Smokeball
Smokeball is a hybrid desktop-and-cloud practice management platform for solo, small and mid-sized law firms, built around Microsoft Word document automation with a library of more than twenty thousand forms, AutoTime passive time recording, matter management, email management, calendaring, LeadPro intake and lead management, a client portal, invoicing, payments and trust accounting. Its AI layer is Archie, a matter assistant launched in July 2024 that drafts, reviews and answers questions inside the matter the user is working in, embedded in Word and Outlook, with Archie Apps for tasks such as bank statement analysis, legal chronologies and, in Australia, property contract review; Playbooks review documents against firm-defined rules, Smokeball AI summarises message threads and builds intake forms, and an integration with LawY lets a user ask a jurisdiction-aware legal question and optionally have the answer verified by a lawyer. The company is Smokeball Incorporated of Chicago, with operating businesses in Australia and the United Kingdom, serving more than five thousand firms. Its published terms commit to prompt prior notice of any compelled disclosure so the firm can seek a protective order, state that the AI should be used only under the supervision of qualified legal practitioners, cap liability at a year's fees and give an intellectual property indemnity; its security page states firm-level logical isolation, matter-scoped AI access limited to users already assigned to the matter, no provision of customer data to third parties for model training, ISO 27001:2022 certification and annual penetration testing, and the product pages state that Archie runs under zero-data-retention agreements with its AI providers.
Capability grades
All 15 axes, graded from public sources on the date shown. Hover a grade to see what the letter means on that axis.
AI Centrality
How much of the product is actually AI. Whether the machine learning is the mechanism the buyer is paying for or a feature layered onto conventional software, and whether the vendor is specific about which is which.
The models are the engine of a core capability layered on a product that would still function without them. Archie drafts, reviews and answers inside a matter, Archie Apps run task-specific analyses and Playbooks review documents against rules, but the product's centre remains Word document automation from a form library, AutoTime, matter management, billing and trust accounting; Archie is sold as an add-on to the Grow and Prosper+ tiers, and the terms treat Smokeball AI and Archie as features whose processing aligns with the product's primary uses. Home page, Archie pages, terms and third-party tier description read 6 September 2026.
Citation Accuracy and Hallucination Disclosure
Whether the vendor publishes measured accuracy on citations and assertions, grounds output to primary sources, and says plainly what its system does when it does not know. Legal has a documented public record of fabricated citations reaching filed briefs, so an untested claim of accuracy is not evidence.
Accuracy is disclaimed without measurement. Terms section 24 states that answers produced by Smokeball AI or Archie may include inaccuracies and may not reflect recent changes in the law, that notifications may not be accurate, and that Smokeball makes no warranty as to results; the LawY integration answers legal questions from a jurisdiction-aware knowledge base with an option to have a lawyer verify the answer, which is a review step rather than a published accuracy figure. No test set, benchmark or evaluation is published for Archie, Archie Apps or Playbooks. Terms and Archie pages read 6 September 2026.
Autonomy and Oversight Model
What the system decides on its own, what a lawyer must approve, and whether the vendor documents where the review point sits. A tool that drafts under review and a tool that files without one are different products and different risks.
A written commitment that the models work under a supervising lawyer, with real review surfaces, short of the full control structure. Terms section 24 requires that Smokeball AI and Archie be used only by or under the supervision of qualified legal practitioners and that the firm validate every notification and form with its own judgement; Playbooks review each document against rules the firm defines and flag issues for a person to accept; LawY answers can be sent to a lawyer for verification; Archie drafts in Outlook and Word are adjusted before sending. What is not published is a threshold at which the system acts alone, including AutoTime's passive time capture, or a stated route back after a wrong answer beyond the firm's own review. Terms and Archie pages read 6 September 2026.
Operational and Outcome Evidence
Named, dated evidence that the product works in production at real firms or legal departments. Case studies with figures and identified customers count. Unattributed testimonials and launch announcements do not.
Scale claims stand in for named deployments on the surfaces read. The vendor states more than five thousand firms; a case studies page and a testimonial wall exist in the navigation and were not opened, and are the rebuttal route. Home page and navigation read 6 September 2026.
Privilege and Confidentiality Posture
How client confidences are handled: attorney client privilege and work product treatment, segregation of one client matter from another, whether client data trains any model, and what the vendor commits to in writing rather than in marketing.
Substantive published commitments on confidentiality, segregation and third-party use, short of a contractual training term and of privilege named as such. Segregation at matter level, the strongest in the pull: the security page states firm-level logical isolation and that only users already permitted on a matter can use Archie for that matter, and the product pages state that Archie works only within the matter the user is in, never cross-references others, and is visible only to staff assigned to it. Third-party providers: the security page states that Smokeball does not provide customer data to third parties for AI model training, and the product pages that Archie runs under zero-data-retention agreements. Confidentiality and legal process: terms sections 18 and 22 treat client data as confidential with prompt prior notice of compelled disclosure. Retention: deletion thirty days after termination. Not in the agreement: any training term, and Smokeball's own use of data for its models is not addressed on any surface read; privilege and work product are not named. Terms, security page and Archie pages read 6 September 2026.
UPL and Professional Responsibility Posture
Whether the vendor is clear that it supplies a tool rather than legal advice, who its audience is, and how it addresses unauthorized practice of law, competence and supervision duties, and jurisdiction limits. ABA Formal Opinion 512 is the reference point.
The vendor states what its AI is and is not, who should use it, and how it sits with a lawyer's supervision duties, with jurisdiction limits where they apply. Terms section 24 states that Smokeball is not a law firm, that Smokeball AI and Archie are not a substitute for legal or professional skill, judgement and experience and should only be used by or under the supervision of qualified legal practitioners, that notifications and generated forms must be validated with the lawyer's own professional judgement, and that content may not reflect current law. Jurisdiction is addressed feature by feature: Archie Apps are stated as currently available in Australia, LawY answers are jurisdiction-aware, and the product runs on separate national sites. The buyer is a law firm. No bar guidance is named, which would have been additional rather than required. Terms and Archie pages read 6 September 2026.
AI Governance and Bias Disclosure
Published governance over model behaviour: who owns it inside the vendor, what is tested before release, and what is disclosed about disparate output across matter types, parties, or populations.
Responsible-use statements aligned to a security standard, without a governance framework, testing regime or accountable owner for the AI itself. The security page states that Smokeball AI capabilities are designed and operated to protect confidentiality, integrity and availability in alignment with ISO 27001 controls, and the product pages speak of responsible and secure AI; no responsible AI framework, ISO 42001 or equivalent, pre-release testing description or statement about uneven output is published on the surfaces read. Security page and Archie pages read 6 September 2026.
AI Safety and Data Stewardship
Retention, deletion, access control, and what happens to prompts and documents after they are processed. Whether the vendor states its subprocessors and its incident practice, or leaves the buyer to assume.
Substantive published policy covering most of the ground. Retention and deletion: terms sections 14 and 15 give thirty days of access for retrieval after termination and permit deletion thereafter, and the product pages state zero data retention at the AI providers. Access control: the security page states multi-factor authentication, role-based access on least-privilege principles, periodic privilege reviews and automated monitoring and alerts for abnormal access, in alignment with ISO 27001 Annex A. Sub-processors: the terms address data flows to interfacing third parties a firm enables, but no sub-processor list and no named AI provider was located. Incident practice: monitoring and alerting are stated; a notification commitment was not located. Terms and security page read 6 September 2026.
AI Liability and Recourse
What the vendor stands behind contractually when its output is wrong. Indemnities, caps, carve outs, insurance, and whether any of it is published or only reachable through a negotiated agreement.
What the vendor stands behind is published and specific, including that on wrong output it stands behind nothing, which a buyer can read before signing. Terms section 26B gives a Smokeball defence and indemnity for third-party claims that the subscription infringes United States intellectual property rights, with exclusions and the procure, modify or terminate-and-refund remedies; section 25 caps each party's aggregate liability at the subscription fees paid in the preceding year and excludes consequential loss, carving out the indemnities and migration; section 23B warrants conformity with the product description and commercially reasonable malware protection; sections 23D and 24 disclaim any warranty as to results and any accuracy of AI answers, forms or notifications, with the firm indemnifying Smokeball for client data. No insurance is stated. Terms of service of 9 July 2026 read in full 6 September 2026.
Practice Systems Integration Depth
How deeply the product reaches into the systems legal work already lives in: document management such as iManage and NetDocuments, Word and Outlook, contract lifecycle management, matter management, e-billing, and court filing systems.
Real integrations with depth described for some. Archie is embedded in the Word sidebar and in Outlook, where it summarises email threads and drafts responses from matter context with tone and length adjustable before sending; the LawY integration is described as an in-product question with an optional lawyer verification; InfoTrack's conveyancing integration is described as reducing manual data entry into Smokeball in Australia. A marketplace of integrations exists and was not opened, and QuickBooks Online and LawToolBox are described by a third party rather than credited. Archie pages, Smokeball AI page and terms read 6 September 2026.
Deployment Model and Data Residency
Where the software runs and where the data sits. Multi tenant cloud, single tenant, private deployment, on premises, and whether region of residence is a published option or an enterprise conversation.
The tenancy model is stated and residency is partial. The security page states that each firm's data is logically isolated, which is a stated multi-tenant model; the product is delivered as a Windows desktop application with cloud services under minimum system requirements the terms reference; separate Australian, United Kingdom and United States businesses and sites exist, with the Australian and UK pages stating alignment with the Australian Privacy Act and the UK GDPR respectively. No hosting provider, region or residency election is stated on the surfaces read. Security page, terms and regional Archie pages read 6 September 2026.
Security Certifications and Trust Center
Independent attestation a buyer can pull without a sales call: SOC 2, ISO 27001, penetration test summaries, a trust center with current reports and named scope rather than a badge image.
Certification is real and stated, short of a report reachable without asking. The security page and product pages state that Smokeball is certified to ISO 27001:2022 and independently penetration-tested every year, with encryption at every stage, multi-factor authentication and role-based access. No certificate number, certifying body, coverage period or route to the certificate or a SOC 2 report is published, and no trust centre was located on the surfaces read. Security page and Archie pages read 6 September 2026.
Model Supply Chain Disclosure
Which models sit underneath, whose they are, where they run, and whether the vendor commits to telling customers when that changes. A legal buyer inherits every dependency it cannot see.
The vendor describes the terms on which it uses AI providers without identifying them. The product pages state that Archie runs under enterprise-grade zero-data-retention agreements and that data is never shared with third parties for training or AI modelling, and the security page states no provision of customer data to third parties for model training; the LawY integration is named as the source of legal answers. No model, provider, inference location or change-notification commitment is named on the surfaces read. Archie pages and security page read 6 September 2026.
Commercial Transparency
Whether a buyer can learn what this costs without entering a sales process: published rates, the unit being charged, what sits behind an enterprise tier, and what implementation adds.
The unit and structure are stated without a first-party figure on the surfaces read. The terms price per user for a fixed subscription term with tiers named on the pricing page, a default tier of Prosper+, Archie as a paid add-on, Flex Users at a higher month-to-month rate, upgrades permitted mid-term and downgrades only at renewal, and sixty days' notice of renewal pricing; a pricing page exists at smokeball.com/pricing and was not opened on 6 September 2026. A third-party review reports the page shows a from-price and that per-user figures elsewhere conflict with it; neither is credited. A figure on the pricing page would lift this to A. Terms read 6 September 2026.
Firm and Practice Coverage
Who the product is actually built for. AmLaw, midlaw, small firm and solo, in house departments, government and courts, and which practice areas are supported rather than merely claimed.
Segment, practice and jurisdiction coverage are described with substance and some limits are stated by the vendor. Solution pages cover eight practice areas with a full list, three firm sizes and eight roles, and the product is sold through separate United States, Australian and United Kingdom businesses. Limits stated: Archie Apps are currently available in Australia only, AutoTime with Smokeball AI is described as releasing soon, and the terms state that content may not reflect current law. Navigation, Archie pages and terms read 6 September 2026.
Legal Signals
What each signal meansA signal records what public sources say on the date shown. It is not a grade and it is not a recommendation. Where a signal reads Not addressed, it means the index did not locate the material in public sources on that date, which is a statement about disclosure rather than about the product.
Client Data in Training
Can material a lawyer puts into this product be used to train a model?
A public policy or trust page states no training on customer content, with no matching term located in the published agreement.
Public material states that customer content is not used for training, and no matching term was located in the published agreement. The security page states that Smokeball does not provide customer data to third parties for AI model training or third-party AI modelling, and the product pages that Archie runs under zero-data-retention agreements and that data is never shared with third parties for viewing, training or AI modelling. Two qualifiers travel with it: every statement is about third parties, and Smokeball's own use of customer data for its models is not addressed on any surface read. The terms of service of 9 July 2026 were read in full: section 18 states that Smokeball AI and Archie processing aligns with the product's primary uses and the privacy policy, and no clause names training. Surfaces checked 6 September 2026.
Prompt and Output Retention
How long does the product keep what a lawyer typed, and can that be set to zero?
A specific retention period is published and the customer cannot change it.
A specific period is published for the platform and the customer cannot change it. Terms section 14 permits deletion of the account and data thirty days after termination, and section 15 gives thirty days of access for retrieval with a defined data backup on request; the product pages state that Archie runs under zero-data-retention agreements with its AI providers, which addresses retention at the model provider rather than in the platform. Nothing states a shorter or configurable window for Archie prompts and outputs inside Smokeball during the term. Surfaces checked 6 September 2026.
Ethical Walls and Matter Segregation
Does retrieval respect the firm’s ethical walls, or can the model read across them?
The product maintains its own permission model, documented, requiring the firm to keep it aligned.
The product maintains its own permission model and documents it at matter level. The security page states firm-level logical isolation and that only users already permitted on a matter can use Archie for that matter, consistent with ISO 27001 and SOC 2 access-control expectations; the product pages state that Archie works only within the matter the user is in, never cross-references other matters, and is visible only to staff assigned to it. This is the most specific matter-segregation statement in the pull for a practice management product. Surfaces checked 6 September 2026.
Third Party Request and Subpoena Notice
If someone subpoenas the vendor for a firm’s data, does the firm hear about it first?
Terms commit to notice where lawfully permitted. No transparency report located.
The published agreement commits to notice twice. Terms section 22B requires the receiving party, to the extent permitted by law, to notify the disclosing party promptly and before any compelled disclosure so it can seek a protective order, to assist in opposing the disclosure, and then to disclose only what is legally required with efforts to obtain confidential treatment; section 18 separately provides that Smokeball will give notice of legal process for client data, to the extent allowed by law, as soon as reasonably possible. No transparency report is published. Surfaces checked 6 September 2026.
Primary Law Corpus Provenance
Where does the law in this product come from, and does the vendor have the right to use it?
Coverage is described by jurisdiction with no identification of the underlying corpus.
Coverage is described by jurisdiction without identifying the underlying corpus. The LawY integration answers legal questions with guidance described as jurisdiction-aware and tailored to matter type, and Smokeball's own form library is stated at more than twenty thousand forms across matter types; nothing states what primary sources sit behind LawY's answers, under what licence, or how often they are refreshed, and the terms warn that content may not reflect recent changes in the law. Archie pages and terms read 6 September 2026.
Good Law Verification
Does the product tell you when the authority it just cited has been overruled?
No located public material addresses whether authority is checked for subsequent history.
No located public material addresses whether authorities in LawY's answers are checked for subsequent history. The vendor's control on citation risk is the option to have a lawyer verify an answer, which is a review step rather than a citator or treatment signal. Archie pages checked 6 September 2026.
Refusal and Uncertainty Behaviour
What does the product do when the answer is not in the corpus?
No located public material addresses what the product does when it cannot ground an answer.
No located public material describes what Archie or the LawY integration does when it cannot ground an answer. Playbooks flag issues against firm-defined rules and the lawyer-verification option acts on an answer already given; neither is an abstention path, and no confidence signal is described. Archie pages and terms checked 6 September 2026.
Fabricated Citation Record
Does a public court record exist involving output from this product?
No court order, opinion or disciplinary record naming this product has been located as of the date shown. This is a statement about the public record, not a finding about the product.
No court order, opinion or disciplinary record naming Smokeball, Archie or Smokeball AI was located as of 6 September 2026. The AI Hallucination Cases database maintained by Damien Charlotin was searched on the company and product names together with a general search for court findings; results returned sanctions involving general-purpose chatbots and commentary, none of which names this product. This is a statement about the public record, not a finding about the product.
Bar Guidance Alignment
Has the vendor engaged in public with the ethics opinions its buyers are bound by?
Public materials refer to professional responsibility in general terms without naming guidance.
Professional obligations are referenced generically without naming an ethics opinion, bar rule or framework. Terms section 24 requires that Smokeball AI and Archie be used only by or under the supervision of qualified legal practitioners and that outputs be validated with professional skill, judgement and experience, and the vendor offers bar association discounts; no guidance from any bar or regulator on AI use is named. Terms and Archie pages checked 6 September 2026.
Billing and Fee Posture
Does the vendor address what happens to the bill when the work takes an hour instead of six?
Public materials claim time savings without addressing billing or disclosure, and the product sits inside a fee relationship between a lawyer and a client where those savings would change the bill.
The buyer is a law firm and the product issues the client's invoice, so it sits inside the fee relationship; what it publishes on AI and the bill is time capture and efficiency. AutoTime records time passively and is described as gaining Smokeball AI, Archie is marketed as delivering work faster, and the terms price by user rather than by usage; nothing addresses how AI-assisted work is recorded or disclosed on the client's bill when the work takes less time. Home page, AutoTime and Archie pages and terms checked 6 September 2026.
Outside Counsel Guideline Readiness
Can a firm get this vendor through a client’s AI clause without a bespoke negotiation?
No located public material supports a client side disclosure obligation.
No sub-processor list or model provider list was located. The product pages describe zero-data-retention agreements with unnamed AI providers and the security page states no third-party model training, which is a forwardable statement of terms but not a list of who sees client content; the terms address interfacing third parties a firm enables without naming processors. The privacy policy was not opened and is the rebuttal route. Surfaces checked 6 September 2026.
Court Disclosure Support
If a judge’s standing order requires an AI disclosure, can the product produce one?
No located public material addresses court disclosure or verification certification.
No located public material addresses court disclosure or verification certification of AI-assisted work. Archie's outputs and Smokeball AI summaries are described as visible only to firm staff, and the lawyer-verification option on LawY answers produces a checked answer, but nothing states that a per-document record of the model used, sources and human verification can be exported for a court. Archie pages and terms checked 6 September 2026.