MeanaTechnologies
Law firm AI modernization, built around your schedule.
Over one to two weeks of short lunchtime and evening sessions, held virtually, we answer your questions about AI, work out where it fits in your practice, and leave you with a written internal usage policy built around the confidentiality and competence obligations you already carry.
Why this, and why now
Most firms are in the same position. Associates and paralegals are already using AI tools, with or without permission. Nobody at the firm has written down which tools are acceptable, what may be pasted into them, or who checks the output. If a client or a carrier asks what your AI policy is, the honest answer is that there isn’t one.
In June, the Ohio Board of Professional Conduct sent every Ohio attorney its guide to using AI. It points out that Rules 5.1 and 5.3 make supervising how staff use these tools the firm’s responsibility.
Behind the missing policy are bigger questions that nobody has had time to answer. What can these tools really do for a firm like ours? Which ones are safe? Where should we start? Someone has to learn the tools, find out what the staff are really using, reconcile the partners’ different comfort levels, and turn all of it into a plan people will follow. No partner has a spare forty hours for that.
A good AI policy is not a list of prohibitions. It is a short, specific document that reflects how your firm really works, and that your people can read in ten minutes and understand.
That is the work we do. We are full-time AI engineers. Over the course of one to two weeks, we listen, answer your questions, work out what your firm should be doing, and write it down. By the end, you have a plan and a policy your partners have read and your staff can follow.
Law Firm AI Modernization
One to two weeks of short sessions fitted around your work, over lunch and in the evenings, held virtually, so your practice is not disrupted. We talk with the partners and hear from each role how AI is actually being used. We answer your questions, work out what your firm should be doing with it, and turn the decisions into a written policy. All of it is built for your practice, your tools and your people, not adapted from a template.
What you leave with
- Answers to your questions. Whatever your attorneys and staff want to know about AI, answered plainly by people who build these systems for a living.
- A clear picture of where you are. What your people are already using, what for, and where the risks and opportunities are.
- A plan for what to do. Where AI is worth using in your practice, where it is not, what to start with, and what to leave alone for now.
- A written internal AI usage policy. The rules your firm will follow, in plain language, covering the areas below.
What the policy covers
- Approved and prohibited tools. Which tools staff may use, which they may not, and how a new tool gets approved. The list sits in an appendix so it can change without rewriting the policy.
- Client information. What may and may not be entered into an AI tool, sorted by the sensitivity of the information and the tool’s data terms.
- Verification and supervision. What must be checked before AI-assisted work leaves the building, who checks it, and how attorneys supervise staff and junior lawyers who use these tools.
- Clients and billing. When to tell a client that AI was used, what engagement letters should say, and how AI-assisted time is billed.
- Incidents. What to do when someone pastes the wrong thing into the wrong tool, and who they tell.
- Acknowledgment. A one-page sign-off for every attorney and staff member, and a short rollout checklist for your office manager.
The policy is written against the Ohio Rules of Professional Conduct on competence, communication, fees, confidentiality and supervision, and it is written in plain language.
What we do not do
- We do not give legal advice. We write a technology and workflow policy and map it to the professional conduct rules so that your firm can evaluate it. Your own counsel and your malpractice carrier should review the policy before you adopt it.
- We do not decide your policy for you. The firm decides where AI is acceptable and where it is not. Our part is to put the choices in front of you clearly and write down what you choose. Nothing goes into the policy that the firm has not agreed to.
- We do not take custody of client data. We need to know how your people use AI, not what is in your client files. We hold no credentials to your systems and do not need access to your document management system.
- We do not certify vendors. We read each tool’s published data terms and tell you what they say. We do not audit a vendor’s security, and we do not sell software or accept compensation from any vendor.
Questions firms ask first
Can all of this really happen in one to two weeks?
Yes, because the slow part is learning what you need and getting people to agree on it, and both of those happen during the engagement. We start out knowing what a firm your size has to decide, because we have studied the Ohio guidance and the tools’ published terms closely, and we can answer most questions as they come up. By the time we draft, we have already heard from your staff and your partners have already made the decisions.
What if we have questions that have nothing to do with the policy?
Ask them. Whether AI can help with intake, research or document review, or whether a particular tool is worth trying, answering those is part of the work. The policy is one result of the work, not the only one.
Our people are worried they will get in trouble if they tell you what they use.
That is common, and we run the listening sessions with it in mind. We ask about the work, not about who did what, and we report patterns rather than names. The policy works better when it is written for what people do in practice, so we need the honest version.
Will the policy actually keep client information where it should be?
The policy sets clear limits on what goes into which tool, and it is built from your firm’s actual data handling, not a generic list. Does the vendor train on your inputs? How long is anything kept? Will they sign a data protection agreement? We read the terms of the tools you use, and the policy says plainly which ones are acceptable for which kinds of information. A policy cannot guarantee compliance, but it gives you a documented standard to train to and enforce. We are glad to sign your confidentiality agreement before we begin.
We bill hourly. What does the policy say about billing?
That is one of the decisions the partners make during the engagement. Firms reach different answers on how AI-assisted work is billed and when clients are told, and the policy records yours so that everyone at the firm handles it the same way.
What happens when the tools change in six months?
They will. The policy is written around rules for handling information and checking work, which do not change with the tools. The list of approved tools lives in an appendix, so updating it is a one-page edit and not a rewrite.
Who you are working with
We are full-time AI engineers. Building these systems is what we do professionally, so we know where they fail and where vendors overstate what they can do. That is what lets us write a policy that is specific about real risks instead of cautious about everything.
We work with a small number of firms at a time. It means scheduling requires some lead time, and it also means that while we are working with your firm, you have our full attention.
Next step
A short call to talk through how your firm is currently handling AI, and whether this makes sense for your firm. No preparation needed on your side.
Or write to contact@meanatech.com.