Professional Services
Make what the firm already knows findable, safely.
Governed enterprise search, document intelligence and secure copilots that respect matter confidentiality and conflict boundaries.
Operational context
How the sector actually runs.
Expertise is expensive and unevenly distributed. A firm's best answer to a client question usually already exists in a previous engagement, but finding it depends on knowing who did that work and whether they are still here.
Confidentiality boundaries are not optional. Matter and engagement separation, conflict walls and client-imposed restrictions mean a search tool that ignores permissions is not a productivity feature, it is a professional liability.
Revenue depends on timesheets nobody wants to complete. Unrecorded time, late entry and write-offs erode realisation, and the people best placed to record time accurately are the ones least inclined to stop and do it.
Onboarding is repetitive and rules-heavy. Engagement letters, conflict checks, identity verification, matter setup and system provisioning follow the same sequence every time, with different thresholds by service line and jurisdiction.
Precedent documents are copied and quietly diverge. A template is duplicated for a client, amended, and becomes the new de facto precedent for whoever copies it next, so the firm's standard position drifts without anyone deciding it should.
High-value problems
Where the money and the risk actually sit.
We have done this work before but I cannot find who did it
A permission-aware search layer over matter files, engagement documents and work product returns cited answers restricted to what the person asking is already entitled to see. Conflict and ethical walls are enforced at retrieval, not filtered afterwards.
I am not letting AI near client documents
That is the correct instinct, and it is the design constraint we start from. Retrieval is scoped to the user's existing entitlements, prompts and outputs are logged, data is not used to train a vendor model, and the whole flow is reviewable before anyone turns it on for a client matter.
Our realisation is dropping and we find out at month end
We build reporting that connects recorded time, billed value and write-offs at engagement level, refreshed daily, so a partner sees a realisation problem while there is still something to do about it.
Onboarding a new client takes three days of somebody's life
Conflict checks, identity verification steps, engagement letter generation and system provisioning are sequenced into one workflow with the thresholds encoded per service line. A person still approves the engagement, but they approve a completed pack rather than assembling it.
Everybody uses a slightly different version of our standard agreement
Document intelligence compares executed documents against the current precedent, surfacing where standard positions have drifted and how often. The firm decides which drifts are improvements and which need pulling back.
Use cases
What we build in this sector.
Each is tagged with the disciplines involved, because most useful work crosses more than one.
Governed enterprise search
Retrieval across matter files and work product with entitlements and ethical walls enforced at query time, and every answer cited to its source.
- AI
- Security
Secure client-facing copilots
Assistants scoped to a single engagement's documents, with logged prompts, reviewable outputs and no vendor training on firm data.
- AI
- Security
Document and clause intelligence
Extract obligations, dates and clause positions from executed documents, and compare them against the firm's current precedent.
- AI
- Data
Client onboarding workflow
Sequence conflict checks, verification, engagement letters and provisioning into one auditable flow with per-service-line rules.
- Automation
- Security
Realisation and utilisation analytics
Connect recorded time, billed value and write-offs at engagement level with a daily refresh rather than a month-end reveal.
- Data
Proposal and pitch assembly
Draft proposal sections from prior approved material, with provenance shown so a partner can see what each paragraph was taken from.
- AI
- Automation
Identity and access governance
Access reviews, joiner-mover-leaver automation and privileged access control appropriate to a firm holding confidential client material.
- Security
- Cloud
Human oversight
Where a person still decides.
Automation proposes. A named person approves. These are the points we design the workflow to stop at.
- A partner or responsible principal approves any AI-assisted work product before it reaches a client. Nothing generated is sent without professional review.
- The conflicts team approves every new engagement following the automated check. An automated clear result is a prompt for review, not a decision.
- A responsible partner approves enabling any copilot on a specific matter, with the entitlement scope recorded.
- The practice manager approves any change to entitlement rules or ethical wall configuration, separately from IT change control.
- A billing partner approves write-offs and adjustments surfaced by realisation reporting.
Delivery options
On Azure, on AWS, and afterwards.
The platform is chosen for the workload, not for us. Both paths end in the same place: someone still owns it after go-live.
- 01
Delivered on Microsoft Azure
The natural fit for firms already on Microsoft 365, where matter documents live in SharePoint and confidentiality is enforced through existing site and label permissions.
- Azure AI Search with security trimming inherits SharePoint and Entra ID permissions so retrieval cannot cross an ethical wall.
- Microsoft Purview applies sensitivity labels and data loss prevention to client material, including in AI interactions.
- Microsoft Foundry hosts the retrieval and drafting workflows with prompt and output logging retained for review.
- Microsoft 365 Copilot and Copilot Studio deliver assistants where fee earners already work, subject to the firm's approval process.
- Microsoft Entra ID Governance runs access reviews and joiner-mover-leaver automation.
- Microsoft Fabric and Power BI deliver realisation and utilisation reporting with partner-level row security.
- 02
Delivered on AWS
Suits firms with a bespoke practice management platform, an existing AWS estate, or a requirement to keep the knowledge layer independent of the productivity suite.
- Amazon OpenSearch Service provides retrieval with document-level access control mapped to matter entitlements.
- Amazon Bedrock runs retrieval and drafting, with Bedrock Guardrails restricting responses to retrieved firm content.
- Amazon Q Business delivers governed search over connected firm repositories.
- AWS IAM Identity Center centralises access, with Amazon Macie identifying sensitive client data at rest.
- AWS Step Functions orchestrates the onboarding workflow with a complete audit trail per engagement.
- Amazon Redshift and Amazon Quick deliver realisation and utilisation reporting.
- 03
Operated after handover
Permissions change constantly as people move between matters. A retrieval system is only as trustworthy as the last time its entitlements were verified.
- Entitlement synchronisation verified continuously, with any retrieval crossing an ethical wall treated as a priority incident.
- Answer quality and citation accuracy sampled and reviewed with the knowledge team.
- Prompt and output logs retained per the firm's records policy and available for professional review.
- Access reviews run on the agreed cycle, with exceptions escalated to the practice manager.
- Model and platform changes assessed before adoption, including any change to vendor data handling terms.
- Monthly reporting on usage, escalation rates and where the knowledge base is failing to answer.
Related services
The capabilities behind this work.
Artificial Intelligence
AI that is chosen for a reason, costed before it is built and governed once it is live.
Security and Governance
Close the ways in, know exactly who can do what, and answer an auditor or a client questionnaire from current evidence rather than memory.
Data and Analytics
Reporting your executives trust, produced once, governed properly and ready for the AI work that comes next.
Managed Services
Your platform keeps earning its business case after go-live, with cost, security posture, reliability and adoption reviewed on an agreed cycle rather than left to drift.
Free discovery workshop
Start with one professional services challenge.
Bring a process that costs more than it should. We will map the opportunity, the readiness gaps and a recommended next step.