Case Study:
Haworth Legal
Criminal Defense Law Firm Serving Tampa Bay Area
Haworth Legal is a criminal defense law firm based in Tampa, Florida, led by Managing Partners Michael and Samantha Haworth. As a new firm navigating a sensitive area of law, Haworth Legal needed a digital presence that reflected the trust, professionalism, and clarity its clients expected from the start.
Emergence Marketing Group was brought in to rebuild the firm’s website after a difficult experience with a prior vendor. The goal was a complete redesign, one that elevated the firm’s brand, improved the client experience, and moved the site onto infrastructure the firm actually owned.
The Challenge
New Firm Locked into Vendor-Owned Website and Long-Term Contract
Haworth Legal had launched only a few months before partnering with Emergence Marketing Group. As a new firm, the team had signed with a national marketing company that owns client websites and locks firms into annual contracts, a common pattern across the legal industry.
The arrangement created two immediate problems. The firm was paying a significant monthly fee to keep the site live on a platform they did not own, and the contract structure made it expensive and difficult to leave. For months, the firm was effectively paying twice, once for the vendor-owned site and once for the redesign they actually needed.
On top of the cost issue, the existing website did not align with the practice’s tone. Criminal defense clients are often making one of the most important decisions of their lives, and the site needed to project trust, professionalism, and calm, not a generic template shared across hundreds of other firms.
The Goals
What We Delivered
01
Full Website Rebuild
We rebuilt the Haworth Legal website from the ground up on a platform the firm owns outright. The new design was built to feel polished and professional without being fussy, the right tone for a practice handling sensitive criminal matters. Every page was structured around clarity, trust signals, and clear paths to contact.
- Boosts local visibility
- Improves search rankings
- Attracts qualified leads
02
CMS & Lead Capture on HubSpot
We implemented HubSpot as the CMS and forms platform, so every contact submission, consultation request, and inquiry flows directly into a CRM the firm controls. We also added a HubSpot chatbot to the site, giving potential clients an immediate way to reach the firm outside of business hours without adding staff workload.
03
Conversion Paths & Call-to-Action Architecture
We added clear call buttons and contact CTAs throughout the site, in the navigation, within every service section, and at the bottom of every page. For a criminal defense firm, the first call is often urgent, and the site needed to make it as fast and obvious as possible on every device.
04
New Sitemap, New Copy, New Imagery
We rebuilt the site’s architecture from scratch, adding new service pages and internal paths to fill gaps in the previous site. The copy was rewritten where needed to reflect the firm’s voice and practice areas, and new imagery replaced the generic stock assets carried over from the original template.
05
On-Page & Technical SEO Migration
Because the firm had already built meaningful domain authority on the original site, the migration was handled carefully. We managed the technical SEO migration, URL mapping, redirect planning, on-page optimization, and metadata to preserve ranking equity through the transition and position the new site for continued growth.
The Results
Full Website Rebuild
Delivered on a client-owned platform, replacing the prior vendor-locked site
Domain Authority Preserved
Technical SEO migration completed to protect existing ranking equity
Lead Capture Built In-House
HubSpot CMS, contact forms, and chatbot implemented and owned by the firm
Supporting Design & Infrastructure Outcomes
- Brand presentation repositioned to reflect a professional, trust-first criminal defense practice
- Call-to-action architecture added throughout the site, navigation, service sections, and footer
- HubSpot chatbot deployed to capture inquiries outside of business hours
- New service pages and internal navigation paths added to support discoverability
- Refreshed imagery and page layouts replaced generic vendor-template assets
- Site structured for conversion from first visit through contact submission
As a small business, partnering with Emergence Marketing has been one of the best decisions we’ve made.
Samantha Haworth, Managing Partner, Haworth Legal
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