spellsafe
Lawyers were dictating long before computers could. Letters, memos and file notes went onto tape for someone else to type. Today the typist is software, and it’s much faster, but it raises a question the tape recorder never did: who else hears what you say?
The confidentiality problem with cloud dictation
Most modern dictation apps, especially the newer “AI dictation” ones, transcribe your audio on their servers. You speak, your audio is uploaded, and text comes back.
For a lawyer, what you dictate is often privileged or confidential: client names, facts of a dispute, settlement positions, advice. Professional rules generally expect you to make reasonable efforts to prevent unauthorised disclosure of client information, and that includes the vendors you use. In the US, for example, ABA Model Rule 1.6(c) sets out that duty, and bar guidance on cloud and AI tools asks lawyers to understand how a vendor stores and uses data before relying on it.
That doesn’t mean cloud tools are off limits. It does mean every one you add is another set of terms to read, another retention policy to check, and another company to trust.
On-device dictation keeps it simple
The cleanest answer is a tool that doesn’t send anything anywhere. If speech is recognised on your own Mac, there’s no third party processing your audio, and nothing to evaluate beyond the computer you already secure.
spellsafe is built that way:
- Speech recognition happens on your Mac, using NVIDIA’s Parakeet model on the Neural Engine. Audio is never uploaded.
- AI cleanup and rewriting happen on your Mac too, with a language model that runs locally. Many apps that transcribe locally still send text to a cloud model to tidy it. spellsafe doesn’t.
- It works offline. After the one-time model download, it works on a plane, in a courtroom with no signal, or on a locked-down network.
- No account, no analytics. There’s nothing to sign up for, and the app sends no usage data or crash reports.
- History stays local. Dictations are kept on your Mac so you can review them, and you can turn off saving the audio recordings entirely.
You can verify this yourself, which is more useful than taking our word for it: turn off Wi-Fi and dictate.
Dictating legal work with spellsafe
spellsafe types into whatever app has focus: Word, Pages, Outlook, Apple Mail, Clio or another practice-management system in the browser, or a document management system.
- Hold Right Option, speak, let go. The whole passage is transcribed in one pass and typed where your cursor is. Or tap Right Option to see words appear as you talk.
- Teach it names and terms. Add client names, opposing parties, case names and Latin terms to Vocabulary, and they’re spelled your way from then on.
- Correct by voice. “Scratch that” removes the last sentence, “replace plaintiff with claimant” swaps a term, and “new paragraph” starts one.
- Rewrite in place. Select a rough paragraph, hold Right Command, and say “make this more formal” or “turn this into a numbered list”. The rewrite happens on your Mac, and ⌘Z undoes it.
- Numbers and money come out as digits. “Forty dollars” is typed as $40, “fifteen percent” as 15%, and “three thirty” as 3:30.
Limits to know about
- English only, for now.
- Apple silicon Macs with macOS 14 or later.
- It isn’t a transcription service for recordings or meetings. It types what you dictate while you hold or toggle the key.
- Your Mac’s security is your security. Because everything stays local, use FileVault, a strong password and a screen lock, as you would for any machine holding client files.
Try it
spellsafe has a 7-day free trial with every feature, then costs $9 a year. Download spellsafe or read the privacy policy.