The Small Firm Stack

How we review tools

The short version of how The Small Firm Stack picks tools, checks facts, and fills in each Data Trail card.

Last checked

What we cover

AI tools that a solo or small law firm (about 1 to 20 people) might actually buy: receptionists, intake and CRM, case management with AI, legal research and drafting AI, call tracking, and transcription. We leave out tools mainly sold to large firms.

Where facts come from

  1. The vendor's pricing page, help center, trust or security page, privacy policy, and terms of service.
  2. Reputable news sources, only when the vendor does not publish the fact. We say so when we use one.
  3. We never use prices or claims from review sites, ads, or sales calls.

Every fact has a link and the date we checked it. If we could not find something, we write Not published or Ask vendor.

The Data Trail card

Every listing has a Data Trail card that answers the same questions:

  • Where is data stored? Country and cloud host, if published.
  • Is it used to train AI? In the vendor's exact words.
  • Which outside AI companies see it? Named providers, if published.
  • How long is it kept? Real numbers, if published.
  • Who owns it?
  • Breach notice: how fast they promise to tell you.
  • Independent audit: SOC 2, ISO 27001, or similar, and whose audit it is.
  • Export and leave: how you get your data out.
  • BAA: whether they will sign one for health information.

The rest of each review

What it does in two sentences, who it fits, price with date, integrations (Clio, Lawmatics, CallRail, Microsoft 365 where relevant), setup effort and hidden costs, contract traps, questions to ask the vendor, strengths, limits, our take, and the last checked date.

Our opinions

"Our take" sections are opinions based on the sourced facts on that page. They are labeled every time.

Independence

The Small Firm Stack is published by the team behind it, who also build phone and intake systems for law firms. We never list, rank, or review ourselves. No vendor pays for placement. There are no affiliate links. See our About page for details.

Updates

Each page shows a last checked date. We recheck listings regularly and whenever a vendor tells us something changed, and we only change a fact when we can link to the new source.