AI for law firms · Sydney

AI for law firms: give the lawyers their hours back

In most small firms the admin lands on the people who charge by the hour. File notes written up from memory at six o’clock, intake forms retyped into the matter system, time sheets reconstructed on Friday. I help firms turning over one to ten million take that load off, one small step at a time, with the lawyer signing everything that matters.

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Where a law firm’s week actually goes

Talk to a principal of a conveyancing, family, estates or commercial practice and the story is familiar. The legal work is under control. The work around it is not: a new enquiry that sits in the inbox until someone has time to open a matter, a phone call that never made it into a file note, a precedent rebuilt from an old matter because nobody can find the clean one, and time that was worked but never recorded.

None of it is legal advice, and all of it is constant. It falls on lawyers and senior paralegals whose time is the firm’s only product, and every unrecorded six minutes is revenue walked out the door. That is the kind of work AI is now good at: reading documents and emails, pulling out what matters, drafting in your firm’s format, and putting it in front of a person to check.

This is not about a new practice management system. You keep LEAP, Actionstep or Smokeball, InfoTrack and PEXA, and your trust accounting stays exactly where it is. The job is to connect AI to what you already run, so the drafting around the matter is done for you and the advice stays with the lawyer.

What I’d take off your plate first

Usually LEAP, Actionstep or Smokeball for matters and trust, InfoTrack for searches, PEXA for settlements, Xero for the office account, and Microsoft 365 for everything else. I connect AI to those, rather than asking you to replace them.

Matter intake and conflict-check prep

An enquiry email or web form read, the parties and matter type pulled out, a draft matter opened in your system and the names lined up for a conflict check. A person runs the check and decides whether to act.

File notes from calls and meetings

A recorded call or a quick voice memo turned into a proper file note in your template, attached to the matter for the lawyer to read and correct. The note exists the same day, not the same week.

Precedents and first drafts

Letters, retainers, cost disclosures and routine documents drafted from your own precedent bank and the facts on the file. The lawyer starts from a clean first draft and every word that goes out is theirs.

Time recording that catches the six minutes

Emails sent, documents drafted and calls logged turned into suggested time entries against the right matter each evening. The lawyer accepts, edits or deletes, rather than reconstructing the week from memory.

Billing and debtor follow-up

Draft invoices assembled from recorded time and disbursements, narratives tidied so clients understand them, and overdue accounts chased politely on a schedule. Nothing touches the trust account.

Settlement and matter checklists

For conveyancing and estates, the steps on each matter tracked against what has actually arrived, missing documents chased, and a morning list per person of what is due before settlement or the next court date.

And the admin every office has

The same work turns up in every firm: email, spreadsheets, documents, and a Microsoft or Google setup that grew without a plan.

Invoicing and accounts payable

Supplier bills read, coded and matched to the order or the job before they reach Xero or MYOB. Mismatches drafted into an email for someone to approve. Overdue invoices chased politely, on a schedule.

Email that answers itself, nearly

The inbox triaged each morning, routine replies drafted in your tone, attachments filed to the right folder, and a short list of what actually needs you today.

Spreadsheets you stop rebuilding

The weekly report that someone copies and pastes together every Monday, produced before you arrive, with a sentence on why the number moved.

Documents and slides

Proposals, letters, reports and board slides drafted from your own templates and your own past work, so the first draft is eighty per cent there rather than a blank page.

Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, set up properly

Shared drives that make sense, permissions that match who you are now, and AI connected to mail, calendar and files the same way for everyone instead of five people doing it five ways.

Project and job tracking

Status updates written from what actually happened in email and the job system, tasks pulled out of meeting notes, and a morning brief per person of what is due.

How it works: audit, roadmap, implementation, training, support

Sold one step at a time. Each step is quoted before it starts, stands on its own, and you decide after each one whether to take the next. Most businesses your size go from the audit to a working, trained setup in three to six months.

Audit

Two weeks, fixed price. A map of every system you run, a ten-minute staff survey, a few five-minute screen recordings of the work that eats the week, and short conversations with the people who run the business. It costs your team minutes, not hours.
Roadmap

A ninety-day plan written from what the audit found: which processes first, ranked by admin removed against cost and risk, which AI plan and accounts your team should be on, and a two-page policy on what may go in. Every item has its own price.
Implementation

I build the first one or two automations inside your own Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, connected to the systems you already run. AI drafts, a person approves anything that leaves the building, and it runs beside the manual way until you trust it.
Training

Your team learns on their own work, not on demos. One standard setup for everyone, a short session per group, and one-to-one time with the two or three people who will carry it once I step back.
Support

A light monthly retainer: one call, a one-page summary, fixes, and the next routine your team worked out promoted into something the business runs. I read the AI news so your people do not have to.

Use AI without handing over your clients’ data

A law firm’s files are the most sensitive in this list: privileged communications, client identity documents, family and financial circumstances, and commercial terms that must never leak. Confidentiality and privilege are not a feature to switch on later. They decide how everything is set up from the first day.

The work happens inside your own Microsoft or Google tenant and your practice management system, on a business AI plan that does not train on your data, with company accounts for every person who uses it. Nothing goes into a free chatbot, trust accounting stays in the trust system, and anything that goes to a client, the other side or a court waits for a lawyer to approve it.

The basics, every time

Company accounts on a business AI plan, never personal logins. Business plans do not train on your data.
AI connected to your own Microsoft or Google tenant, so files stay where they already live and access is revoked in one place.
A two-page policy your team can actually remember: which accounts, what may go in, what never does.
Everything I build lives in your accounts and is logged. I work from a staff login, not the master key.

Where most start

A typical first project: file notes and time entries drafted from the day’s work

Most audits in a firm land on the same quick win. Calls, emails and drafted documents become a file note and a suggested time entry against the right matter, ready for the lawyer to check in five minutes at the end of the day. It runs beside the old way for a fortnight until you trust it. From there, intake and precedent drafting are usually next.

Where I work

Based in the Sutherland Shire. In person across these areas, remote everywhere else in Australia.

Sutherland Shire

Cronulla, Miranda, Caringbah, Sutherland, Gymea and around.

Southern Highlands

Bowral, Mittagong, Moss Vale, Exeter, Robertson and around.

St George

Hurstville, Kogarah, Rockdale, Sans Souci, Bexley and around.

Eastern Suburbs

Bondi Junction, Double Bay, Paddington, Woollahra, Randwick and around.

Frequently asked questions

Will AI give legal advice to our clients?

No. Everything I build drafts, summarises and organises for a lawyer, who reads it and signs it. Legal advice stays with the people admitted to give it. AI is there to clear the paperwork around the advice, not to replace the judgement in it.

What about privilege and confidentiality?

They shape the whole setup. Business AI plans with no training on your data, everything inside your own tenant and practice system, access matched to who works on which matters, and a short written policy on what may go in. I am not your lawyer on this, so your own professional obligations decide where the lines sit.

We use LEAP (or Actionstep, or Smokeball). Do we need to change?

No. The point is to connect AI to what you already run. Where your system has a way in, I use it. Where it does not, I work from documents and exports and keep everything filed back to the matter, so nothing lives outside the file.

Is this worth it for a firm our size?

If your lawyers are writing file notes at night or your recorded hours sit well below the hours actually worked, almost certainly. The audit will tell you honestly, and if a better precedent folder would do the job, I will say so.

How much of my team’s time does this take?

Minutes, by design. Ten for the survey, ten for an optional screen recording, an hour with the key people. Whoever runs operations spends two or three hours across the first fortnight.

Do we have to commit to the whole thing?

No. Every step is quoted on its own and you decide after each one. Plenty of businesses take the audit and one project, and stop there until they see it working.

Are you tied to a particular AI vendor?

No. I lead with Claude because I think it is the strongest all-rounder for business work today, and I work just as happily with Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT or Gemini if that is what your team already uses. Everything is built so the model is one part you can swap.

Questions law firms ask me

ChatGPT, Claude or Copilot: which should my business use?

Pick one and standardise, on a business plan. If your business lives in Outlook, Teams and SharePoint, Copilot is the natural start; if you want the strongest all-rounder for writing and documents, I lead with Claude; ChatGPT is a sound choice too. All three can connect to Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace now.

Do I need an AI policy for my small business?

Yes. If your team uses AI at work, and most already do, you need a short written policy. Two pages is enough: which accounts to use, what may and may not go in, who checks AI output before it leaves the building, and who to ask.

Does ChatGPT or Claude train on my business data?

Not on their business plans: ChatGPT Business and Enterprise and Claude Team and Enterprise do not train on your data by default. On free and personal plans they can, unless each person turns it off, which is why business use belongs on a business plan.

Is it safe to put client data into ChatGPT or Claude?

On a business plan with company accounts, it can be: ChatGPT Business and Enterprise and Claude Team and Enterprise do not train on your data by default. On a free or personal account, treat it as unsafe for client information, which is also what Australia’s privacy regulator recommends.

We’re on Microsoft 365. Should we just use Copilot?

Often, yes, at least as the place to start. Copilot Chat comes with Microsoft 365 business plans, and the paid Microsoft 365 Copilot is the version built to work across your own email, files and Teams. But Claude and ChatGPT can also connect to Microsoft 365 now, so you are not locked in.

Can AI send emails without me?

It can, if you let it. With the Gmail connector Claude can draft, send, reply to and forward email, but by default it asks for your approval before each of those. I leave that default on: AI drafts, a person presses the button.

Can my boss read my AI chats?

On a work account, assume yes if the business has a reason. Day to day there is usually no screen where a manager reads your chats, but on Claude Team the organisation’s primary owner can export its data, conversations included, and larger plans add compliance tools built for exactly that.

My staff are using their own AI accounts. Should I ban it?

No. A ban rarely stops it and always hides it. Give your team one approved AI tool on a company account, write down what may go into it, and ask people to move across. Keep one firm rule: company logins and client information never go into a tool the business has not approved.

Will AI take my job?

In most small and mid-sized businesses, not soon. AI takes over tasks, such as the drafting, the matching and the chasing, and the job changes around what is left. Whether that is good for you depends on what your employer does with the time, which is why the owner should say it out loud.

Running a firm and doing the admin at night?

Tell me what you run, how many people, and what eats the most time. I will tell you honestly whether an audit is worth it.

Tell me about your business

Tell me what you're dealing with

Three lines is plenty. I reply personally, usually within a day, and the first call is free.