The short version
Upcial builds websites for Malaysian law firms. The Legal Profession (Publicity) Rules 2025 let a firm make its case online for the first time in over two decades, and they settle four decisions a general web studio tends to get wrong: where cost lives, what carries the argument, which word a firm may use about its own practice, and how far a case study may go. We read the rules before a page is written. We design your homepage and show it to you before any contract exists. RM 12,000 to RM 15,000 for a complete foundation.
The door was shut for a generation. It opened in January.
Both dates come from the gazette. The 2001 Rules governed what a Malaysian firm could say about itself for the whole of most partners’ careers, and the 2025 Rules replaced them at the turn of the year.
What a Malaysian firm could say about itself, by regime
Publicity Rules 2001
in force until 31 December 2025
A site that confirmed the firm was real.
Publicity Rules 2025
in force from 1 January 2026
Any medium: the website, social media and digital platforms, talks, seminars, conferences and forums, paid for or not.
P.U.(A) 462/2025, gazetted 26 December 2025 under section 77 of the Legal Profession Act 1976. Announced to members in Bar Circular No. 471/2025, dated 31 December 2025.
Four decisions the rules already made for you
A general web brief asks for a pricing page, a why-choose-us section, the word expert in the hero and a case study with a client’s name on it. The rules settle all four before anyone opens a design file, which is four arguments you get to skip. Here is what goes in each place.
| The decision | What goes on the page |
|---|---|
| Cost is a conversation | Scope and process, written so a client understands what happens and when, and rings the firm to talk about the fee. The page earns the call rather than pricing the job, and a client who calls is a client you can qualify. |
| Your own substance carries the argument | A field you work in, a kind of matter you run, the way you handle a file, the people who will handle it. The case is made from the firm outward, which is also the only version a reader believes. |
| You may say you specialise | A firm may state plainly that it practises or specialises in an area, as long as the claim is genuine. Specialises is the permitted word and it is the stronger one, because it says something checkable. |
| Your work, at the level of problem and approach | A page that describes the problem a client arrived with and how the firm approached it, with written consent wherever anything identifies them. Confidence held is itself the argument. |
All four come from the Legal Profession (Publicity) Rules 2025, P.U.(A) 462/2025, in force 1 January 2026, which also require that publicity stays dignified and truthful and that a firm publicising abroad keeps within that country’s law. Every paragraph is quoted and explained on our reading of the rules. This page is a website resource, and a firm’s own compliance advice remains its own.
The other rulebook your site answers to
A website starts handling personal data the moment it carries an enquiry form, and a law firm’s intake carries more of it than most businesses ever see.
| What changed | What it means for the site |
|---|---|
| The PDPA was amended by Act A1727 | Higher penalties, a duty to notify a personal data breach, a data protection officer requirement, and a right to data portability. A privacy notice written against the 2010 baseline is describing a law that has moved. |
What it costs, published
The same three engagements every client of ours sees, at the same fixed fee agreed before any work begins. A firm usually lands in the first.
| Engagement | For a firm where | Fee |
|---|---|---|
| Essential | The website is where a referred client checks the firm before picking up the phone. All nine delivery phases, compliance review, documented handover. | RM 12,000 to 15,000 |
| Premium | The website carries the practice areas, the people and the firm’s written work, and is a primary credibility signal. | RM 16,000 to 24,000 |
| Flagship | The website is a partnership-level asset with custom art direction and its own approval cycle. | RM 28,000+ |
60% to begin the build, after you have seen and approved the concept. The remaining 40% on final sign-off, before go-live. Every build carries a 30-day defect-fix warranty at no charge. The whole card, module by module, sits on the pricing page.
We built one of these in public, and the client let us publish the argument
Pana Harrison is a reinsurance and insurance broking group with offices across Southeast Asia, Lloyd’s-registered since 2009. We designed their homepage first, free, before anything was signed, and showed them two directions on one afternoon. Their site has been live since the end of July. The whole engagement is written up, including the parts that were awkward.