Design demo, not a client
louisvillewebguy.com/examples/falls-city-law/
1. Falls City Law, my own demo build
Falls City Law is a made-up firm I designed to show how a small practice site can be structured. It isn't a client, it isn't a real business, and every name, address, review, and credential on it is invented and labeled that way. The forms don't submit, they return "Demo only. Nothing was sent or saved."
The layout leads with practice areas, family law, estate planning, and personal injury, so a visitor sorts themselves before reading a word about the firm. After that comes a plain-language "Clear Process" block, an attorney profile section, a section showing how client stories could appear, and one calm invitation headed "Have a Question About Your Situation?" instead of a hard sell.
Under the hood it carries the accessibility basics I put on every build: a skip link, visible focus outlines, real aria labels on the navigation, and motion that backs off when the visitor has reduced-motion turned on.
- Copy this The practice-area split at the top, and the process block written in plain words. A visitor who can sort themselves in one screen doesn't bounce.
- Skip this The "Sample" labels. They're there because it's a demo. On a real firm's site, an invented review or a placeholder credential is a bar problem, not a design choice.
Poke around the Falls City Law demo if you want to see it move.
doddattorneys.com
2. Dodd & Dodd Attorneys, the homepage that asks where you are today
This is the best entry point of the eight. The headline is two words, "Something Changed." Under it sits a section headed "Where Are You Today?" where the links are written as the questions people actually have. "I am considering divorce. What should I understand first?" and "I have been served with divorce papers. What should I do next?"
That's a self-sorting menu disguised as empathy, and it works because it matches how somebody types into Google at 11pm. The practice groups behind it are clear too: divorce, custody and parenting time, family law, tax, and retirement assets.
The attorney bio is the other thing to steal. It lists the bar admission as a line item, "Admitted to Bar: 1999, Kentucky," then the law degree, an LL.M. in taxation, bar section leadership, and a co-author credit on a Kentucky practice reference. That's verifiable, specific, and it took no design talent at all.
The firm also handles pricing honestly. Rather than fake a number, the page says it will explain its consultation process, availability, and fees when you contact the office.
- Copy this Question-shaped links instead of noun-shaped ones, and the bio format that treats bar admission as a fact worth listing.
- Skip this The homepage runs very long, and one blog headline has a grammar slip ("How Will an KTRS Retirement Account Be Divided"). Small, but it's the first thing a careful reader notices.
colyerlawfirm.com
3. Colyer Law Firm, the fee is right there on the home page
Most injury firms hide the contingency percentage until you're in the room. This one puts it in the hero: the fee starts at 25%, never 40%, and there's a whole section explaining what that means to your recovery. Whatever you think of the number, publishing it is a real differentiator, and it's the single hardest thing to copy without meaning it.
Two more good structural moves. The practice areas are numbered 01 through 09 with a one-line hook each, so nine pages read as a set instead of a wall. And the reviews carry the case type next to the name, so "Auto Accident" or "Personal Injury" sits beside the quote. That turns a generic compliment into evidence about a specific kind of case.
The attorney bio is written in the first person and signed "Tony," and it names both office addresses instead of hiding them. The case-result cards carry the line that matters: "Representative examples shown for illustration, not actual case results or guarantees." That's the disclosure discipline every results section needs.
- Copy this Publishing the fee, tagging each review with its case type, and putting a plain disclaimer under anything that looks like a result.
- Skip this The "scoreboard" block leans on vague words, "Millions" and "Hundreds." One specific figure you can stand behind does more than two big words.
grayandwhitelaw.com
4. Gray & White Law, narrowing the practice on purpose
This site does something most firms are scared to do. It says out loud what it doesn't want. The copy states the firm focuses on catastrophic injury, nursing home neglect, medical malpractice, and wrongful death, and notes that other firms advertise for every minor collision. That sentence disqualifies visitors, which is exactly what a referral-quality practice should want a website to do.
The best detail is a staffing differentiator written as a benefit: a registered nurse on staff who translates medical records into evidence. That's concrete, checkable, and no competitor can copy it with a rewrite. There's also a founder statement signed by name, and a coverage section explaining the firm has handled cases in nearly every Kentucky county.
The site also runs a long results list with specific dollar figures, which is the aggressive end of what Kentucky allows.
- Copy this Narrowing on purpose, and turning a staffing fact into a client benefit rather than an org chart entry.
- Skip this The words "We Guarantee It." appear on the page. Guarantee language on a legal site is the kind of thing to run past your bar before it ships, not after.
haneylawpllc.com
5. Haney Law, bios that actually list the bar admissions
If you only take one thing from this page, take the bios here. One attorney's profile spells out admissions properly: all courts of the commonwealth including the Supreme Court of Kentucky, plus the Indiana Supreme Court and the lower Indiana state courts. That's the difference between "licensed attorney" and a credential somebody can verify.
The contact form does the other thing right. It carries an explicit acknowledgment that submitting the form doesn't create an attorney-client relationship and isn't protected by privilege. Every law firm intake form needs that line, and most of the ones I look at don't have it.
The FAQ runs about fifteen questions and stays specific to Kentucky: the one-year deadline on most injury claims, the different clock on motor vehicle claims tied to no-fault payments, and pure comparative fault. There's also a genuinely distinctive section about the founder's family farm, five generations of it, which does more for trust than another stock photo of a gavel.
- Copy this The admissions detail in the bios, and the privilege disclaimer on the intake form.
- Skip this "Serving Louisville & Beyond" is a flat list of fourteen place names with nothing behind them, mixing neighborhoods like NuLu and Butchertown with whole separate towns. A list like that is not local SEO, it's a list. The hero also autoplays a video, and the fallback text "Your browser does not support the video tag" is visible in the markup.
louisvilleinjuryfirm.com
6. Louisville Injury Firm, the intake form does the sorting
The free case review form here has a "Type of case" dropdown: car accident, workers' compensation, truck accident, motorcycle accident, dog bite, premises liability, wrongful death, other. That one field is worth more than a redesign. It routes the lead, it tells the person you handle their exact problem, and it means the first call starts with information instead of twenty questions.
The form also carries a short line stating no attorney-client relationship is formed by the submission. Good. And the FAQ cites the actual statute for the filing deadline, KRS 413.140(1)(a), rather than saying "deadlines apply." Citing the statute is the cheapest expertise signal on the internet.
The rest of the page is where it falls apart, and it's instructive.
- Copy this The case-type dropdown, and citing the actual Kentucky statute instead of gesturing at it.
- Skip this A section headed "Accolades and results" still contains the instructions instead of the content. The body reads "Awards, case results, and client reviews help visitors know they are in the right place before they ever pick up the phone." That's a note to the builder, published live. A money section also carries three typos in one line ("We recovery ambulence fees, doctor visits, hopsital bills"), and long stretches of the body copy are generic filler that could belong to any firm in any state.
mylouisvillefamilylawyer.com
7. Durrett & Kersting, written to the worry, tripped by the template
The copy on this site understands its reader better than most. It names the actual feeling ("overwhelmed by conflicting advice online, pressure from the other side, or fear that hiring a lawyer means losing control") and the estate planning blurb names the real reason people stall, which is that the process feels confusing and intimidating. That's how you write for somebody who hasn't decided to hire anybody yet.
The page structure is smart too. Instead of one custody page, there are audience-specific ones: Father's Rights, Women's Divorce, Same-Sex Family Law, Uncontested Divorce. Same body of law, different worries, different pages. That's the right way to build out a practice area, and it's the opposite of spinning up near-identical pages for keywords.
Then the template shows through, and it undercuts all of it.
- Copy this Audience-specific pages under one practice area, and copy written to the client's state of mind rather than to the statute.
- Skip this The hero still renders placeholder headings reading "TROPHY" and "LAW FIRM" where a badge belongs. The blog block on the homepage shows "No posts found." and "Loading posts…" to every visitor. The testimonials on a family law site describe a car accident and a traffic violation, which reads like borrowed reviews even if it isn't. And the footer menu misspells "Pre- and Post-Nupital Agreements."
cooperandfriedman.com
8. Cooper & Friedman, the credentials are there but the order is backwards
This firm has been practicing since 1991 and the site has real substance: a deep practice list, specific attorney recognitions, and an "In The News" statement on the federal review of Louisville Metro Police practices. Taking a public position on a local issue is a genuine trust signal, and almost nobody does it.
The problem is sequence. The page opens with award memberships and forum credentials before it tells a visitor what to do or confirms the firm handles their problem. Credentials reassure somebody who has already decided to consider you. They don't help somebody still figuring out if they're on the right site.
The main heading also reads "Experienced And Serious Personal Injury Lawyer & Attorneys Louisville, Kentucky (KY)," which is written for a search engine rather than a person, and there's a "Welcome to" line stacked above the firm name. Neither helps anymore.
- Copy this Taking a public position on a real local issue, and being specific about which attorney holds which credential.
- Skip this Leading with badges instead of with the visitor's problem, and stuffing keywords into a heading. The "Giving Back" section also quotes a thank-you note about 2013 fundraising totals, so the most recent proof of community work on the page is more than a decade old. Stale beats absent, but not by much.
