Law library

Exclusive Litigation
Support for Lawyers

The Associates is a litigation support service run by lawyers. We do the research, the drafting and the paperwork behind your matters, so your day goes to advocacy and to your clients. Our services are for legal practitioners only.

Why we exist

Cases Are Won at the Desk

Your day is spent in court. Thirty matters on the cause list, and you sit through them while the court sits late. But what you argue in court is written in the office — and a badly drafted pleading cannot be fixed at the bar. Leave something out at the foundation and no amount of advocacy will put it back.

When the court rises you are exhausted, and the work is still waiting. Tomorrow’s matter to prepare. A client expecting an update. Processes due within timelines that cost you money for every day you miss them.

A final written address alone means going back through the pleadings, the witness statements on oath and the record of the trial, then through the law reports, to find the argument that actually carries your case. Even when the points are already in your head, setting them down properly takes hours you do not have.

That is the gap we fill.

We bring courtroom experience, but we do not spend our days in court. We spend them researching and drafting. So we have the time to give your originating processes, pleadings, interlocutory applications and final addresses the attention they need — and to get them back to you in time.

We work with busy litigators; with firms that need extra hands through a peak season but would rather not hire; with solo practitioners who prefer to hand over a few processes instead of taking on staff; and with firms whose litigation work is only occasional.

We also take the clerical load off your desk. We review and format your documents and handle the paperwork, so your hours go to the law and not to margins and line spacing.

Our billing is flexible, so you only pay for the support you actually need.

Drafting desk
Our services

The Associate Outside Your Chambers

Firms hire associates to carry the work behind their matters. We are that associate — without the desk, the salary or the peak-season guesswork.

Legal Research

Authorities found, read and set out, with an honest note on what cuts against you.

Trial Processes

Originating processes, pleadings, interlocutory applications and motions, final written addresses and notices.

Appellate Processes

Grounds of appeal, appellant’s, respondent’s and reply briefs, drawn from the record you send us.

Transcription & Updates

Proceedings transcribed from your recording, and client update letters drafted for your signature.

Regulatory & Corporate Research

Frameworks, filings and practice researched and set out in a note you can put before a client or a board.

Documents & Formatting

Documents reviewed and formatted to your house style, a list of authorities built from what you have cited, and bulk letters and certificates produced at volume.

Who we act for

Our legal services are taken from verified legal practitioners only and are not open to the public. Document formatting and bulk document work are open to everyone.

How it works

Four Steps, No Surprises

01

Contact us

By email or WhatsApp. Tell us what you need and when you need it — that is enough to start.

02

We quote

We come back with a bill for the work, against the scope you have described. Nothing begins until you say yes.

03

We agree terms

Confidentiality, scope and the delivery timeline for your matter. The timeline is settled here rather than promised in advance, because it turns on how heavy the matter is and how much room your deadline leaves.

04

You send the papers

Scan the record and the processes across. A voice note explaining what you want works just as well — and so does a recording of the day’s proceedings, which we will transcribe and work from.

Where you stand

The Questions a Careful Lawyer Asks First

Your client stays your client

Our engagement is with you, not with the person who instructed you. We take no instruction from your client and hold no retainer with them. You settle the draft, you sign it, you file it.

Confidentiality

We keep your matters confidential. We may keep anonymised copies of our own drafts as precedents for later work, carrying nothing that identifies you, your client or your matter. We do not name the firms we work for, and we do not discuss their matters.

Conflicts

We will not take work for opposing parties in the same live matter. Name the parties when you contact us and we will check before we accept the brief.

Billing

Billing That Bends to the Work

Some weeks you need one motion drafted. Some months you need a second pair of hands throughout. You should not be paying the same way for both.

Per process

One document, one fee. A motion, a written address, a research memorandum. The simplest way to try us, and the way most firms start.

Per case

One fee covering the written work on a matter from where you hand it over, so you are not quoting again every time a process falls due.

Retainer

A standing arrangement for firms sending work steadily, at a better rate, with your matters taken ahead of the queue.

Every fee is quoted against your scope before the work begins, and we do not bill past it without asking you first. Tell us what you need and we will tell you what it costs.

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