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Transforming Access to legal AI for Smaller Firms

In a significant step towards democratizing access to advanced generative AI technology for legal practitioners, August unveiled immediate self-service capabilities on its innovative legal AI platform. This launch includes a complimentary two-week trial and an extensive collection of over 100 video tutorials designed to simplify the learning curve for users. The availability of these resources aims to address and remove the sales-cycle obstacles that have historically excluded solo and smaller-firm lawyers from leveraging these powerful tools.

Empowering Smaller Law Firms

For the first time, August’s newly launched model grants solo practitioners and midsized law firms access to the powerful capabilities typically reserved for larger legal firms. This shift comes without the usual hurdles often associated with lengthy sales processes, extensive implementation phases, costly training sessions, and the necessity of dedicated IT support.

A Gap in the Market

“Most legal AI has been built for BigLaw,” remarked Thomas Bueler-Faudree, co-founder of August. He pointed out that this concentration often leaves solo practitioners, such as those in remote areas like Anchorage, or smaller firms, like a three-partner practice in Austin, with limited options.

Reflecting on his own experiences, Bueler-Faudree recounted working for an attorney in Alaska where a tool like August would have been pivotal. However, the prohibitive barriers to entry made it unattainable. “We built August to change that,” he affirmed, underscoring the platform’s commitment to equality in legal service access.

Breaking Down Traditional Barriers

The conventional approach many law firms encounter when opting to acquire leading legal AI solutions often necessitates protracted negotiations and implementation timelines. August’s new self-service model is poised to upend this outdated method.

Lawyers can easily sign up today, instantly gain two weeks of free access, and begin utilizing AI technology to streamline their workflows—from drafting motions and demand letters to conducting due diligence and reviewing contracts, complete with AI-generated playbooks rooted in their own precedent documents.

Seamless Integration and Usability

The self-service platform retains all the essential functionalities that August previously offered to larger firms. These features include seamless integration across web applications, Outlook, and Word—ensuring full context preservation; sophisticated document comprehension; and an adaptable agent-based architecture that caters to various practice areas and workflows.

Instead of navigating through sales calls and protracted implementation schedules, practitioners can access AI capabilities mere minutes after signing up.

“We’ve witnessed solo practitioners transition from zero familiarity with August to leveraging the entire suite of features after just a single 30-minute onboarding call with our team,” Bueler-Faudree shared during a recent interview. “Now they utilize our platform more than they use ChatGPT.”

Introducing August Academy

To accompany the self-service entry, August is launching August Academy. This comprehensive library of video tutorials and pragmatic lessons covers a broad spectrum of topics, ranging from document review strategies to advanced research techniques. Remarkably, users do not need to be paying customers to access this invaluable educational content.

Tailored Learning Experiences

The Academy’s tutorials are meticulously categorized based on practice areas, use cases, and users’ familiarity with AI—a strategic measure designed to help lawyers not just comprehend how to utilize the technology, but also when and why its application is beneficial. The content library will continuously evolve, incorporating new materials as August advances its capabilities and responds to changes in the legal AI landscape.

Vivan Marwaha, August’s head of marketing, highlighted that the platform customizes onboarding communications and educational emails based on each lawyer’s practice focus. “Attorneys can responsibly incorporate AI into numerous workflows, and our Academy provides a robust educational framework to facilitate that successful adoption,” she clarified.

Comprehensive Functionality of the Platform

August operates as what Bueler-Faudree describes as a “legal operating system.” It connects effortlessly with documents stored in SharePoint, emails in Outlook, and integrates directly into Word, enabling users to manage a variety of legal tasks seamlessly—ranging from due diligence to drafting lengthy agreements or managing litigation workflows like drafting motions and overseeing discovery.

Key Capabilities Highlighted

In a recent demonstration provided by Bueler-Faudree and Marwaha, the platform’s impressive capabilities were showcased, which include:

• Litigation Workflows: Automatic transcription of depositions, with the ability to pose questions regarding testimony or utilize it for future preparations.

• Contract Review: Upload existing playbooks and create AI-enhanced review tools or generate new playbooks through the analysis of antecedent contracts.

• Document Drafting: Compose memos, emails, summaries, or other legal documents with context retention across different platforms such as the web, email, and Word.

• Due Diligence: Conduct tabular analyses by uploading document corpuses and converting them into interactive tables.

• Custom Workflows: Personalize workflows or modify pre-existing ones for tasks like drafting motions or preparing divorce documents.

Cloud Storage Compatibility

August boasts integrations with popular platforms like SharePoint, iManage, NetDocs, Google Drive, and Dropbox. During the onboarding process, connections to SharePoint, Dropbox, and Google Drive can be set up automatically.

You can interact with the platform intuitively, as Bueler-Faudree described: “You simply connect your SharePoint and articulate, ‘I have a new client in Virginia incorporating in Delaware with subsidiaries. Can you analyze my model corporate documents from Nevada for applicability to Virginia?’ The platform will thoroughly examine your SharePoint to execute these tasks for you.”

Advanced Technology Backbone

To power its advanced features, August collaborates with three leading LLM providers—OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI—selecting the most suitable model for each task based on its complexities and requirements. Bueler-Faudree explained that the team’s blend of legal and engineering expertise ensures that models are wisely utilized for specific functions.

Ensuring Accuracy and Transparency

Accuracy and transparency are central to the platform’s design, showing users the workflow steps taken throughout their processes. According to Marwaha, this critical technical investment has resulted in a product that partners are now rigorously studying.

“Our partners are assessing case studies with August to evaluate our contributions to their operational models and technology stack,” he revealed. “When a user inquires about a particular document, August provides a citation directing them to a specific page, ensuring pinpoint accuracy—even to the exhibit level of a PDF.”

This stringent focus on accuracy responds to one of the primary anxieties lawyers harbor about AI tools. “Accuracy is paramount in law,” Bueler-Faudree insisted. “It’s crucial to maintain a fault tolerance that is not just ideal but nearly absolute. Our technology aims to minimize inaccuracies to near-zero levels.”

Notable Early Success Stories

Following its public launch in August, August has successfully engaged with a range of larger law firms and onboarded many smaller practices actively seeking innovative solutions. The company’s recent decision to eliminate the traditional sales process reflects its commitment to reaching solo practitioners and smaller legal firms effectively.

Testimonials from Early Users

One early adopter, Patricia Wolfe, a shareholder at Hunt Ortmann law firm, expressed her satisfaction: “August has become an invaluable ally in my practice. The platform efficiently manages the repetitive aspects of discovery work—like drafting requests and summarizing deposition transcripts—allowing me to focus on high-level strategic decisions that truly require my legal expertise.”

In another instance, a solo practitioner was able to manage HVAC roll-up due diligence for a family office, a task typically reserved for larger firms due to economic considerations that often disfavor smaller practices.

“Clients using August are gaining a competitive edge over those that aren’t,” Marwaha stated. “Our findings suggest that these clients can expand their practices and undertake cases they’d previously deemed unattainable—tasks their competitors may be avoiding.”

August highlighted the success of Hicksons in Australia as a significant case, noting that the firm’s healthcare practice grew fivefold in 2025 after integrating the platform.

Complimentary Two-Week Trial

Leveraging all these robust features comes at a cost of $375 monthly or $4,000 annually per user. Importantly, the two-week free trial offers full platform access, alongside complete entry to August Academy content—no credit card is required.

A Paradigm Shift in legal AI Access

This self-service model represents a transformative departure from competitors in the enterprise legal AI sector, such as Harvey and Thomson Reuters CoCounsel, which typically demand sales discussions before granting attorneys platform access.

“None of our rivals are pursuing this model,” Bueler-Faudree claimed confidently. “We firmly believe in our product and thus are dismantling conventional barriers, including the layers of sales processes that traditionally inhibit attorneys from accessing high-quality AI tools for their legal practices.”

August has successfully secured $7 million in funding through contributions from New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Pear VC, Afore Capital, Stanford Law School, and key figures from OpenAI, Bain Capital Ventures, and Ramp.

How AI legalese decoder Enhances Your Experience

For solo practitioners or small firms looking to maximize the potential of August’s platform, the integration of the AI legalese decoder can be a game-changer. This tool simplifies complex legal language, making it accessible and understandable for lawyers of all backgrounds. By utilizing the AI legalese decoder, users can easily interpret legal jargon and incorporate such insights into their workflows, allowing for a deeper understanding of the documents they handle.

With this collaboration, August not only empowers lawyers to use cutting-edge technology effectively but also enhances their ability to communicate and navigate the intricate landscape of legal documentation, ensuring that no practitioner is left behind in this evolving digital age.

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