03 Engagements

Three ways we work. One operator through every line.

All prices are public. Effective rate is capped at $250/hour. No hourly billing surprises. No referral fees from any vendor.

The Diagnostic is the front door — a 90-minute working call plus a written report inside five business days, credited to any retainer signed within 30 days. From there, you either install Knight Legal AI (the productized flagship) or move to a bespoke Fractional CTO retainer that includes custom builds and migrations.

Maximum three active engagements at any time. When the slots are full, the website says so.

DETAIL · A

The Diagnostic

$375 · one-time

The diagnostic is the front door. 90 minutes on a working call, then a written 10-page report delivered within five business days. The report covers your current technology stack, AI exposure, the 3–5 highest-leverage moves, and a recommended sequence with rough cost ranges.

  • 90-minute working call (Boris, no junior, no pitch deck)
  • 10-page written assessment, prioritized, with specific vendor / tool / engagement recommendations
  • Reviewed against your firm size, practice mix, and risk posture
  • Includes an honest answer on whether Knight CTO is the right fit (or not)
  • Full $375 is credited toward any retainer or install signed within 30 days

Best for: Solo or small-firm partners weighing AI adoption, a vendor change, or a security review — and want a real second opinion before committing budget.

DETAIL · B

Knight Legal AI
install + support

$250 install · $250/mo

The flagship system, productized. Knight Legal AI runs entirely on the partner’s own machine — case files, indexing, drafting, retrieval all happen on-device. The only outbound traffic is to Anthropic under their commercial DPA with zero data retention. The software itself is free and open. The fee covers the install, onboarding, and ongoing direct support.

  • ~1-hour install on the partner’s Mac — data never leaves the device
  • Onboarding call + matter-library connection (works with iManage, NetDocuments, SharePoint, Clio, plain folders)
  • Court-ready citations with page-and-line numbers
  • Audit log built in — survives a Bar discipline inquiry
  • Monthly model + prompt updates as the underlying models evolve
  • Direct support — you have my mobile number
  • 30-day refund if it does not deliver value within the first month

Best for: Solo and small-firm partners ready to use AI on real privileged work, where Harvey/CoCounsel are wrong because of the SaaS architecture or wrong because of the per-user pricing.

DETAIL · C

Bespoke Fractional CTO

From $2,500/mo · scoped per firm

Standing technical leadership across every domain that touches the firm’s technology. The retainer covers ongoing strategic work; custom builds and migrations are folded into the same monthly fee within a defined time budget. Effective rate is capped at $250/hour. Month-to-month after the first quarter; you give 30 days’ notice and we close out cleanly.

  • Weekly strategy call + standing async access
  • Custom systems, integrations, vendor migrations — included within the retainer time budget
  • Vendor evaluations, contract reviews, RFP oversight
  • Engineering-hire interviews and reference calls
  • Annual security audit + roadmap presentation to partners
  • One M&A technology diligence per year (buyer or seller)
  • Direct contact — no junior, no handoff, no white-labeled subcontractors
  • Full documentation + runbook hand-back if you ever leave

Best for: Firms that need the CTO function without the partner-track salary line. Typical engagement is a 10–25 attorney firm where the Managing Partner has been wearing the “tech” hat by default and is ready to stop.

04 Timeline

What happens after you sign.

Day 0

Engagement letter signed

Two-page letter, plain English, mutual NDA included. Standard turnaround is 24 hours from a marked-up draft. No cut-and-paste boilerplate I cannot explain to you sentence by sentence.

Day 1–5

Kickoff & calendar invite

For the Diagnostic: 90-minute call scheduled within 5 business days. For Knight Legal AI: install slot on the partner’s calendar within 5 business days. For the retainer: standing weekly call + access channel set up.

Week 1–2

First deliverable in your hands

Diagnostic report delivered. Or Knight Legal AI installed and indexing your matter library. Or the first roadmap memo from the retainer is on the Managing Partner’s desk. You have something concrete to read, use, or react to inside two weeks of signature.

Week 4

First check-in

30-minute check-in call. We confirm the work is on track, course-correct if not, and reset the priority list. For the Knight Legal AI engagement, we run a 30-day satisfaction check — if the system has not delivered value in the first month, you get a full refund.

Quarter 1

Quarterly review

For retainer clients, end of each quarter is a 60-minute partner-level review: what we did, what we did not, what is on the roadmap for the next quarter, and whether the engagement still makes sense. You can exit at any quarter boundary with 30 days’ notice and no penalty.

05 What you walk away with

Concrete deliverables. You own all of it.

Diagnostic

10-page written report

Current-state map, prioritized recommendations, vendor / tool shortlist, three-year cost projection. PDF + editable .docx. Yours to share with partners, IT, or your insurance carrier.

Knight Legal AI

Working AI on the partner’s machine

The full Knight Legal AI installation, with citation-grade retrieval against your matter library. Audit log, disclosure templates, firm-branded UI. The software is free and yours; the install fee covers the work to set it up properly.

Bespoke / Project

Source code, runbook, training

Full source on a repo you control. Deployment scripts that re-create the environment from scratch. A runbook detailed enough that a competent successor engineer can take over within two weeks. One-hour training session for your team.

Retainer

Standing leadership artifacts

Quarterly executive briefs to the Managing Partner. Annual partner-meeting tech presentation deck. Vendor renewal calendar with negotiation triggers. Documented incident response plan. M&A diligence reports when applicable.

06 Payment & Terms

How invoicing actually works.

Diagnostic

$375 invoiced on signature, due net 15. Refunded in full if I do not deliver the written report within five business days of the call. Credited toward any retainer or install signed within 30 days of the report.

Knight Legal AI

$250 install fee invoiced on signature; $250/month support invoiced on the first of each month, due net 15. 30-day satisfaction guarantee on the install. Cancel monthly support any time on 30 days’ notice; the software stays installed and yours.

Retainer

From $2,500/month invoiced on the first of each month, due net 15. Three-month minimum for the first quarter. Month-to-month after the first quarter; you give 30 days’ notice and we close out cleanly. Pricing scoped per firm based on hours expected; effective rate capped at $250/hour.

Discounts & expenses

10% discount on annual prepay for the retainer. Travel and incidental expenses billed at cost with receipts; rare and disclosed in advance. No referral fees, no rebates, no commissions on any vendor or tool I recommend — ever.

07 What’s NOT included

Things I won’t do for you.

Not sure which one fits? Start with the Diagnostic.

90 minutes, $375, written 10-page report inside five business days. The full $375 is credited toward any retainer or install signed within 30 days, so the worst-case is you walk away with a report you keep.

Book the Diagnostic →

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