Change Your Platform.
Not Your Practice.
Moving off Smokeball — or any other system — is simpler than most firms expect. We only need your current system as a source of truth: the starting point for ingestion. From there we build a clean, organised, sovereign record on infrastructure you own. The move is copy-only until you confirm cutover, so your practice keeps running the whole time.
Your current system is the starting point — not a dependency.
We treat Smokeball, your file server, your trust ledger and your email as the source of truth. Ingestion begins there. We never need you to stay on your old platform, and you are never locked into ours.
- Copy-only until cutover. Your existing files are read, never altered. Nothing is switched off until you say so.
- Source of truth in, organised record out. We index, tag and link every document to the correct client and matter for you to review and confirm.
- Your data stays yours. Full exports in standard formats (PDF, EML, CSV) are available at any time — no lock-in, in or out.
- We’ll assess your export options first. If your current system can produce a structured export, the move is quick; if it can’t, we’ll tell you exactly how we’ll handle it before we start.
Run both systems side by side
There’s no forced cut-over. White Rabbit is happy to run alongside your current system for as long as you like — both live at once. Nothing is moved or deleted from your existing setup; it’s simply copied across. You watch your new Vault fill in the background and switch over only when you’re ready, so your source files and workflows stay untouched the whole time.
A few workstreams — what moves, and how long.
Most of the move is quick. The one thing that varies is time, not cost: how long ingestion takes depends entirely on the state of your records. Everything is reviewed by a person before it’s relied upon.
Set up your practice
Your firm is stood up from your public QLS records and firm registration — practitioners, firm details and roles — in about five minutes.
Live matters
Active client matters are brought across and linked. A typical firm with around 40 active matters is migrated in roughly twenty-five minutes, assuming the matter structure is intact.
Historical & closed matters
Archived files take longer and vary widely — a rough guide is about ten hours per lawyer, with closure briefings completed and each archive made audit-ready as it’s brought across. We give you a firm-specific figure up front.
Website & secure client channel
Your site and a private, end-to-end encrypted client–lawyer chat (self-hosted via Nextcloud) can be live in about five minutes. Only the client and lawyer can read it — White Rabbit cannot.
Loose & off-system records
Anything not in email — a scan, a document on a desktop, a file in a folder — is dragged into a designated ingestion folder on a nominated practice PC. The system indexes it and links it to the right client and matter for you to confirm.
Trust accounting — in the pipeline, pending audit
A good deal is already live. From the costs agreement (CSA) captured during client induction, the system can automate client requisitions and generate invoices — billed on the billable hours spent on correspondence and file work, or per portfolio — and issue invoices and trust requisitions. It can also reconcile and audit trust-account activity against those agreements. Full trust accounting is in the pipeline; until our systems are independently audited for compliance, we advise you to keep your trust accounting running separately in its existing system.
Optional: a 1300 number
If you choose one, it’s provided by an external carrier (so it carries its own lead time, typically a few business days). It records client calls and offers audio transcription and summaries written straight to the client file. Recordings and chat are encrypted so that only the client and lawyer can access the content — White Rabbit acts as technical custodian only and never sees the plaintext.
Your admin workload drops away. You stay the lawyer.
White Rabbit is an automated system. In the background it ingests the phone calls, emails, documents and contracts your firm already creates — your own work product, on your own infrastructure — and connects the dots between people, matters and documents so nobody has to re-key or re-file it. Yes, it feels strange the first time you hear it; but it’s your data, on your hardware, and you stay in control the whole way. The repetitive load — filing, collating, chasing, summarising — is handled for you, and what reaches you is a clean, plain-language brief by email.
Take on a new client with a single button.
Accepting a new matter is one action: you click to take carriage. From there the induction runs itself — cross-checked and assembled for you, ready for your review.
- The client uploads and e-signs their documents, and the costs agreement is issued automatically from your induction template.
- A conflict check is run for you — the matter is cross-checked against your firm’s client and matter records to surface any known relationships or potential conflicts. It’s decision support, not a substitute for your own check; clearing the conflict stays your call.
- A client brief is prepared automatically for your review, and the client’s instructions guide the briefings that follow.
- You review and sign. The system removes the rote typing — not your carriage, your conflict clearance, your costs disclosure or your signature. Every decision stays yours.
Roughly what to expect.
Estimates only — the real figure depends entirely on the state of your current records. We provide a firm-specific written estimate after a short discovery call, with no commitment.
| Workstream | Indicative duration | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Practice set-up (QLS + firm registration) | ~5 min | Straight pull from public registers. |
| Live matters (~40 active) | ~25 min | Assumes client/matter structure is intact. |
| Historical / closed matters | ~10 hrs / lawyer | Includes closure briefings + audit-ready archiving; varies with volume. |
| Trust accounting | in pipeline | Requisitions, CSA invoicing & reconciliation already live; keep trust accounting separate until our systems are audited. |
| Website & secure client channel | ~5 min | Live quickly if domain/hosting details are ready. |
| Optional 1300 number | carrier lead time | External provider; typically a few business days. |
These are indicative estimates, not service-level guarantees. We work at a careful, accuracy-first pace. If your current records are poorly organised the migration may take longer — and we’ll tell you before we begin. You remain fully responsible for your client files throughout; the process is additive and copy-only until you confirm cutover.
Audit-ready, by routine — not by scramble.
Compliance is kept current by small, regular checks, so the formal audit is a print-out rather than a search party. Every disposition is human-reviewed and signed.
Weekly readiness checks
Each week the system hands your admin staff a short readiness check to complete. Small and routine — so when an audit comes around, the files are already in order and there’s little left to do.
Audit by print-out
Because everything is already indexed and linked, a QLS yearly or three-yearly audit becomes a clean print-out. Your auditor spends their time checking, not rummaging. You remain responsible for your compliance; we make it simpler to demonstrate.
Monthly retention review
Once a month, any record that has passed its permitted retention life-cycle is reported to you, with destruction forms attached. Your firm’s own retention policy governs the schedule — we provide the calendar and the notification; you confirm the date.
Destruction only on signature
Electronic destruction is initiated only after the destruction form is signed by the principal lawyer and a witness and returned to us. Only then is the disposition applied, in compliance with the legislation. Nothing is destroyed automatically — a person reviews and cross-checks every time.
The duties that remain yours.
White Rabbit puts your electronic records in order and keeps them that way. It assists — it doesn’t take over your professional obligations.
- Keep your hard copies. While we get the electronic files in order, you should still retain original documents — signed agreements, affidavits, original court documents — in hard copy, boxed per your normal record life-cycle until they’re destroyed in the ordinary course.
- Your retention policy, your decisions. Your firm owns its retention and destruction policy. We generate the schedule and the reminders; the principals make the calls and sign off.
- Privilege belongs to your client. Client–lawyer communications are end-to-end encrypted and access-gated; White Rabbit has no access to the plaintext and acts as technical custodian only. The architecture is designed to protect legal professional privilege — which is the client’s, not ours and not yours to waive lightly.
- You remain the lawyer of record. The system reads, sorts and remembers; the judgement, the advice and the signature are always yours.
Ready to see your own firm’s estimate?
Book a short discovery call and we’ll assess your current system, your export options and your archive — then give you a written, firm-specific estimate. No commitment.