In Africa’s tech ecosystem, fintech and health-tech often steal the spotlight. Yet, one question looms: who is building the digital backbone of Africa’s legal industry? For Ngozi Nwabueze, the answer was clear: if it didn’t exist, she would build it.
When Nigeria’s COVID-19 lockdown forced her to close her physical office, she faced a choice: pause her practice or reinvent it. She chose reinvention.
That decision birthed PocketLawyers, a platform designed to give legal practitioners the tools to build, scale, and sustain digital-first practices. Described by Nwabueze as “Shopify for lawyers,” the legal-tech startup is making practice easy for lawyers.
“At PocketLawyers, we are on a mission to empower Lawyers by providing them with cutting-edge tools and solutions that enhance efficiency, foster innovation, and contribute to the growth of legal practices across the continent,” Nwabueze says on LinkedIn about the startup.
A Platform Built for Lawyers, Not Just Clients
PocketLawyers is more than a marketplace. It equips solo practitioners and small firms with no-code websites, AI-powered document generation, client management systems, and integrated payment solutions.
In 2024, the startup pivoted from a service-based model to a full SaaS platform, a move that has already unlocked scale and industry recognition.
According to Nwabueze, the platform now supports more than 250 lawyers across Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania, enabling them to build digital profiles, list services and pricing, and receive client reviews.
The standout feature, PocketAI, helps with legal research and drafting, significantly reducing turnaround times for lawyers while improving accessibility for clients.
Scaling Beyond Borders
PocketLawyers plans to expand into at least 10 countries by 2025, starting with Anglophone Africa before rolling out a multilingual version for Francophone markets.
The platform is also free for lawyers to get started, a model industry observers say is designed to democratize access.
“We charge clients a small 3% transaction fee,” Nwabueze told Technext. “More advanced features will eventually be subscription-based, but the basic version will always be free. That is how we democratise access.”
Experts say PocketLawyers’ blend of client acquisition tools, practice management, and compliance services makes it one of the few platforms offering a truly integrated legal-tech experience.
About Ngozi Nwabueze
As the CEO and Founder of PocketLawyers.io, as well as the Founder and Managing Partner at PocketLawyers LP, Ngozi Nwabueze is a graduate of the University of Lagos and the Nigerian Law School.
Her achievements include:
- Selected Top 20 female founders across Africa for the Future is Female Programme (2023).
- Chosen among the Top 10 from 1,000 applicants for the Standard Chartered/EDC Women-In-Tech Programme (2023).
- Member of the UNCTAD eTrade for Women Communities.
As a speaker and startup law coach, Nwabueze continues to advocate for the inclusion of startup and tech law in African university curricula while mentoring young lawyers and advising early-stage startups.
Legal-Tech’s Coming-of-Age Moment
For years, investors dismissed legal-tech as a niche, slow-moving space. But as businesses, startups, and individuals increasingly require reliable legal infrastructure, perceptions are shifting.
Legal-tech investments soared recently, having a 44% year-over-year increase in 2025’s first half, with global funding reaching $3.56 billion. This underscores just how early Africa’s legal-tech wave truly is.
Platforms like PocketLawyers, CaseRadar, Legalese Africa and other legal process services are positioned at the nexus of access, autonomy, and scalability, exactly where next-generation legal infrastructure begins.
Industry analysts suggest that as African economies formalise and SMEs scale across borders, legal infrastructure will emerge as a critical enabler of growth.
Talking Points
Ngozi Nwabueze is using PocketLawyers to solve a critical challenge for African lawyers by digitizing their practice without the heavy costs of traditional law firms.
By combining websites, invoicing, payments, and AI-driven document generation into one platform, it gives lawyers the tools to operate with the efficiency of larger firms.
At Techparley, we see how PocketLawyers could accelerate digital adoption among lawyers who have little or no online presence. By enabling “new wigs” and small practitioners to build digital storefronts, the platform empowers them to compete, scale, and serve clients across borders.
However, scaling will depend on affordability, lawyer adoption, and sustained product education. Lawyers must see clear value in transitioning from traditional methods to digital-first solutions.
With its SaaS pivot, early traction, and expansion roadmap into 10 African countries, PocketLawyers has the potential to become the defining legal-tech platform for the continent, redefining not just how lawyers work, but how everyday people access justice.
