From Manchester to Kuala Lumpur: delivering design support around the clock – Epigram
A model built around how clients actually work
Legal marketing rarely fits neatly into working hours. Deadlines shift, pitches land late, and teams are often spread across multiple offices and jurisdictions. For many marketing teams, that means balancing already full workloads with last-minute requests that still need to be delivered to a high standard. It’s something we’ve seen consistently over the years working with law firms, and it’s one of the reasons we made the decision, over a decade ago, to build a permanent presence in Kuala Lumpur.
Our KL office has now been part of Epigram for more than 10 years. It wasn’t set up as an overflow resource or a way to simply increase capacity, but as a more practical response to how our clients operate. If legal teams are working globally, often across time zones, then the support around them needs to reflect that reality. Having an established team in Malaysia allows us to keep work moving outside of UK hours, offer more flexibility when timelines tighten, and reduce the pressure that builds when everything has to be delivered within a single working day.
Keeping work moving across time zones
In practical terms, one of the biggest advantages is continuity. Work doesn’t stop at the end of the UK day; it can be picked up, progressed and often turned around overnight, ready for review the following morning. That continuity can make a meaningful difference when timelines are particularly tight or when multiple stakeholders are involved across regions.
We’ve seen this play out on fast-moving projects where deadlines leave very little room for delay. From a client perspective, it doesn’t feel like a complex global workflow, it simply feels like progress.
Consistency without compromise
Of course, working across time zones brings its own challenges. One of the most common concerns is consistency, whether the work will feel joined up, whether quality will remain high, and whether anything will be lost in the handover between teams. These are valid concerns, and they’re exactly where the focus needs to be.
For us, making this model work comes down to strong communication, shared processes and clear creative direction across both locations. It’s also supported by the way we approach design systems and templates, building consistency into the work from the outset rather than trying to correct it later.
Strengthening our Asia presence
Having a long-standing base in Kuala Lumpur also means we’re better placed to support clients with activity across Asia-Pacific. That might involve adapting campaigns for regional audiences, rolling out materials across different markets, or simply being available at the right time to keep things moving.
Alongside this, we’ve also built strong relationships in the US, including our partnership with Manhattan-based Knox and a trusted network of freelance collaborators. This adds another layer to how we support clients globally, particularly those with a strong US presence or activity spanning multiple regions.
Beyond the practical benefits, there’s also the value of perspective. Working across regions naturally brings different approaches to design, communication and problem-solving, which strengthens the overall output. As legal marketing becomes more global, that broader viewpoint becomes increasingly important.
Welcoming new perspectives
As part of this continued growth, we’ve recently welcomed new team members whose experience strengthens how we work across regions.
Josh joins with a background in marketing, client services and project leadership across international campaigns. His experience working with global brands has given him a strong understanding of how to coordinate work across teams and markets, balancing different perspectives while keeping projects aligned and moving forward. In a model where collaboration across time zones is part of everyday delivery, that kind of clarity and structure becomes particularly valuable.
Adila joins our design team with a focus on digital and print design, creative adaptations and multimedia production. Her strength lies in taking a core idea and translating it across formats and platforms while maintaining consistency and clarity. With a natural interest in emerging tools and evolving design approaches, she brings a fresh perspective that complements the wider team and reflects how legal marketing continues to develop.
Creating space for legal marketing teams
It’s easy to describe this kind of setup as “round-the-clock support”, but in reality, the value is more subtle than that. What it often gives clients is breathing room, the ability to hand work over at the end of the day and pick it back up in the morning with meaningful progress already made.
That can make a real difference. It allows teams to respond to tight deadlines without everything becoming last-minute, and to manage global activity without it all bottlenecking in one time zone. In a sector where expectations continue to grow, that added flexibility can help make the workload feel more manageable.
The legal sector isn’t becoming any less complex or any less international. If anything, the opposite is true. Having a design partner that reflects that reality, not just in principle, but in how work is delivered day to day, can make a meaningful difference. For us, our Kuala Lumpur office has been part of that for over a decade, and it continues to shape how we support our clients in a way that feels practical, consistent and aligned with how they work.
