Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy, an international law firm with a history stretching back 150 years, needed to portray itself in a modern light to stay competitive. Working with the highest profile clients, Milbank’s lawyers have long worked to solve unprecedented legal challenges. In recent years, the firm made plans to move its New York office from the financial district to a state-of-the-art new location in Hudson Yards. In the firm’s digital communications, however, these exciting developments found themselves obscured by the limitations of an aging website. The current experience revealed little of the firm’s innovative personality, and impeded the firm’s efforts at recruiting young talent. Recognizing this challenge, Milbank tapped Siegel+Gale to help them devise a new digital experience that would present the firm’s modern innovation and personality without erasing their white shoe heritage.

We noted the firm’s activities were self-evidently impressive, but unless site visitors actively sought news, they were unlikely to find it. With this in mind, we designed a new digital presence that emphasized the achievements of their attorneys, and the news items about the firm. Throughout the experience, our modern, minimal design effortlessly revealed connections between the firm’s offerings, its lawyers, and their activities.

Because most visitors to law firm websites seek specific information, we placed a redesigned search at the center of the experience, and the new, flatter information architecture reduced the number of clicks to get to information, enabling users to find the information they sought faster.

The redesigned site received an honorable mention in the 2018 Fast Company Innovation by Design awards.