Whitlock Hale
Design study for an estate and elder law firm, built around the questions clients actually ask.
A design study. Whitlock Hale is a made-up business, so the copy, prices and details are invented to show how the design works.
Overview
Project overview
A made-up law firm that writes wills and trusts, settles estates, and helps families plan for a parent's care. The page is organized around the questions people arrive with, each answered in plain language, followed by the flat fees and a way to book a free first meeting.
Approach
How I approached it
This is a design study for a law firm I made up. Most law firm websites lead with the firm: a skyline, a list of practice areas, years of experience. People looking for an estate lawyer usually arrive with one worried question instead, so this page leads with those questions.
Each question is set very large on a strict grid, with a short answer in a narrow column beside it. The answers are written for a worried family member, and each ends with one thing to bring or do. The fees are shown openly, because “how much will this cost?” is the question people are least likely to ask out loud.
There are no photos. A single grotesk typeface at two weights, a bottle green, and a lot of white space give it the seriousness a law firm needs without looking like every other one.
What was delivered
Deliverables
- A homepage that opens on the question most people bring to an estate lawyer: what happens to the house?
- Six common questions set large, each with a short, plain answer beside it and one concrete next step
- Flat fees in an open table, with the free first meeting at the top
- The process in four numbered steps, from first meeting to signing
- A call-back form that asks what the matter is about in four plain choices
Key decisions
- A Swiss-style grid with one typeface used at two extremes: very heavy for the questions, regular for the answers
- No stock photos of courthouses or handshakes; type and white space do the work
- Bottle green and black on white, with blue kept for links