01Search
The answer is in a file somewhere
Matter files sit in the DMS, email threads, and scanned exhibits. Keyword search misses the memo that says “walk away” when you searched “terminate.”
PREPARED FOR ·
01 / PRIVATE AILAW FIRMS · PRIVATE AI · CHARLOTTE, NC
What private AI could do for your firm.
Search every matter by term and by meaning. Get one-paragraph summaries, discovery digests, and clause comparisons. It all runs inside your own servers or your own AWS account, so privileged files stay in-house.
REPORTSAMPLE DATA
Open matters: deadlines this month
Sources stream into a private index. Answers cite what they came from.Illustrative animation · sample data
02 / WHAT SLOWS YOU DOWN5 COMMON PAINS
What slows you down.
The work is rarely the problem. The hunting, retyping, and chasing around it is.
02Time
Billable time is a small slice of the day
Utilization is the share of the workday captured as billable time. Hunting for documents and rereading files eat into the rest.
38%average law-firm utilization in Clio's 2025 benchmarks. In an 8-hour day, that is about 3.0 billable hours.
Source · Clio Legal Trends benchmarks, 2025
03Discovery
Discovery piles up faster than anyone can read it
A production lands and an associate loses days building a digest. Transcripts and exhibits get skimmed when the deadline is close.
04Ethics
You can't paste privileged files into a public tool
Summaries of ABA Formal Opinion 512 (July 2024) describe duties of competence, confidentiality, and supervision when lawyers use generative AI. They note informed client consent before confidential information goes into self-learning tools. A private deployment that keeps data in your environment and does not train on your inputs is built to support that analysis. Your lawyers make the ethics call.
Source · ABA Business Law Today, summary of Formal Opinion 512, 2024
05Contracts
Contracts differ in small, costly ways
Comparing the indemnity clause across dozens of vendor agreements is slow, careful work. One missed difference is a problem later.
03 / IN YOUR OFFICE4 USE CASES · SELECT ONE
What it looks like in your office.
A day in the life. Pick a use case and watch the question or report come together, with citations back to the source.
USE CASE 1 / 4
Search every matter by term and by meaning
Ask in plain words. The assistant finds documents that match your words and documents that mean the same thing, across every matter you are allowed to open.
Connected sources
- Document management
- Scanned letters
- Billing notes
Question
Find every matter where a client was told in writing that a tenant could leave early after missed rent.
Search runs on exact terms and on meaning. Results include only matters this user could already open.
ANSWERSAMPLE DATA
Three matches across your matters
- Brightwater lease dispute: an email from March 4 tells the client the tenant “may walk away” if rent is 30 days late. The word “terminate” never appears.[1]
- Calloway Holdings: the engagement memo explains early-exit rights in section 9.2.[2]
- Larkin v. Pike Street Partners: a scanned letter says the landlord “can end the tenancy” after two missed payments. The text came from OCR.[3]
[1]Email: Re: Brightwater rent timeline, Mar 4
[2]DMS: /Matters/Calloway/Engagement/Memo_Lease_Exit.docx
[3]Scans: Larkin_Letter_0611.pdf (OCR)
USE CASE 2 / 4
A one-paragraph summary of every document
New documents get a short summary the moment they land in the file. Skim the day's filings in a minute, then open the ones that matter.
Connected sources
- Document management
- Email attachments
- Scanned filings
Question
Summarize every document added to the Okafor matter this week.
Summaries point back to the page they came from. A lawyer still reads what matters.
SUMMARIESSAMPLE DATA
Okafor v. Dunmore Supply: 3 new documents
- Dunmore_Resp_RFP_Set2.pdf: Dunmore objects to most requests on scope and offers invoices only. No emails are produced.[1]
- Draft_Answer_v3.docx: an answer to the counterclaim. It denies paragraphs 4 through 9 and raises two defenses. The verification page is unsigned.[2]
- Letter_OpposingCounsel_Oct9.pdf: a scanned letter proposing a mediation date in late November. It asks for a reply by Oct 16.[3]
[1]DMS: /Matters/Okafor/Discovery/Dunmore_Resp_RFP_Set2.pdf
[2]DMS: /Matters/Okafor/Pleadings/Draft_Answer_v3.docx
[3]Scans: Letter_OpposingCounsel_Oct9.pdf (OCR)
USE CASE 3 / 4
Deposition and discovery digest
Turn a transcript or a production into a digest with key testimony, conflicts with other evidence, and open questions.
Connected sources
- Deposition transcripts
- Discovery production
- Scanned exhibits
Question
Digest the Hollis deposition. Flag anything that conflicts with the Dunmore production.
A starting point for the attorney who prepares the next deposition.
DIGESTSAMPLE DATA
Hollis deposition digest
- Key testimony: Hollis says deliveries to the Okafor warehouse stopped in June (pp. 41 to 44).[1]
- Conflict: Dunmore invoice 7731 in Production 3 shows a delivery on July 9.[2]
- Objections: counsel objected six times, twice on privilege. Both privilege objections concern the same email thread.[1]
- Follow up: the warehouse manager is named twice and has not been deposed.[1][3]
[1]Transcript: Hollis_Depo_Vol1.pdf
[2]Discovery: Dunmore Production 3, invoice 7731
[3]Email: Re: Warehouse receiving contacts
USE CASE 4 / 4
Compare clauses across contracts
Pull one clause from every contract and line them up. Differences stand out, and the source page is one click away.
Connected sources
- Executed contracts
- Redlines
- Scanned originals
Question
Compare indemnification and limitation of liability across the four vendor agreements for Calloway Holdings.
Privileged material stays in-house. The comparison runs inside your environment.
COMPARISONSAMPLE DATA
Calloway Holdings: vendor agreements
| Agreement | Indemnity | Liability cap |
|---|---|---|
| Hartwell Logistics MSA [1] | Mutual | 12 months of fees |
| Piedmont Data Services [2] | Vendor only | Uncapped for data breach |
| Ridgeline Facilities [3] | Mutual | $250,000 flat |
| Summit Print Co. [4] | Customer only | 3 months of fees |
- Review first: Summit Print puts indemnity on the customer and caps liability at three months of fees. That differs from the other three.[4]
[1]DMS: Hartwell_MSA_2024.pdf, section 11
[2]DMS: Piedmont_DSA_2025.pdf, section 8
[3]Scans: Ridgeline_Facilities_signed.pdf, section 12 (OCR)
[4]DMS: SummitPrint_Agreement.docx, section 10
04 / INPUTS WE HANDLEEVERY KIND OF INPUT
Every kind of input.
Not just documents. Scans and photos are read with OCR. Phone calls are transcribed. Texts are included when you choose.
01EmailOutlook or Gmail, with attachments.
02PDFsPleadings, contracts, and productions.
03Scans & photos (OCR)Exhibits and signed originals become searchable.
04SpreadsheetsBilling exports and damages schedules.
05CRMClient and intake records.
06Document managementiManage, NetDocuments, or a shared drive.
07Phone calls (transcribed)Client calls and voicemails as text.
08TextsClient text threads you choose to include.
09CalendarsDeadlines, hearings, and court dates.
10Billing systemTime entries and invoice notes.
11Deposition transcriptsText and PDF transcripts.
12Research memosYour own work product and templates.
05 / DATA CLEANUPTHE QUICK WIN
The quick win most miss.
Most firms don't know AI can do this. Years of matter files pile up with names no one agrees on. The assistant renames, dedupes, and files them, and shows you every change first.
| Matter | Document | Date |
|---|---|---|
| okafor v dunmore | scan0042.pdf | 10/2/26 |
| Okafor v Dunmore Supply LLC | Draft_Answer_FINAL_v2 (copy).docx | Oct 5 |
| Dunmore/Okafor | Draft_Answer_FINAL_v2.docx | 10-05-2026 |
| Calloway Est. | bank stmt 1.pdf | 9/30 |
| Estate of Calloway, R | BankStmt_Sept.pdf | 09/30/2026 |
| brightwater | Untitled 3.docx | ?? |
Messy rows: mixed formats, typos, duplicates, and blanks. Select After, or Replay, to watch it clean up.
06 / YOUR TEAM, AMPLIFIEDA HELP, NOT A REPLACEMENT
Your team, amplified.
It is a help to your whole team, not a replacement. Everyone on your team gets an assistant that knows the context of your work. People still make the calls.
01
Permission inheritance
Answers come only from files a person could already open in your DMS and email. Ethical walls carry over.
02
Delegated access
A partner can give a paralegal or assistant access to a matter for a set time. You decide who, and for how long.
03
Role views
Partners, associates, paralegals, and billing staff see different slices of the same index.
04
Audit log
A record of who asked what and which documents were opened. It helps with supervision duties.
Same question, different view
Show me everything on Okafor v. Dunmore.
Can see
- Pleadings and drafts
- Client email
- Internal memos
- Billing entries
Not visible to this role
Nothing is hidden for this role.
Can see
- Public filings
Not visible to this role
- Internal memos
- Client email
- Billing entries
Can see
- Billing entries
- Engagement letter
Not visible to this role
- Internal memos
- Client email
- Draft pleadings
AUDIT LOGSAMPLE DATA
| Time | Who | What |
|---|---|---|
| 09:14 | A. Reyes, associate | Asked: deadlines, Okafor matter. 3 sources. |
| 09:31 | K. Shah, paralegal | Opened Dunmore_Resp_RFP_Set2.pdf |
| 10:02 | Admin | Added read-only role: contract attorney |
Every question and every opened document is recorded. You can review it or export it.
07 / WHERE IT RUNSYOUR CHOICE
Where it runs.
You choose. Either way, it runs inside an environment you own. Pick one to see the diagram.
Your office · local server or NAS
- 01ConnectorsRead your email, files, and systems with your permissions.
- 02Private indexStored on a server or NAS in your office.
- 03AssistantRuns on the same hardware. Writes cited answers.
- 04ModelA model on your own hardware, or an endpoint you approve under no-retention terms.
- 01Your DMS and email stay where they are. The index lives on a server or NAS in your office.
- 02Hardware you own. I help size it.
- 03You handle power and physical access. I can set up backups.
Your cloud · your own AWS account
- 01ConnectorsThe same connectors, running in your AWS account.
- 02Private indexFor example, Postgres with pgvector, or OpenSearch, in your account.
- 03AssistantRuns in your account. Writes cited answers.
- 04Model endpointFor example, AWS Bedrock in your account, under no-training, zero-retention terms.
- 01Your own AWS account. You hold the keys and the logs.
- 02Scales up for busy periods.
- 03You pay AWS directly. No markup from us.
Boundary
OutsideConsultantI design, build, and support the system. Access is scoped, granted by you, and logged. Your data is never stored on my systems. Temporary copies only if your plan allows.
Built to support
Systems are designed to support your duties under the Model Rules, including the confidentiality and supervision duties discussed in ABA Formal Opinion 512. Your lawyers decide what the rules require. I can supply a firm AI-use policy template and staff training. I do not give legal advice.
08 / ROADMAPHOW A PROJECT RUNS
How a project comes together.
From first call to a system your team uses every day. Four steps, and you can stop after any of them.
0130 minutes
Intro call
Free 30 minutes on your DMS, email, and where matters get stuck.
02About 2 weeks
Discovery & Roadmap
We review your DMS, email, and scanned files, and how clean they are. You get a written plan with phases, priorities, and a timeline.
03Per the plan
Implementation
We build what the plan lays out, such as search and summaries on real matters, one phase at a time.
04Optional
Support
Optional ongoing support for new connectors, updates, and help while you practice law.
You pay your own cloud and model costs directly. We never mark them up or hold your infrastructure.
09 / NEXT STEP20-MINUTE WALKTHROUGH
Want this mapped to your firm?
Book a 20-minute walkthrough. I'll show these pieces on your kind of data, and we'll talk about where the time goes.
I'm a solo consultant with hands-on experience leading enterprise AI search and assistant rollouts. You work with me directly.