What to Watch for When Hiring a Website Design Partner

By the time a law firm reaches out to me, it's often because something didn’t go right with their last website project—or with the firm they were about to hire. And I hear some version of this line more than I should: “We didn’t know what to ask for until it was too late.”

That experience is more common than you'd think. And it’s not just about choosing the wrong designer—it’s about not realizing how misaligned a designer’s process, priorities, or philosophy might be from the actual needs of a B2B law firm.

So in Part 3 of the Designing Trust series, I want to lay out the red flags I’ve seen over and over again—so that if you’re in the process of hiring a website design partner, you know exactly what to look for, and what to avoid.

Red Flag #1: They Don’t Ask About Your Clients

If a designer is focused solely on your firm’s style preferences—what colors you like, what fonts you’re drawn to, what your competitors are doing—but never digs into who you serve or what those clients are looking for, that’s a problem.

Your website shouldn’t just reflect who you are. It should speak to your clients’ problems, goals, and expectations. If your designer isn’t asking questions like:

• Who are your ideal clients?
  
  
• What are they trying to solve?
  
  
• What’s at stake if they choose the wrong firm?
  

...then they’re not designing for strategy—they’re designing for decoration.

Red Flag #2: They Expect You to Provide All the Content

This one still baffles me. Many design agencies hand off a “content worksheet” and ask the client to fill in the copy for each page. In other words: "You do the hard part—we’ll just make it look nice.”

But most law firms don’t have in-house marketers. They don’t have the time, the resources, or frankly, the expertise to distill their value into web-ready messaging.

As I shared in Part 2 of this series, this isn’t just an oversight—it’s a critical disconnect. Storytelling is one of the hardest and most important parts of the process, and too many agencies leave it entirely on the shoulders of the law firm.

At UPWARD, content isn’t an afterthought—it’s central to the project. I collaborate directly with firms to draw out their voice, their strengths, and their client-centered differentiators. Because design without narrative is like dressing up an empty room.

Red Flag #3: No CMS or Back-End Planning

A website isn’t just something you launch—it’s something you live with. I’ve seen firms spend big on a shiny new site, only to realize later that updating it is a nightmare.

There’s no content management system. Or the CMS is there, but it’s not built with the firm’s structure in mind. Attorney bios aren’t connected to their practice areas. Locations aren’t linked to the right team members. Posting a job requires calling the developer.

Sometimes, the setup is even worse: the agency custom-codes everything so tightly that they’re the only ones who can make updates. This creates a dependency where the law firm has to go through the agency for every little change—often paying for it, and waiting for it. That’s not a service relationship—it’s a hostage situation.

We’ll be unpacking this even deeper in Part 5 of this series, but the short version is this: if your designer can’t speak confidently about how your site will be structured and managed behind the scenes, they’re not setting you up for long-term success.

Red Flag #4: They Lack Industry Awareness or Flexibility

Some agencies fall on the other end of the spectrum—they either have no real experience working with firms like yours, or they’ve worked with a few but try to cram every client into the same model.

Both approaches are dangerous. One lacks context, the other lacks flexibility. Your firm is unique—your story, your client base, your structure. You need a partner who sees that and adapts to it.

Red Flag #5: They Can’t Explain the “Why”

Some agencies fall on the other end of the spectrum—they either have no real experience working with firms like yours, or they’ve worked with a few but try to cram every client into the same model.

Both approaches are dangerous. One lacks context, the other lacks flexibility. Your firm is unique—your story, your client base, your structure. You need a partner who sees that and adapts to it.

Every decision—content, structure, design—should have a reason. A purpose. If the person designing your site can’t tell you why they’re recommending a particular structure, layout, or messaging direction, you’re likely looking at a surface-level approach.

Your firm deserves better than that. Your digital presence is a strategic asset, and it should be treated like one.

Red Flag #6: The Hostage Situation – Over-Customization That Locks You In

Sometimes an agency builds a site in such a hyper-customized or code-heavy way that nobody else but them can make changes to it. You don’t realize it at first—but once the project is done, any updates, tweaks, or edits have to go through them. And they charge you for every one of them. Worse yet, you’re often at the mercy of their timeline.

This is what I call a hostage situation. The agency holds all the keys—and you’re left waiting (and paying) for the smallest changes. It’s a frustrating and unnecessary level of dependency that no firm should have to tolerate.

At UPWARD, we believe in empowering firms to own their digital presence. We use flexible, modern content management systems that are thoughtfully structured and easy to update.

What Alignment Actually Looks Like

The right website design partner isn’t just a designer. They’re a strategist. A storyteller. Someone who understands that your website is a trust-building tool, not a visual placeholder.

At UPWARD, I make sure every project is grounded in:

• Client empathy: We begin by understanding your clients and their expectations.
  
  
• Strategic narrative: We develop content that positions your firm clearly and persuasively.
  
  
• Flexible systems: We build sites you can manage, update, and scale.
  
  
• Design that supports message: The visuals enhance—not distract from—the story you’re telling.
  
  

Up Next in the Series

In Part 4 of the Designing Trust series, I’ll unpack what effective storytelling actually looks like for law firms—and how to strike the right balance between professionalism, personality, and persuasion.