A busy family law practice on the Sunshine Coast, with solicitors and paralegals spending the day on paperwork. We took the admin load off them one assistant at a time.
Family law, 20 peopleMore than 4,000 emails landed every month, each one read, matched to a matter and filed into Smokeball by hand. After every consultation, a solicitor or paralegal spent 30 to 45 minutes on a file note and a client letter that followed the same shape every time. None of it was difficult, and all of it pulled qualified people away from the work clients pay for.
Pat · the email assistant
The moment an email lands, Pat reads it, works out which matter it belongs to, names it and files it into Smokeball. Anything it is unsure about goes to a person.
Donna · the consultation assistant
Every call and consultation is transcribed, then the client letter and the file note are drafted in the firm's own tone, ready to check.
The costing assistant
It reads the whole matter, prices every letter, call and attendance against the scale of fees, and drafts the itemised bill. Still being built, so it carries no result yet.
Built withn8nClaudeOpenAIGeminiSmokeballAirtable
where the human stays
A fee earner reads every letter and signs it before it goes out, and no bill is sent until a lawyer has checked it. What changed is where the lawyer starts: with a draft to review and the filing already done.
Measured on the firm's own usage: logins, email volume and consultation counts.
| System | What it takes off the team | Fee‑earner time returned |
|---|---|---|
| Pat | Reading every incoming email, working out the matter, and filing it by hand | ~$81,000 a month |
| Donna | Writing up each consultation from scratch afterwards | ~$35,000 a month |
| Together | Roughly $116,000 a month | $1.3M+ a year |
Their numbers, on their volumes. The AI Savings Calculator runs the same arithmetic over yours.
The AI Scan works out the same figure for your firm, in up to two hours.
These systems work inside the Smokeball set-up the firm already has. Data is encrypted while it moves, and our agreements with the AI providers mean the firm's data is never used to train AI. The AI providers we use may keep each request for up to 30 days for their own safety checks, or longer if a check flags it.
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The 20-person family law firm recovers the equivalent of $1.3M a year in productivity from two AI assistants. Pat reads and files over 4,000 emails a month into the correct Smokeball matter, returning around $81,000 a month in fee-earner time. Donna turns client consultations into file notes and letters, returning around $35,000 a month. The figures are measured on real usage.
At Catton and Tondelstrand a client letter and file note now takes under 5 minutes, down from 45. The AI drafts from the transcribed consultation in the firm's own tone and format, and a lawyer reviews and signs off before anything leaves the firm.
The business AI we use sends data over an encrypted connection, and the contracts say it cannot be used to train AI. The AI providers we use may keep each request for up to 30 days for their own safety checks, or longer if a check flags it. The systems at Catton and Tondelstrand work inside the Smokeball set-up the firm already has, so client data does not have to be exported or moved.
Yes. Every letter and file note is reviewed and signed off by a fee earner before it goes out. The change is where the lawyer starts: with a draft to review.
two hours, one plan
The AI Scan gives you a dollar figure on your admin, a 90-day plan and the one thing to do first.
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