For law firms
Legal document automation and AI for law firms
Stratum Relay builds and operates document automation and AI workflows for transactional law firms. We start with one workflow your team repeats, such as a precedent package, an engagement letter or a closing set. We build the smallest useful intervention and test it on representative and difficult cases before any lawyer relies on it. Lawyers keep final sign-off.
What do we build for law firms?
Work that turns approved precedents and matter facts into reliable first drafts, and keeps them correct as templates change.
- Word template automation: your approved masters with conditional clauses, defined terms, party and property details, and document packages generated from one set of answers.
- Template governance: consolidating drifted copies into one owned master, retiring stale versions, and making the current version the easy one to use.
- Intake to draft: structured intake that fills the document set once, flagging missing or contradictory facts instead of guessing.
- AI-assisted review steps: summarising source documents, checking a draft against its term sheet, listing what is missing, with a lawyer approving every change.
- Integration: connecting the workflow to the systems you already use, such as document management, practice management and e-signature, where access allows. Scoped in the proposal.
- Operation: monitoring, template updates and regression tests after go-live, scoped separately from the build.
How does a first project work?
One workflow, start to finish.
- A short first conversation about the workflow and who owns it. No confidential documents needed.
- Scoping: we look at the current precedents, how the documents vary, and where time or errors go.
- A written proposal covering deliverables, cost, dependencies, exclusions and the evaluation criteria.
- Build the smallest useful version, or recommend not building if Word governance or an off-the-shelf tool is enough.
- Evaluate on representative cases, including adverse ones: missing facts, conflicting instructions, clauses that must not appear.
- Decide together what comes next, based on the results.
Timing depends on the workflow and access, and is set in the proposal.
How do we test before anyone relies on it?
We test against a fixed set of cases with known correct outputs before rollout, and again after every template or rules change. The set includes the routine cases and the ones that should stop the system: a required clause missing, a guaranty that must not appear, a term that conflicts with the source. A pass rate never hides a critical failure. Our field note Before automating legal documents: test one precedent workflow shows the method on a synthetic example.
How do we handle confidentiality?
Client data stays in the systems and accounts your firm controls wherever possible. We use synthetic or de-identified examples until access and safeguards are agreed. Where AI is used, the proposal states which models and providers are involved, what data they receive, and how it is retained. Final legal judgment stays with your lawyers. We do not provide legal advice.
When should you not hire us?
When the problem is governance, not tooling, it often needs no build: one owned master, retired copies and a clear place to find the current version. When a packaged product or a managed precedent service already fits your documents, use it; we will say so. Our field note Which legal documents should you automate first? includes the case where we would stop.
What does it cost?
Each project is priced in a written proposal before work begins. Implementation and ongoing operation are priced separately, so you can stop after the first workflow.
Frequently asked questions
Do you replace our document automation software?
Not necessarily. We can work with the Word templates and systems you already have. If a product you own already does the job, we will configure or recommend it rather than build.
Do you work with small firms?
Yes. The method suits any firm with one recurring document workflow and a person who owns the outcome.
Is this legal advice?
No. We are an engineering practice. Your lawyers decide what the documents say and approve every output.
What do you need from us to start?
A non-confidential outline of the workflow, where it breaks down, and who owns it.
Please do not send confidential documents or client records. Keep client records and credentials out of the booking form and email.