Burges Salmon – building a client-led legal experience

Burges Salmon is an independent firm that stands as one of the UK’s top 50 law firms, known for their exceptional legal services across diverse sectors and practice areas.

Since their founding in Bristol back in 1841, they’ve grown into one of the country’s most respected commercial legal teams. Today, they operate from offices in Bristol (their headquarters), London, Edinburgh, and Dublin with a team of over 1,000 staff – including more than 340 lawyers and 110 partners – to bring considerable expertise to their clients’ most challenging legal questions.

Their marketing team, led by Julian Wenban and Matt Cann, have been on a mission to take a holistic, client-first approach to their digital presence. And they wanted an agency they could develop a relationship with to work together over multiple years. Which is where Illustrate Digital comes in.

The Challenge

Burges Salmon were facing a common challenge for professional services firms: a website that had become a point of friction rather than a valuable business asset. The website before was a point of friction,’ explains Matt Cann, ‘People were reluctant to share and engage with the site.’

It was text-heavy and difficult to navigate with an outdated design, all elements that didn’t reflect the firm’s prestigious reputation or commitment to client excellence. And, the disconnect was creating tangible problems:

• Internal frustration: Due to the site’s limitations and how hard it was to upload content, the marketing team was often viewed as a ‘blocker’ to sharing content the company valued
• Poor user metrics: High bounce rates, low engagement, and inadequate search functionality all contributed to less-than-ideal marketing outcomes
• Inconsistent client experience: The site was introspective rather than client-focused, with twice the necessary content pages.
• Technical shortcomings: Slow speed, poor accessibility ratings, and a weak carbon performance all fell short of Burges Salmon’s high standards for performance and client experience.

They also didn’t want a ‘one-and-done’ approach to revamping their digital presence. This is an iterative process that requires time, attention, and support. Julian and Matt wanted an agency that was on-hand and ready to help resolve issues and build toward the next phase of their vision.

‘There was no one thing that made it feel like we needed a new website’, says Julian Wenban, ‘it was the coming together of lots of different factors.’ From stakeholder feedback, to feeling like they were working against their current site, they knew it was time for change.

The Solution

Burges Salmon pride themselves on attention to detail, rigour, and setting up robust processes. And, that’s exactly what we wanted to bring to the table to this project. This wasn’t just a new lick of paint and a few extra widgets – this was a comprehensive digital transformation project.

We split this into 2 separate areas:

1. Holistic user experience design
2. Technical excellence with client-focused outcomes

Let’s take a look at both…

Holistic User Experience Design

We approached the project with a clear understanding that the website needed to be more than just visually appealing – it needed to reflect Burges Salmon’s commitment to excellent client service.

‘There wasn’t a real mindset shift needed, as the firm is always focused on client experience,’ notes Matt Cann, ‘But we needed to transform the site from simply a ‘content posting tool’ to a genuine client experience platform.’

This meant making it easy for website users – whether internal or external – to connect with the information they need, and the outcomes they want. We started with a key understanding of Burges Salmon’s unique needs through user research, and building a design that was built on data that supported their marketing goals.The collaborative process involved:

• Extensive stakeholder consultation with key departments to get buy in, and understand the exact frustrations they were experiencing
• Impartial user research to highlight key areas where the site was hard to use, and what friction stood between them and the information they wanted
• Careful navigation of strict brand guidelines while finding ways to ‘extend them’ in a way that aligned with the overall vision, both online and offline
• Rigorous attention to the linking and tagging between different content types

This also led to a number of internal projects for Burges Salmon that allowed them to creatively explore the authentic expression of their brand and values.

‘As part of this process we started a mini-project to refresh the headshots of all of the staff listed on our website’, shared Julian. ‘We purposely kept the shots under-edited and lifelike – rather than the airbrushed results you might find with other firms – to allow us to stand out and connect with the right audience for us.’

So, when Julian and Matt say they wanted a holistic approach that took everything into account, you know they meant it.

Technical Excellence

Beyond the visual redesign, we implemented significant technical improvements that delivered both enhanced user experience and robust security measures. For the Burges Salmon team, this meant a frustration-free content management experience.

The new WordPress implementation streamlined their publishing workflow, making it intuitive to create, edit and manage content without technical bottlenecks. What was once a complicated process became seamless, turning the marketing team from ‘blockers’ into enablers of their digital communication.

For end users – both clients and prospects – the technical improvements delivered tangible benefits:

• Enhanced site speed and performance: Optimised code and infrastructure, delivering lightning-fast page loads that keep visitors engaged
• Improved accessibility standards: Making the site usable for everyone, regardless of ability or device
• Better carbon sustainability ratings: Aligning with the firm’s ESG commitments while improving performance
• Sophisticated Passle integrations: Seamlessly connecting content creation tools with the website
• A vastly improved search functionality: Helping visitors quickly find exactly what they need
• Streamlined client journeys: Reducing friction points and guiding users intuitively to relevant information

All of this was underpinned by security-first development practices. As a law firm handling sensitive client information, Burges Salmon required exceptional security standards. The Illustrate Digital team implemented multiple layers of protection, including:

• Regular security audits and penetration testing
• Advanced authentication protocols
• Robust data protection measures
• Compliance with legal sector security requirements

This technical foundation created a virtuous circle: a secure site that staff could confidently manage, delivering a superior user experience that clients could trust – ultimately reinforcing Burges Salmon’s reputation for excellence and reliability.

The Results

The transformed Burges Salmon website now delivers on multiple fronts, with the design receiving particular praise from both internal teams and clients alike.

‘The design is what we’re really proud of, it’s completely transformed how we present ourselves online.’ This pride represents a dramatic shift from the previous site, which staff were reluctant to share or use in the past.

The new design successfully navigates the challenges faced before starting the project. Through careful stakeholder engagement and collaboration with their design manager Tanya, we created a look and feel that feels authentically Burges Salmon while pushing the boundaries of traditional legal website design.

Specific design elements that have received praise include:

• Improved content hierarchy: Making complex legal information accessible through thoughtful layout and typography
• The homepage hero section: A dynamic element that went through multiple iterations to achieve the perfect balance of impact and usability
• Sophisticated linking and tagging: Creating intuitive relationships between different content types
• The vastly improved search functionality: Making it simple for users to find exactly what they need

Beyond aesthetics, the site delivers measurable improvements:

• Positive internal feedback: ‘The team is actually proud of the site now, which wasn’t the case before’
• Improved metrics: Better dwell times, reduced bounce rates, and increased page depth
• Enhanced client engagement: Tracking in Google Analytics shows significant improvements in client journey metrics
• Streamlined content: The site now presents information from a client perspective rather than an internal one
• Sustainability improvements: Better carbon ratings align with the firm’s ESG commitments

‘Engagement of people with the site is much better than it was. We’re tracking the basics of accessibility, core web vitals, and lead generation, but also looking deeper at page depth, time per visit, and the entire client journey.’

What’s particularly satisfying for the Burges Salmon team is how the new site allows them to distinguish themselves in a competitive legal marketplace. ‘It can be very difficult to differentiate between other law firms,’ they noted. The new site achieves this differentiation through authenticity rather than flashiness – reflecting the firm’s genuine values and approach to client service.

The successful integration with Passle has also been highlighted as a particular win, creating a seamless connection between the firm’s thought leadership content and its website presence – further enhancing their reputation as legal experts while making valuable content easily accessible to clients.

The Partnership Experience

Burges Salmon were looking for an agency that brought a wealth of experience, expertise, and a collaborative mindset to support their marketing team. And, that’s what they found with Illustrate Digital – and why they signed up for a multi-year engagement to help them grow once the initial website was complete.

‘It felt like a shared endeavour, and that we were in it together,’ says Julian, ‘It justified our decision to choose Illustrate Digital because we wanted an agency to work with, not against.’

The Burges Salmon team highlighted several key aspects of the working relationship:

• Exceptional problem solving : ‘Simon was an absolute legend. He really went over and above. He has a good way of communicating things – cool and calm.’
• Collaborative approach: ‘The design and front end teams were really good at being collaborative and consultative. There was good balance between being rigorous and problem-solving.’
• Flexibility when needed: The team cited the homepage hero section as an example where Illustrate Digital worked through multiple variations to find the optimal solution, balancing time and budget constraints with quality outcomes.
• Consultative expertise: ‘We felt pushback in a consultative way. They were open to changes and suggestions, but also provided expert guidance. This made it feel like a partnership.’