Legal aid on your finger tips

Getting legal aid and right advice and that too in a cost effective manner is a major area of concern in a country like India where legal cases take years to be settled often leading to depression and desperation. It is this pain point of a common man that Manish Kaul, first generation entrpreneur from kashmir Valley set out to address by launching SoOLEGAL — an interactive online platform that makes it faster and easier to find and hire the best lawyers in any city / court in India. A pass out from the Tyndale Biscoe School from Kashmir, and graduate in Commerce from Kashmir University, Kaul started off as a Stock Market Analyst in Kolkata and later on shifted to manufacturing business and then to IT before envisioning a legal aid portal.  “As an information-sharing, interactive and transaction platform, SoOLEGAL is designed to transform the functional and operational approach of lawyers to align their practice more comprehensively with contemporary needs. It connects the visitor with more than 80,000 lawyers across the country”, he says while sharing info about this unique start-up. He traces the journey of this venture thus:

The inspiration 

SoOLEGAL is not a miracle of the moment but a product developed meticulously after more than five years of research in the legal and para-legal sectors. The research revealed the existing online legal services through various initiatives were limited to mere information dissemination and at the most offered minimal interactions limited to downloadable forms or feedback forms. There was a complete lack of e-legal services that would enable transactions and ultimately promote transformation for the citizens seeking legal services and for the legal domain itself! To fill this stark gap SoOLEGAL platform was envisioned.  

The journey so far

The venture has experienced a meteoric rise in just eight months of its full system launch. The platform already has 80,000 plus registered users and counting. It has successfully reached out to the legal and para-legal professionals in Tier 2 & Tier 3 cities. The platform has registered users from nearly 200 plus cities from across India. The company is the first to deliver digital services to lawyers (updates, news, legal documents, judgments etc) in remote regions of Leh-Ladakh and the platform has been welcomed by the Leh-Ladakh Bar Association.

Future plans

The venture is currently engaged in an aggressive marketing drive to meet target user base of 1 million by year end 2019. In addition, the company is actively contacting bar associations pan India. The platform offers free digital services to manage their operations such as elections, notifications and lawyer registrations etc.

A word of advice

The key formula to success is sincere, sustained, hard work with patience. It is great to have a great idea. And it is possible that fruition of your great idea may take more time than anticipated. Success has to be by design, not by chance. So be patient and continue to persevere.

Constantly innovate and evolve your business, have multiple revenue streams and most importantly, ensure that your value proposition is multi-dimensional that adds significant value at a professional and individual level.

— As told to Geetu Vaid