Writing
Notes from
the Bar.
Practical writing on how Irish and UK legal practices actually run — for the barristers doing the dictating, the clerks doing the dispatching, and the solicitors and secretaries in between.
- Legal Tech
Why the clerk's room is next
Two decades of legal tech aimed at partners and associates. Barristers got Dragon and a Dictaphone; clerks got Excel and instinct. That's changing.
7 min read
- Practice Management
Fee notes without the nine-at-night
How a Dublin practice cut its fee-note backlog from three days to ninety minutes using a thirty-second voice memo per matter.
6 min read
- Practice Management
Conflict checks: the clerk's job nobody talks about
Conflict checks are the most consequential thing a clerk does and the most under-resourced. Here's what a 2026-ready check actually looks like.
8 min read
- Dictation
Dragon Legal vs modern voice-to-document
Dragon Legal still has a following at the Irish bar. Here's where it still works, where it's been left behind, and what to look at instead.
9 min read
- GDPR & Compliance
GDPR for the clerk's room: what's actually required
An honest read of what GDPR requires of a barristers' or solicitors' clerk's room, with the corner-cuts called out.
10 min read
- Legal Tech
Citations, neutral citations, and Latin: what AI dictation gets right
Irish and UK legal vocabulary is the unforgiving test for any voice tool. Here's what works, what doesn't, and how to test a tool before you trust it with a fee note.
5 min read
- Legal Tech
From the leather diary to the clerk's OS: a short history
How the senior clerk's day has been organised across four eras — and what the next one looks like.
7 min read
- Practice Management
What a good attendance note looks like (and how AI gets close to it)
The attendance note is a small document with outsized professional consequences. Here's the structure that's served us well, and what an AI draft should and shouldn't include.
6 min read
- Practice Management
Buying software for a small practice: a practical guide
Whether you're a sole practitioner, a small set, or a clerk evaluating tools for a busy room, here's the buying framework we wish we'd been handed.
7 min read
- Dictation
Looking for a BigHand alternative? What small practices should look at
BigHand is the default name in legal dictation, but it's no longer the only option — and for a small practice, it's often not the right one.
5 min read