Squarespace for law firms: advertising rules, intake forms and the pages that bring clients

A law firm site has a narrower job than most: get the right person to contact the right attorney, without the firm breaking an advertising rule or collecting something it shouldn't through a web form. Squarespace handles that job well for solo practices and firms up to a few dozen attorneys. This is what we set up on every one.

A note before we start: we build websites, we don't give legal advice. Where this post mentions bar rules, treat it as a list of questions for your ethics counsel, not answers.

When Squarespace fits a law firm, and when it doesn't

It fits firms that need a credible marketing site: practice areas, attorney profiles, results, articles, a contact or booking flow.

It doesn't fit a client portal. Secure document exchange, matter status, and messaging belong in your practice management software (Clio, MyCase, PracticePanther and similar), which come with their own portals. The website links to it. We cover the general version of this in when Squarespace is the wrong platform.

Structure: one page per practice area

The most common structural problem on law firm sites is a single "Practice Areas" page listing eight areas in short paragraphs. It ranks for none of them.

Each practice area gets its own page: what the matter is, who it's for, what the process looks like, what it typically costs or how fees work, and which attorneys handle it. If the firm serves several cities, location pages follow the same rule. Our SEO checklist explains why this is the largest structural change we make on most sites.

Attorney profiles get their own pages too: bar admissions, education, practice areas, a real photo, and links to articles they've written. Prospective clients choose a lawyer, not a firm, and they read these pages more than any other.

Advertising rules: what to check before launch

In the US, a law firm website is generally treated as advertising, and every state has its own version of the rules. Most are based on the ABA Model Rules, but the details differ, and they're stricter in some states than others.

New York is a good example of how specific it gets. If a firm's site is an advertisement, the bar's ethics committee says the home page must carry the words "Attorney Advertising", and a disclaimer about prior results doesn't replace that label.

What we flag to every firm before launch:

• Labels. Whether your state requires an "Attorney Advertising" label, and where.
• Case results. Whether results can be shown, and which disclaimer must sit next to them, sometimes word for word.
• Testimonials and reviews. Several states restrict them or require disclaimers. This includes review widgets that pull from Google.
• "Specialist" and "expert". Most states limit these words to attorneys certified by an approved body.
• Multi-state firms. Each state where you're admitted may apply its own rules.

We build the site so these are easy to change: disclaimers as reusable blocks, results pages that can carry a footnote, a footer that holds the firm's name, office address and required notices on every page.

Intake forms: collect less

Squarespace forms are fine for a first contact. They are not a system for privileged or sensitive information. Submissions are stored in your Squarespace account and sent by email.

What we set up:

• Short forms. Name, email, phone, matter type from a dropdown, and a short free-text field.
• A clear notice next to the form that submitting it doesn't create an attorney-client relationship, and asking people not to include confidential details. Your ethics counsel sets the exact wording.
• A conflict-check field for the opposing party's name, if your intake process needs it before a call.
• Routing. Form submissions sent to your practice management intake (Clio Grow, Lawmatics and similar) through a native integration or Zapier, so they don't sit in an inbox. Our CRM integration guide covers the options.

If your intake genuinely needs detailed information up front, embed the intake form from your practice management software instead. The data then lives where your confidentiality controls already are.

Consultation booking and payments

Firms that offer consultations do well with online booking: fewer calls back and forth, fewer no-shows with automatic reminders. Squarespace Scheduling (Acuity) works for most. We compare it with Calendly and a self-hosted scheduler in our booking guide.

Paid consultations can be collected at booking. Retainers and other client funds are different: they generally go into a trust account under your state's version of ABA Model Rule 1.15. Don't route them through Squarespace Commerce. Use a legal payment processor such as LawPay, or the payments built into your practice management software, which keep operating and trust funds separate.

Trust signals that actually work

• Real photos of the attorneys and the office. Stock handshakes read as stock.
• Bar admissions and years in practice on each profile.
• Articles written by the attorneys, answering the questions clients ask before hiring: costs, timelines, what to bring to the first meeting.
• Consistent name, address and phone on the site, Google Business Profile, and directories such as Avvo, Justia and Martindale.
• LegalService structured data on the site, and Person data on each attorney profile, added via code injection. Squarespace doesn't add either on its own. Our local SEO guide shows how.
• An accessible site. Law firms are expected to get this right, and it's checked. See our accessibility guide.

Questions we get

Is Squarespace professional enough for a law firm? Yes. Clients judge the site on clarity, photos and content, not the platform. A well-built Squarespace site looks no different from a custom one to anyone who isn't a developer.

Can we publish case results? In most states, yes, with conditions. Check the disclaimer your state requires before the page goes live.

Can you write the practice area pages? We don't write copy. We structure each page, tell you what it needs to answer, and edit what you supply for length and layout. We can recommend copywriters who know legal content.

Do you know the rules in our state? We know what to ask, not the answer. Your ethics counsel or state bar has the answer, and we build to it.

What does a law firm site cost? Most are in our brochure or content-heavy bands. Our pricing post has the numbers.