Getting hold of good legal services in Pakistan is no easy task, but a lawyer duo in Karachi is all set to change that. Altaf Qureshi and Sohaib Saleem are practising lawyers with a passion for technology, and have launched an online portal today that offers advice, connects to lawyers and gets legal documents delivered straight to your doorstep. They have been working on Wukla for the past year, but have had the idea of combining law and technology in an innovative and disruptive way for a number of years. Currently, they are incubated at The Nest i/o, P@SHA’s Tech Incubator, as part of the external program.
Wukla is starting with two services which address the concerns of most people, especially startups. The first is access to lawyers, through Wukla’s “Ask a Wakil” feature. This will enable queries to be sent and referred to advocates with relevant experience and in closest proximity. The second is “Create Agreements” which allows users to obtain agreements created instantaneously through Wukla’s unique software and delivered to their doorstep on stamp paper ready to be signed. Wukla currently offers a set of most commonly used agreements – Confidentiality Agreement, Tenancy Agreement, Employment Contracts, Car Sale Agreement, Power of Attorney, Partnership Agreement and Agency Agreement. Being considered by the founders are additional features including creating of custom legal agreements as per the user’s requirements, automated document reviews, and a directory of lawyers which is searchable for areas of law and to the user’s location.
When asked “Why Wukla?”, Altaf and Sohaib said, “We have all been witnessing the growth of e-commerce and technology solutions in Pakistan. It is now no longer unusual for people to be ordering food, clothes, electronics and almost anything else online. So, we wondered why agreements, legal documents and other legal solutions couldn’t be as easily and conveniently delivered. Through this journey we came closer and closer to what our ultimate vision has become – to make law “easy” – easy in terms of the experience, easy in terms of the service, easy in terms of price and ultimately easy for all to access.”
When asked what makes the co-founders different, Altaf and Sohaib said, “A lot of the training lawyers receive is to see the risk, rather than opportunities. We see opportunities because law and technology together is incredible. At Wukla, we want to continuously innovate and find better ways to make law easy.” Both Altaf and Sohaib have started and run businesses in the past and each has more than a decade of experience as practising advocates who cater to corporate clients, commercial transactions and financial matters, intellectual property and investment. They also have an international focus, through Masters in Law from Berkeley and Columbia. Collectively they have worked with leading law firms like Linklaters in London and big corporate institutions like K-Electric, PSO, Royal Bank of Scotland and Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank.
