Websites for law firms: what the rules allow and what to build

A law firm website has to be accurate, findable and within your regulator's rules before it tries to persuade anyone. In India, that means a factual site: Rule 36 of the Bar Council of India Rules bars advocates from soliciting work or advertising, and a 2008 amendment allows only specified information on a website. In the UK, the SRA's transparency rules work the other way and require some information, including prices for certain services. Most firms need 6 to 15 pages. As of October 2026, a template-based site costs ₹60,000 to ₹2,50,000 from a small Indian studio or US$3,000 to US$10,000 elsewhere, and a custom site with a people directory and publications costs ₹2 lakh to ₹8 lakh or US$8,000 to US$30,000.

What do the Bar Council of India rules allow on a website?

Rule 36, in Part VI of the Bar Council of India Rules, says an advocate shall not solicit work or advertise, directly or indirectly, whether by circulars, advertisements, touts, personal communications, interviews, newspaper comments, or photographs published in connection with their cases. A firm's website is a communication by its advocates, so the rule governs it.

In 2008 the Bar Council added a proviso: the rule does not stop advocates from furnishing website information as prescribed in a Schedule, under intimation to and as approved by the Bar Council of India. Summaries of that Schedule usually list:

• Name, address, telephone numbers and email.
• Enrolment number and date of enrolment.
• The State Bar Council where originally enrolled and where currently on the rolls.
• The Bar Association of which the advocate is a member.
• Professional and academic qualifications.
• Areas of practice.

Secondary sources do not agree on the exact list, so read the current text on the Bar Council of India's website before you write a word of copy. The scope of the rule for online listings has also been raised before the Supreme Court, so it may change.

In practice, most Indian firms do four things:

1. Show an entry disclaimer that says the site is for information only, is not an advertisement or solicitation, and that the visitor is seeking information of their own accord. This is common practice, not wording the rules prescribe.
2. Keep profiles factual: qualifications, enrolment details, areas of practice, languages, publications.
3. Leave out client names, case results, testimonials, rankings and fee information. None of these is on the Schedule's list.
4. Avoid superlatives. "Leading", "best" and "top-ranked" are claims, and claims are advertising.

Your web developer is not the authority here. The partner responsible for compliance, or your State Bar Council, is. When we build a law firm website, that person reviews every page on a staging site before anything goes live.

What changes for firms outside India?

The rules differ a great deal by jurisdiction, and the differences affect the page list, not only the wording.

The SRA's transparency rules are the clearest example of a regulator dictating pages. A UK firm that advertises residential conveyancing must publish its price information, what it includes and the key stages, with VAT shown. That is a page you plan for in the sitemap, not a footnote.

If you practise across borders, build for the strictest regime that applies to each page, and ask your compliance lead to sign off each jurisdiction separately.

Which pages does a law firm website need?

A small chamber can launch with five pages. A mid-size firm with several offices needs more, mostly because of people and practice pages.

Practice-area pages do the work in search. A person looking for a lawyer types the problem and the city ("arbitration lawyer Mumbai", "employment solicitor Leeds"). A page that describes the area of practice clearly, in plain words, is what matches that search, within your regulator's limits. Our guide on service page structure explains why one page per area usually beats one long list.

The people directory and the publications section are the two pieces of real engineering on a law firm site. Both need a content management system that associates and staff can update without breaking the layout, because a lawyer who left eight months ago and still has a profile is a credibility problem.

Which features matter, and which do you not need?

Worth building:

• Speed and mobile layout. Many first visits come from a phone, often after a referral. A slow site looks careless.
• A contact form with a confidentiality warning. Tell visitors not to send confidential details until the firm has confirmed it can act. It protects them, and it protects you from conflict problems.
• Search across publications, once you have more than about 50 articles.
• An Arabic version for firms in the UAE or Saudi Arabia. See how to build an Arabic website for what that adds.
• Accessibility. Readable contrast, keyboard navigation and labelled forms. Website accessibility basics lists the minimum.

Usually not worth it:

• A chatbot. It risks giving what looks like advice, and visitors will type confidential facts into it.
• A client portal on the website. Firms that need secure document exchange are better served by their document management system or a dedicated secure sharing tool.
• Online payments, unless you sell fixed-fee services and your regulator permits publishing them.
• A blog nobody writes. An insights page with three posts from 2023 tells visitors the firm is not paying attention. Do you need a blog? covers how to decide.

What does a law firm website cost?

These are small-studio prices as of October 2026, excluding GST or VAT. The general picture is in our website cost guide, and Gulf prices are in the guide to website costs in the UAE.

Profile photography, copywriting by someone who understands legal language, and translation are usually extra. The website cost calculator shows how page count, languages and CMS change the range.

How should you brief a developer on compliance?

Give the developer the rules, not a summary of them. Send the relevant rule text (Rule 36 and its Schedule, or the SRA Transparency Rules), the name of the partner who signs off copy, and the list of jurisdictions the site must satisfy.

Then ask for three things in the build. A staging site where every page can be reviewed before it goes live. Editor roles, so associates can draft profiles and publications but only a named person can publish. And a simple record of what was published and when, which is useful if a regulator or a complainant ever asks. With those in place, start from the page list above and our step-by-step guide to planning a website.