VoicePrivate Legal
7-Day Free Trial
On-device recognition
Advanced speech recognition runs entirely on your computer for complete privacy and control.
PRIVATE DICTATION FOR LEGAL WORK
Legal dictation software.
Kept private.
A private dictation app for lawyers, with 12,000+ legal terms on your Mac or PC. Dictate matter notes, correspondence, and time entries.
$247/year · 7-day free trial · Card required
Speak freely.Recognition stays on your device.
Your thoughts never need
a server.
Works offline
Dictate anywhere, anytime. No internet connection required.
Five professional editions
General, Healthcare, Legal, Finance, and Insurance.
QUICK ANSWER
What is legal dictation software?
Legal dictation software turns a lawyer's speech into text inside Word, Outlook, a practice-management app, or any document, using a vocabulary built for legal terms. VoicePrivate Legal Edition is legal dictation software that runs speech recognition on the lawyer's own Mac or Windows PC, includes 12,000+ legal terms, works offline, and costs $24.99 per month or $247 per year.
- Where VoicePrivate Legal Edition processes speech: on the device. Audio and transcript text are not sent to VoicePrivate servers, and dictation keeps working in airplane mode.
- What VoicePrivate Legal Edition runs on: macOS 13 or later and Windows 10 or later. There is no phone app.
- Where VoicePrivate Legal Edition types: into whatever app has focus, including Word, Outlook, Clio, MyCase, PracticePanther, and PDF form fields.
- What VoicePrivate Legal Edition does not do: route recordings to a typing pool, produce certified transcripts, or draft legal arguments for you.
01 · THE LOCAL DIFFERENCE
There’s private cloud.
Then there’s no cloud.
Privacy controls can change what a cloud service keeps. VoicePrivate changes where speech recognition happens.
Cloud dictationA remote recognition service
Your voiceVendor’s serversYour text
Audio leaves your device
VoicePrivateOn-device recognition
YOUR COMPUTER
Your voiceLocal AIYour text
✓ No audio uploaded to us
Dictation stays local. Text entered into another app follows that app’s storage policies. Licensing, downloads, and updates may use the internet.Read the privacy policy ↗
02 · EFFORTLESS, BY DESIGN
Speak your mind.
Keep your workflow.
One shortcut brings your voice to the app you’re already using. No meeting bot. No new place to write.
VoicePrivate LegalPrivate Legal Transcription6,346words today27dictations119msaved vs typing
Press to record here, or use
⌘⇧Spacefrom any app
On-device speech engine ready0 audio/text bytes to our servers
Matter documentation
Matter note · client conference
Conferred with the client regarding the draft responses to interrogatories. Reviewed preservation obligations and the proposed protective order. Circulate the revised responses by Thursday and calendar the next conference.
Your words, ready for your review.
Interactive product demonstration. No microphone access or live speech recognition on this page.
Press
A single shortcut, wherever you work.
Speak
Dictate naturally. Recognition runs locally.
Continue
Review the text in your chosen application.
03 · LANGUAGE THAT BELONGS TO YOU
The right words.
Already at home.
Your names. Your terminology. Your way of working. Add a personal dictionary and choose an edition built around the language of your profession.
12,000+legal terms included
Legal vocabulary▱ On this device
A language all your own.
01certiorari✓
02voir dire✓
03in limine✓
04promissory estoppel✓
＋ Add the words that matter to your work.
04 · CONSIDERING THE ALTERNATIVES?
Same ambition.
Different architecture.
Dragon Legal Anywhere provides cloud-hosted, legal-specific speech recognition. VoicePrivate Legal keeps recognition on your own computer.
01 / LEGAL DICTATION
Coming from Dragon Legal Anywhere?
Prefer to stay local?
Dictate matter notes, correspondence, and time entries with legal terminology while recognition stays on your Mac or PC.
See local dictation ↗Read the Dragon Legal Anywhere alternative ↗02 / THE ARCHITECTURE
Privacy policy,
or private by design?
Cloud controls govern how remote services handle data. VoicePrivate changes the path itself: speech recognition runs on your Mac or PC.
Compare the path ↗Compare the workflow as well as the architecture. Cloud services offer their own security controls; capabilities and integrations differ. Product details reviewed September 2026.
06 · HOW THE MARKET SPLITS
Five kinds of legal dictation software, and where VoicePrivate Legal Edition fits
Legal dictation software falls into five groups, and the biggest difference between them is where speech recognition runs. VoicePrivate Legal Edition sits in its own row because it is the only option below that runs legal speech recognition on both Mac and Windows without sending audio to a server. Vendor details were checked on each vendor's own site in September 2026.
| Type of legal dictation software | Examples | Where speech recognition runs | Platforms | Best fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Built-in operating system dictation | Apple Dictation, Windows voice typing | Apple Dictation can process on the Mac for supported setups (check Keyboard settings). Microsoft says Windows voice typing "uses online speech recognition, which is powered by Azure Speech services." | Mac, Windows | Short emails and notes. No legal dictionary. |
| Legal speech recognition | Dragon Legal v16, Dragon Legal Anywhere | Dragon Legal installs on Windows. Dragon Legal Anywhere is Nuance's mobile dictation service, and custom words sync between the two. | Windows 11 and 10; phones through Dragon Legal Anywhere. No Mac edition. | Windows firms already trained on Dragon, often with a Nuance PowerMic. |
| Digital dictation workflow | BigHand, Philips SpeechLive and SpeechExec | BigHand runs its own workflow platform. Philips offers both on-premise and cloud hosting. | BigHand apps for iPhone, iPad, and Windows devices; Philips desktop and mobile apps | Firms where a secretary or transcriptionist finishes every document. |
| Cloud AI dictation | Wispr Flow | Wispr Flow's help center says it "processes dictated audio in the cloud to turn speech into text." | Mac, Windows, iPhone, Android | Lawyers who accept cloud processing and want a phone app. |
| On-device legal dictation | VoicePrivate Legal Edition | On the lawyer's own computer. No audio upload, works offline. | macOS 13+, Windows 10+. No phone app. | Lawyers who draft their own documents and want client audio kept off vendor servers. |
Sources: dragon.nuance.com/en-us/dragon-legal, bighand.com, dictation.philips.com, docs.wisprflow.ai security FAQ, and Microsoft's voice typing support page. VoicePrivate lists no competitor prices here because none of these vendors publish a legal price on the pages above. For a ranked, product-by-product review, read VoicePrivate's best dictation software for lawyers guide.
07 · RECORDERS AND TYPING POOLS
What software do legal transcriptionists use, and how VoicePrivate Legal Edition fits
Legal transcriptionists and legal secretaries usually work inside a digital dictation workflow system such as BigHand or Philips SpeechExec, which routes the attorney's recording to them, and they type or correct the draft in Microsoft Word. BigHand, for example, gives the firm an audit trail of every dictation and lets everyone see its completion status.
VoicePrivate Legal Edition fits a different step: it imports a recording (MP3, M4A, WAV, FLAC, OGG, or AAC) from a handheld dictation recorder, a phone voice memo, or a meeting and transcribes it on the Mac or Windows PC. The transcriptionist edits a draft instead of typing from audio, and the audio file is not uploaded for transcription. VoicePrivate does not route jobs between people, so a firm that depends on a typing queue should keep its workflow system. Mac-based teams can read VoicePrivate's page on legal transcription software for Mac for the file import workflow. Pricing a recorder, dock, or foot pedal kit first? VoicePrivate's guide to digital dictation equipment for lawyers maps each piece of hardware to the secretary workflow and the self-drafting workflow, with what each costs.
08 · DICTATION IS NOT A CHATBOT
Is there a legal version of ChatGPT, and is VoicePrivate Legal Edition one?
Yes, there are legal versions of ChatGPT. CoCounsel Legal from Thomson Reuters, Lexis+ with Protégé from LexisNexis (renamed from Lexis+ AI in February 2026), and Harvey are generative AI assistants built for legal research and drafting. They write text for you, which is also why lawyers who filed that output unchecked have been sanctioned for citing cases that do not exist, as in Mata v. Avianca in the Southern District of New York in 2023.
VoicePrivate Legal Edition is not one of them. VoicePrivate Legal Edition is legal dictation software: it does not write arguments or look up case law. It types the words the lawyer speaks, so every citation in the draft is one the lawyer dictated and still needs to check. Many lawyers use both, dictating the facts and their own analysis, then deciding separately what, if anything, goes into a research tool.
09 · A NORMAL DAY
Using VoicePrivate Legal Edition in Word, Outlook, and Clio
VoicePrivate Legal Edition types into whichever app has focus, so dictating into Microsoft Word, an Outlook reply, a Clio or MyCase time entry, or a PDF form field works the same way: press ⌘ ⇧ Space on a Mac, speak, and review the text where it lands. Nothing needs a per-app plugin.
- Text shortcuts: say "slash depo" or type /depo and VoicePrivate Legal Edition expands a full deposition header template. It ships with five legal shortcuts, and you can add your own for signature blocks and standard objections.
- Case citations: VoicePrivate Legal Edition formats "v.", statute numbers, and docket references, and the custom dictionary holds client names, judges, and opposing firms.
- Audit log: every transcription is recorded in a chained log linked with SHA-256 checksums, so edits to past entries are detectable. Export it as JSON for an internal review.
- Microphone: a headset or desk microphone a few inches from your mouth usually improves legal dictation more than any vocabulary list. Test with your own client names before you rely on it.
The full list is on the VoicePrivate Legal Edition features page, and the installers for both platforms are on the Legal Edition download page.
WHAT ATTORNEYS KEEP REPEATING
The hours you carry.
And the risk.
We read what attorneys actually post. The complaints split into time lost and confidentiality risk.
Typing eats hours you cannot bill.
Speaking is faster, but there is no good tool to dictate into.
Only 38% of the day is spent on billable work.
Clio's 2025 Legal Trends benchmarks put the average law firm utilization rate at 38%, which Clio defines as the share of an eight-hour workday spent on billable work. Dictating with VoicePrivate Legal Edition can reduce time spent typing.
Transcription is expensive and slow.
Per-minute fees and a multi-day turnaround when the draft is needed now.
Dragon abandoned the Mac.
Nuance discontinued Dragon for Mac, and Dragon Legal v16 is Windows-only. VoicePrivate covers what Mac lawyers use instead of Dragon.
Dragon Legal costs extra.
The premium is hard to justify, so people stay on the weaker general version.
Client facts in ChatGPT worry the ethics rules.
Attorneys post that putting confidential information into cloud AI can violate professional conduct.
Cloud tools mean anonymizing everything first.
Names, dates, and facts get stripped out before any vendor sees them. A tax on every use.
Fake citations get lawyers sanctioned.
Hallucinated cases filed in court, fines, and public humiliation. That fear hangs over any cloud tool.
Generic dictation mangles legal terms.
Latin, party names, and terms of art come out wrong and need cleanup.
Source: recurring themes across r/Lawyertalk, r/LawFirm, r/legaltech, r/paralegal, r/law, and r/LawSchool. Compiled 2026-06-04 from indexed thread titles and snippets. Direct Reddit fetches were blocked. No quotes were fabricated.
05 · ONE PRINCIPLE. FIVE EDITIONS.
Private by nature.
Specific to your world.
Choose the language of your work. Local processing comes with every edition.
General
Ideas, emails, and everything in between.
$84 / year
Healthcare
For notes that deserve your full confidence.
$297 / year
Legal
For the work you hold in confidence.
$247 / year
Finance
For the details behind every client relationship.
$197 / year
Insurance
For a complete record of the work you do.
$197 / year
YOUR NEXT WORD STARTS HERE
Keep the record. Keep the confidence.
Matter notes. Correspondence. Time entries.
Unlimited dictation. Local processing.
A subscription that fits your work.
✓7-day free trialFull edition. Card required. $0 due today.
VoicePrivate Legal$247/year
$247 billed annually after your 7-day trial. Renews yearly.
$247$24.99Unlimited on-device dictation
Mac and Windows
Personal dictionary and text shortcuts
Local history and custom vocabulary
Card required. $0 today. Billing starts after 7 days unless cancelled.
BEFORE YOU BEGIN
A few good questions.
What is the best dictation app for lawyers?
VoicePrivate Legal Edition is the best fit for lawyers who want legal vocabulary, Mac and Windows support, and no cloud processing in one dictation app. It processes speech on the device, includes 12,000+ legal terms and citation formats, works offline, and costs $24.99 per month or $247 per year. It is not the best fit for a firm that needs to route recordings to a typing pool or produce certified transcripts.
What is legal dictation software?
Legal dictation software turns a lawyer's speech into text inside Word, Outlook, a practice-management app, or any document, using a vocabulary built for legal terms. VoicePrivate Legal Edition is legal dictation software that runs speech recognition on the lawyer's own Mac or Windows PC, includes 12,000+ legal terms, works offline, and costs $24.99 per month or $247 per year.
What software do legal transcriptionists use?
Legal transcriptionists and legal secretaries usually work inside a digital dictation workflow system such as BigHand or Philips SpeechExec, which routes the attorney's recording to them, and they type or correct the draft in Microsoft Word. VoicePrivate Legal Edition fits a different step: it imports a recording (MP3, M4A, WAV, FLAC, OGG, or AAC) and transcribes it on the device, so the transcriptionist edits a draft instead of typing from audio. VoicePrivate does not route jobs between people.
Is there a legal version of ChatGPT?
Yes. CoCounsel Legal from Thomson Reuters, Lexis+ with Protégé from LexisNexis, and Harvey are generative AI assistants built for legal research and drafting. They are not dictation software. VoicePrivate Legal Edition does not write arguments or look up case law. It types the words the lawyer speaks, so every citation in the draft is one the lawyer dictated and still needs to check.
Can legal dictation software transcribe a digital recorder or phone recording?
VoicePrivate Legal Edition can. It imports MP3, M4A, WAV, FLAC, OGG, and AAC files from a handheld dictation recorder, a phone voice memo, or a meeting recording and transcribes them on the Mac or Windows PC. The audio file is not uploaded for transcription. Recordings with one close speaker transcribe more cleanly than a conference room recorded from across the table.
What is the most accurate dictation app?
There is no single most accurate dictation app for every lawyer. Microphone distance, room noise, accent, and practice vocabulary all change the result. Test a real set of client names, terms, and citations before buying. VoicePrivate Legal Edition adds 12,000+ legal terms and custom dictionary entries for names, judges, firms, and local terms, but VoicePrivate does not publish an accuracy percentage because it has not run a controlled benchmark that would support one.
What software do most law firms use?
No public dataset establishes one dictation app used by most law firms. Legal teams choose among built-in operating-system dictation, dedicated legal speech recognition, enterprise workflow systems, and transcription services. VoicePrivate Legal Edition is a dedicated legal dictation app for Mac and Windows that types into Word, Outlook, Clio, MyCase, PDF fields, and other active applications without a per-app plugin.
What is the best free dictation app?
Apple Dictation is the best free starting point for a lawyer on a modern Mac because it is built in and can process supported languages on the device. Windows voice typing is the included option on Windows, but it uses Microsoft's online speech recognition. Neither includes a legal dictionary. VoicePrivate Legal Edition has no free tier. It costs $24.99 per month or $247 per year. Individual plans include a 7-day free trial with a card required and $0 due today.
Does legal dictation software understand legal terminology?
VoicePrivate Legal Edition includes 12,000+ legal terms and citation formats for legal dictation. Its custom dictionary lets a lawyer add client names, opposing counsel, local judges, firms, and practice-specific terms. A larger dictionary cannot guarantee perfect output, so every dictated citation and filing still needs lawyer review.
Is dictation software for lawyers secure for client communications?
Security depends on the product architecture and the firm's own device controls. VoicePrivate Legal Edition processes dictation on the lawyer's Mac or Windows PC, so client audio and transcript text are not sent to VoicePrivate servers. The local history and tamper-evident audit log also stay on that device. A lawyer's professional duties, access controls, backups, and retention policy still apply.
Does dictation software format legal documents automatically?
VoicePrivate Legal Edition converts a lawyer's speech into text at the cursor, adds punctuation, recognizes legal terms, and can expand saved text shortcuts. It does not replace document automation or lawyer review, and it does not promise a filing-ready brief from unedited speech. Use it for a first draft inside Word, a practice-management field, email, or a PDF form, then review the document normally.
Does VoicePrivate legal dictation support Windows and multiple languages?
VoicePrivate Legal Edition runs on macOS 13 or later and Windows 10 or later, and it supports 99 languages. Speech recognition stays on the device on both platforms. The 12,000+ entry legal dictionary focuses on legal terms, while custom dictionary entries let a firm add multilingual client names, place names, and matter-specific vocabulary.
How much does legal dictation software cost?
VoicePrivate Legal Edition costs $24.99 per month or $247 per year for one lawyer. The Team plan costs $222 per seat per year for 2 to 5 floating seats. VoicePrivate does not charge per minute or per page and has no free tier. Individual plans include a 7-day free trial with a card required and $0 due today.