Getting Started

Getting Started

February 21, 2026 docsadmin 4 min read

This is the path that takes a fresh Legal install — empty, with placeholder content — to a working firm home page that reflects your firm. Four steps. About ten minutes. No code.

If you’ve installed the Pro plugin and run the one-click demo importer, this is what it does for you under the hood. If you’d rather configure things manually so you understand each piece, this is your guide.

Step 1 — Create the Firm Home page

Legal ships with a custom page template called template-firm.php. This template renders the home page sections — hero, practice tiles, counsel cards, ledger, testimony, retainer card. Without a page using this template, you’ll see the default WordPress posts archive instead.

  1. Go to Pages → Add New.
  2. Title the page anything you want — Firm Home, Home, your firm’s name. The title isn’t displayed publicly when this template is in use.
  3. In the right-hand sidebar, find the Template selector under “Page Attributes” (Block Editor) or under “Page Attributes” in the right sidebar (Classic Editor).
  4. Choose Firm Home from the dropdown.
  5. You can leave the page body empty — the template renders its own content from Customizer values.
  6. Click Publish.

Step 2 — Set the page as your front page

By default, WordPress shows your latest blog posts on the home page. To show the Firm Home page instead:

  1. Go to Settings → Reading.
  2. Under Your homepage displays, choose A static page.
  3. For Homepage, select the page you just created.
  4. For Posts page, you can either leave it blank or select another page (commonly called “Journal” or “Ledger”) to host your blog. The Legal theme styles single posts and archives nicely either way.
  5. Click Save Changes.

Visit your site’s home URL in a new tab. You should now see the Legal theme’s Firm Home layout with its placeholder content — six practice tiles, four counsel cards, a placeholder ledger, a testimony block, and a retainer card.

Step 3 — Configure the Customizer

This is where the real personalization happens. Legal exposes ~110 settings through the WordPress Customizer; each section of the Firm Home page has its own panel.

Go to Appearance → Customize. The Legal-specific panels are:

  • Hero — The headline (“Counsel for matters of consequence” by default), the italic accent (“consequence.”), the supporting paragraph, the two CTAs, and the optional pull-quote.
  • Folio strip — Four short bits of text under the hero (default: Chambers · Bombay & Delhi · Est. 2014 · MMXXVI).
  • Practice — Up to six practice-area tiles: each has a label, title, description, and link.
  • Counsel — Four counsel cards: name, role, biography, and optional photo URL.
  • Ledger — A toggle for the ledger section, plus the heading text.
  • Testimony — A pull-quote, citation name, and metadata line.
  • Engage — The engagement section with three pillar cards plus the retainer card on the right.
  • Footer — Copyright text (supports {year} and {site} tokens) and social links.

Work through these top to bottom. Most settings have inline descriptions explaining what they control. As you save, the live preview updates so you can see changes immediately.

Tip: bring your own copy from the start

The default placeholder text is intentionally non-generic — it’s written in a senior-counsel voice. But it’s still placeholder. The faster you replace it with your firm’s actual practice areas, real counsel names, and real testimony, the better. Don’t ship with placeholder content; even one or two real entries breaks the demo feel.

Step 4 — Set up your menus

Legal has three menu locations:

  • Primary — the desktop top navigation (typically 4–6 items)
  • Mobile — the bottom-bar nav on phones (typically 4 items)
  • Footer — the small links in the footer’s lower row

Go to Appearance → Menus. For the Firm Home page, your primary menu typically anchors to in-page sections, not separate pages:

  • Practice → #practice
  • Counsel → #counsel
  • Ledger → #ledger
  • Journal → your blog page
  • Engage → #engage

To create an anchor link in WordPress menus, use the Custom Links meta box on the left of the menu editor. Enter the URL (e.g. #practice) and the link text. Save.

You’re done

That’s the foundation. From here, common next steps are:

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