Willms and Shier Lawyers LLP: Website Design and Development (2012)

Willms & Shier Environmental Lawyers LLP has built a reputation as the preeminent Canadian Environmental Law firm and, with the growth of their Aboriginal and Energy practice groups, they sought out the help of Cubicle Fugitive to design a new website that gave each area equal prominence.

Their previous website was difficult to navigate and dated in design. They wanted a new site that is more user-friendly and allowed visitors to comb through their vast resources and find the items they need effortlessly. From an administrative perspective, internal stakeholders needed to be able to update content quicker, easier, and with more flexibility.

Working with the firm’s lawyers, we designed and developed a new website that was as visually appealing as it was SEO optimized. We performed a thorough discovery of the firm’s brand, points of difference, key markets, services, and competitors and provided recommendations for the firm’s website design and new content.

What we discovered is that the firm’s lawyers are known for their customized, client-centric and solutions-oriented approach to law. Their personalized and responsive service, a vast understanding of the environmental approval and assessment process, complex and ever-changing regulations and legislation, and specialized expertise in Environmental, Aboriginal and Energy law put the firm in a unique position to not only better understand their clients' objectives, but also ensure they are achieved in a practical manner.

We performed a thorough discovery of the firm’s brand, points of difference, key markets, services, and competitors and provided recommendations for the firm’s brand positioning, design, and new content.

Willms & Shier Environmental Lawyers LLP has developed a reputation as Canada’s blue-chip environmental law firm. In addition to having five Certified Specialists in Environmental Law on their legal team, the majority of lawyers also bring a background in science, engineering, urban planning or forestry to the table. This real-world practical experience takes their level of understanding of their client’s business and legal matters to another level. The lawyers at the firm are therefore able to speak the same language as the planner or engineer they are working with and intimately understand the science and technology in their reports. The lawyers live, breathe and practice their specialties every day, and understand all the issues, are on top of all the new laws and legislation and know who to talk to get things done.

Through our research, we developed a modern new website that incorporated industry and client-specific imagery, highlighted the firm’s areas of focus and specialty, is built on cutting-edge technology, is easy to navigate and provides interlinking of the firm’s vast resources, robust bios and profiles, and detailed summaries of all the firm’s services.

The website was launched and met with great feedback from clients and contacts, as well as, improved website traffic. We have since gone on to help the firm redesign their social media channels and design and develop the Willms & Shier Environmental Law Moot website, Canada's first and only national moot court competition devoted to environmental law.