A website that informs, not one that sells
People look for a lawyer at stressful moments: a family dispute, a property claim, an FIR. Before they call, they want to know whether you handle their kind of matter, who will do the work and how to reach you.
The profession also has its own rules on publicity, so the site has to be informative, factual and dignified. We plan the wording with those limits in mind from the first draft.
Can advocates in Pakistan advertise on a website?
Advocates in Pakistan may not solicit work by advertisement, but the rules allow factual listings limited to qualifications and offices currently held. A law firm website is safest when it reads like that kind of listing: who you are, the areas you practise in and how to contact you, with no self-praise and no promises of results. This is our reading as web designers, not legal advice, so confirm the current rules with your bar council.
Rule 135 of the Canons of Professional Conduct and Etiquette of Advocates, in Chapter XII of the Pakistan Legal Practitioners and Bar Councils Rules, 1976, says: “An advocate shall not solicit professional employment by advertisement or by any other means.” The same rule does not prohibit “ordinary professional cards, name plates or conventional listing in directories”, as long as the information is limited to professional and academic qualifications and public offices currently held, and contains nothing that “savours of personal advertisement” (Pakistan Bar Council). The rules do not mention websites.
Other canons in the same chapter also matter online:
- Rule 136 bars employing or paying another person to solicit or obtain work, so be wary of schemes that pay a third party per client.
- Rule 164 says newspaper publications by an advocate about pending or anticipated litigation are generally to be condemned. A blog post about your own live case raises the same concern.
- Rule 174-A bars the use of former designations such as “Retired Justice” or “Ex Judge” on letterheads, name plates, sign boards, visiting cards “or in any form” while practising.
- Rule 175-A treats breach of these canons as professional misconduct, open to disciplinary action.
In January 2026, Pakistan Observer reported that the Punjab Bar Council had warned lawyers over promotional TikTok videos and said social media cannot be used for personal promotion in ways that breach professional ethics (Pakistan Observer). Check your own bar council’s latest instructions too.
What this means in practice
| Keep | Avoid |
|---|---|
| Names, qualifications and the courts you are enrolled to appear in | “Best lawyer in Lahore” or “No. 1 law firm” claims |
| Plain descriptions of each practice area and the usual process | Win rates, “guaranteed bail” or “100% success” |
| Office address, hours, phone number and WhatsApp | Discount offers, countdown timers and “limited slots” pop-ups |
| General legal guides with an author and a date | Commentary on your own pending cases |
| Public offices you currently hold | Former titles such as “Ex Judge” or “Retired Justice” |
Which practice area pages bring clients?
- Family law: khula and divorce, custody, guardianship and maintenance.
- Property and civil: title checks, possession and partition suits, tenancy and inheritance.
- Corporate: company formation, contracts, partnership deeds and disputes.
- Tax: FBR notices, appeals and representation.
- Criminal: bail, trial defence and appeals.
- Immigration and overseas matters: powers of attorney, document attestation and visa refusals.
Each page should say who the service is for, the usual steps, which documents to bring and how fees are discussed. Explain the process; do not predict an outcome. Rule 154 reminds advocates that the profession is “a branch of the administration of justice and not a mere money making trade”, a good test for fee wording. Firms that also file returns can see our page for tax and accounting firms.
What should a lawyer profile include?
- Full name and a recent, plain professional photo.
- Qualifications, for example LLB, LLM or Barrister-at-Law, with the institution.
- Enrolment: the bar council, whether enrolled as an advocate of the High Court or of the Supreme Court, and the year.
- Areas of practice, and the courts and cities where the advocate usually appears.
- Languages spoken, such as Urdu, English, Punjabi, Sindhi or Pashto.
- Public offices currently held, which Rule 135 lists as permitted information.
Leave out success counts and “top lawyer” badges. Details a reader can check build more trust.
How should clients contact you and share documents?
Show a direct phone and WhatsApp number and office hours on every page, with a Google Maps pin for each office. Then add a short intake form: type of matter, city, the court if a case is filed, and the names of the other parties.
Asking for the other parties’ names early lets you run a conflict check before a client shares confidential details. Rule 148 says an advocate shall not represent conflicting interests, and Rule 146 restricts acting against a former client where confidential information was obtained in that work.
Case papers, CNIC copies and property documents should not sit in personal WhatsApp chats. A secure upload form or client portal over HTTPS, with access limited to named staff and a stated retention period, is safer. We build these as part of our custom software development work, and WP Toolkit Studio adds a firewall, malware scanning and two-factor login to a WordPress site that handles sensitive files.
Urdu content and local SEO
Clients in family and property matters are often more comfortable reading Urdu. Publish your main practice area pages in Urdu as well as English, with a proper Nastaliq font and right-to-left layout, not a pasted machine translation. Our free Urdu word counter checks length and reading time.
For local search, set up a Google Business Profile for each real office, choose the most specific category and keep your name, address and phone identical everywhere. Our guide on how to rank on Google Maps covers the full checklist, and how to rank in ChatGPT explains how AI assistants choose sources. Ask clients for honest Google reviews, and never pay or reward anyone for one.
Common law firm website mistakes
- “Best lawyer” or “top law firm” in the page title, logo line or meta description.
- Success rates, guaranteed outcomes or case “wins” used as selling points.
- One “Practice Areas” page that lists twenty services in a single paragraph.
- Legal guides with no author, no date and law that has since changed.
- Case files collected on a personal WhatsApp number.
What content attracts clients?
- How khula works and the usual steps in a family court.
- Documents to check before buying a plot or a house.
- How to apply for a succession certificate.
- What to do after receiving a legal notice.
- How overseas Pakistanis can pursue a case through a power of attorney.
Write these as general information with an author and a date, note that every case is different, and link each guide to its practice area page. Our website development and SEO and AI search optimization services build this structure for law firms.
