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Castlegar, BC. Serving the Kootenays and beyond.Marlowe & Fenn LLP
A law firm site that drafts a nervous client's matter in writing before they ever call.
33
Pages in the sitemap
8
Matters the homepage drafts
11
BC deadlines with a date check
37
Legal terms defined where they appear
People open a lawyer's website already braced for bad news.
The price stays hidden until the consult.
Many firm sites say nothing about fees, so the cost only comes out after the client has committed time. Someone unsure they can afford a lawyer reads that silence as a no.
And it costs the businessThe price question moves to reception and to consults that end at the retainer figure. That is unbilled time spent quoting routine files out loud.
Practice pages written for other lawyers.
Pages full of terms of art make the visitor feel they are about to be talked over. That feeling is what stops them booking.
And it costs the businessThe translating then happens in the first meeting, on the clock, before anyone reaches the actual matter.
Every firm site looks the same.
Columns, gavels and skyline photos give a visitor nothing to choose between. They fall back on whoever a friend happens to know.
And it costs the businessNew files then come only through people the partners already know, and the newcomer to town calls someone else.
Drafted like an agreement, explained like a conversation.
The homepage drafts the matter.
Choose one of eight matters and the four undertakings redraft as a blackline, naming the lawyer, the fee and the time limit.
A margin note on every clause.
Small oxblood marks sit beside the legal drafting. Tap one and the clause is said again in everyday words.
The estimate before the retainer.
An itemized estimate for eight kinds of work shows the fee, the GST and PST on it, and the government charges.
Booking that writes the brief.
The Matter Brief gathers the names, the dates and how to meet in one document, then prints and goes into a calendar.
The thinking behind the build
Marlowe & Fenn LLP is a fictional four-lawyer firm at 214 Dominion Avenue in Bellwood, an invented BC town. People come to a lawyer's website in the middle of something hard, like a separation, a death, a house closing or a dismissal. They arrive expecting jargon and hidden prices. The site is written as the firm's agreement with its clients, and it drafts the visitor's own matter in writing before anyone picks up the phone: who handles it, what it costs and which deadlines apply.
Nobody reads a law firm's website for pleasure. The visitor is in the middle of a separation, a death in the family, a house closing or a dismissal. Many firm sites give them years of combined experience, a list of practice areas in legal terms, and no prices. The message underneath is that the cost comes out after they are committed. Marlowe & Fenn was built to answer the cost question and the what-happens-next question before anyone calls.
The homepage is drafted as an agreement between the firm and the visitor, in the matter of a blank. Choose a matter and the four undertakings redraft as a blackline. The old wording is struck through for a moment, and the new clauses name the lawyer who handles it, the published fee and the BC time limit that applies. Below the undertakings the agreement carries on the way a real one does, with background recitals, three schedules, the lawyers as a signature page, and an execution block under a seal dated 1987. A profession that runs on documents gets a website that reads like one.
Beside the drafting sit small oxblood marks. Tap one and the clause is said again in everyday words. The terms page alone carries 22 of them, from how quickly email gets answered to what happens to money held in trust. Legal words are defined where they first appear, 37 of them across the site, and a switch in the header shows or hides the notes on any page that has them. For a visitor afraid of being talked over, a firm explaining its own fine print is the most reassuring thing on the site.
The practical pages do the work a first phone call used to. The estimate itemizes eight kinds of work, with GST and PST on the fee and the government charges shown apart. The deadlines page lists eleven common BC limitation and response periods, and its date check counts each one from the day entered. Booking runs through the Matter Brief, one document that drafts itself as the visitor answers: the names for the conflict check, the dates that matter, the lawyer's diary in Bellwood time, and a free first call of 15 minutes. It ends as a printable brief and a calendar file.
The same intake works for the firm. Two demonstration pages, kept out of search, show what arrives on the lawyer's side: the client's file, and an intake memo with a drafted reply. The lawyer knows the matter, the other party and the deadline before the first call. The BC facts behind the site were checked against primary sources on September 28, 2026. The firm, the town and the lawyers are invented, and the Matter Brief sends nothing. For a real firm, the same site runs on real fees and practice areas, with the copy reviewed against the Law Society of BC's marketing rules before launch.
What a wary client finds before they pick up the phone.
The cost in writing
Flat fees, hourly rates and an itemized estimate with the taxes are all published. The client knows the range before the first meeting.
The clock in writing
The deadlines page counts eleven common BC time limits from a date the visitor enters, and says what it cannot do.
Nothing to decode
Every clause has a note in everyday words beside it, and legal terms are defined where they first appear.
Everything that shipped.
I rebuilt the firm's site as its intake. It runs to 33 public pages in a paper-and-ink style, with a serif set like letterhead, numbered clauses, and a wax seal drawn from the same typeface as the wordmark. The homepage is the agreement, and choosing a matter redrafts it. Around it sit six practice pages, a fee schedule with an itemized estimate, a page of BC deadlines with a date check, 37 defined terms, the firm's terms with a margin note on every clause, four lawyer pages and ten guides to BC law. Booking runs through the Matter Brief, a single document that drafts itself as the visitor answers. Two demonstration pages, kept out of search, show the client's file and the lawyer's side of the same intake.
Highlights
- In the Matter Of: choose one of eight matters and the homepage agreement redrafts around it as a blackline
- The Matter Brief, a booking page that drafts the matter as the visitor answers, with the lawyer's diary in Bellwood time, a printable brief and a calendar file
- An itemized estimate for eight kinds of work, with GST and PST on the fee and the government charges shown apart
- Eleven common BC limitation and response periods, each with a date check
- A published fee schedule with flat fees for eight common jobs and an hourly rate for each lawyer
- Margin notes that say each clause again in everyday words, and 37 legal terms defined where they first appear
- Six practice pages that say who they are for, what the work costs and what happens next, and ten guides to BC law
- A client's file and a lawyer's intake memo, as demonstration pages kept out of search, showing both sides of the intake
Pages and surfaces
- Home (the agreement)
- Practice areas hub
- Family law
- Real estate and conveyancing
- Wills and estates
- Small business
- Employment
- Civil disputes
- Fee schedule and estimate
- Deadlines
- Defined terms
- Terms with you
- The team and 4 lawyer pages
- Guides hub and 10 guides
- FAQ
- Book a consultation (the Matter Brief)
- Visit the office
- Accessibility
- Privacy
- A client's file (demonstration)
- The lawyer's intake desk (demonstration)
Real code. Real routes. Production ready.
- The blackline's struck words are hidden from screen readers and skipped under reduced motion, so the redraft never reads twice
- Deadline dates clamp at month end, and business-day periods skip BC statutory holidays
- Fees live in one file that feeds the schedule, the homepage, the lawyer pages and the estimate
- Every page's full text is in the served HTML, with a canonical address on all 33 sitemap routes
- Each seal is a single vector path that prints in one ink, and the wordmark is drawn from the site's own display typeface
- Built toward WCAG 2.2 AA: a 984-stop keyboard walk over ten pages, eleven screen sizes on eleven routes with no sideways scroll, and a published accessibility statement
Stack
How it was built
Marlowe & Fenn LLP is a fictional concept, and every page of the site says so. Bellwood, Dominion Avenue, the four lawyers and the fees are invented, and the Matter Brief sends nothing. The deadlines and guides describe BC law in general terms, were checked against primary sources on September 28, 2026, and create no lawyer-client relationship. For a real firm, the same site runs on your real fees and practice areas, with the copy checked against the Law Society of BC's marketing rules. Counts read from the live site on September 28, 2026.
Show a nervous client their matter in writing before they call.
Marlowe & Fenn is the proof. The same drafted agreement, published fees and deadline checks can be built around your practice and your name. Already have a site? The free check-up will show where it makes nervous clients more nervous. No website yet? Tell me about your firm and I will show you where to begin.
No website yet? Start your first one here
Built as The Engine, $6,500. Own It Monthly can spread the build over 12 payments, yours outright at the end.
In this industry yourself? Read the websites for law and accounting firms playbook.
More work
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