Willenken

A winning brand & website for an elite litigation boutique

The firm

Willenken is a high-performing litigation boutique based in Los Angeles, California. Trusted by Fortune 500 companies, this is a firm with a proven talent for obtaining results in high stakes litigation and succeeding at trial.

The challenge

Willenken had outgrown its previous brand and website. The firm’s brand was conservative; a color palette that was heavy on banker’s blue. This was a safe look, unlikely to attract attention or comment, like an off-the-rack suit. This brand didn’t match the firm’s creativity and it certainly didn’t reflect its attorneys’ intelligence and confidence. The former website lacked the functionality and design which would allow for a great user experience. That’s where we came in.

The solution

Website design is all about making it easy for users to find the information they need to accomplish their goals. Our highly experienced web design team worked closely with the marketing team at Ireland Stapleton to define, develop, and design a new website that would offer a more refined experience for the user. This new website would also be a technical improvement, being significantly faster and more accessible for users with visual and hearing impairments. We’re proud to announce that the new website was built to Level AA requirements of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1).

The work


Branding & Identity

Discovery & Verbal Brand

Effective branding starts from knowing who you are and what value you can provide to clients. Through in-depth Discovery Sessions, we got to know Willenken and we learned about their expertise, their clients, and their impressive track record. Impressed, we knew that we could help Willenken tell its story. This collaborative branding project wasn’t about beating the chest, this was about clearly articulating the firm’s expertise. We developed key messages that reflected the firm’s trial-readiness, business savvy, diversity, and creativity.

Visual Brand

When you’re among the best, there’s no need to look like the rest. Based on what we’d learned in Discovery, our designers created several tailored options for the firm. To our delight, they selected our favorite, a bold raspberry palette, full of verve and confidence. We designed a new logo with an Art Deco aesthetic that captured the firm’s energy.

Web Design & Development

Scope & Pre-production

Good website design makes it easier for visitors to find what the information that they need. Working closely with Willenken, we identified the firm’s goals, audiences, and analyzed the mindset of their prospective clients. This process allowed our design team to create blueprints (Information Architecture and Interface Design Wireframes) centered around perfecting the user-experience.

Website Design & Planning

The firm’s focus on achieving winning results dictated every element of the design. The website doesn’t just make big claims, it provides concrete proof of excellence. On the homepage, visitors are greeted with a video of the firm’s professionals working into the night and quotes from Benchmark Litigation, Corporate Counsel, and The American Lawyer. Visitors might then navigate to the case studies (“Winning Matters”) to read about the firm’s impressive track record. Or visitors might view the attorney bios, with high-quality bio photos and numerous supporting features and links to related content. At every stage, visitors see evidence of expertise. The entire experience was optimized for mobile as well as desktop.

Custom Code & Site Build

The difference between a great website and an average one often comes down to clarity of purpose. Our goal was to design a website that was as focused as the firm’s litigators. To quote Mad Men’s Don Drapper, the aim was to “make it simple, but significant.” We achieved this through spotlighting the essentials and giving users a clear path forward. Across the site, we employed what we call “Intelligent Content Linking” to ensure that related people, pages, and content are interconnected in a way that feels intuitive. It’s easy for users to move from a lawyer’s bio to a blog post, or from a practice area to a related case study (and vice versa). We also built several backend features to streamline everyday operations and make everything more efficient for the lawyers and legal marketers.

Custom Video

We created a custom homepage video for the new website. This video shows Willenken professionals working against a backdrop of Los Angeles at night.

Lawyer Photography

Our photographer captured images of the firm’s attorneys and staff that are bright and full of personality.

“Winning Matters”

Visitors have access to a searchable database of case studies. This tool allows visitors to see the results that Willenken has achieved in their industry or within a specific practice area. Prospective clients can then make their decision based on evidence.

Lawyer Bios

We designed the lawyer bios so key details are highlighted with additional information readily accessible. Visitors can contact a lawyer right from the menu. If they want more information, they can click through to read a lawyer’s bio and view well-organized supporting information, such as honors, cases, client lists, etc.

Cases Database

This internal database makes it easy for the firm to organize and access information about cases, which is great for responding to RFPs. Cases can also be selected on the backend so that they display on attorney bios.

Events Module

This feature makes it easy to see what events the lawyers are attending. Featured events are highlighted across the website, including on the bios of attending lawyers.

Value Added Services

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

The firm’s previous website was missing some basic SEO setup, such as meta-descriptions, and suffered from some other issues, including duplicate content. We implemented best practices throughout the new website to help improve performance on Google and other search engines.

Content Creation

We worked with Willenken attorneys and marketing professionals to develop vibrant, informative content. Our experienced writers wrote drafts of some key pages and provided edits and advice on many more. Taking the firm’s tagline, “Because Winning Matters”, as our starting point, we clearly articulated the firm’s value and approach.

Project Management

Website projects can be complex and law firm websites especially so, due to numerous stakeholders, an abundance of content, and how busy lawyers can be. Our experience in legal marketing allows us to mitigate delays and effectively shepherd brand and website projects through to a successful launch.

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