Marlowe & Khoo
A commercial law firm’s website set like an annotated legal document: a lawyer finder by practice, sector, office and language, insights set for reading, a dated law change tracker, a property cost calculator, and a studio that will not publish what the rules forbid.
The brief
A commercial law firm is judged on how it writes, yet the leading sites open on skylines and award badges, set reading text at up to 171 characters a line and send alerts as PDFs. None offers a cost tool or tracks when new laws take effect, and contact forms ask for the facts before any conflict check. Malaysia’s publicity rules also limit what a firm may say about itself.
What we shipped
A firm website set like an annotated legal document: a front page that opens on what changes next in Malaysian law, a lawyer finder by practice, sector, office and language, profiles written like a CV, insights set for reading, a dated law change tracker, a property cost calculator that returns a statement of costs, enquiries with the conflict notice and due-diligence steps that flow into HubSpot or Zoho, legal updates by email with a preference centre, Chinese pages for investors, a scam checker, and a studio that checks every piece against the publicity rules.
Built for: Law firms, accounting and advisory practices, and any professional firm whose writing is its product and whose publicity is regulated.
Inside the build
Every part, and what it does
A closer look at what was actually built — screen by screen, so you can judge the depth for yourself.
Front page
A light serif statement beside a dated register of the next changes in Malaysian law, instead of a skyline and award badges.
- “Coming into force”, counted from today
- Scam warning and legal notices in the first line
- A lawyer finder written as a sentence
Practices and sectors
Nine practices against five sectors; choosing a crossing lists the people and writing where they meet.
- Core and regular work marked
- Every row and column links to a dossier
- A cross-reference no firm studied offers
Lawyer finder
The firm’s lawyers narrowed by practice, sector, office, role and the languages they speak, with live counts on every filter.
- A language filter no firm studied offers
- No filter ever leads to an empty page
- A surname index and a contact card each
Profiles like a CV
Each lawyer’s record in numbered clauses: focus, anonymised experience, education and admission, languages, writing and talks.
- Matters anonymised, as the Bar’s rulings require
- Contact card and print
- An enquiry that names the lawyer
Enquiries with the checks the law requires
Each matter goes to a named team; the form warns against confidential details before a conflict check and lists the due-diligence documents for the client type.
- Conflict notice before any details
- Due-diligence steps by matter and client
- Arrives in the studio’s intake, routed
Articles set for reading
Client alerts at a 62 to 68 character measure, with a “what changes” box, margin notes, numbered sources and the tracker entries they cover.
- Date, practices and authors in the margin
- Print, copy link, email and share
- HTML first, never PDF-only
Law change tracker
Sixteen real Malaysian law changes on a timeline and a schedule, each with its instrument, who it affects, its source and when it was last checked.
- Status worked out from today’s date
- Filters by status and practice
- Edited in the studio; the front page follows
Legal updates by email
Readers choose topics (employment, property, corporate, disputes) and a monthly round-up or an email per change, in English or Chinese. Nobody is added until they click the confirmation link. Sent through Mailchimp or Brevo, simulated.
- Topics and frequency chosen
- Double opt-in before anything is sent
- Mailchimp or Brevo, simulated
Preference centre
Every email links to a page where the reader changes topics, frequency and email language, or unsubscribes with an optional reason and can subscribe again later.
- Change topics and frequency
- Unsubscribe in one step
- A reason, if they want to give one
Property cost calculator
Price, buyer and loan in; a numbered statement of legal fees, service tax and stamp duty out, each line with its basis and source.
- The 2023 fee scale and the Stamp Act bands
- Foreign-buyer rates and the first-home exemption
- Starts a conveyancing enquiry with the figures
The calculator in Chinese
The same engine and statement in Simplified Chinese, with a serif chosen to sit beside the English type.
- Header, notices and footer switch language
- The language button finds the matching page
- A Chinese enquiry with the same routing
Investor guide
Setting up in Malaysia in five steps, each with what the investor decides, the rules with citations and what the firm does.
- Companies, land and incentive rules cited
- The Johor–Singapore economic zone
- China and Japan desks
Check a message is from us
A checker for email addresses, phone numbers and account names, beside a fake message marked up with the five signs of an impersonation scam.
- Answers against the firm’s official channels
- A specimen annotated like a proof
- Reached from the warning on every page
Careers and chambering
Chambering places, internships and roles for experienced lawyers, with every stage of the chambering intake dated.
- A dated chambering timeline
- Internships and roles for lawyers
- Sample places; nothing is uploaded
Content studio
The knowledge team edits on a proof sheet while the margin flags what the publicity rules forbid; nothing publishes until it is fixed.
- Claims of expertise, superlatives and fees flagged
- A published piece leads Insights and the front page
- Every version kept for 12 months
CRM connection
Each enquiry goes to HubSpot as a contact and deal, or to Zoho CRM as a lead, with the fields mapped and duplicates matched by email or phone. Parties named for the conflict check are never sent, and a sync log retries anything that failed. Simulated.
- HubSpot or Zoho CRM
- Duplicates matched by email or phone
- Conflict-check parties never sent
Brand identity
A law firm’s classic identity: an ampersand monogram, mulberry on porcelain, Literata for long reading and Public Sans for the interface.
- Monogram and wordmark
- Mulberry and porcelain
- Literata and Public Sans
Click through it yourself
Every screen above is interactive. No sign-up, nothing to install.
Behind the build
Researched first, then built
Before designing anything, we studied 15 law firm websites: eight Malaysian firms and leaders in Singapore, the UK and the US, measuring their type and reading width and using their finders, filters and forms. Nothing was copied. Each finding below changed a decision.
Studied (15)
- Skrine
- Shearn Delamore & Co
- ZICO Law
- Wong & Partners
- Rahmat Lim & Partners
- Christopher & Lee Ong
- Lee Hishammuddin Allen & Gledhill
- Adnan Sundra & Low
- Allen & Gledhill
- WongPartnership
- Rajah & Tann Asia
- Slaughter and May
- Cooley
- Mishcon de Reya
- Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer
What we saw
What Marlowe & Khoo does
What we saw
Only 2 of the 13 sites measured keep article and profile text near 70 characters a line; four run to 130 or more.
What Marlowe & Khoo does
Reading text in a book serif at 18 to 19.5 px, held to 62 to 68 characters, with notes in the margin instead of footnotes at the end.
What we saw
Six of eleven Malaysian and Singapore home pages open on a skyline, and five show award or ranking badges.
What Marlowe & Khoo does
A front page that opens on a dated register of what changes next in Malaysian law, with no skyline and no badges, which the publicity rules would bar anyway.
What we saw
People finders filter by practice, office and seniority, and none by the language a lawyer speaks.
What Marlowe & Khoo does
A finder by practice, sector, office, role and language, with live counts and a surname index.
What we saw
Alerts are often PDFs, and no firm tracks when new laws take effect.
What Marlowe & Khoo does
HTML articles with print styles, and a law change tracker with sources and last-checked dates that the front page and practice pages read from.
What we saw
None of the fifteen firms offers a cost tool, so buyers use third-party calculators.
What Marlowe & Khoo does
A calculator that returns a statement of estimated costs under the 2023 fee scale and the Stamp Act, then starts the conveyancing enquiry with the figures attached.
What we saw
Contact forms ask for the facts straight away and say nothing about conflicts or due diligence.
What Marlowe & Khoo does
An enquiry that routes by matter type, shows a conflict notice before any details, and lists the due-diligence steps for the client type.
What we saw
Four Malaysian and regional firms show a scam alert, and three offer a second language, Chinese among them.
What Marlowe & Khoo does
A scam warning on every page with a message checker, and the investor guide, calculator and enquiry in Chinese.
Feature checklist
45 of the 56 features the leading sites offer
We listed every feature we found in the research above. Marlowe & Khoo has 45 of them, and 3 more in part; the 8 left out are listed with the reason.
Finding a lawyer7
- Site search
- Search by name
- Filter by practice
- Filter by sector
- Filter by office
- Filter by role
- Lawyer search on the home page
Profiles9
- Portrait
- Admission year and qualifications
- Education
- Languages spoken
- Anonymised experience
- Writing and talks
- Practice and sector links
- Contact card download
- Printable profile
Practices and sectors4
- Practice pages
- Named contacts per practice
- Sector pages
- Country desks
Insights10
- Insights hub
- Filters by practice, sector and type
- Author cards linked to profiles
- Key takeaways
- Notes in the margin
- Share buttons
- Mailing list
- Follow by topic
- Guides
- Regulatory digest
Events and careers4
- Events and seminars
- Chambering programme
- Vacancies and applications
- Life at the firm
The firm and trust11
- Pro bono
- Offices with maps
- History
- Scam alert
- Legal notices
- Privacy notice
- Link to the Malaysian Bar
- A second language
- Contact form
- Enquiries routed by practice
- Accessibility statement
Built in part
- A–Z browse: results sort by surname with a letter index.
- Diversity: set out as policy on the careers pages, without claims.
- Sustainability: a renewable-energy sector page and the pro bono work.
Left out, and why
- Awards, rankings and deals that name clients (2): the publicity rules and the Bar Council’s rulings bar them.
- Alliance membership, alumni and video (3): a concept firm has none to show.
- PDF-only alerts: every piece is HTML first, with a print style.
- A pause-motion control and a cookie banner (2): nothing plays by itself and no tracking cookies are set.
Design research
How the leading sites look, and what we took
We measured the type, reading width and colour of the firms we studied, then applied what the best of them share in an original design, on the public site and in the studio.
Across the leading sites
In Marlowe & Khoo
Across the leading sites
Light serif headlines, large and tightly set, at the leading international firms.
In Marlowe & Khoo
Literata at its display size and light weight, about 66 to 88 px on desktop.
Across the leading sites
A neutral sans for navigation and data at 15 to 18 px.
In Marlowe & Khoo
Public Sans for navigation, labels, tables and figures, with tabular numerals.
Across the leading sites
Serif reading text is rare, and measures run from 81 to 171 characters.
In Marlowe & Khoo
Serif reading text at 18 to 19.5 px, held to 62 to 68 characters, with sidenotes in the margin.
Across the leading sites
One committed brand colour on white: navy, red, aubergine or teal.
In Marlowe & Khoo
Mulberry on paper white and cool porcelain with ink. No gold, no navy, no cream.
Across the leading sites
Skyline heroes and award badges.
In Marlowe & Khoo
A dated register of law changes, with photographs only as captioned plates of the three cities.
Across the leading sites
A right rail of contacts, contact cards, share links and PDFs.
In Marlowe & Khoo
A left margin carrying numbering, dates, notes and actions, like an annotated statute, with the change bar lawyers use to mark amendments.
Across the leading sites
Carousels.
In Marlowe & Khoo
No carousels; motion only when a tool changes state, and none when reduced motion is set.
Rules it follows
The business rules, built in
The prototype enforces each of these, so you can test them yourself.
What lawyers may say
- Nothing misleading or unverifiable, and no rankings, awards or success rates
- No claim to be an expert
- No statement of fees and no comparison with other firms; the studio flags each before publishing
Website rulings
- A disclaimer and a link to the Malaysian Bar reached from the home page
- No lawyer–client relationship formed through the site
- Every published version kept for 12 months
Confidentiality and conflicts
- Experience anonymised unless the client consents
- A conflict check before details are sent
- Confidential facts held back until the engagement letter
Property costs
- The 2023 fee scale, with the discount allowed on one table and not the other
- Stamp Act transfer bands, the foreign-buyer rates and loan duty
- The first-home exemption for agreements signed by 31 December 2027
Due diligence and personal data
- Client due diligence under the anti-money-laundering law, by matter and client type
- Records kept for six years
- A data protection officer, 72-hour breach notices and data portability under the PDPA as amended in 2024
Connected roles
One action, every screen
Every role works on the same records, so one person’s action shows up for the others.
- 1
A buyer runs the cost calculator and starts a conveyancing enquiry, and the enquiry opens with the estimate reference and figures attached.
- 2
The buyer sends it, and the studio’s intake shows it routed to the conveyancing team with its conflict check pending.
- 3
A visitor starts an enquiry from a lawyer’s profile, and the form names that lawyer.
- 4
A visitor registers for a seminar, and the seats left fall on the agenda, the event page and the intake.
- 5
A graduate applies for chambering, and the application appears in the intake ready to shortlist.
- 6
The knowledge team publishes a piece, and it leads Insights and the front page and appears on the author’s profile and the practice page.
- 7
The knowledge team changes a tracker date, and the public tracker and the front page’s register move with it.
Services it proves
Where Marlowe & Khoo is our example
Each of these service pages uses a part of Marlowe & Khoo to show the work. Open one to see what we would build for you.
- Business & corporate websitesA law firm website set like an annotated legal document: a lawyer finder, insights set for reading and a dated tracker of law changes on the front page.
- Content & publication sitesShows: Law change trackerInsights set for reading and a dated tracker of sixteen law changes with their sources, edited in a studio that checks every piece against the publicity rules before it can go live.
- Branding & logoShows: Brand identityA law firm’s classic identity with a serif built for long reading.
- CopywritingShows: The calculator in ChineseA property cost calculator in Chinese, with the explanations a buyer needs beside each figure.
- Professional servicesShows: Lawyer finderA law firm: practices and sectors, a lawyer finder, enquiries with the checks the law requires and a law change tracker.
- Charities & foundationsShows: Legal updates by emailA newsletter with double opt-in and a preference centre: how donor updates should collect consent.
Core systems
What this build is made of
These are systems we build repeatedly — each links to every other project that contains it, so you can compare implementations before deciding what you need.
Industry: Professional services
Unique to this build
Built specifically for this project rather than assembled from the shelf.
Publicity-rule check
The studio flags claims of expertise, superlatives, fee statements, comparisons and named clients, each with its rule, and will not publish until they are fixed.
Statement of estimated costs
Legal fees under the 2023 scale and stamp duty under the Stamp Act, worked out line by line with sources, then carried into a conveyancing enquiry.
Law change tracker
Sixteen real Malaysian law changes with their instruments, sources and last-checked dates, feeding the front page.
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