Dean Law Firm|Automation Proposal

Prepared for Joshua Dean · Dean Law Firm, P.A.

A self-contained automation
platform for Florida probate
and estate planning.

One system, on your own domain, in your name. No Clio. No Lawmatics. No Gavel. No DocuSign. No LawPay. No SharePoint. No Power Automate. No vendor seats. No data living on someone else’s server.

Read the proposal View live demo →
Version1.0
DateMay 19, 2026
Status Live demo running

01 · Executive Summary

Everything in your blueprint, built into one system you own.

Your RFP describes a workflow stitched together from eight third-party platforms. That stack is powerful, but it carries three real costs: predictable monthly fees that scale with every attorney and paralegal, fragmented client data spread across vendor servers, and integration debt that grows every time one of those vendors ships a breaking change.

This proposal delivers the same workflow as a single application running on Dean Law Firm infrastructure at intake.deanfirm.com. It is already operational. Every objective in your blueprint — intake, conflict checking, engagement, document automation, e-signature, trust accounting, attorney review, AI summaries, client status updates — is implemented today and demonstrable in the live environment.

The result: predictable one-time investment, no per-seat SaaS taxes, no integration glue, and full ownership of the matter database, the documents, the audit trails, and the brand experience.

02 · The Original Stack vs. The Self-Contained System

Eight vendors collapsed into one platform.

Your blueprint listed eight categories of software. Below is a one-to-one mapping of how each is replaced by a module already running inside intake.deanfirm.com.

Blueprint CategoryOriginal ToolTypical CostReplaced ByWhere It Lives
Matter ManagementClio / Smokeball~$160 / atty / moNative matter module/admin/matters
CRM & WorkflowLawmatics~$300+ / moIntake → conflict → engagement pipeline/admin/intakes
Document AutomationGavel / Woodpecker~$83 / user / moHandlebars-style template engine, 16 FL templates seeded/admin/templates
StorageSharePoint / OneDrive~$10 / user / moEncrypted local FS, per-matter buckets, audit-logged/storage/<matter>
Workflow IntegrationPower Automate / Zapier~$15 / user / moInternal job queue, native webhooksnode + pg
E-SignatureDocuSign~$45 / mo + per-docHTML5 canvas + typed signature, FL UETA cert of completion/sign/:token
PaymentsLawPay~$20 / mo + 2.95%Stripe-native, IOLTA-aware webhooks → trust ledger/webhooks/stripe
AI LayerOpenAI / Claudepay-per-useBuilt in, with automatic Claude fallback + Slack alertinglib/ai.js

Approximate annual run-rate of the original stack

$18k – $36k / year and growing with headcount

Annual run-rate of the self-contained system

$3,480 / year, flat, no per-seat tax

03 · RFP Coverage Matrix

Every objective in your blueprint, mapped to a live module.

Each row points to a route in the running application. Items marked LIVE are demonstrable today.

Probate Workflow RFP §3

LIVE

Lead intake questionnaire online

Nine-step probate intake with autosave per field.

/probate/intake
LIVE

Conflict check initiated automatically

Trigram similarity across clients + adverse parties; auto red/yellow/green.

/admin/conflicts
LIVE

Engagement agreement generated & sent

One-click generate → e-sign → matter advances.

/admin/matters/:id
LIVE

Matter automatically created

Cleared intake becomes a matter in one click; tasks instantiated from template.

create-matter button
LIVE

Client uploads death certificate, will, deed

Magic-link client portal with per-matter document drop.

/portal
LIVE

Probate petition packet

Petition for Administration, Oath of PR, Designation of Resident Agent, Notice to Creditors, Notice of Administration, Inventory, Petition for Discharge.

7 templates seeded
LIVE

Attorney review memo

AI-drafted recommendations citing Florida statutes; attorney must approve.

Generate review memo
LIVE

Automated client status updates

Six lifecycle events trigger client emails; full history on the matter timeline.

status_updates table
LIVE

Court filing prepared

Single PDF e-filing bundle merging all pleadings for the FL clerk portal.

/efiling-bundle
LIVE

Administration & closing tracked

Phase-aware kanban; creditor period timer; closing checklist.

/admin/matters?view=kanban

Estate Planning Workflow RFP §4

LIVE

Estate planning questionnaire

Eight-step intake with autosave covering all fields in your §6 list.

/estate-planning/intake
LIVE

Matter type & complexity classification

Automatic tagging (basic / blended-family / business / tax-planning).

intake_submissions.flags
LIVE

Engagement agreement generated

EP-specific engagement template with flat-fee schedule.

EP Engagement Letter
LIVE

Will, trust, POA, healthcare surrogate, living will

Seven seeded estate planning templates including Pour-Over Will and Revocable Living Trust.

7 EP templates
LIVE

Attorney review memo prepared

Same review-memo engine; flags blended families, disinheritance, special needs.

Attorney Review Memo
LIVE

Funding checklist & deed recommendations

Trust Funding Checklist template seeded; deed memo on real-estate inventory.

Trust Funding Checklist
LIVE

Signing meeting checklist

Auto-generated execution memo with witness/notary instructions.

Signing checklist task

Attorney Review Flags RFP §8

Homestead acreage issue Minor beneficiaries Blended family Disinheritance Trust funding deficiencies Possible will contest Insolvent estate Ancillary probate concerns

All eight flags are detected automatically from intake answers and surfaced on the attorney review memo.

04 · Build Phases

Your blueprint phases, with delivery dates.

RFP §9 specified four phases. Phase 1 and Phase 2 are already complete and live in production. Phase 3 (AI summaries & drafting) is partially live and finishes inside the deposit. Phase 4 (advanced analytics & dashboards) is the final milestone.

  1. 01

    Intake + engagement + matter creation

    Public intake forms, conflict checks, engagement letter generation & signing, matter creation, client portal.

    Delivered · live at intake.deanfirm.com
  2. 02

    Document automation

    16 Florida probate & estate-planning templates, merge-field engine, e-filing PDF bundle merging, native e-signature with UETA certificate of completion.

    Delivered · templates seeded & editable in admin
  3. 03

    AI summaries & drafting

    Attorney review memos, intake summarisation, plain-English client status emails, statute-citation suggestions. OpenAI primary, Claude fallback, Slack alert on failure.

    In progress · finishes within 2 weeks of deposit
  4. 04

    Advanced analytics & dashboards

    Per-attorney production reports, conversion funnel, fees-earned trend, matter-aging, creditor-period timers, estate-tax exposure dashboard.

    Scheduled · weeks 3 – 6

05 · Architecture

A boring, durable stack you can audit yourself.

Hosting

Dedicated Linux host, hardened with UFW + Fail2ban, behind Cloudflare.

App

Node 20 + Express, PM2 cluster, zero-downtime reload.

Database

PostgreSQL 15 with pg_trgm for conflict scoring; nightly logical backups.

Documents

Puppeteer renders HTML → PDF; pdf-lib merges e-filing bundles.

E-Signature

Canvas signature pad + typed name; SHA-256 doc hash + IP/UA audit trail.

Payments

Stripe Checkout + raw-body webhook; auto-posts to trust ledger.

AI

OpenAI primary, Anthropic Claude fallback, Slack failure alerting.

Email

SMTP via Nodemailer, stealth-gated until you flip the switch.

22 PostgreSQL tables, 0 external SaaS contracts, 1 domain you control end to end.

06 · Investment

One clear price. No per-seat tax. No vendor escalators.

Recommended

Self-Contained Platform

One-time build complete & live. Phases 3 & 4 finish inside this engagement.

$14,950 one-time
  • All four blueprint phases delivered
  • 16 Florida-specific templates editable by your team
  • Branded client portal & intake on your domain
  • Native e-signature, UETA-compliant audit cert
  • Trust ledger with 3-way reconciliation
  • Stripe + AI keys configured under your account
  • 30 days of post-launch tuning included
$290 / month hosting & maintenance
  • Production hosting, daily backups, SSL renewal
  • Security patches, dependency upgrades
  • Slack-paged uptime monitoring
  • 2 hours/mo of template & workflow tweaks
Approve & pay deposit

07 · Strategic Advantages

Why a self-contained system beats the SaaS stack.

One source of truth

Client, matter, document, signature, payment and audit data all live in one Postgres database under your control. No reconciling Clio against Lawmatics against Gavel ever again.

Privilege stays inside the firm

Privileged communications never traverse a third-party CRM tenant shared with thousands of other firms.

Your brand, end to end

Clients never leave deanfirm.com — intake, signing, payments, portal all on the firm domain.

Predictable cost curve

Adding an attorney costs nothing. Adding a paralegal costs nothing. Adding 1,000 clients costs nothing.

Audit ready

Append-only trust ledger, three-way reconciliation, immutable signing certificates: everything The Florida Bar wants to see, in one place.

You own your AI prompts

Statute-citation prompts, intake-summary prompts, client-friendly status prompts — all version-controlled in your repo, tunable as case law evolves.

08 · Approve & Move Forward

Ready when you are, Joshua.

A 50% deposit unlocks Phase 3 finalisation and the Phase 4 analytics dashboards. The platform stays live throughout — no downtime, no migration window.

Deposit (50%)

$7,475

Balance on Phase 4 sign-off

$7,475

First month hosting

$290

Pay deposit via Stripe →

Stripe payment link will be inserted here once issued. This button is a placeholder.

Have questions or want a 20-minute walkthrough of the live system? Reply to the proposal email or visit intake.deanfirm.com to click through it yourself.