Your client files don't belong on someone else's server.
Sidebarlex is a private AI that runs on your own computer. Pre-loaded with Virginia state rules and all federal court rules. Every answer cites its source. Nothing leaves your office.
Solo practice means doing the work and running the business at the same time. There's no associate to hand a document to. No one to ask "can you pull the rule on this?" It's you, the file, and the clock.
You've probably already tried AI. Most attorneys have. And a lot of them stopped after a few weeks, not because it didn't work, but because they realized what they were actually doing: pasting a client's confidential documents into a server they don't control, owned by a company whose privacy policy is forty pages of careful nothing.
The answer was useful. The risk was real. So they stopped.
That's the problem Sidebarlex is built to solve.
What's pre-loaded for Virginia
- gavel Virginia Rules of Professional Conduct
- gavel Virginia Rules of Civil Procedure
- gavel Virginia Rules of Evidence
- gavel Virginia Rules of Appellate Procedure
- account_balance Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP)
- account_balance Federal Rules of Evidence (FRE)
- account_balance Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure (FRAP)
- account_balance Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure
- account_balance Fourth Circuit Local Rules and IOPs
All validated. Ready on day one. You add your case files on top.
Everything stays on your machine.
Runs locally
The AI runs on your own hardware. No cloud connection, no account, no sync. When you close the laptop, it stops. When you open it, it starts.
Cites every answer
Ask a question. It searches your documents and the legal library. It gives you an answer and tells you the exact document and page it came from.
Won't guess
If the answer isn't in your documents, it says so. It doesn't fill the gap with something that sounds plausible. It stops and tells you it doesn't know.
Two courts. Two sets of rules. At the same time.
Virginia was one of the first states I made sure to get right, and there's a specific reason for that.
Virginia attorneys work in state court and federal court simultaneously more often than lawyers in most states. The FRCP, the FRE, the Fourth Circuit's local rules, and the Virginia Rules of Court live in your head at the same time, on the same case. One missed deadline, one wrong standard of review, and it matters in a way it might not in a state where federal practice is rarer.
Most AI tools have no idea that combination even exists. Sidebarlex treats your state rules and your federal rules as one searchable library. You ask one question, it searches everything, it tells you where the answer lives.
Northern Virginia in particular has a high concentration of attorneys who practice near federal agencies, government contractors, and military-related matters. The federal library isn't an afterthought here. It's the main event for a lot of practices. The full set of circuit rulebooks, not just the Fourth, is included as well.
What it won't do.
It won't replace your judgment. It doesn't tell you what argument to make or predict how a judge will rule.
What it does is read the documents, find what's there, and tell you exactly where it is. That part, the finding-and-locating part, is what takes time that shouldn't take as long as it does.
It also won't invent case law. This is worth saying clearly. It has no access to any case law you haven't given it. It won't cite a case it's never seen. If you want it to know a decision, you give it the PDF. Then it knows it, and it tells you which page. If you don't give it the case, it won't pretend it has one.
This is not a replacement for Westlaw or Lexis. If you need a case law database, that's a separate product on the roadmap. This is for working with documents you already have.
The one requirement
Your machine needs at least 32 GB of DDR5 RAM. That's it. No server, no IT department, no subscription to anything. DDR5 is the memory standard in most computers sold from 2023 onward.
If you're not sure whether yours qualifies, the hardware check takes about 30 seconds and it costs nothing. That's the first step.
How it works day to day
You open a browser tab. That's the interface. You type a question, you get an answer with a source. There's nothing new to learn and no software to keep updated manually.
You can run it on one machine in your office and access it from another device on the same network. Everything stays in your office.
Free for your first year. No strings.
The three attorneys who join this test get Sidebarlex fully configured, at no cost, for twelve months. Use it on real cases. Push it hard. At the end of the year, you decide whether it's worth keeping. No pressure either way.
Luis configures it
Set up specifically for your practice area and jurisdiction. Virginia state rules and federal rules loaded and ready.
12 months, free
Use it on real cases for a full year. No trial period, no card on file, no surprise invoice. Just the tool, working.
You decide after
After a year, if it's been useful, we talk about what continuing looks like. If it hasn't, we part ways with no hard feelings and useful feedback.
In return, I ask for honest feedback during the year: what's working, what's not, and what you'd need to keep using it. That's the exchange.
I'm looking for 3 Virginia attorneys to test this right now.
The Virginia legal library is complete and validated. The federal docs are ready. The system works.
I'm limiting this to three attorneys because I want to respond properly to each person, not send the same email to fifty people and disappear. Here's all I'm asking for:
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1
Check if your machine qualifies. Takes 30 seconds.
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2
Install the free version and try it on a real document you already have.
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3
Tell me what worked, what didn't, and what would make it useful for your practice.
No call. No payment. The 3 testers get the full configured setup free for a year. After twelve months, you decide if it's worth keeping. That's the whole deal.
Apply to be one of the 3 testers
Fill in a few details about your practice. I'll review and reply within one business day with the hardware check and next steps.
Good fit: solo or small firm (1 to 5 attorneys), practicing in Virginia state or federal courts, 32 GB DDR5 RAM on your work machine, willing to give honest feedback throughout the year.
Not in Virginia?
We're building out state libraries one by one. Leave your email and we'll let you know when your state is ready.