Your best attorneys know things
that aren't in any case file.
How the judge in Division 3 likes motions formatted. Why Client X always pays late but renews every year. The paralegal who actually runs the trust account. This knowledge lives in your senior attorneys' heads — and walks out the door when they leave.
Sound familiar?
A senior partner transitions off a case
Frantic handoff meeting. Associate scribbles notes. Half the operational context is lost.
Partner did a 15-minute brain dump last month. Associate has a structured playbook for the case.
New associate starts Monday
Shadowing for weeks. Asking 'how do we do X here?' constantly. Mistakes on client matters.
Firm procedures are documented as playbooks. Productive from week two, not month three.
The attorney who handles billing disputes is out
"Let me check with Sarah — she knows how we handle these." Sarah is at a conference.
The billing dispute playbook covers it: decision tree, exceptions, escalation paths.
A lateral hire joins from another firm
They know the law but not your firm. Learning 'how things work here' takes six months.
Firm-specific procedures are captured and searchable. Cultural ramp-up is weeks, not months.
What firms capture with Understudy
Case management procedures
How your firm handles intake, conflict checks, matter opening, document management, and closing.
Client relationship context
What each key client expects, their communication preferences, billing sensitivities, and history.
Practice-specific workflows
How your litigation team runs discovery, how your transactional team manages closings, how your IP group handles filings.
Administrative knowledge
Billing procedures, trust account handling, court filing requirements by jurisdiction, vendor relationships.
How it works
Attorney describes their process
Talk through any procedure however it comes to mind. No templates, no blank pages. Just describe what you do.
AI asks targeted follow-ups
Edge cases, exceptions, decision points — the 'oh wait, don't forget about X' details that never make it into traditional docs.
Get a structured playbook
Steps, decision trees, roles, exceptions — formatted so any attorney or paralegal can follow it.
Not another wiki. Not another Confluence page.
Your firm might already have a knowledge management system. The problem isn't storage — it's that attorneys don't write the documentation in the first place.
Understudy solves the input problem. Instead of asking busy attorneys to write, it interviews them. The output is a structured playbook that feeds into whatever system you already use — or works on its own.
Capture one procedure. See if it's useful.
Pick your most complex internal process — client intake, trust accounting, a specific case type. Do a 15-minute brain dump. If the output isn't useful, you lost 15 minutes. If it is, you just protected your firm from its biggest knowledge risk.
Try it free →No signup · No credit card · No sales call
Built by Hunter Bacot, Sr. Software Engineer at LinkedIn.
Based in Portland, OR — happy to meet for coffee.