In the event you practiced regulation 10 years in the past, the concept of getting a “knowledge-based chatbot” to reply shopper questions at midnight wasn’t only a fantasy — it was a $50,000 improvement undertaking that no solo practitioner might afford.
At the moment, it’s changing into a actuality due to Marla Miller, a former small regulation agency proprietor and founding father of 9To5 Authorized Docs.
Miller, a former worldwide tax lawyer who minimize her tooth in massive company multinationals, by no means meant to develop into a tech founder. After a transfer again to her hometown of Lake Charles, Louisiana, she opened a solo follow, coping with the identical “bottleneck” that plagues virtually each small agency lawyer: the conclusion that there are solely so many hours within the day to promote.
“I favored what I did, however I didn’t like how I needed to do it,” Miller explains. “You’ll be able to’t actually do advanced tax work for small-to-medium-sized companies utilizing the massive company mannequin. I discovered myself repeating myself loads, coping with the session grind, and realizing that by yourself, you’re the bottleneck.”
For Miller, the catalyst for change got here throughout a visit to South by Southwest (SXSW). Miller watched a trademark lawyer who was automating processes and promoting varieties on-line, and the sunshine bulb went on. “I assumed, there’s obtained to be a greater means to do that. Folks wanted data, and so they didn’t must pay $500-plus an hour to get it.”
The Pivot: From Observe to Platform
Miller’s answer is a brand new platform, 9To5Docs.com — at the moment in comfortable launch — designed to bridge the hole between early-stage startups and the attorneys who serve them.
The premise is constructed on a easy statement: early-stage startups, regardless of their distinctive worth propositions, normally comply with a predictable authorized path. They want LLCs or Delaware C-Corps; they want SAFE notes for funding; they want customary employment agreements. As a result of the construction is repetitive, it’s ripe for automation.
However in contrast to the brand new wave of “AI Native Regulation Corporations” making headlines, Miller isn’t attempting to interchange the lawyer. She’s attempting to clone the lawyer’s effectivity.
The 9to5 platform provides a “knowledge room” backend that handles company information, e-signatures, and storage — basically combining the utility of Dropbox and DocuSign right into a single authorized workflow. However the true game-changer will drop in 2026 with “Hey Jane,” an AI agent educated on enterprise tax and startup regulation.
“Consider it as the reply to these burning entrepreneur questions on a Thursday at midnight,” Miller says.
The objective is to permit different solo attorneys to white-label these instruments. As a substitute of a lawyer spending 20 minutes answering a primary query about an EIN quantity, their white-labeled AI agent handles the schooling. When the shopper wants high-level technique, the human lawyer steps in. It’s a hybrid mannequin that guarantees to make solos “AI-enabled” reasonably than out of date.
The “Cliff” of Entrepreneurship
Transitioning from a specialised tax follow to a tech startup required extra than simply coding; it required a elementary rewiring of the lawyer mind.
“As an lawyer, it’s virtually protected,” Miller admits. “You understand the foundations. You navigate them. There are parameters. However constructing a startup? It feels such as you’re on the sting of a cliff, you don’t know what’s over there, and also you simply have to leap.”
The shift additionally meant abandoning the safety blanket of the billable hour. In a regulation agency, sitting at a pc and billing means you might be working. In a startup, productiveness may seem like taking a stroll to problem-solve or observing a whiteboard to set strategic route — actions that generate zero fast income however are very important for long-term survival.
Why Ladies Are Main the AI Cost
Miller is a part of a rising cohort of girls founders within the authorized AI house — a demographic shift from the cloud-computing growth of the earlier decade, which was largely male-dominated.
When requested why ladies are gravitating towards AI authorized tech, Miller has a idea: “Ladies are very environment friendly people. We have now to be. We’re organized, and AI is the final word instrument for effectivity if used proper.”
As Miller prepares to roll out session automation and attorney-facing instruments in Q1 of 2026, she stays a check topic for her personal software program, working her follow by the platform to iron out the kinks. It’s a dangerous, non-typical path, however for a lawyer who grew bored with the “session grind,” the view from the sting of the cliff appears promising.
Marla Miller’s platform is at the moment in comfortable launch. She can be attending the Women in AI occasion at Vanderbilt Regulation College in February.
Carolyn Elefant is likely one of the nation’s most acknowledged advocates for solo and small agency legal professionals. She based MyShingle.com in 2002, the longest-running weblog for solo practitioners, the place she has printed hundreds of articles, assets, and guides on beginning, working, and rising impartial regulation practices. She is the writer of Solo by Alternative, broadly thought to be the definitive handbook for launching and sustaining a regulation follow, and has spoken at numerous bar occasions and authorized conferences on know-how, innovation, and regulatory reform that impacts solos and smalls. Elefant additionally develops sensible instruments just like the AI Teach-In to assist small corporations undertake AI and he or she persistently champions reforms to stage the enjoying subject for impartial legal professionals. Alongside this work, she runs the Regulation Places of work of Carolyn Elefant, a nationwide power and regulatory follow that handles selective advanced, high-stakes issues.
