FAQ
Common questions.
Plain-language answers, organized by category. If something isn't covered here, see How it works or ask us directly.
Meeting capture
- Can I start a meeting from inside SophieScribe?
- Yes. The matter detail page has a Start Live Meeting button. Once Meet / Teams / Zoom integration ships, that button launches the meeting in the appropriate capture path. While we are still wiring integrations, the button opens a demo of what a real meeting looks like inside the product.
- Will browser capture work if my firm uses the Zoom desktop app?
- No — browser audio capture only works for the web client. If your firm relies on the Zoom desktop app (or Teams desktop, or phone bridges), SophieScribe sends a named participant — the SophieScribe Assistant — into the meeting instead. The bot is visible in the participant list so every attendee can see it's present. See How it works → Capture model for the full split.
- Does SophieScribe record audio or video?
- No. On either capture path, audio and video are streamed live and discarded; no recording is created on our side or the bot provider's side. The transcript is the only artifact, and even the transcript is discarded once notes and tasks are finalized.
- Does the bot show up in the participant list?
- Yes — when the bot path is in use. It is named clearly (“SophieScribe Assistant”) so every attendee can see it and choose to leave the call if they prefer. We recommend confirming consent verbally at the start of the meeting where required by your jurisdiction's recording / monitoring laws. On the in-app capture path (Path A), no SophieScribe participant exists.
- What happens if I forget to start SophieScribe before the meeting begins?
- Calendar integration will eventually surface scheduled meetings with a one-click start, but you can always click Start Live Meeting from the matter view mid-meeting. Whatever happened before SophieScribe joined isn't captured.
Privacy & retention
- What data is stored long-term?
- Notes, action items, deadlines, drafted documents, attorney decisions on each AI extraction, and time entries — scoped to the matter and subject to your firm's retention policy. The audio is never stored; the transcript is discarded once the meeting is finalized.
- Where is data stored geographically?
- By default in the GCP region your firm selects at onboarding (typically
us-east5for US firms). EU residency is available. For BYOC deployments, data stays in the cloud account your firm controls. - Who at SophieScribe can see my matter data?
- No SophieScribe employee can access privileged matter content as part of normal operation. Production database access is break-glass only, requires two-person approval, and lands in an external audit log we can't mute. The full posture lives at /compliance.
- What does the AI vendor (Anthropic) see?
- For agent reasoning, transcript content and matter context are sent to Anthropic's API under their commercial terms (no training on customer data, zero retention on the inference path). For streaming transcription, audio is sent to Deepgram for speech-to-text only. Both are listed in the subprocessor list.
- How do I delete a meeting's data?
- From the Minutes view, an attorney with matter access can request deletion of any session's structured outputs. The data subject request flow handles GDPR / CCPA erasure requests centrally. The audit log retains the fact of deletion (without retaining the deleted content) for compliance evidence.
Compliance & privilege
- Does SophieScribe protect attorney-client privilege?
- Privilege protection is the architecture, not an add-on. Every session and extraction carries a data classification (Privileged, Work Product, Confidential, Internal, Public). Access is gated by matter membership and the matter's share policy. The audit log captures every read, every approval, and every cross-matter escalation attempt. See Compliance → Privilege handling.
- What about ethical walls between practice groups?
- Matters carry a practice-group attribute and an explicit ethical-wall list. A user who falls inside the wall cannot read the matter, regardless of role. The authorization service applies the wall before membership and share-policy checks, so an ethical-wall exclusion cannot be overridden by a permissive share policy.
- Are you SOC 2 certified?
- SOC 2 Type II is in progress; current status and target audit window live at /compliance#soc2. The evidence pipeline (audit log, access reviews, change management, vendor reviews) is already producing artifacts in advance of the audit.
- Can SophieScribe be used for matters under a litigation hold?
- Yes. A matter under hold can suspend the transcript-discard policy via a litigation-hold release event, which is itself audit-logged. While the hold is active, transcripts are preserved at the same encrypted-at-rest tier as the matter's other data.
Workflow & control
- Can the AI push something to my PMS without my approval?
- No. Every push downstream — Clio time entry, calendar deadline, document filed in the matter folder — requires explicit attorney approval first. Drafted documents require a two-step confirm (the second step is a hard-stop button, not a keyboard shortcut).
- What if I disagree with an AI extraction?
- Each extracted item carries Confirm, Dismiss, and Edit affordances. Dismissing an item is captured as feedback that future tuning will weight. Editing preserves the original AI output in the audit log alongside your correction, so there is always a record of what the AI said vs. what the attorney decided.
- Can a paralegal review items, or only attorneys?
- Approval-on-behalf-of can be delegated at the matter level, but certain actions (privilege classification changes, draft pushes) are restricted to attorney roles regardless of delegation. The matter's team configuration controls who can do what.
- What providers does the live capture work with?
- Today: Google Meet (web), Microsoft Teams (web), Zoom Web Client via the in-app path; all major providers via the bot path. See the capture matrix.
Practical
- What if I need to take a private side conversation during the meeting?
- On the bot path, the SophieScribe Assistant captures whatever audio is in the meeting room — including a side conversation if you continue it on the call. If you need a truly private aside, leave the call. On the in-app path, the capture is tab-scoped: if you have a side conversation outside that tab, it isn't captured.
- Can I use SophieScribe on a mobile phone?
- The Minutes view, task inbox, and approval queue work in a mobile browser. Live in-meeting capture is desktop-only at the moment; for mobile meetings, use the bot path.
- Can two attorneys be in the same matter at once?
- Yes. Matters support a team configuration with roles (Matter Admin, Attorney, Paralegal, Viewer). Multiple attorneys can be present in a meeting, can review the same item independently, and their actions are individually attributed in the audit log.
- What about meetings that aren't client-related?
- Use the Personal workspace — a workspace each user owns for non-client meetings (internal strategy, conference notes, business-dev calls). Same retention rules, no client classification.
Bring SophieScribe to your firm
Evaluate SophieScribe in a private, matter-scoped pilot.
Tell us a little about how your firm runs and we'll set up a walk through against your own meeting types. No recordings required, deployment options reviewed up front.
Confidentiality preserved · designed for privileged work