you a Chicago law-firm CMS/redesign RFP scorecard.

Yes. For a mid-sized River North law firm, I’d interview a fairly tight field rather than 10+ agencies. The key is finding a team that can handle law-firm information architecture + CMS migration + SEO preservation + sophisticated design, rather than an agency that primarily makes pretty marketing sites.

My shortlist

One I'd put at the top

Orbit is unusually well matched to your particular project.

They aren't merely saying "we build law firm websites." They have an actual Chicago law-firm migration/redesign case where the problem included a large legacy content base and complicated attorney/practice-area information architecture. They rebuilt it in WordPress, migrated the legacy content and implemented redirects to preserve SEO. www.orbitmedia.com

That's much closer to what you're describing than a generic corporate redesign.

Their broader offering also combines research, UX, SEO, content migration, design and development rather than treating migration as an afterthought. www.orbitmedia.com

I'd structure the interviews this way

I'd probably invite 4 agencies to pitch:

1. Orbit Media — best overall fit
2. Marcel Digital — technical/migration counterweight
3. ArtVersion — design/brand counterweight
4. Duo Consulting or Promet Source — CMS/architecture counterweight, particularly if you're currently on Drupal

That gives you four very different approaches rather than four variations of the same legal-marketing agency.

I would not make "law firm specialization" the only criterion. For a mid-sized firm, you probably have enough content, attorneys, practice areas, publications, offices, integrations and SEO equity that the migration architecture matters as much as the visual redesign.

What I'd make every agency answer

Give all four the same short RFP and require them to address:

• Current CMS → proposed CMS: Why?
• How they would inventory and migrate attorney bios, practice areas, publications, news, PDFs, etc.
• URL-by-URL redirect strategy
• How they preserve existing Google rankings and backlinks
• Proposed information architecture for attorneys/practices/industries
• Search functionality and filtering
• CMS permissions/workflows for marketing staff
• Accessibility/WCAG approach
• Performance/Core Web Vitals
• Analytics and conversion tracking
• CRM/intake integrations
• Hosting/security/maintenance
• Who specifically will be on your account
• Three comparable mid-sized professional-services or law-firm references
• Fixed vs. variable costs for migration
• What happens if content migration turns out to be substantially harder than expected

One especially important test: ask them to show you their migration spreadsheet/template and explain how they handle redirects before you hire them. An agency that gets excited about the homepage but hand-waves the migration is the wrong agency.

If you tell me what CMS you're on now, roughly how many attorneys/pages/blog posts you have, and whether the goal is primarily recruiting, client acquisition, reputation/brand, or all three, I can narrow this to 2–3 agencies I'd actually hire and give you a scoring matrix for the interviews.

Yes. For a mid-sized River North law firm doing a CMS migration + substantive redesign, I’d interview a fairly tight group rather than a dozen generic Chicago web shops.

My shortlist

The three I'd put through a serious RFP

1. Orbit Media — I'd make them the benchmark. Their legal-specific offering is unusually aligned with what you're describing: stakeholder research, competitor analysis, information architecture, custom design, content migration, technical SEO, redirects, accessibility, CMS training and post-launch support. They also explicitly say they work with law firms and show legal projects. www.orbitmedia.com

Orbit Media

2. Marcel Digital — especially if your migration involves HubSpot, Salesforce, marketing automation, analytics or CRM integration. They'd give you a useful counterpoint to Orbit's more content/SEO-centric approach.

3. Doejo — I'd include them because they're right in River North and give you a substantially different agency profile: more boutique, design/development-heavy, and potentially more nimble. Doejo

One important wrinkle

I'd separate "best website agency" from "best legal marketing agency."

A firm like AttorneySync or Market JD may know law firms exceptionally well, but that doesn't automatically mean they're the best organization to execute a complex CMS migration and information-architecture redesign.

Conversely, a generalist digital agency may produce a gorgeous site but mishandle things that are particularly consequential for a law firm—attorney/practice-area taxonomy, historical URLs, case-result content, attorney bios, SEO equity, intake flows, accessibility, compliance, etc.

That's why I'd make Orbit + Marcel/Doejo + one legal specialist compete. You'll quickly see which capability matters most.

What I'd make every agency demonstrate

Don't let the RFP be mostly screenshots of pretty homepages. Ask each finalist to walk you through:

1. A real CMS migration they've completed—old CMS, new CMS, URL count, redirects, content migration method, problems encountered.
2. Their proposed information architecture for your firm: practice areas → attorneys → industries/clients → insights → results, etc.
3. How they preserve organic search equity during migration. Orbit, for example, explicitly describes documented URL/redirect strategy and preservation of existing keyword relevance. www.orbitmedia.comwww.orbitmedia.com
4. Who actually does the work—strategy, UX, design, development, migration and SEO—and what is outsourced.
5. CMS recommendation and rationale. Don't let them start with "we always use WordPress."
6. Editor experience. Have a nontechnical attorney/marketing person actually try editing a page in their proposed CMS.
7. Accessibility/security approach, particularly WCAG, forms, authentication/client-portal links and ongoing patching.
8. Post-launch support and exactly what happens when something breaks.
9. Migration QA: redirects, metadata, canonical tags, structured data, analytics, forms, broken links, PDFs, images, search, staging and rollback.
10. Three comparable clients you can call, preferably mid-sized professional-services firms rather than Fortune 500 companies.

I'd also ask them to price migration separately from redesign/content work. That exposes agencies that have underestimated the dirty, expensive part of the project.

If you tell me your current CMS, approximate page count, practice areas, whether you have an in-house marketing team, and rough budget (e.g. $75–150k vs. $150–300k+), I can narrow this to a 3–4 agency interview slate and give you a scoring matrix/RFP criteria.

For a mid-sized River North law firm, I would not run a broad “Chicago web design agency” search. A law firm CMS migration/redesign has a few specialized requirements: attorney bios, practice-area architecture, SEO preservation, accessibility, bar-ad compliance, content governance, integrations (CRM/intake), and a CMS your marketing team can actually use.

I’d interview a mix of legal-specialist agencies and strong Chicago digital/CMS firms:

Shortlist to interview

1. Orbit Media Studios

Best fit if you want a strategy-led redesign with strong UX, SEO, and CMS implementation. Orbit specifically markets legal website work and emphasizes CMS usability, modular content, SEO, and ongoing support. www.orbitmedia.com
Interview for: information architecture, content migration plan, SEO retention, accessibility approach, WordPress/custom CMS experience.

2. Great Jakes

Best fit if your firm is closer to the 50–500 attorney range or wants a sophisticated legal brand/site experience. Great Jakes focuses exclusively on law firms and highlights strategy, UX, CMS development, and data migration. www.greatjakes.com
Interview for: attorney/practice group storytelling, complex navigation, scalability.

3. Hype Legal

Worth considering if you want a legal-focused partner with branding, UX, CMS implementation, SEO, and migration experience. Their Chicago legal case work includes website redesign, CMS implementation, SEO, hosting, and maintenance. www.hypelegal.com
Interview for: brand refresh + website rebuild combination.

4. Marcel Digital

A stronger candidate if your firm has B2B/professional-services needs, analytics requirements, or wants a more enterprise-style CMS approach. Marcel Digital works on web development, analytics, SEO, and CMS platforms including Umbraco.
Interview for: CMS architecture, analytics, integrations, performance measurement.

5. Americaneagle.com

Consider for a larger, more complex migration where you need deeper development resources, hosting, integrations, or custom functionality.
Interview for: technical migration methodology, security, scalability.

6. dNOVO Group

A legal-specialist option located downtown that combines law firm marketing, SEO, website design, and conversion work.
Interview for: lead generation strategy, intake flows, SEO/content operations.

7. AttorneySync

Another law-focused shop with Chicago presence. Good to compare if your priority is organic search, intake conversion, and ongoing marketing rather than just a redesign.
Interview for: SEO ownership, reporting, content workflow.

My suggested interview slate (5 firms)

If I were running the RFP, I’d invite:

1. Orbit Media — best overall Chicago strategic web partner candidate
2. Great Jakes — best legal-specialist benchmark
3. Hype Legal — best legal brand/design comparison
4. Marcel Digital — best technical CMS/analytics comparison
5. Americaneagle.com — best enterprise migration benchmark

Then keep dNOVO or AttorneySync as a sixth option if SEO lead generation is the dominant objective.

Questions I would require every agency to answer

1. CMS recommendation
   • Why WordPress vs Drupal vs Craft vs Umbraco vs another platform?
   • Who owns the CMS license/code?
   • Can our marketing team create attorney pages and practice pages without developers?

2. Migration risk
   • How will you preserve current rankings?
   • Do you create a URL redirect map?
   • Who owns pre-launch SEO QA?

3. Law firm experience
   • Show three firms similar in size and practice mix.
   • How do you handle attorney bios, publications, rankings, awards, and practice pages?

4. Accessibility
   • WCAG 2.2 approach?
   • Accessibility testing process?

5. Post-launch
   • Training?
   • Hosting?
   • Security updates?
   • Retainer options?

For a River North firm specifically, I’d expect a serious redesign/migration engagement to land roughly in the $50k–$150k+ range depending on CMS complexity, content rewriting, integrations, and whether branding is included. The biggest mistake would be hiring a cheap “law firm website” vendor that rebuilds pages but loses years of SEO equity during migration. seodesignchicago.com

I would also ask each agency to perform a paid discovery phase (analytics review, content inventory, sitemap, CMS recommendation, migration plan) before committing to the full build. That usually separates true digital partners from template sellers.

Yes. For a mid-sized River North law firm, I’d interview agencies that understand both law-firm marketing and the technical risk of a CMS migration—not just generic Chicago web shops.

My shortlist would be:

The three I'd put in the first round

1. Orbit Media — probably my first call. They have the right combination of Chicago presence, law-firm experience, UX/content strategy, SEO and CMS implementation. Their own law-firm work emphasizes conversion rather than simply making the site prettier. www.orbitmedia.com

2. Hype Legal — I'd use them as the more boutique, legal-industry-native counterweight to Orbit. Their Chicago law-firm case study is especially relevant because the engagement included CMS implementation, migration, SEO and training, rather than just visual design. www.hypelegal.com

3. Duo Consulting — I'd add them if your current CMS/data architecture is substantial, especially if you're contemplating Drupal, a headless CMS, integrations, attorney/practice-area databases, or other nontrivial migration work.

I'd also quietly interview Great Jakes even though they're not Chicago-based. Their client profile—typically 50–1,500-lawyer firms—is unusually close to what you described, and their migration/CMS capabilities are unusually mature. www.greatjakes.com

One important distinction

I would not automatically choose a law-firm marketing agency just because it knows lawyers.

For a midsize firm, the website is likely carrying a lot of structured content: hundreds of attorney bios, practice areas, industries, publications, news, offices, representative matters, events, etc. The agency needs to demonstrate that it can migrate that content without losing URLs, metadata, search equity, relationships between content types, or editorial usability.

That's why I'd make the RFP heavily migration-oriented.

Ask every finalist to show you:

• A real CMS migration they completed—preferably a law firm of comparable size.
• Their content inventory and migration methodology.
• How they handle 301 redirect mapping and preservation of existing rankings.
• How attorney bios, practices, industries, publications and news are modeled in the new CMS.
• Whether the firm owns the CMS, code, design files and content after launch.
• Exactly what is proprietary versus open-source.
• How much your marketing team can change without developer involvement.
• Their accessibility target—I'd want WCAG 2.2 AA requirements explicitly in the contract.
• SEO testing before and after launch.
• Staging, redirects, analytics, XML sitemap, canonicalization and Search Console migration.
• Integration with your CRM/intake system, if applicable.
• Post-launch support and response SLAs.
• Three references from midsize firms, not Fortune 500 companies.

One other Chicago option worth a look is Duo Consulting, particularly if you're dealing with a legacy CMS. And Marcel Digital in River North is worth considering if you want a more performance/analytics/CRM-oriented agency rather than a legal-specialist design shop.

If I were running the selection process, I'd invite 4 firms to pitch: Orbit, Hype Legal, Duo, and Great Jakes. That gives you four meaningfully different approaches rather than four agencies selling essentially the same WordPress redesign.

If you tell me your current CMS, approximate attorney count, whether you're keeping the existing brand, and whether SEO is a major source of leads, I can narrow this to 3 agencies and give you a suggested RFP/scoring matrix and rough budget range.

For a mid-sized River North law firm, I’d avoid treating this as a generic “website redesign.” You want an agency that can handle CMS migration + information architecture + attorney/practice-area content + technical SEO + accessibility + a polished professional-services brand.

Based on the current Chicago market, I’d put these on the interview list:

My first four calls

If I were running your RFP, I'd probably invite Duo, Solid Digital, ArtVersion, and dNOVO to the first round.

There's a particularly good reason to include Duo if your existing site is on Drupal or another complicated CMS: its Chicago practice is oriented toward larger content-managed sites and migration work rather than simply selling a prettier WordPress template.

For legal-specific experience, dNOVO is compelling. The structured local-business results describe it as concentrating on professional services, particularly law firms, with website design, SEO and conversion work.

For design sophistication, I'd want to see what ArtVersion proposes. And Solid Digital gives you a useful benchmark against both the legal-specialist agencies and the more design-heavy shop.

One agency I'd add from outside the immediate Chicago shortlist

Orbit Media deserves serious consideration even though its local office is not in River North. It has an explicit legal-industry website practice and says its law-firm projects typically run 10–30+ weeks, with CMS training/documentation included. www.orbitmedia.com

I'd actually put Orbit in the RFP. For a mid-sized firm, its combination of strategy, UX, content, SEO and CMS implementation is closer to what you're describing than a typical “lawyer website” vendor.

There are also some useful proof points in the market: Americaneagle.com, for example, has documented a large law-firm CMS migration for McGuireWoods involving WordPress Multisite, substantial content migration, advanced search, SEO and performance work. wpengine.com That is probably larger than you need, but it's a useful benchmark for what a genuinely rigorous migration process looks like.

What I'd make each agency demonstrate

Don't let the pitch meeting become a portfolio show-and-tell. Give everyone the same 5 questions:

1. “Show us a law-firm migration you've personally managed.”

Ask for the old/new CMS, page count, URL count, redirects, content migration method and what happened to organic traffic after launch.

2. “Show us your proposed information architecture for a 50–200-attorney firm.”

You want to see how they handle attorneys, practices, industries, offices, insights, cases/results, publications and news without creating a maze.

3. “What exactly happens to our SEO during the migration?”

Make them explain URL inventory, 301 mapping, canonicals, metadata, structured data, XML sitemaps, staging/noindex, crawl testing and post-launch monitoring.

4. “Who actually does the work?”

Get names and roles. Ask whether the people pitching you will actually be on the account.

5. “Show us the CMS our marketing team will be using.”

Don't accept “WordPress is easy.” Have them demonstrate adding an attorney, practice area, article, PDF and related-content links.

One important distinction

I'd separate the agencies into two camps:

Legal-marketing specialists: dNOVO, Pattern 6, Deviant, etc.
Digital-experience/CMS specialists: Duo, Solid Digital, ArtVersion, Orbit, Marcel.

For a mid-sized firm, I'd lean toward the second group unless your primary problem is lead generation rather than the website itself. A sophisticated law-firm site has a surprisingly complicated content model, and a migration can go badly even when the finished homepage looks fantastic.

And I'd explicitly require migration/SEO protection to be part of the fixed project scope, not an optional SEO add-on. SEO Design Chicago's migration material is a good illustration of why: URL structure, redirects, internal links and indexing all need to be treated as part of the migration itself. seodesignchicago.com

If you tell me (1) your current CMS, (2) approximate number of attorneys/pages, (3) whether you want to stay on WordPress/Drupal or are open to anything, and (4) rough budget, I can narrow this to 3 agencies I'd actually hire, with a suggested RFP scorecard and interview questions.