Quit Boring Clients: Top 5 Legal Website Design Trends 2025

Despite its name, “hero image” does not refer to a photo of you or your lawyers dressed in capes, saving the city from destruction. A “hero” is a massive header image on your website, usually full-width, that covers most above-the-fold real estate. The term comes from the function—the header plays an outsized role in grabbing and holding visitor attention, delivering vital brand or service information at a glance, and guiding user navigation and actions.

A crisp, bold static image gets the job done, but added animation and movement enhance the whole user experience. Looping animations or cinemagraphs (photo/video hybrids—like GIFs) hold attention and offer an expanded canvas for storytelling and branding. At the top of the engagement pyramid is a hero video, which is unparalleled in terms of impact. Be mindful not to overwhelm site visitors with competing video or animated content.

For Lawyers:
Custom visual content is IN—phase out reliance on stock images and build a branded cache of assets for use across your platforms. Use your homepage hero image to convey your specific expertise, your dedication to defense, or your formidable courtroom presence. Here at Nifty, we’re big fans of featuring the faces of your firm. Not only does our data show that audiences respond to faces and real people, but the industry as a whole has observed a growing emphasis on personal connection between web users and brands. Don’t be shy! Show off the people powering your law firm.

It’s not just about conversion—your website tells the story of your firm, whether you intend it to or not! Narrative-driven layouts smoothly guide users through your content and create an engaging journey that builds brand trust. These formats make it easy to communicate your brand story, establish credibility, or humanize your firm in easily digestible bits. Alternating text/image/video placement is a simple way to draw visitors down the page and get their eyes on the areas you want them. Parallax scrolling, which moves different layers of the webpage at different speeds, gives users a feeling of interactivity and connection to your story without you having to implement an interactive element.

Mobile-friendliness is still a primary trend in 2025—essential, actually—and responsive websites are an industry standard. That, along with UX, has to be a top consideration in any website design decisions your firm makes. Accessibility and compliance with ADA requirements is also growing in importance. While it does look impressive, parallax scrolling can be inaccessible for users with disabilities. Likewise, too much video or competing animations can feel overwhelming and distracting, causing visitors to bounce. The key is to know your audience and make data-driven decisions about layout elements—what does your audience respond to?

For Lawyers:
“Narrative” isn’t just about your firm’s origin story, vision, or values, it also refers to the story you tell about your clients. Lawyers provide person-to-person services, often dealing with personal details and sensitive information. People want to see themselves in your firm’s story. They want to feel recognized and reassured that you understand and can meet their needs. Weave your clients’ journey into your firm’s narrative, both in design and layout and actual content.

Screen overload! Somehow, we create even more screens to wear, use, stare at, work on, or live through every year—and our eyes are feeling it. Most Americans today experience some level of digital eye strain. Dark background, reduced brightness, and harmonious color pairing all relieve some of the negative effects. Websites require high-contrast color for readability and accessibility, but customizable dark modes can help offset any eye strain. Personalized web experiences are in, and giving visitors display options signals that your firm values their experience as much as its aesthetics.

Another reason preference for dark mode and muted backgrounds has skyrocketed is that it saves energy in two meaningful ways—dark mode on personal devices prolongs battery life while enabling it in your browser reduces overall energy consumption. However, dark mode is not always the best choice, depending on your audience and web traffic data. Dark backgrounds paired with white text can cause accessibility issues for those with astigmatism, and the option to toggle between light and dark mode can create problems with your web graphics. Adding a toggle and custom graphics and colors may create bulk your website just doesn’t need.

For Lawyers:
This trend is entirely audience- and market-specific—even practice-area-specific. For example, if your firm mostly provides estate planning services for older clients, dark mode might make your website inaccessible to the visitors you most want to convert. On the other hand, if you handle a high volume of DUI or impaired driving cases and notice traffic spikes at night, dark mode may be preferable to your audience.

Siri, is voice search still on the rise? Around half of all web users report daily use of voice search—via voice-to-text or through any of the branded voice assistants on the market. You can accommodate this growing preference with a voice-activated internal search option on your own website. A voice-activated search bar lets users tap a microphone icon, ask a question, and instantly get results—just like with a traditional search function. Voice search could also be a useful accessibility asset for your site, depending on your audience.

Even if you don’t implement full voice activation, you can still meet the trend by optimizing your content for voice search. This means structuring text on your site to match the natural language people use when searching via Siri, Alexa, or Google Assistant. This can be especially impactful in headlines, page titles, and meta descriptions, where exact phrasing helps search engines better understand and rank your content—even if it requires a few extra words. Incorporating natural language, long-tail keywords, and question-based phrasing makes your content more discoverable in search and easier to engage with.

For Lawyers:
Legal websites benefit greatly from voice search optimization, especially for local and service-based queries. Blog posts, FAQ sections, and service pages should be formatted with natural, question-based phrasing to align with how potential clients speak when searching for legal help. Example: Instead of just listing “DUI Lawyer in Denver,” optimize for “Can I lose my license after a DUI in Colorado?” or “What’s the penalty for a first-time DUI in Denver?”

AI is here, opening a new world of possibilities, while rapidly changing user expectations across the web. The key is to use it to improve user experience without creating unnecessary bulk or accessibility issues on your site. AI-driven chatbots and virtual assistants are the most practical applications for law firms—even a seasoned lawyer couldn’t match the patience and specificity of an AI tool. A chatbot is like a front desk assistant, which reacts to and handles general inquiries, support tickets, service questions, and more. A virtual assistant is more focused and task-oriented—like a Clippy for your form fills or contact pages—proactively helping users submit inquiries or schedule consultations instead of just waiting for input.

Behind-the-scenes, AI-driven personalization is gaining momentum too. Implementation of AI in this instance dynamically changes content and recommendations based on user behavior. While stats show that users increasingly respond well to tailored experiences, the long-term impact of AI-driven personalization remains to be seen. What is clear is that dynamic, responsive website elements make for a smoother more engaging user experience when done right.

For Lawyers:
Your services are often personal in nature, and your specific expertise and approach is what sets you apart from your competitors—don’t let AI de-personalize your client communications. Chatbots and AI-driven assistance elements are great for guiding leads through your site and answering general questions, but these tools should supplement, not replace your personal touch. Bring your website into 2025, but make sure to protect your client relationships and brand trust.