FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
How August Works
Frequently asked questions about legal AI, the August platform, security, and how it fits into the practice and business of forward-thinking law firms.
Legal AI fundamentals
What is legal Al and how does it work?
Legal AI is software designed specifically for the work lawyers do — reviewing contracts, summarizing case files, drafting memos, and answering questions across a firm's matters and precedents. It's built around how a firm actually works: every answer points back to a source document so the work can be verified, client information stays protected, and the output is designed for a partner to review and sign off on. Legal AI gives lawyers leverage on the parts of legal work that don't require their judgment, so they can spend more time on the parts that do.
How are law firms using Al today?
Adoption has moved past pilots. Firms are using Al today across most of the document- heavy work that fills an associate's day - reviewing and redlining contracts, summarizing case files and depositions, tracking regulatory changes, and drafting first-pass memos and briefs. Al takes the structured, repetitive parts, and lawyers spend their time on judgment, strategy, and client relationships. Firms like Hughes Hubbard & Reed and Hicksons Lawyers have rolled out August firm-wide across both their legal and business teams.
What is the difference between legal Al and general Al tools like ChatGPT?
General Al tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Copilot are powerful - they're just not built for legal work. When a lawyer uses one to draft a memo or summarize a contract, the output can look polished but miss what matters most in law: a clear source for every claim, the ability to keep client information confidential, and consistency with how the firm handles that kind of work. A platform like August provides firms with what they actually need to use Al on client work - citations back to specific source documents, ethical walls between matters, integration with the tools lawyers already use (Word, Outlook, iManage), and outputs configured to the firm's own precedents and playbooks rather than generic results. The short version: ChatGPT is an assistant. Claude Legal is a legally trained model. August is the all-in-one secure workspace where documents, workflows, and Al work together. Can Al replace lawyers or legal professionals? What are the benefits of using Al in a law firm?
What August does
What does August's legal Al platform do?
August is an AI workspace built for end-to-end legal work. It brings documents, workflows, and AI into one platform integrated with the tools lawyers already use. Core products include: - Assistant for conversational legal research, analysis, and drafting - Playbooks for turning past deals into firm-wide contract review standards - Workflows for automating multi-step legal tasks described in plain language - Tabular Review for batch-processing hundreds of documents into structured, cited spreadsheets - Live Collaboration for real-time multi-user document review - Client Portal for branded workspaces per client or matter a Mobile app with full Assistant access on your phone Integrations with Microsoft Word, Outlook, SharePoint, iManage, NetDocuments, Google Drive, and Dropbox.
How does August fit into a law firm's existing workflows?
August integrates directly with the tools lawyers already use. The Microsoft Word Add-In lets lawyers chat with documents, apply playbooks, and generate edits as tracked changes without leaving their drafting environment. The Outlook integration enables email search, summarization, and reply drafting. SharePoint integration provides document access. August also connects to Manage, NetDocuments, Google Drive, Dropbox, and SOS practice management for matter sync. There is no application switching required. The Word Add-In operates within the firm's Microsoft 365 security boundary and supports Single Sign-On (SSO).
How quickly can a law firm get started with August?
Most firms start with a structured pilot. Every account gets a forward-deployed engineer and a customer success manager who co-build workflows with the team. Onboarding includes practice-area-specific training sessions tailored to each group's way of working. For larger firms, the full onboarding process from kickoff to first training typically takes about two weeks. For smaller firms, walkthroughs and workspace setup can happen in a single session. August also offers a trial for firms that want to explore the platform before committing to a full pilot.
Customization & fit
Can legal Al be customized to a firm's workflows?
Yes. Customization is August's core differentiator. Playbooks are built from a firm's own past negotiated agreements, extracting preferred positions, acceptable alternatives, and hard limits. The Personas memory layer retains format preferences, recurring facts, and style guidance for consistency across outputs. Custom workflows can be built anytime a firm describes a process specific to their practice. During onboarding, practice-area-specific configurations are set up so lawyers can immediately run common workflows relevant to their work.
What makes August different from other legal Al platforms?
Three principles differentiate August. 01 Configured, not generic. Other legal Al tools ship one product for everyone. August is configured for each firm's own precedents, voice, and workflows. The output reflects how that firm works, not a generic template. 02 Mid-size firms are first-class citizens. Most legal Al is built for the largest firms. August is designed for the AmLaw 100-500, the firms that need the most leverage and get the least vendor attention. 03 Partnership, not software. Every account gets a forward-deployed engineer and a customer success manager. August builds with the customer, not at them. This is how August operates, not just a feature. Additional differentiators include a model-agnostic architecture (supporting multiple leading Al models with automatic failover), a single-tenant architecture for complete data isolation, and industry-leading uptime and response-time commitments.
Does August learn from a firm's documents and templates?
Yes. Playbooks are built by pointing August at a folder of past agreements. It extracts what the firm pushes for, where they have conceded, and where they have walked away, and organizes this into a structured playbook. The Personas memory layer retains format preferences, recurring facts, and style guidance so outputs stay consistent. August also integrates with document management systems, including iManage, NetDocuments, SharePoint, Google Drive, and Dropbox, so that outputs are grounded in the firm's validated documents. This learning is entirely firm-specific. It is never shared across customers and never used for model training.
Security & client data
How does August protect client data and confidentiality?
August holds SOC 2 Type Il and ISO 27001:2022 certifications. All data is encrypted in transit (TLS 1.2+) and at rest (AES-256). User profiles are fully siloed unless proactively shared. Role-based access controls (RBAC) with matter-level isolation (ethical walls) are enforced. Comprehensive audit logs track all user actions, Al outputs, and data access. August supports Single Sign-On (SSO) via SAML and Auth, and offers both EU and US deployment options. Deployments can also run behind a firm's own firewall to meet regional data-residency requirements.
Does August use firm data to train external Al models?
No. No customer prompts, outputs, metadata, or derived data are used by August or any of its subprocessors for model training, fine-tuning, analytics, or product improvement. Each subprocessor is contractually bound to restrictions on customer data use through August's Data Processing Addendum (DPA) and subprocessor agreements. No opt-out is needed because data collection for training does not occur. August does not have visibility into user inputs, uploads, or outputs.
How does August handle sensitive legal documents?
Customer data is maintained in its own environment, aligned with the customer's data residency choice, and protected by logical separation controls. August does not passively access any content. Users explicitly choose what is processed. No background syncing, crawling, or indexing occurs. Even within a firm, user profiles are fully siloed unless users proactively share chats, outputs, or create shared workspaces. Al requests are processed through secure, controlled endpoints with zero data retention by external model providers. Optional support for isolated or private model environments is available for firms with additional requirements.
Evaluating August
How does August compare to other legal Al tools?
August differentiates on three axes: configurability, firm-size focus, and partnership model. Where most legal Al platforms ship a single product for every firm, August is configured to each firm's own precedents, workflows, and voice. Where most are built for the AmLaw 50, August is designed for the AmLaw 100-500. Where most vendors deliver software, August assigns a forward-deployed engineer and a customer success manager to every account.
Is August suitable for small or mid-size law firms?
Serving mid-size firms is a core operating principle at August. Most legal Al is built for the largest firms. August is designed for the AmLaw 100- 500, the firms that need the most leverage and get the least vendor attention.
Can firms try August before committing?
Yes. August offers a trial period for firms that want to explore the platform before a full commitment. For larger evaluations, August runs structured pilots that include a forward-deployed engineer, a customer success manager, and practice-area-specific configuration - so the team is evaluating the product against real work from day one.