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How a top law firm cut web page updates from 5 days to 10 minutes

Learn how a law firm transformed its website, reducing update times from 5 days to 10 minutes through a modular CMS implementation.
Lorna Hegarty

Lorna Hegarty 24 Mar 2025

Skip ahead:

Five days. That’s how long it used to take this law firm to update a single web page.

600+ lawyers. A marketing team stuck waiting on developers. A website that couldn’t keep up.

With no way to track what clients were searching for or engaging with, they were operating in the dark. Their digital presence needed to match the speed and precision of their work.

They needed a platform that put their team in control, delivered real-time insights, and made content updates instant.

Nine months later, they had it.

Here’s how they made it happen.

The Challenge: A website that couldn’t keep up

For years, this law firm’s website was stuck in what they called ‘digital concrete’—a rigid system that made even minor updates slow and complicated.

  • Five-day delays for simple content changes – marketing had to rely on developers for every update.
  • A disconnected digital ecosystem – their website, CRM, and email systems weren’t communicating.
  • No client insights – no way to track what content was resonating or where opportunities lay.
  • Poor governance – with 600+ lawyers and multiple teams, access control and governance was chaotic.

Instead of a flexible, data-driven platform, they were operating with a slow, reactive system that couldn’t match the speed of their business.

To stay ahead, they needed a smarter, faster, more connected digital presence—one that put marketing in control and removed bottlenecks for good.

The Solution: A faster, smarter, more connected platform

A full redesign wasn’t an option. With just nine months to overhaul their digital presence, the firm needed a solution that could scale fast, integrate seamlessly, and give marketing full control over content updates without relying on developers.

They partnered with Squiz to deliver:

  • A no-code, modular CMS – empowering marketing to create and update pages in minutes.
  • Seamless CRM, email, and analytics integration – bringing client insights into one place.
  • 49 reusable content components – reducing reliance on custom development.
  • A parallel build approach – website development, design, and content migration ran simultaneously, keeping the project on track.
  • Automated governance and access control – giving legal teams the oversight they needed without slowing marketing down.

With the right technology and a strategic execution plan, the firm moved from a rigid, developer-dependent system to a fast, scalable, and insights-driven platform built for agility.

The Outcomes

In just nine months, the firm moved from a rigid, developer-dependent system to a fast, flexible, and data-driven platform. One that puts marketing in control and provides deeper client insights.

  • Content updates in minutes, not days – marketing can now publish and edit pages without technical support.
  • 600+ lawyer profiles automatically updated – no more manual edits for individual bios.
  • Real-time search insights – revealing exactly what clients are looking for, so teams can tailor content accordingly.
  • Integrated CRM, email, and analytics – providing a unified view of client engagement.
  • Streamlined governance and permissions – ensuring the right people have the right level of control, without unnecessary bottlenecks.

By connecting the right tools and teams, the firm now has a website that moves at the speed of business, delivering a seamless digital experience for both clients and internal teams.

How they made it happen: A five-step process

Overhauling a website of this scale in just nine months meant moving fast, without cutting corners. The firm needed a structured, parallel approach that would balance speed with governance and give marketing full control, all while ensuring compliance at every stage.

STEP 1: Identify the key bottlenecks

The firm started by mapping out every point of friction in its content workflow – from lawyer profile updates to client resource publishing.

The audit revealed a system designed for another era. Marketing teams were stuck waiting days for simple updates. Lawyer bios, event pages, and legal insights all required developer involvement, creating unnecessary bottlenecks. At the same time, a lack of integration with CRM and email systems meant they had no way to track what clients were searching for or engaging with.

But the biggest issue was that governance wasn’t structured for scale. With 600+ lawyers and multiple teams needing different levels of access, the firm was operating with workarounds instead of workflows.

Before they could fix the problem, they realised they needed a platform that removed friction, not added to it.

STEP 2: Select the right technology

With a tight timeline, the firm needed a platform that could handle complex content at scale, integrate seamlessly with existing systems, and support structured governance, all without slowing teams down.

After reviewing multiple options, they selected Squiz for its flexibility and control. The decision was driven by three key factors:

  • Seamless integration – ensuring the CMS could connect with their CRM, email platform, and analytics tools without costly custom builds.
  • Scalability – capable of managing thousands of pages while maintaining site performance.
  • Governance-ready – allowing different teams to access and manage content based on defined roles, reducing bottlenecks.

With the right technology in place, the firm had a foundation to streamline content management – but execution would be key.

STEP 3: Build and migrate in parallel

With only nine months to launch, a traditional phased approach wasn’t an option.

Instead of waiting for one stage to finish before starting the next, content migration, development, and design ran in parallel.

This meant that as soon as new templates and components were ready, teams could start building and populating pages in the live environment. This accelerated the entire process.

  • 600+ lawyer profiles were migrated alongside new templates, avoiding last-minute content bottlenecks.
  • Search and analytics features were developed while the CMS was being implemented, ensuring insights were available from day one.
  • Testing and content reviews happened continuously, not as a final step, catching issues early and keeping everything on track.

By running these workstreams simultaneously, the firm avoided delays while maintaining quality, accuracy, and governance throughout the process.

STEP 4: Cleverly structure governance and compliance

With multiple teams managing legal content, robust governance was way beyond just a nice-to-have. The new platform needed to balance marketing agility with legal oversight, ensuring compliance without creating any roadblocks.

To achieve this, the firm implemented role-based permissions that structured access across teams:

  • Marketing could publish updates instantly, eliminating delays without bypassing compliance.
  • Legal teams retained oversight where it mattered, ensuring control over high-risk, compliance-sensitive content.
  • Access was precisely managed – every user had only the level of control they needed, nothing more, nothing less.

At the same time, accessibility was embedded from the start. The firm tested key features with visually impaired users, ensuring the site met strict accessibility standards without compromising functionality.

By prioritizing governance and accessibility upfront, the firm created a platform that was not just faster, but genuinely smarter, safer, and built to scale.

STEP 5: Launch without disruption

After months of testing, the firm executed a zero-downtime switchover, with the final go-live taking just 15 minutes.

Because teams had been building content directly in the new platform for months, there was no adjustment period – adoption was immediate, and everything continued without interruption.

Instead of a slow, developer-reliant system, the firm now had a high-performing digital platform that gave teams the speed, control, and insights they needed to work smarter.

What’s next? Making digital a serious advantage

With the right foundation in place, the firm is moving beyond fixing inefficiencies and turning its digital presence into a real competitive advantage.

Now that real-time analytics and search insights are embedded in daily workflows, teams can see exactly what clients are looking for and tailor content accordingly.

They’re also introducing A/B testing – a first for the firm – helping them refine how legal insights are delivered. And by continuously improving governance, they’re ensuring that speed and compliance work together, not against each other.

Instead of just keeping up, they’re now leading digital innovation in the legal sector.

From a slow, rigid website to a high-performing digital platform

This firm went from five-day content delays to instant updates, from disconnected systems to integrated insights, from governance roadblocks to structured control.

With the right technology, strategy, and execution, they now have a high-performing digital platform – one that gives teams the speed, control, and visibility they need to work smarter.

Their story is one of many. Across industries, service-led organisations are modernising their digital experiences to remove bottlenecks, improve efficiency, and put their teams back in control.

Want to see how other complex, service-led organisations have tackled similar challenges, and how Squiz has helped them create faster, smarter digital experiences?

Learn how teams like yours are managing websites with complete control and fewer developer bottlenecks → dive into "The Website Transformation Playbook" for even deeper insights into accelerating your digital experiences.

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