ChatGPT answers, unedited

• 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.