Old Square

Old Square Chambers is a leading set of advocacy barristers’ chambers with offices in Bristol and London, known for providing high-quality advocacy, legal advice and drafting services at both trial and appellate levels. They operate across a wide range of specialist practice areas, including employment and discrimination, personal injury, clinical negligence, civil liberties, commercial law, inquests and public inquiries, and more. Their barristers are widely respected, with many serving as King’s Counsel and recognised in major legal directories.

Old Square Chambers required a new custom WordPress website to improve usability, modernise their online presence, and provide a robust, flexible content management system for their editorial and administrative teams. The existing site lacked the functionality, clarity, and performance needed to effectively serve their diverse audiences, including solicitors, clients, potential pupils, and the public.

Before the redesign, the site faced several issues:

• Limited functionality: Difficult to manage specialist content types like practice areas, barrister profiles, news & insights, and events.
• Outdated content structure: No clear taxonomy for practice areas or sectors, making navigation and editorial updates inefficient.
• User experience gaps: Key information was hard to find or inconsistently presented.
• Performance and CMS limitations: The original site provided a basic editing experience without tailored backend tools, making content updates harder for staff.

I designed and developed a fully custom WordPress theme and CMS solution tailored to the needs of Old Square Chambers. Key features included:

Custom Content Architecture

• Custom Post Types & Taxonomies for:
• Barristers & Staff
• Practice Areas
• News & Events
• Sectors & Specialisms
• Flexible relationships between content types to allow cross-referencing (e.g., barristers by expertise, practice areas by sector).

Modern, Responsive Design

• A clean, professional, and accessible design aligned with the Chambers’ brand.
• Fully responsive layouts ensuring optimal viewing across devices.
• Improved navigation and site structure to enhance discoverability of key information.

Feature-Rich Frontend Functionality

• Dynamic practice area pages displaying relevant barristers, sectors, and related insights.
• Interactive contact and location sections for both London and Bristol offices.
  Old Square Chambers
• News & Insights section enabling editorial teams to publish timely legal updates and announcements.

Backend CMS Improvements

• Custom fields tailored to the Chambers’ needs (e.g., testimonial blocks, grids of barrister profiles, case highlights).
• Enhanced editorial workflows with clear content sections and reusable components.
• Admin interfaces designed for non-technical users.

Performance & Usability Enhancements

• Optimised templates and asset loading to improve page performance.
• Semantic markup and accessibility improvements to support compliance and usability.

The new WordPress site delivered:

• Improved editorial control: Staff can easily manage content without developer support.
• Better user engagement: Clearer navigation and structured practice area profiles help visitors find relevant barristers and expertise quickly.
• Stronger online presence: A platform that supports content growth, including news, events, and thought leadership, aligned with Old Square Chambers’ reputation for excellence.
• Future-proofed architecture: Scalable CMS built for expansion and evolving digital needs.

By combining thoughtful design with a powerful custom WordPress CMS, I delivered a website that not only reflects the prestige and professionalism of Old Square Chambers, but also supports their operational needs and client engagement goals. The result is a feature-rich, highly maintainable site that enhances visibility for one of the UK Bar’s respected advocacy chambers.