Lawsmith is a drafting desk. You answer questions about a client's matter, an AI model writes the first draft, and you review it and sign. This page says where the client's information goes, so you can decide what to put in and what to tell the client.
How do accounts work?
The desk may ask for an invitation code. The name and state entered at the door personalize this browser; they do not verify your identity.
Your drafts are in this web browser, on this computer (see below). Anyone who can open this browser can read the drafts kept here. Close desk offers to erase them; simply closing the desk does not lock them.
Lawsmith does not use your Claude, ChatGPT or any personal AI account. It reaches the model through our own server key, which stays on the server.
Is it encrypted?
On the public site, information travels over HTTPS between your browser and Lawsmith, and between our server and the model service. Local test copies may use HTTP.
On this computer, yes, with a limit. Lawsmith keeps your drafts in the browser's database, each one encrypted with a key the browser makes for Lawsmith and will not hand to any web page. That protects copies of the browser's files, such as a synced or backed-up profile. It does not stop someone using this computer while it is unlocked: Lawsmith opens the drafts for whoever opens it in this browser. A login on the computer, a locked screen and an encrypted disk (FileVault on a Mac, BitLocker on Windows) remain what protect them. A change still being saved at the moment a tab closes is kept unencrypted until Lawsmith next opens, and a browser without that database keeps drafts in its older storage, unencrypted.
What leaves this computer
When you press Draft it, these go to the model:
- the client's name and phone number, if you typed them;
- the state and county;
- every answer on the form;
- your own form, if you uploaded or pasted one;
- on a revision, the earlier draft and your instruction.
When you ask a question at the research desk, the question goes, with the earlier turns of that conversation and the state you practice in. When you ask the AI to double-check a draft, the draft, your answers and the client details go. The free automatic checks run on our server, which reads the draft to check it and does not keep it.
The text reaches the model through OpenRouter, a service that connects to AI models. Every request requires a route marked for zero data retention, with data collection denied. Those are routing requirements in our code; they are not an independent audit of how OpenRouter or the model provider handles your information.
The model currently in use is shown here when the server can be reached.
What Lawsmith keeps on its server
Our server keeps no drafts, no answers and no client details. It has no database.
For each draft or question, it writes a short log entry: who (your account, never your client), the kind of document, the state, the time, how long the model took, how much text came back (a count, not a copy) and what it cost. Not the client's name. Not the answers. Not the draft. The AI double-check logs only its counts and cost.
Our server runs on Amazon Web Services in northern Virginia, and the log lives there. Log entries are deleted after 90 days.
What stays on this computer
Your name and state, every draft with its answers, unfinished intakes, the research desk conversation, and saved reviewer notes are saved here. An invitation code, if used, is also saved in this browser. Close desk clears the saved profile, including its code.
Your saved work is stored in this browser, on this computer. It does not sync to your phone or office PC, and we do not back it up. Your account profile and billing records are separate and stay on our server. If this browser's data is cleared, or the computer is lost, the drafts go with it. Download the Word file for anything you need to keep.
On Home, Delete removes one draft and its saved reviewer notes from this browser. Close desk offers to erase everything Lawsmith kept here. There is no undo for either.
Research sources and review records
Official sources are fetched from fixed publisher addresses without sending your question or client details to those publishers. Your research question and the source text go through the same private model routing as a draft. Answers and source references are saved in this browser alongside your research conversation.
Public source text is organized by state and practice area. Recent publisher checks can be reused for up to one hour. These shared records contain source identifiers, text fingerprints and check times, with no client facts or drafts. A reused check is not a legal review.
When a CourtListener connection is configured, preparing a review record sends only recognized reporter citations, such as a volume, reporter and page number, to CourtListener. It does not send the draft, client names or intake answers. Without that connection, case citations remain unchecked. A match does not establish the case's meaning or later treatment.
Downloaded review records contain the exact draft, source text, automatic checks, reference results and any saved reviewer notes that match that draft and evidence. Reviewer notes stay in this browser and are not sent to the model or our server. Earlier notes are retained here when a draft or its evidence changes, but are not included in the new record. Reviewer names and conclusions are entered manually and are not independently verified. Keep downloaded records under the same protections as the client's other documents. The optional AI double-check is separate and is not included in this record.
Drafting records
New completed drafts also keep a compressed drafting record in this browser: submitted facts, the prompts and selected source text, model details and the resulting draft. A revision keeps its own record and the previous version's record for restoration. These records contain client information; any downloaded copy belongs in the protected matter file. Older drafts may have no record, and a saved record is not independently authenticated or legal approval.
Feedback and dictation
Send feedback goes to John Saad by email, sent through Amazon's mail service, with your name, your email if you gave it, and the page you were on. Our log records that a note arrived, from which page, and how long it was: not your name, your address or what it said. Email you send to support@lawsmith.ai is kept in our mail storage for 30 days and forwarded to the Lawsmith team's inboxes. It is not a place for client facts; the form says so.
When you press Speak, the browser turns your voice into words using the speech service of the company that makes the browser: Apple's in Safari, Google's in Chrome. The audio goes to that service, not to Lawsmith. Lawsmith receives only the words, and only when you send them. Type instead when the question includes client facts.
Emailing a draft to yourself
Email it sends the Word file to the address you type: yourself, or your secretary. The file passes through our mail server, Amazon's mail service, to reach that address, and is not kept there. Our log records the domain of the address and the size of the file, not the file and not the name on it. The address is remembered in this browser so it is filled in next time.
Once the file lands in a mailbox, it is under that mailbox's rules, not ours.
Your professional responsibility
Lawsmith drafts; you sign. Using it is your decision as the client's lawyer, and the rules that govern that decision are the ones you already know. ABA Formal Opinion 512 (July 29, 2024) applies them to AI tools. In plain terms:
- Competence. Know enough about the tool to use it sensibly, and read every draft as if a new associate wrote it. This page is part of knowing the tool.
- Confidentiality and informed consent. Know how a tool handles client information before you enter any. Get the client's informed consent when the tool would learn from the information or the risk is significant. Lawsmith does not learn from what you enter (see above). Whether to tell a particular client is your judgment; this page is written so you can hand it to them.
- Communication with the client. Tell the client when it matters to them: in the engagement letter, in the fee, or when they ask. If a client asks to be told whenever AI is used, honor it.
- Meritorious claims and candor to the court. The draft is a first draft. Check every citation, fee, deadline and section number before it leaves your office; the model can produce a plausible wrong one. Some courts now require a statement when AI helped draft a filing. Check the standing orders and local rules of the court you are in before you file.
- Supervision and fees. Staff who use Lawsmith are under your supervision, as with any tool. Bill for the time you spend, not the time the tool saved. A flat fee agreed in advance is a different matter.
Your state bar may have its own opinion; check it. Virginia's Legal Ethics Opinion 1901, approved November 24, 2025, addresses fees when a lawyer uses generative AI.
Lawsmith is a drafting tool. Nothing on this page is legal advice. No state's law has been fully verified in it yet; every draft tells you what to check.
Questions about any of this: John Saad, who built Lawsmith, at support@lawsmith.ai. Printed September 25, 2026 from #/privacy.