What software do law firms use, and where do attendance notes fit?
The centre of most firms is a practice management system: matters, documents, time, billing and trust accounting in one place. All four systems below now promote built-in AI. On the pages we read, that AI works on what is already saved in the matter. None of the pages describes drafting an attendance note from a phone call.
| Software | AI the vendor describes | Calls and attendance notes |
|---|---|---|
| LEAP | Matter AI (questions, matter summaries and drafting from documents, emails and scanned files saved in the matter), LawY legal research with optional lawyer verification, AI Prompts, and AutoTime for automatic time recording. LEAP says all are included in every subscription at no extra cost | Not described on the legal AI page. Notes you save to the matter can be read by Matter AI |
| Smokeball | Archie AI: document and matter summaries, next steps, drafting inside Word and Outlook, Playbooks that review documents against your rules, and LawY guidance. Archie Apps include a tool for turning a recording into a transcript | A recording-to-transcript app is listed. Drafting an attendance note from a call is not described on the Archie page |
| Actionstep | Actionstep Intelligence: AI time capture that tracks billable activity across Actionstep, Outlook, Word and other tools, codes time to matters and drafts bill narratives, plus AI business intelligence. Actionstep says it does not use firm data to train AI models | Not described on the AI page |
| Clio | Clio Work: analyses matter documents, builds a chronology, finds authority and drafts, in Clio Work or Microsoft Word. Clio says files are processed under zero data retention agreements and are not used to train public AI models | Not described on the Clio Work page. CallNote can publish a finished note to the linked Clio contact |
Sources: LEAP legal AI, Smokeball Archie, Actionstep AI and Clio Work. We go further into each system in attendance notes with LEAP, Smokeball and Actionstep and Clio attendance notes from client calls.
So the gap is the same in every system. It holds the note well. Someone still has to turn the conversation into the note. That is the job the rest of this guide is about.
What to look for in an attendance note tool
Before diving into categories, it helps to agree on what "good" looks like. Attendance notes have specific requirements that a general note-taking app will not automatically meet.
- Does it record calls, or just work from a transcript? Recording a phone call without consent is a problem in several Australian states. A tool that never touches audio sidesteps a lot of that. See the state-by-state breakdown of Australian recording law.
- Does it handle phone calls, not just video meetings? A lot of AI note tools are built around Zoom, Teams or Google Meet. If most of your client contact happens on the phone, a meeting-first tool may not fit your actual workflow.
- Can you set your own template? A generic summary does not look like an attendance note. You need a tool that structures the output the way your firm needs it, capturing matter reference, parties, advice given, action items and next steps in a consistent format.
- Is there a tamper-evident audit trail? If a note can be quietly edited after the fact, it is weaker evidence. Look for timestamps, version history, or an immutable seal.
- Where is the data stored? Client matters carry confidentiality obligations. A note sitting on a US server with vague data terms is worth questioning.
- Does it fit your workflow, or create a new one? The best tool is the one your fee earners will actually use. Something that requires too many extra steps will get skipped.
The three categories of tool
Strip away the branding and there are three distinct types of product that firms reach for when they want better attendance notes. They are built for different jobs.
1. Practice management systems with file note fields
Practice management platforms such as LEAP, Smokeball, Actionstep and Clio give you a place to record attendance notes against a matter. The note is tied to the file and the billing record, and the data sits inside your existing system. If you need a simple structured note and your team is already living in your practice management system, this may be all you need.
The limitation: these systems give you a place to keep the note, and their AI works on documents already in the matter. On the vendor pages we read, none describes turning a client phone call into an attendance note. A fee earner still writes the text after the call, which takes time and often means the note is written hours later from memory.
2. General AI meeting notetakers and bots
Tools like Otter.ai, Fireflies, Fathom, tl;dv and Granola are popular for a reason. They are well built and connect to a lot of other software. Most of them join your video call or capture device audio, produce a transcript, and generate a meeting summary.
A few things are worth understanding before using them for client calls. Most of these tools actually record the call, or capture audio before transcribing and discarding it. The visible meeting bot (the one that shows up as a participant) is recording. Granola captures your device audio instead of sending a bot, and says it does not store the audio after transcribing it, but the conversation is still being captured by a third-party tool. Whether this matters depends on your state and your client's expectations, but it is worth knowing what is happening.
The other issue is fit. These tools produce meeting summaries. A meeting summary is not an attendance note. It typically captures topics, decisions and action items in a general format. It does not produce the kind of structured record a solicitor would write: matter reference, parties present, advice given, client instructions, next steps in your house format. You would need to reformat every output, which largely removes the time saving.
They are also largely built around video meetings, and a lot of client contact in a law firm happens on the phone. Otter's own help centre says Apple and Google restrict third-party apps from recording phone calls directly, so a call has to be recorded with the phone's built-in recorder and imported. Granola says its iPhone app can take notes on phone calls, and its help centre limits that to calls you make, with calls to or from Telstra numbers in Australia not supported. Either way the call is being captured, which brings the consent rules into play.
3. Transcript-to-note tools purpose-built for compliant file notes
The third category is newer and smaller. These tools take a transcript as the input, rather than the audio, and generate a structured note in a format you define. CallNote is our tool in this category, built in Australia for attendance notes and file notes.
The distinction matters. If your phone system or meeting platform already produces a transcript, the tool picks up from there. No recording happens at the tool's end, because there is nothing to record. The output is not a meeting summary but a note shaped by your own template, which is what an attendance note actually is.
Comparison by category
The table below covers the main categories with one or two tools we checked for each. There are no star ratings and nothing we could not find on the vendor's own site.
| Category / Tool | How it works | Handles phone calls | Output format | Data location | Best fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Practice management (LEAP, Smokeball, Actionstep, Clio) | A note field or document inside the matter. You write the note. Built-in AI summarises and drafts from documents already saved | Yes, but you write the note yourself | Free text or your own precedent | Ask the vendor | Firms that need notes stored against the matter and are quick at writing them |
| Otter.ai (AI meeting note taker) | Otter Notetaker joins Zoom, Google Meet and Teams meetings to record and transcribe. Mobile app records in-person conversations | Not directly. Otter says phone calls must be recorded separately and imported | Transcript and meeting summary | Amazon Web Services, based in the United States (Otter privacy policy) | Internal meetings and teams that want live transcripts |
| Granola (AI notepad) | Transcribes your computer audio with no bot. Says it does not store the audio. Apps for macOS, Windows, iOS and Android | iPhone app takes notes on outbound phone calls. Not Telstra numbers, per its help centre | AI notes built around what you typed | US-hosted AWS (Granola security page) | Your own meeting notes when US hosting is acceptable |
| CallNote (transcript-to-note) | Receives a transcript that already exists: Aircall, Dialpad, Microsoft Teams, paste, upload, email or a dictated voice memo. Never records | Yes, through Aircall and Dialpad transcripts | Your own attendance note template | Stored in Sydney (AI step overseas) | Firms that want a proper attendance note from client calls without the note tool recording anything |
When your practice management system is enough
If your firm's problem is storing and finding attendance notes rather than writing them, and your fee earners are fast at producing the text themselves, a note in LEAP, Smokeball, Actionstep or Clio may be all you need. AI note generation is only useful if the manual writing is the actual bottleneck.
Similarly, if you rarely take client calls and your matters are mostly document-driven, the ROI on a specialised note tool may not be there. Be honest about where time is actually being lost before adding new software.
When a general AI meeting tool makes sense
If most of your client contact happens on video, and your note requirements are not highly structured (internal strategy meetings, partner calls, professional development), a tool like Otter or Granola can be useful. They are well built, and if you are comfortable with US hosting for that class of meeting, they do the job.
The test is whether you would be comfortable with the output as a client file note. If the answer is "only after heavy editing", the time saving disappears.
CallNote for law firms: honest positioning
CallNote is the tool we built, so read this section with that in mind. We will describe it accurately and flag where it is not the right fit.
CallNote sits in the legal and professional services category. It takes a transcript your phone system or meeting platform already produced and turns it into a structured attendance note in about two minutes. You review the draft, make any changes you need, then publish it: timestamped, SHA-256 sealed, recorded in an append-only audit log. Any later change creates an amendment, not a silent edit.
The key behaviours that matter for legal use:
- Never records. CallNote receives a transcript that already exists from your phone or meeting system. It does not capture audio, does not join calls as a bot, and has no access to the audio at any point.
- Your template, not ours. You define the structure: matter reference, parties, advice, instructions, action items, next steps - in whatever format your firm uses. The note looks like it came from your firm.
- Seal and audit log. Once a note is published, it is sealed with a SHA-256 checksum. If you need to add something later, it goes in as an amendment with its own timestamp, not an invisible edit.
- Stored in Australia. Data is stored in AWS Sydney, AES-256 encrypted, and is never used to train AI models. The AI step that writes the note is run by a provider overseas (see our security page).
- Works for phone calls. Connect Aircall or Dialpad and each call transcript arrives automatically. Microsoft Teams meeting transcripts arrive the same way once each person connects their Microsoft account. Otherwise paste a transcript, upload a .vtt or .txt file, forward it by email, or dictate a voice memo after an in-person meeting.
Where CallNote is not the right fit: if you do not take client calls (or your calls produce no transcript your phone system can surface), the tool has no input to work with. CallNote publishes to Clio (on the linked Clio contact; it does not pick a matter for you). It has no native integration with LEAP, Smokeball or Actionstep, so the route into those is copy and paste, PDF, or Zapier where the system supports it. And if your firm is cloud-averse or requires on-premise storage, this is not the product for you.
It suits firms where fee earners spend real time writing up calls from memory. A solicitor who takes ten client calls a week and writes a ten-minute note after each one spends over an hour and a half a week on write-ups.
See what a finished legal attendance note looks like.
Pick your line of work and we'll send a sample note written from a mocked call. No account, no card, and nothing from your own client files.
One sample note, plus the occasional CallNote update. Unsubscribe any time by replying. We never ask for your call recordings or client files.
How to evaluate any of these tools
- Start with the output, not the feature list. Ask the vendor for a sample note from a client call similar to yours. If it does not look like an attendance note you would sign off on, move on.
- Check what happens to the audio. If the tool records and stores audio, find out where and for how long. For client calls, this deserves a real answer, not a vague privacy policy reference.
- Run it on real calls. Most tools offer a trial. Use it on five actual client calls and measure how much editing you do and how long it takes. That is the real unit cost.
- Confirm the audit trail works the way you need. Ask: can a note be silently edited after it is finalised? How is that tracked? For an attendance note that might one day be in evidence, this matters.
- Check the workflow fit. Does it produce output inside the system your fee earners already use, or does it create a separate place to log in and retrieve notes? Extra steps kill adoption.
The bottom line
If your firm's bottleneck is storing notes, your practice management system already solves it. If your work is mostly video meetings and a general summary is good enough, a tool like Otter or Granola may suit. If you are taking client calls on the phone, writing attendance notes manually from memory, and looking for something that produces a proper structured note without recording anything, CallNote was built for exactly that job.
You can generate a free sample attendance note from a demo call without signing up, to see what the output actually looks like. The 14-day free trial lets you use your own template on real calls, with no credit card.
More reading: automating attendance notes versus using a paralegal, how to write a legal attendance note, AI note takers for law firms in Australia, and the law firm overview page.
Common questions
What is the best attendance note software for Australian law firms?
It depends on the problem you are solving. If you need a place to store notes against a matter, your practice management system (LEAP, Smokeball, Actionstep, Clio) already does this. If you take client calls and want a structured draft generated from the transcript without the note tool recording anything, CallNote is built for that job. General AI meeting tools like Otter or Granola produce meeting summaries, not attendance notes in your format, and are built mainly around meetings.
What software do law firms use?
Most law firms run on a practice management system such as LEAP, Smokeball, Actionstep or Clio, which holds matters, documents, time recording, billing and trust accounting. Around it sit email and Microsoft 365, a phone system, and increasingly AI tools for research, drafting and note taking. Attendance notes are usually stored in the practice management system, whatever tool drafts them.
Do LEAP, Smokeball, Actionstep or Clio write attendance notes from calls?
Not on the pages we read in October 2026. LEAP's Matter AI, Smokeball's Archie, Actionstep Intelligence and Clio Work are described as working on documents, emails and data already saved in the matter: summaries, drafting, research and time capture. Smokeball lists an Archie App that turns a recording into a transcript. None of the four pages describes drafting an attendance note from a client phone call, so check with your vendor for the current position.
Do I need to record the call to generate an attendance note?
No. CallNote never records anything. It works from a transcript that your phone system or meeting platform has already produced. If your system does not produce one automatically, you can paste a transcript, upload a .vtt or .txt file or forward it by email. After an in-person meeting you can dictate a voice memo, which is transcribed on the way in.
Is client data stored in Australia?
With CallNote, yes. Data is stored in Sydney (AWS ap-southeast-2), encrypted, and not used to train AI. The AI step that writes the note is run by a provider overseas. Otter's privacy policy names Amazon Web Services in the United States for storage, and Granola's security page says notes are stored in its US-hosted AWS cloud. For any other tool, check the vendor's own security page and data processing agreement before committing.
Can I use my own attendance note template?
In CallNote, yes. You define the structure - matter reference, parties, advice given, client instructions, action items, next steps - in whatever format your firm uses. General meeting tools produce their own generic summary format, which typically requires reformatting to look like an attendance note.
Will attendance note software work with my phone system?
CallNote connects to Aircall and Dialpad, so each call transcript arrives automatically once connected. Aircall needs its AI Assist switched on for transcripts, and Dialpad needs a Pro or Enterprise plan. For other phone systems, paste or upload the transcript or forward it by email. Meeting bots join Zoom, Teams or Google Meet and cannot join an ordinary phone call.