Does Parakeety work inside Clio?

Yes. Clio is a browser-based legal practice-management platform; Parakeety pastes at the cursor in any of its text fields, including matter notes, time-entry descriptions, document templates, communication logs and the client-portal message composer.

Can I dictate time-entry descriptions?

Yes. Time entries are the field with the highest dictation payback in Clio: most lawyers under-describe entries because typing them is slow, and dictation produces the longer, more billable descriptions that better support billing review. Click into the description field, hold the section key, talk.

What about Clio Manage matter notes that touch privileged matter?

Audio is captured on the Mac, transcribed on the Apple Neural Engine and discarded. Privileged matter in the dictated note never leaves the device in audio form. The transcript reaches Clio under Clio's existing security and confidentiality posture (the same channel a typed note travels through). The wider framing on data-processing reviews is in HIPAA and dictation: architectural vs contractual privacy. The same architectural-vs-contractual distinction maps onto legal-professional privilege.

Does dictation work with Clio Draft and document automation?

Yes. Clio Draft generates documents from templates with placeholders; once you are editing the resulting Word or PDF document, dictation works the same way it works in any browser-rendered editor or Word for Mac. The wider workflow piece is Dictating into Microsoft Word with Parakeety.

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Dictating into Clio with Parakeety

Clio is where the working week of a solo or small-firm lawyer lives: matter notes, time entries, communication logs, client-portal threads, Clio Draft template generation, the running record of who said what when. The structured side (matter codes, billing rates, trust accounting) clicks through fine. The prose around it is where the time stacks up, and where typed notes get shortened to the point of being useless under later review. Push-to-talk dictation closes that gap on a Mac with audio that never reaches anyone else's server.

Where dictation fits inside Clio

The Clio fields where holding the section key actually saves money:

Time-entry descriptions. The single biggest dictation win. Typed time entries are reliably under-described; dictated ones are reliably specific enough to defend on review. The difference is real billable hours that would otherwise be discounted.
Matter notes. The narrative log of what happened on a matter; phone calls, decisions, instructions, sticking points. The piece you reread two years later when the case unexpectedly resurfaces.
Communication logs. Summaries of calls, meetings, hallway conversations that need to be on the matter record.
Client-portal messages. Replies to client questions through Clio's portal. Naturally conversational; dictation matches the tone better than typing does.
Custom-field free text. Whatever firm-specific fields your Clio instance has on the matter or contact records.
Clio Draft templates and the documents they generate. The free-text portions inside the generated drafts.

A worked example: a time entry and a matter note after a call

A 40-minute call with a client about a contract negotiation. You open Clio, find the matter, start a time entry. The typed version most lawyers write is "Call with client re: contract" (six words, hard to defend on review). Dictated, the version you naturally produce:

"Call with client to walk through the second amendment proposal received from the counterparty on Tuesday. Discussed three areas of concern: the affiliate carve-out broadening, the cooling-off period absence, and the indemnity cap at one times annual fees. Agreed to push back on all three. Client confirmed authority to walk away if the affiliate position is not moved. Drafting redlined response by Thursday."

Twenty-five seconds dictated, roughly two minutes typed. The entry now actually justifies the hour at the rate. Then dictate the matter note that goes alongside it: the longer narrative that the case file needs. Five minutes in total for a write-up that would otherwise either take twenty minutes typed or get cut short.

Tips specific to Clio

Click into the description field, then hold. Time-entry forms have several adjacent fields; the cursor needs to be in the description before you start speaking.
Use Clio's timer alongside dictation. Start the timer at the beginning of the call; stop it when the call ends; dictate the description after. The two workflows fit together cleanly.
Matter-note dictation matches matter-conferring tone. Notes you would describe to a partner across the desk dictate well; notes you would type as a series of bullet points work less well dictated than they would typed. Pick the format for the content.
Read sensitive entries before saving. A speech-model slip on a client name, a counterparty name, or a financial figure can cause confusion later. The read-back is fast and matters.
Works alongside Clio for Microsoft 365 / Outlook integrations. If you draft email replies in Outlook from a Clio-linked matter, Parakeety dictates into Outlook the same way it dictates into Clio.

Privilege and the data-processing register

For UK firms under the SRA Code of Conduct and US firms under ABA Model Rule 1.6, the question that the firm's risk team asks is: which third-party processors touch privileged matter, and what does the engagement letter or data-processing agreement with them say. Clio itself is one such processor (with security and data-processing language in the customer agreement). A cloud transcription tool would be another. Parakeety avoids being a second processor for the dictation audio: the speech model runs on the Mac, the audio is captured to memory and discarded, the transcript reaches Clio the same way typing would.

The lawyer-side piece is Parakeety for lawyers and solicitors; the wider compliance framing (written for healthcare but the privilege analogy carries directly) is HIPAA and dictation: architectural vs contractual privacy.

FAQ

Does Parakeety work inside Clio?: Yes. Clio is a browser-based legal practice-management platform; Parakeety pastes at the cursor in any of its text fields, including matter notes, time-entry descriptions, document templates, communication logs and the client-portal message composer.
Can I dictate time-entry descriptions?: Yes. Time entries are the field with the highest dictation payback in Clio: most lawyers under-describe entries because typing them is slow, and dictation produces the longer, more billable descriptions that better support billing review. Click into the description field, hold the section key, talk.
What about Clio Manage matter notes that touch privileged matter?: Audio is captured on the Mac, transcribed on the Apple Neural Engine and discarded. Privileged matter in the dictated note never leaves the device in audio form. The transcript reaches Clio under Clio's existing security and confidentiality posture (the same channel a typed note travels through). The wider framing on data-processing reviews is in HIPAA and dictation: architectural vs contractual privacy. The same architectural-vs-contractual distinction maps onto legal-professional privilege.
Does dictation work with Clio Draft and document automation?: Yes. Clio Draft generates documents from templates with placeholders; once you are editing the resulting Word or PDF document, dictation works the same way it works in any browser-rendered editor or Word for Mac. The wider workflow piece is Dictating into Microsoft Word with Parakeety.

Try it

Parakeety is a Mac menu-bar app. Hold the section key, talk, release; your words paste at the cursor in whichever app you were typing into, including every field inside Clio in a browser. Audio never leaves the machine. There is a free 7-day trial with no card required. After that it is $30 once.

Try Parakeety free →