Dictate contracts, briefs, memos, and client correspondence with precision. Lawyers who switch to voice dictation save hours each week on document drafting.
Lawyers are professional writers. Between contracts, briefs, memos, motions, client emails, and case notes, the average attorney produces thousands of words every day. Yet most still type everything manually, one character at a time, at 40-60 words per minute.
Voice dictation has a long history in the legal profession. For decades, attorneys dictated into tape recorders for assistants to transcribe. Steno modernizes this workflow by cutting out the middleman. You speak, and the text appears instantly in your document. No waiting, no transcription delays, no miscommunication.
With Steno's Whisper-powered transcription, you dictate at 130-150 WPM with high accuracy, including legal terminology, Latin phrases, and case citations. The result: documents that used to take an hour to type can be drafted in 20 minutes.
Download Steno from stenofast.com. The setup takes under a minute. Choose a hotkey that does not conflict with your document editor's shortcuts. The Right Option key works well for most attorneys.
Open Microsoft Word, Google Docs, or your firm's document management system. Navigate to the section where you want to begin dictating. Steno types at the system level, so it works in any macOS application without plugins.
Hold your Steno hotkey and speak your legal text. Use voice commands for precise punctuation: say "period" for a period, "comma" for a comma, "colon" for a colon, "semicolon" for a semicolon, "open parenthesis" and "close parenthesis" for parentheticals. Say "new paragraph" to start a new paragraph and "new line" for line breaks.
Create text snippets in Steno for boilerplate clauses, standard definitions, and frequently used language. Say a short trigger phrase and Steno expands it into the full clause. This is especially valuable for NDAs, indemnification clauses, choice of law provisions, and other standard contract terms.
After dictating, review the document thoroughly. Check legal citations for accuracy, verify terminology, and ensure punctuation does not change the meaning of any clause. Dictation provides a fast first draft, but legal documents require careful proofreading.
"Section 4 period 2 colon Limitation of Liability period new paragraph In no event shall either party be liable to the other party for any indirect comma incidental comma special comma consequential comma or punitive damages comma including but not limited to loss of profits comma data comma or business opportunities comma arising out of or related to this Agreement comma regardless of the theory of liability period new paragraph The total cumulative liability of either party under this Agreement shall not exceed the total fees paid by the Client during the twelve open parenthesis 12 close parenthesis month period immediately preceding the claim period"
Section 4.2: Limitation of Liability.
In no event shall either party be liable to the other party for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, including but not limited to loss of profits, data, or business opportunities, arising out of or related to this Agreement, regardless of the theory of liability.
The total cumulative liability of either party under this Agreement shall not exceed the total fees paid by the Client during the twelve (12) month period immediately preceding the claim.
That entire clause took about 45 seconds to dictate. Typing it would take 4-5 minutes. Over the course of a full contract with 20-30 clauses, the time savings are substantial.
For attorneys billing by the hour, faster document production means more cases handled per day. For those on flat-fee arrangements, it directly increases profitability. Either way, the math is compelling.
Letters and emails to clients, opposing counsel, and courts are often lengthy and formal. Dictating these at speaking speed is dramatically faster than typing, and the formal tone of spoken dictation aligns well with legal writing conventions.
Legal memos and briefs require extended analysis and argumentation. The ability to "think out loud" while dictating often produces stronger legal reasoning, because speaking engages analytical thinking differently than typing. Many lawyers find that their dictated arguments flow more logically.
While contracts contain boilerplate that is best handled through text snippets, the custom provisions and negotiations unique to each deal benefit from voice dictation. You can quickly dictate new clauses, modifications, and redline comments.
Documenting client meetings, depositions, and case strategy is essential but time-consuming. Dictating these notes immediately after meetings captures details while they are fresh, producing more thorough records than notes typed from memory later.
In legal writing, punctuation can change the meaning of a clause. Get comfortable saying "comma", "period", "semicolon", "colon", and "new paragraph" explicitly. This gives you precise control over the text output and reduces the need for post-dictation editing.
Build a library of text snippets for standard legal language: indemnification, confidentiality, governing law, severability, force majeure, and more. A two-word trigger phrase can insert an entire paragraph of reviewed, firm-approved language.
Dictate one paragraph at a time, release the hotkey, review it, then move on. This incremental approach catches errors early and prevents the need to re-dictate large sections. It also helps maintain the precision that legal documents require.
For highly confidential documents, Steno supports offline transcription mode that processes audio entirely on your Mac. No data leaves your device, ensuring client confidentiality is maintained at the highest level.
Attorney-client privilege and confidentiality are paramount. Steno is designed with privacy in mind. Audio is sent to the transcription API, processed in real time, and immediately discarded. No audio or text is stored, logged, or used for training. Steno also offers an offline mode that processes everything locally on your Mac, ensuring that sensitive legal content never leaves your device.
Unlike cloud-based dictation services that may retain audio data, Steno's architecture ensures that your client communications and legal strategy remain confidential.
Steno uses OpenAI's Whisper model, which achieves over 95% accuracy for English speech. For legal documents, the dictation serves as a fast first draft that you review and refine. The voice command system gives you precise control over punctuation, which is critical in legal writing. Most attorneys find that dictating and then reviewing is significantly faster than typing from scratch.
Yes. Whisper's language model understands legal terminology including Latin phrases like habeas corpus, res judicata, and prima facie. It handles proper nouns, case citations, and specialized vocabulary well. For uncommon terms, you may occasionally need to correct the transcription during review.
Steno sends audio to the transcription API, processes it in real time, and immediately discards it. No audio or text is stored on any server. Steno does not log, retain, or train on your dictation data. For maximum privacy, Steno also supports offline transcription mode using on-device Whisper models.
Dragon Legal has been discontinued for Mac. Steno is a modern, native macOS alternative that uses state-of-the-art Whisper AI for transcription. It is lighter (1.7MB vs hundreds of MB), faster to set up, and works in every macOS app without plugins. While Dragon had legal-specific vocabulary, Whisper's general language model handles legal terminology well.
Voice dictation is not new to the legal profession, but modern AI-powered tools like Steno make it more accurate and accessible than ever. For more on maximizing your productivity, check out our guide on writing emails with voice and our blog post on how voice typing can save your wrists from the strain of long typing sessions. You can also explore Steno's voice commands for detailed formatting control.
Download Steno and start dictating contracts, briefs, and memos today. Free to try on macOS.
Download Steno