Legal Desire Consulting
Legal tech and automation, built around how your firm actually works.Client intake, document automation, workflow, software selection and private AI for firms that cannot put client files into a consumer chatbot. Built by people who cover this industry for a living and have no vendor to sell you.
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The problem
Most firms do not have a software problem
They have a problem with everything happening between the software. The gap where a person retypes something, chases something, or remembers to do something.
The enquiry that goes cold
A form arrives by email. Someone reads it a day later, runs a conflict check by hand, drafts an engagement letter from an old one, and sends it three days after the client first got in touch. By then the client has called somebody else.
The precedent nobody trusts
Every fee earner has their own version of the same document, saved somewhere only they can find. The firm has no idea which version is current, and a junior starts from whichever one they were sent last.
The number nobody can produce
Where matters come from, what they are worth, which work is profitable. The data exists across three systems and getting an answer means somebody building a spreadsheet by hand each month.
What we build
Six areas, and we will tell you which one to do first
Every engagement starts with finding out where your firm actually loses time, which is often not where people assume it is.
Client intake and CRM
Qualification, conflict checking, engagement letters, and follow up that runs without anyone remembering. Built on a CRM you own, connected to whatever you already use for matters.
Document automation
Your precedents turned into templates that assemble themselves from structured answers. One current version of every document, and juniors who cannot accidentally start from a five year old draft.
Workflow automation
The connective work between your systems. Deadlines that create themselves, files that land where they belong, updates that reach the client without a partner writing them, and approvals that actually get chased.
Software selection and replacement
An honest read on what you have, what it costs, what it does badly, and whether replacing it is worth the disruption. We take no commission from any vendor, which changes the advice considerably.
Private AI for the firm
Research, summarising, first drafts and review, running on infrastructure you control, with nothing retained and nothing used for training. Trained on your own precedents and past matters so the output sounds like your firm.
Reporting you can trust
Where matters come from, what they are worth, which practice areas are profitable, and which marketing actually produced work. Built once, updates itself, and nobody has to touch a spreadsheet.
Why us
We cover this industry, so we know which products survive contact with a real firm
Legal Desire has published legal industry news and analysis since 2012. We report on legal technology funding, launches and failures, and we have tracked more than twelve thousand deals. We see which products get bought, which get quietly dropped after a year, and which ones only work in firms far larger than yours.
What that means for you.
- No vendor relationships and no referral commission. If the answer is that your current system is fine and you need to change how you work around it, we will say so.
- We build on software you own and license directly. Nothing depends on us afterwards, and you can take the whole setup to someone else at any point.
- We know what a firm your size can realistically absorb. A plan nobody follows is worse than no plan, and most legal tech projects fail on adoption rather than on the technology.
How it runs
What working together actually looks like
A call about where the time goes
Thirty minutes. Which parts of the week are manual, which ones people complain about, and what you have already tried. We will tell you straight away if this is not a technology problem.
The diagnosis
We map what you run today, what it costs, and where the hours actually disappear. You get a written plan with each change ranked by hours returned against effort to build. Yours to keep and to implement yourself if you prefer.
Build the first thing
One area, done completely, usually two to four weeks. Something your team uses on a Monday rather than a pilot that quietly stops. We would rather prove it small than promise it big.
Handover and the next one
Documentation, training for the people who will use it, and the credentials in your name. Then we look at what the first build changed before deciding what is worth doing next.
Questions
What firms ask us before they start
What is legal tech?
Legal tech is any software that does part of a lawyer’s work or the work of running a practice. In a firm it usually means four things: practice management, client intake and CRM, document drafting and assembly, and more recently AI assistance with research and review. Most firms own more of it than they use, which is the problem worth solving first.
Can a small firm automate client intake?
Yes, and it is usually the single highest return change a small firm can make. A form that qualifies the enquiry, a conflict check that happens before anyone spends time on it, an engagement letter that generates itself, and a follow up that does not depend on someone remembering. Most of it can be running inside a fortnight using software you may already pay for.
Is it safe to use AI with client files?
It depends entirely on where the file goes. A consumer chatbot is not a safe place for privileged material. A private setup, where the model runs on infrastructure you control and nothing is retained or used for training, is a different proposition and is what we build for firms with confidentiality obligations they take seriously. The distinction is technical, not marketing, and we will show you exactly where the data sits.
Do we have to replace our practice management software?
Usually not. Replacing a practice management system is expensive, disruptive and rarely the actual cause of the problem. More often the system is fine and the work around it is manual. We look at that first, and recommend replacement only when the software genuinely cannot do what you need.
How long does a build take?
An intake and CRM build runs two to four weeks. Document automation for a set of templates runs three to six weeks depending on how standardised your precedents already are. A private AI setup is four to eight weeks, most of which is configuration and testing rather than installation.
What does this cost to run afterwards?
We build on software you own or license directly, so there is no dependency on us to keep it running and no markup on your tooling. Ongoing cost is your existing subscriptions plus, where relevant, the infrastructure a private model runs on. We will put those numbers in front of you before anything is built.
Start here
Request a technology review
Tell us which part of the work is slow or manual. You will get a real reply from Anuj within one business day, and an honest answer about whether it is worth building anything at all.
Prefer email? Write to anuj@legaldesire.com and it reaches the same place. The form is faster because it asks for what we would have to ask you anyway.