Coming to the end-of-life for their on-premises server support, the law firm needed to migrate and modernize their intranet, otherwise risking service disruption, data loss, and compliance issues. As an intelligence-driven firm with hundreds of attorneys, their legacy intranet was complex, featuring custom scripts, extensions, web parts, and more, all of which needed to be adapted to a new SharePoint system. The transition from SharePoint Classic to SharePoint Modern and from on-premises to the cloud necessitated a thorough understanding of the differences between the old and new systems, enhanced feature implementations utilizing advanced Microsoft 365 tools, and seamless integration with the legal-specific knowledge management platform, iManage.

Beyond simply migrating due to server end-of-life, a modern, cloud-based, and well-designed intranet would provide a user-friendly platform to improve the firm’s internal processes, foster employee engagement, and overall enhance organizational efficiency.

Creospark partnered closely with the law firm to design a modern SharePoint intranet that respected the firm’s existing workflows while unlocking new flexibility and scalability.

We created a new SharePoint theme and starter site templates, providing guidance for consistent branding, layout, and navigational structure across the firm’s new intranet site. The team replaced the law firm’s highly customized classic environment with contemporary site templates that were repeatable and could be applied to other sites via ShareGate.

Some existing custom components were purposefully refactored to leverage out-of-the-box SharePoint web parts to simplify content editing and maintain a consistent user experience. For example, news and announcements were displayed using an announcements list and a custom web part grid view in the legacy intranet. Creospark recommended using SharePoint’s OOTB news pages and web parts for news, and also implemented a list view formatting solution for the announcement lists to render them in a similar format as the news web part cards.

The Creospark team also developed SPFx web parts and extensions, including a custom Birthdays and Anniversaries web part, a custom Guessing Game web part, and an Alerts/Apps/Bookmarks extension, into the SharePoint solution package in order to maintain the custom feature functionality from the legacy intranet into the modernized intranet. Additionally, the Creospark team had to incorporate the iManage integrated components into the SharePoint solution bundle, including the Practice Group Viewer, Workspace Viewer, and Recent Matters capabilities.

In order to provide a unique People Search experience and profile pages, the team also made use of PnP Modern Search’s flexibility.

For example, the firm’s old lists of attorneys and legal practice assistants and Meet the Team gadgets were rendered with a custom script. Rather than creating a fully custom SPFx web part, Creospark leveraged the PnP Modern Search Solution for a more robust set of querying, sorting, and filtering settings alongside powerful templating capabilities. These configurations allowed users to find people more efficiently based on name, job title, bar membership, and more. Using PnP Modern Search also saved valuable development time, as the same solution could be used for what were formerly individual custom web parts. Creospark pushed a custom PnP Modern Search Extensibility package to assist with rendering custom controls and custom layouts to make configuring new instances of the search results web part simple and easy.

PnP Search also replaced the iManage Document List gadgets. While still linking to documents in iManage, the PnP Search Results web part preserved detailed column information and extended functionality for hiding information, resizing the results page, and refining the search.

The custom People Finder and User Profile pages were mapped to PnP search solutions as well. On top of the required functionality, access-based links were added for ease of navigation.

Creospark used a PnP provisioning template and PowerShell script to automate the setup and configuration of site structures, lists, pages, and web parts in order to facilitate consistent setup across development and production environments.

To support the law firms’ people search functions and custom user profile properties, a user profile sync script was revised for seamless data transfers between on– premises software and user profiles on SharePoint Online.

Finally, existing business processes in the on-premises environment were mapped to modern solutions such as Power Apps and Power Automate flows. While they were not implemented in the scope of this engagement, the law firm is set up for future success with solution designs that represent best practices and Creospark’s years of experience with Power Platform and other M365 technologies.

Beyond building and mapping solutions customized to the law firm’s needs, we also provided a centralized site of resources for the firm, developer setup instructions for ease of implementation, and user guides for new features. We are glad to provide firms ample support to adjust to new solutions as smoothly as possible.

With a modern, cloud-based intranet in place, the law firm is better equipped to support its attorneys and staff today and as the firm continues to grow.

The new digital workspace delivers:

• Faster, more intuitive access to people and knowledge
• A consistent experience across practice groups and various other sites
• Greater confidence in scalability and long-term sustainability

Just as importantly, the firm’s internal teams now have a clearer understanding of modern SharePoint capabilities and a foundation they can build on without reintroducing unnecessary complexity.

For other firms facing similar modernization decisions, the law firm’s journey shows what’s possible: a thoughtful transition that preserves what matters, improves daily work, and prepares the organization for what’s next.

Thinking About Your Own Intranet Modernization?

If your firm is preparing to move from Classic to Modern SharePoint or from on‑premises to the cloud, you’re not alone. Many organizations face the same questions the law firm did.

We help firms navigate these transitions with clarity, care, and a focus on what matters most: enabling your people to do their best work. Let’s explore what a modern intranet could look like for you.