AI for Law Firms

The AI assistant
that actually knows your firm.

Generic AI tools don't understand legal context. MatterFirst's AI is trained on your matters, your documents, and your workflows. Ask it anything — in plain English — and get answers sourced from your own data.

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Encrypted at rest and in transit Australian data residency Hosted on AWS No lock-in contracts Guided setup available Your data exportable on request

Last reviewed

How does AI work in a legal practice management system?

Legal AI does two jobs: reading documents to pull structured data into a matter, and answering questions about files a firm already holds. MatterFirst does both, with OCR and inference running in the AWS region the firm chooses, so client documents are not sent to a different jurisdiction to be processed.

Document AI tiers and what each is for
Tier Credits per page What it extracts Best for
Standard 1 Tables, natural-language queries, layout detection, signatures Contracts, letters, court documents, prose-heavy files
Full Accuracy 4 Everything in Standard, plus form fields and checkbox detection Conveyancing forms, mortgage documents, compliance checklists

Every paid plan includes a monthly credit pool shared across the workspace. Prepaid top-up packs and automatic top-ups cover heavier months.

Why MatterFirst

What you get when you switch.

An assistant that does the reading

  • Context-aware answers. Ask about a specific matter, client, or deadline. The AI pulls from your data, not the internet.
  • Document intelligence. Upload a document. The AI extracts contacts, key dates, financial figures, and property details automatically.
  • AI-powered time capture. The AI detects what you've been working on and suggests time entries. Review, adjust, and save in seconds.

Answers, extractions and time entries — from your own data.

Trained on your firm, kept in your region

  • Key term extraction. The AI reads contracts and pulls out the terms that matter — sunset clauses, special conditions, restrictive covenants.
  • Data stays in your region. AI processing happens in your chosen AWS region. Your data never leaves your jurisdiction — even during inference.
  • Included on every plan. AI assistance and monthly Document AI credits are included in every paid workspace, with top-up packs available for heavy document months.

AI inference never leaves your chosen AWS region.

What this actually does

Ask MatterFirst a question about a matter and it answers from your own files, not the open internet, with the OCR and the AI inference both running in the AWS region your firm chose.

Document AI uses AWS Textract for OCR and AWS Bedrock for analysis, both pinned to your organisation's region. You can confirm this on your own documents during a seven-day guided trial.

7 days

guided trial shaped around how your firm works

4 integrations

Xero, Stripe, Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace, plus PEXA set up with you

100%

of your data and AI processing stays in your chosen AWS region

MatterFirst is a legal practice management platform for Australian law firms, built by NorthCape Technology, covering matters, documents, trust accounting, billing and a client portal, with data hosted in the AWS region the firm chooses.

It suits firms that handle a steady volume of structured documents and want the data in the matter rather than retyped. It is a weaker fit for practices whose work is mostly advisory with few documents to extract from, where the AI assistant is useful but Document AI credits will go unused.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Does AI processing send my documents overseas?
No. When you use Document AI, both the OCR (AWS Textract) and the AI analysis (AWS Bedrock) run in your organisation's chosen region. Documents are never transferred to a different region for processing.
How does Document AI billing work?
Document AI uses page credits. Standard quality uses 1 credit per page and Full Accuracy uses 4 credits per page. Plans include monthly credits, and you can buy prepaid top-up packs or enable automatic top-ups if your firm processes more documents.
What is the difference between Standard and Full accuracy?
Standard uses table extraction, natural-language queries, layout detection and signatures. Best for contracts, letters, court documents and general prose-heavy files. Full Accuracy adds form field extraction and checkbox detection on top of everything Standard does. Best for conveyancing forms, mortgage documents, compliance checklists — any document with structured fields or tick-boxes.
What does the Key Term Extractor do?
It lets you define your own extraction rules and map them to any custom field, contact role, or key date in your matter. Every firm has different documents and different data that matters. Define a term once (e.g. "Certificate of Title reference") and MatterFirst will extract it from every matching document automatically.
Where is my data stored?
In the AWS region your firm chooses. Sydney (ap-southeast-2) is the default for Australian firms. Matter data, documents and Document AI processing all stay in that region: documents are not moved to another region to be OCRed or analysed.
How much does MatterFirst cost?
Pricing is per workspace rather than per seat, starting at $149 per month for Solo. Each plan includes a set number of users, a monthly pool of Document AI credits, the client portal and automations. Extra users are billed only past the included seats. Full plan inclusions are on the pricing page.
Can I get my data out if I leave?
Yes. Your matters, contacts, documents and time records are exportable on request, and there is no lock-in contract. We would rather you were able to leave and chose not to.
Is there a free trial?
Yes, a seven-day guided trial on Solo, Practice or Firm. It is guided rather than self-serve because a practice management system tells you very little until it has your real matters in it, and we would rather help you load them than leave you looking at an empty workspace.
Who builds MatterFirst?
NorthCape Technology, a Melbourne-based software company. MatterFirst is built in Australia for Australian legal practice, which is why trust accounting and Xero are first-class rather than regional add-ons, and why PEXA and InfoTrack are on the roadmap rather than absent from it.
Is MatterFirst suitable for a firm of my size?
It is designed for solo practitioners up to firms of roughly twenty seats. Below that, Solo carries the full platform for one user. Above it, the platform works but you should expect to talk to us about migration and rollout rather than signing up online.

Put an AI that knows your firm to work.

Ask anything about your matters and get answers from your own data — processed in your own region.

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