How does the AI protect attorney-client privilege?

All matter data is strictly siloed within the system. No employee can access information across matters. Conflict-of-interest checks run automatically when new client data enters the system. Documents are analyzed in-place within iManage without creating copies outside your DMS. All processing uses de-identified prompts — no client names or privileged content reaches the cloud LLM.

Does the AI integrate with Clio?

Yes. All 6 employees integrate bidirectionally with Clio via its API. Marcus writes research memos directly into matter files. James reads deadline data and writes notifications. Elena creates new client records and runs conflict checks. Sophie reads time entries and matter budgets for reconciliation. All operations happen within your existing practice management workflow.

How accurate is the document review for privilege detection?

David uses multi-layered analysis to detect potentially privileged documents — examining sender/recipient patterns, content indicators, and document metadata. David flags documents as potentially privileged for human review rather than making final privilege determinations. No document is excluded from privilege review without a lawyer's sign-off. David processes 1,400+ pages per overnight cycle.

Can Elena handle after-hours client intake?

Yes. Elena handles new enquiries 24/7 — qualifying potential clients through structured intake questions, running automated conflict checks in Clio in 30 seconds, generating engagement letters, and scheduling consultations with the appropriate practice group. Prospective clients who enquire at 11 PM receive immediate engagement rather than waiting until the next business day.

How does Sophie find unbilled time?

Sophie analyzes email metadata, document-edit timestamps, and calendar events, cross-references them against recorded time entries in Clio, and generates draft entries for billable activities that were not recorded. She sends each attorney a daily time-capture summary with one-tap approval. Most firms see a 15-30% increase in captured billable hours within the first month.

How does James track court deadlines?

James calculates all applicable deadlines from FRCP, state procedural rules, local rules, and judge-specific standing orders — including subsidiary deadlines triggered by each primary deadline. He cross-references against CM/ECF and state e-filing portals, sends escalating Slack reminders at 14, 7, 3, and 1 day before each deadline, and flags any matter showing no preparation activity.

Does Sophie handle IOLTA trust account reconciliation?

Yes. Sophie reconciles all IOLTA and client trust accounts against bank feeds daily — verifying retainer deposits, payments against client ledgers, and checking for commingling. Discrepancies are flagged immediately rather than discovered during monthly reconciliation. Trust account compliance is the most common area of bar disciplinary action, and daily reconciliation eliminates that risk.

Is the AI suitable for small law firms (5-10 attorneys)?

Yes. Bitontree employees scale to firm size. A small firm can deploy James (deadline tracking) and Elena (client intake) as a starting point, adding employees as the firm grows. Pricing is per-employee, not per-seat, so small firms pay only for the employees they deploy. The Workforce Discovery phase ensures employees are configured for your specific practice areas.

What happens when the AI encounters a legal question it cannot answer?

Every employee has defined escalation boundaries. Marcus flags conflicting case law and low-confidence research for senior review. David highlights clause deviations but does not approve contract language. Elena qualifies leads but does not provide legal advice. No employee makes legal judgments — every output is positioned as a draft for lawyer review and sign-off.

How long does deployment take for a law firm?

A typical 6-employee law firm deployment takes 8-12 weeks. Phase 1 (Workforce Discovery, 2-3 weeks) maps your practice management workflows, document handling processes, and deadline tracking systems. Phase 2 (Build & Deploy, 6-9 weeks) deploys employees incrementally, starting with James and Elena which deliver the fastest risk reduction. Phase 3 is ongoing management with monthly performance reviews.

How much do AI employees for law firms cost?

Bitontree Workforce pricing is per-employee, not per-seat or per-matter. A typical 6-employee law firm deployment starts with a Workforce Discovery engagement, followed by incremental deployment. Most firms start with 2-3 employees (James and Elena) and add employees as ROI is validated. Pricing scales with firm size and integration complexity. Contact us for a custom quote.

Will AI replace lawyers or paralegals?

No. Bitontree AI employees handle the time-consuming tasks that prevent lawyers from doing their highest-value work — research compilation, document review, deadline tracking, client intake, billing reconciliation, and client communication. Every employee output is a draft for lawyer review and sign-off. No employee makes legal judgments, provides legal advice, or approves filings. In practice, firms report that associates focus more on client relationships and courtroom preparation because AI handles the operational overhead.

Marcus

Legal Research & Case Analyst

Your AI Research Associate Found 47 On-Point Cases, Shepardized Every One, and Had the Memo on Your Desk Before You Finished Your Coffee

12x faster research turnaround, 95% case-law coverage, 0 overruled citations missed

$65-85K/yr junior associate research time — replaced Deploys in 6-8 weeks

Hire Marcus See how Marcus works ↓

The problem

Your junior associates spend 60% of their billable hours on legal research. That is not a value judgment — it is an economic problem. A single motion-to-dismiss brief requires four to eight hours of deep research across Westlaw, LexisNexis, and your firm's own work product. For a firm with 10 to 50 attorneys, those hours multiply into thousands of non-billable or under-recovered research hours every quarter. Meanwhile, institutional clients with legal-spend analytics are pushing back on research line items they consider excessive.

The accuracy problem compounds the cost problem. Even experienced associates miss relevant precedent 15 to 20 percent of the time. A single missed case — an overlooked circuit split, an unreported overruling, a recent statutory amendment — can mean the difference between winning and losing a motion. Partners know this, which is why they often re-review research that associates have already completed, doubling the firm's internal cost.

Worse, your firm's institutional knowledge is trapped in individual minds and buried in closed-matter folders. An associate researching a breach-of-fiduciary-duty question for a Delaware LLC dispute has no idea that a partner handled a nearly identical matter 18 months ago and drafted a comprehensive memo that is sitting in iManage gathering digital dust. Research is duplicated constantly because there is no systematic way to surface prior work product at the moment it is needed.

Marcus is your AI Legal Research & Case Analyst. He pulls case law from Westlaw and LexisNexis simultaneously, Shepardizes every citation, identifies the strongest supporting and opposing precedent, cross-references your firm's prior work product on similar matters, and delivers a structured research memo in firm-standard format — all before the partner finishes their morning coffee. The partner reads it in 15 minutes, marks up two sections, and the brief gets drafted from a position of strength instead of a position of "I hope we didn't miss anything."

$65-85K/yr junior associate research time — replaced

That is why you need Marcus.

How it works

How Marcus works, step by step

Each step is automated. Marcus only escalates when human judgment is required.

⚡ Attorney initiates a research request through Clio matter notes or a direct query

Marcus parses the research question, identifies the jurisdiction, area of law, and key legal issues, then constructs optimized search queries across Westlaw and LexisNexis simultaneously — Boolean, natural language, and citation-based searches running in parallel

⚡ Search queries return initial result sets from legal databases

Marcus evaluates relevance across hundreds of results, Shepardizes every cited case to confirm it is still good law, filters out overruled or distinguished cases, ranks results by authority weight, jurisdiction, and recency, and identifies the strongest supporting and opposing precedent

⚡ Relevant precedent and statutory authority identified

Marcus cross-references findings against the firm's prior work product in iManage — surfacing internal memos, briefs, and research from closed files that are directly on point. If a partner handled a nearly identical issue 18 months ago, Marcus finds that memo

⚡ Research synthesis complete

Marcus generates a structured research memorandum in firm-standard format: case summaries, key holdings, statutory references, confidence ratings, jurisdictional gaps, and a preliminary analysis of how each authority applies to the current matter. Sent to Slack for the supervising attorney with [Approve Memo] [Request Deeper Analysis] [Reassign]

⚡ New case law or statutory changes published relevant to active matters

Marcus monitors legal database alert feeds and proactively notifies the assigned attorney when new authority could affect pending matters, open research questions, or upcoming filing deadlines — with a relevance score and a one-paragraph impact summary

⚡ End of day at 5:00 PM

Marcus sends a daily research digest to the managing partner: matters researched today, memos delivered, pending research requests, case-law alerts triggered, and a firm-wide research utilization summary. The partner reads it in 90 seconds

What Marcus handles vs. what stays with you

Clear boundaries. Marcus works autonomously within defined limits and escalates everything else.

✓ Marcus handles

✓ Marcus parses the research question, identifies the jurisdiction, area of law...
✓ Marcus evaluates relevance across hundreds of results, Shepardizes every cite...
✓ Marcus cross-references findings against the firm's prior work product in iMa...
✓ Marcus generates a structured research memorandum in firm-standard format: ca...

boundary

■ Your team handles

■ Marcus never provides legal advice or makes strategic recommendations — all research output is presented as draft analysis for attorney review
■ No research memorandum leaves the firm or is shared with a client without explicit attorney sign-off
■ Marcus does not assess the credibility of witnesses, evaluate factual disputes, or weigh equitable considerations — those require human judgment
■ All case citations are verified against primary sources; Marcus flags any citation he cannot independently confirm for manual verification
■ Marcus does not draft motions, briefs, or pleadings — he produces research that attorneys use as the foundation for their own work product

Integrations

Works inside your existing tools

Marcus connects to the platforms you already use. No new software to learn.

Clio Reads & writes

Westlaw Reads from

LexisNexis Reads from

Slack Writes to

Implementation

From zero to Marcus

Marcus is deployed gradually with measurable checkpoints at every stage.

⏱

Deploy time

6-8 weeks

Monitoring mode first, then gradual rollout

📋

Data required

✓ Westlaw API credentials and subscription tier verification
✓ LexisNexis API access and content-set configuration
✓ Clio practice management data: matter types, practice areas, attorney assignments
✓ Firm's prior work product index in iManage for internal knowledge retrieval
✓ Jurisdictional and practice-area preferences for default search parameters

🚀

Pilot process

Pilot begins with a single practice group's active research requests. Weeks 1-2 Marcus runs in shadow mode alongside two to three associates on active research tasks, comparing his output against the associate's independent research for completeness and accuracy.

Full validation before production deployment

Your AI team

Works alongside Marcus

These AI employees share data and coordinate with Marcus to cover your full operation.

Deploy Marcus for your legal operations

Start with a 90-minute discovery session. We will assess whether Marcus is the right fit for your workflows and show you exactly what changes.

Book a discovery session Back to Legal team