Everingham Legal —
a website built for the next five years
A phased rebuild scope mirroring the Business Plan v2.0 architecture. Phase 1 firm and committed; Phases 2–5 mapped, previewed, and decided at each prior gate. Prepared by 121 Group as the firm's strategic marketing partner.
Strategic frame — why this is not a brochure rebuild
Three signals from your own documents reframe what the website has to do. Each one rules out the path of least resistance.
Source: Business Plan §3, Marketing Brief §1.
Insights → Community → Education & Certification → Advisory. Three of those four layers are sold or provisioned through the website itself by Phase 2 — community memberships, certification cohort enrolments, bookable Maturity Diagnostic SKU. Squarespace cannot host that. A brochure rebuild leaves three of your four revenue layers stranded.
Source: Marketing Brief §2 verbatim.
"We do not write '5 ways to leverage AI in your legal team' — that is the wrong category. We write the equivalent of Stratechery or McKinsey Insights for legal operations."
That has to be a deliberate design decision before the first wireframe — typography, density, image style, interaction restraint, all set from the brief, not iterated to in Figma later.
Source: BP §6 SKU set, MB §4 content pillars.
The website needs four user states architecturally: anonymous → identified (newsletter sub) → member (paid community) → alumni (certification grad). Phase 1 implements states 1 + 2 only. But the data model has to anticipate 3 + 4 so we don't replatform in 18 months. That single decision rules out Webflow, Squarespace, and most "AI website builders."
Tech stack — what's recommended and why
| Option | Phase 1 | Phase 2 (sold from site) | Phase 3 (membership + cohorts) | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Squarespace (status quo) | OK | Cannot host | Cannot host | Replatform required by mid-FY27 |
| Webflow | OK | Limited commerce | No native membership | Replatform required Phase 3 |
| Custom Next.js / headless | OK | OK | OK | Premature; locks IP into developer hands |
| WordPress (managed) | OK | WooCommerce | MemberPress + Circle | Recommended — single platform across all phases |
The principle from your Business Plan §8 (Layer 6): "Add structure to what exists; do not build new platforms unless the existing tools genuinely cannot do the job. The leverage comes from disciplined use of common tools, not from bespoke infrastructure." WordPress on managed hosting is "common tools used disciplined" — not bespoke, not novel, not a vanity build.
Audiences this site is built for
Lifted directly from Marketing Brief §3, so every IA and design decision in this document traces back to the buyer.
$500M+ enterprises. ASX 200, top 25–40 firms by partnership size, alt-legal providers, Big 4 legal arms. Globally: Fortune 1000, AmLaw 200, FTSE 350.
- Time-poor; sceptical of marketing tone
- Rewards substance, ignores hype
- Reads via LinkedIn + podcasts + peer networks (CLOC, ACC, ILTA)
- Does not click display ads or search ads
Read one whitepaper end-to-end, recognise the firm as serious, request a conversation.
Senior legal-ops practitioners and legal-technology professionals one or two levels below Tier 1 today; future buyers of certification.
- Reads via LinkedIn + podcasts + Substacks
- Active on cohort-based platforms (Reforge, Maven)
- Most active community members at maturity
- Highest-volume newsletter subscribers
Subscribe to newsletter, join community waitlist, eventually enrol in a certification cohort.
Legal-tech vendors (sponsorship, certification, data licensing). PE / GE investors (diligence and market intelligence). Treated as a distinct buyer, not a partner.
- Different content, different motion
- Not part of the primary IA
- Phase 4 dedicated landing pages
- Independence-policy-bound
Surface the independence policy, route via dedicated channels.
Implication for design: density-first, executive-first, mobile-second-but-correct. Not graphical, not animated, not "marketing-feeling." Closer to The Economist online or stratechery.com than to a typical professional-services site.
Phase 1 — what ships May–August 2026
This is the section that commits real spend. Every line is a deliverable; every deliverable has an acceptance criterion. Aligns with Business Plan §4 Phase 1 ("Foundations") and Marketing Brief §5 Q4 FY26 ("Establishing the voice").
3.1 — Information architecture
Eight templates, seven primary pages, five top-nav items. The discipline matches Business Plan §6's "start with three SKUs and be known for them — launching with all ten at once dilutes attention and confuses positioning."
Top navigation (5 items)
| Nav item | URL | What lives there |
|---|---|---|
| Insights | /insights | Content hub. All whitepapers + podcast + LinkedIn long-form. Filterable by the four content pillars (MB §4). |
| Services | /services | Three SKUs visible at launch (BP §6 Phase 1): Procurement Playbook · Maturity Diagnostic · Strategic AI Advisory. |
| About | /about | Founder bio · firm thesis · independence policy · the calibrated 5-year ambition (BP §1). |
| Approach | /approach | Four-moat operating system, augmented-consultant model, what makes us not-Big-4 (BP §7). |
| Contact | /contact | Single page, single form, routes via HubSpot. |
- Education — returns Phase 3 when Maturity Programme cohort 1 is real (BP §4 Phase 3, mid-FY27)
- Community — returns Phase 3 with the paid Circle tier
- Vendor Benchmark — returns Phase 4 with first published benchmark report
- Resource library, careers, partners, case-study index — added incrementally as content exists; nothing empty ships
3.2 — Eight templates
| # | Template | Used by | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Home | / | Three sections only: thesis statement · three featured pieces · three SKUs as cards · single CTA "Subscribe to Insights." No carousel, no testimonials wall, no animated stats. |
| 2 | Pillar landing | 4 pages, one per pillar | One per content pillar from MB §4. Pillar 4 ("the category") ships even if light — placeholder editorial calendar visible. |
| 3 | Long-form article | Whitepapers, essays | Stratechery typography · generous measure · footnotes · "cite this" block · related pieces · gated lead-magnet block at footer (Phase 1's only content gate). |
| 4 | Podcast episode | Each episode page | Embedded player (Spotify + Apple) · full transcript · guest bio · related pieces. Audio hosting at Transistor or Sounder. |
| 5 | SKU detail | 3 SKU pages | Static description Phase 1 (no online booking yet). CTA: "Request a scoping call" → HubSpot. Phase 2 layers WooCommerce on these same URLs without breaking links. |
| 6 | About / firm | /about, /approach | Long-form prose. Photography-led where editorial-grade photos exist; typographic where they do not. |
| 7 | Generic | Privacy, policy, terms, contact | Plain typographic template. |
| 8 | Search results | /search | Functional, ranked by pillar then recency. WP native; Algolia upgrade in Phase 2 if traffic warrants. |
3.3 — Brand uplift block (parallel workstream)
MB §2 lists the full brand-system ask. Phase 1 of this scope handles the web-applicable subset only. The full brand-guidelines document, deck templates, podcast cover art, and LinkedIn carousels live in the 121 Group ongoing retainer (separate scope).
3.4 — Lead capture + HubSpot integration
Single source of truth for every form on the site = HubSpot. Three forms in Phase 1.
| Form | Lives on | HubSpot configuration |
|---|---|---|
| Newsletter signup | Footer (every page) + /subscribe | List Insights subscribers · Lifecycle subscriber · Source website-newsletter |
| Whitepaper download (gated) | Below every long-form article | List Whitepaper leads · Lifecycle lead · Source whitepaper-{slug} |
| Scoping-call request | /contact + every SKU page | List Inbound enquiries · Lifecycle lead · Source scoping-call · Routes email + task to Matthew |
Matthew flagged that "anyone I send an email to defaults to a lead." That's a HubSpot Sales-extension setting, not a website issue, but Phase 1 includes a one-off cleanup pass: change the Gmail-extension default from lead to contact + add a lifecycle-tagging field to the scoping-call form so genuine leads are explicitly marked. ~1 hr config; bundled in the §10 Phase 1 pricing.
3.5 — Performance, SEO, accessibility
| Standard | Target | How verified |
|---|---|---|
| Lighthouse Performance | ≥90 mobile · ≥95 desktop | CI check on each deploy |
| Lighthouse Accessibility | ≥95 | CI check |
| Lighthouse SEO | 100 | CI check |
| Core Web Vitals | LCP <2s · CLS <0.05 · INP <200ms | Real-user monitoring via dashboard's GA4 link |
| WCAG 2.1 AA | Conformance | Manual audit pre-launch |
| Schema.org | Article, Person, Organization, BreadcrumbList | Google Rich Results Test |
3.6 — Hosting + ops
- Host: Kinsta or WP Engine starter tier, AU region (data residency matters for legal-sector clients)
- CDN: Cloudflare (already in use for the dashboard; same admin)
- Email-on-domain: existing Google Workspace stays untouched
- Backups: nightly, 30-day retention
- SSL: automated via host
- Staging environment: included for content review before publishing
- DNS: managed under existing 121 Group Cloudflare account
Design language — decisions for sign-off
These are the calls that need answers before design work starts, so we don't iterate them in Figma at agency rates.
| Decision | Recommendation | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| Primary serif | Source Serif 4 (free) or Tiempos Text (licensed) | Long-form reading at executive density; both pair well with sans secondary; both avoid law-firm clichés (Garamond, Caslon, Trajan). |
| Secondary sans | Inter (free) or Söhne (licensed) | UI clarity at small sizes; mathematically consistent with most major editorial sites. |
| Primary brand colour | Existing navy | Already established. Do not redesign. |
| Accent colour | Single accent (not multiple). Desaturated gold or copper. | Distinguishes from BigLaw blue. Matches "category leader" positioning of MB §1. |
| Image style | Executive editorial photography. Environmental over headshot. No stock. No abstract gradients. No 3D-rendered isometric people. | Matches Stratechery / FT.com / McKinsey Insights register. |
| Layout grid | 12-column. Max content width 720px for long-form (~75ch measure). 1140px for hub pages. | Reading ergonomics first. |
| Animation budget | Effectively zero. Gentle scroll reveals allowed at low intensity. No particle effects, no scroll hijacking, no parallax. | Voice is "confident, substantive, clear; never breezy, never hyped" (MB §2). |
| Dark mode | Light only at launch. Dark mode in Phase 2 if reading data justifies it. | Don't ship two themes for a brochure-volume content set. |
Sign-off checklist before kickoff
Four ticks needed from Matthew before design Round 1 starts:
- ☐ Approve typeface direction (which serif + which sans)
- ☐ Approve accent colour direction (desaturated gold/copper vs alternative)
- ☐ Approve "no animation, density-first" design constraint
- ☐ Approve eight-template scope (no mid-build creep)
Five-phase roadmap
Mirroring the Business Plan v2.0 phase structure. Phase 1 commits today; every subsequent phase has its own approval gate. Nothing in Phase 2 starts until Phase 1 ships.
Marketing site rebuild on WordPress. Eight templates, three SKUs, four pillar landings, brand uplift block, HubSpot lead capture.
- Stratechery-grade publishing surface
- Three bookable-by-call SKUs
- Newsletter + whitepaper lead capture
- Podcast hub template ready
- Phase 2-ready WP foundation
"Sold from the website rather than negotiated bespoke" (BP §4 verbatim). Maturity Diagnostic + Procurement Playbook bookable with deposit checkout.
- WooCommerce + Stripe for SKUs
- Newsletter platform (Substack/Beehiiv)
- Podcast hub live
- Whitepaper library + filtering
- Event landing-page template
- Vendor benchmark methodology stub
- Algolia search if traffic warrants
Community paid tier opens. First Maturity Programme cohort runs (BP §4 Phase 3, mid-FY27).
- MemberPress on WP (3 tiers)
- Circle community integration
- Maven cohort enrolment flow
- Verifiable digital credentials (Accredible)
- Members dashboard
- Alumni-only resources
- Co-credentialing wall
Vendor benchmark public layer + paid tier. Self-serve certification checkout. UK internationalisation. Client portal v1.
- Public vendor finder (free)
- Vendor profiles + paid data tier
- 3 cert SKUs self-serve checkout
- Multi-seat enterprise pricing
- WPML internationalisation (UK)
- Client portal v1 (engagement docs)
Bespoke vendor benchmark platform · multi-region content · agent embed (separate workstream entirely). Scoped at the time, against actual data on what works.
Phase-gating discipline
"Nothing in Phase 2 starts until Phase 1 is done; nothing in Phase 3 starts until Phase 2 is done." Quoted directly from your Business Plan §4. This is the founder-bottleneck failure mode that destroys most ventures of this shape; the same discipline applies to a website rebuild.
Any phase can be the last phase. If Phase 2 never happens, Phase 1 is a fully complete publishing-grade site that works for years. If Phase 3 never happens, Phase 2 is a complete commerce-enabled professional services site. No half-built foundations sitting around looking unfinished.
Cross-cutting workstreams — handled by the 121 Group retainer
To keep the website scope honest about what it does and doesn't include, here's everything that lives in the ongoing 121 Group retainer instead.
| Workstream | Where it lives |
|---|---|
| Brand identity full system (deck templates, podcast cover art, LinkedIn carousel templates) | 121 Group retainer · MB §6 |
| Whitepaper authoring | Matthew + Claude (substance); 121 Group edits + designs · MB §6 |
| Podcast production (audio editing, show notes) | 121 Group retainer · MB §6 |
| HubSpot configuration audit + ongoing operations | 121 Group retainer · MB §9 |
| LinkedIn paid amplification, SEO, email nurture, syndication | 121 Group retainer · MB §6 |
| Trade media outreach (MB §5 quarterly campaigns) | 121 Group retainer |
| KPI dashboard | Already live at everingham.121insights.com |
The site is the substrate; the retainer is the engine that pumps content through it. Confusing the two is how scope creep starts.
Phase 1 commercials
All figures AUD, ex-GST. One-off build cost. Hosting separate. Phase 2–4 quoted at each prior phase's close.
| Line item | Range (AUD) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Discovery + IA + sitemap (≈1 week) | $2,500 – 3,500 | Includes audience workshop with Matthew |
| Brand uplift — web subset (§3.3) | $4,500 – 7,500 | Logo touch-up · colour spec · type pairing · web brand spec sheet |
| Visual design — eight templates | $6,500 – 9,500 | Two design rounds budgeted; third chargeable at fixed rate |
| WordPress build + custom theme | $9,000 – 13,000 | Custom theme on managed host. Not a marketplace template. |
| HubSpot integration + form work | $1,500 – 2,500 | Three forms · lifecycle correction · tracking script · list setup |
| Content migration (8–12 pieces) | $2,000 – 3,500 | Matthew rewrites pieces that fail voice review (his time, not in this $) |
| Performance / a11y / SEO compliance pass | $1,500 – 2,500 | Lighthouse + manual audit · schema · sitemap · robots |
| Hosting setup, DNS, SSL, staging | $500 – 1,500 | One-off setup. Ongoing host fee separate. |
| Subtotal — Phase 1 build | $28,000 – 43,500 | One-off, ex-GST |
| Hosting + ongoing maintenance | $80 – $150 / month | Or bundled into monthly retainer |
- Photography commission — recommend separate engagement (~$3–5k for editorial shoot day)
- Copywriting — Matthew's, per Marketing Brief §6 ("substance never originates in agency hands")
- Original whitepaper authoring — Matthew + Claude (BP §8 Layer 1 pipeline)
- Podcast production setup — 121 Group monthly retainer (separate scope)
- Full mark redesign — separate brief, separate fee, only if Matthew wants it
| 30% | On signed scope = approval to start design |
| 40% | On design sign-off = approval to start build |
| 30% | On launch = staging signed off + DNS cutover |
| Wk 0–1 | Discovery, IA & design-language sign-off |
| Wk 2–4 | Brand uplift + design rounds 1–2 |
| Wk 5–8 | WP build, content migration, integrations |
| Wk 9–10 | Performance/a11y/SEO pass, staging review |
| Wk 11 | Launch · DNS cutover · first-week monitoring |
End of August 2026
Aligned with Business Plan §4 Phase 1 close (FY26 EOFY) and Marketing Brief §5 Q4 FY26 "Establishing the voice" quarter.
What we need from Matthew to start
In rough chronological order. Most are 30 minutes or less; nothing requires drafting from scratch.
Risks & mitigations
Specific to this scope. Each has a named mitigation; nothing here is theoretical.
| Risk | Likelihood | Impact | Mitigation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Phase 1 ships and momentum stalls before Phase 2 | Medium | High | Phase 1 ships as a complete product, not as a half-built foundation. If Phase 2 never happens, the site still works as a publishing-grade brochure for years. |
| Voice/content not ready by launch (BP Phase 1 priority five — three flagship whitepapers) | Medium | Medium | Site can launch with 2 whitepapers + placeholder pillar landings. Pillar 4 ("the category") can launch with editorial calendar visible. We do not delay launch to wait for content. |
| Brand uplift creep into "let's just redesign the logo" | Medium | High | §3.3 explicitly scopes web-applicable brand subset only. Full mark redesign = separate brief, separate fee, separate timeline. Documented up-front. |
| WordPress chosen but Matthew prefers Webflow / "AI website builders" / etc | Low | Medium | §Strategy lays out the structural reasoning: Phase 3 needs membership + commerce + i18n which Webflow and Squarespace cannot host. If Matthew has a strong reason to override, that conversation happens at scope-approval, not mid-build. |
| HubSpot lifecycle stage cleanup uncovers larger CRM hygiene problem | Medium | Low | Phase 1 includes a 1-hr config touch only. Larger CRM strategy is a separate retainer line-item if it surfaces. |
| Education / Certification programme requires website features sooner than Phase 3 | Medium | Medium | Per Matthew on the 12 May call: first cohort can run with "login details and like a shared Google Drive where it just says like one materials, week two materials." Phase 1 supports that with a simple gated WP page → Drive link. Full Maven + cohort flow stays Phase 3. |
| Vendor / agent embed (Adam's agent-1-to-1 idea on the call) gets bundled into website scope | Low | High | Agent embed is a separate workstream, separate scope, separate commercial discussion. Not on this critical path; explicitly out-of-scope for the website rebuild. |
The decision asked of you
Three ticks. Today or tomorrow. Phase 2 onwards is documented here so you can see the trajectory, not because today's conversation needs to commit to it.
A short reply email confirming these three ticks is enough to start. We'll countersign formally and the §10 timeline starts from that date.
Approve via email →Appendix — every Phase 1 deliverable traced to your documents
Audit trail. Every decision in this scope ties back to either the Business Plan v2.0, the Marketing Brief v1.0, or the 12 May call transcript.
Cross-reference to your written documents
| 8 templates / 7 primary pages | BP §6 SKU discipline |
| Four content pillars in IA | MB §4 |
| Three SKUs visible at launch | BP §6 Phase 1 |
| Independence Policy page | BP §6 vendor cap · MB §9 |
| HubSpot integration primary | BP §8 Layer 4 · MB §6 |
| Newsletter as primary CTA | MB §8 KPI: 1,500 subs FY26 |
| Whitepaper gating for leads | MB §5 Q4 FY26 lead magnet |
| Podcast hub template | MB §4 cross-pillar cadence |
| WordPress over Squarespace | BP §8 Layer 6 + "too many platforms" |
| Stratechery design register | MB §2 voice principles |
| Density-first, no animation | MB §2 voice principles |
| Phase 2 bookable SKUs | BP §4 Phase 2 verbatim |
| Phase 3 cohort enrolment flow | BP §4 Phase 3 · MB §5 Q3 FY27 |
| Phase 4 vendor benchmark layer | BP §6 SKU · BP §7 Moat 3 |
Cross-reference to the 12 May call
| 04:18 | "too many platforms" → WP consolidation |
| 06:05 | HubSpot defaulting all emails to lead → 1-hr cleanup |
| 10:18 | "three or four streams" → phase-gating discipline |
| 11:07 | Education/cert as third stream → Phase 3 explicit |
| 13:48 | Premium $10k+ certification → Phase 3 timing |
| 14:13 | Cert cascading into membership → Phase 3 BP-alignment |
| 14:48 | "5 licenses at $2,000 each" → Phase 4 self-serve checkout |
| 15:33 | "extra commercial pillars" → all 4 layers mapped through phases |
| 17:31 | Cohort 1 = login + Drive link → Phase 1 risk-mitigated |
| 22:24 | Agent embed idea → out-of-scope, separate workstream |
| 28:30 | AL&A maintenance work → separate engagement |