A desk read · 30-page A4 PDF · Terms read on 4 November 2026
Who decided to record that call?
A comparative review of nine AI note-takers for managing partners, operating partners and boards: what each does with client words, and my rating for personal and firm use.
No note-taker is safe by default
I read nine tools against their own pages: Microsoft Teams and Copilot, Otter, Circleback, Fireflies, Fellow, Fathom, Granola, Read AI and Wispr Flow. For firm use, three earn a procurement review today: Microsoft, Circleback and Fireflies. That rating means worth a review now. It does not mean safe.
Of the nine, only one states that it deletes by default, and only after 120 days. That one is Microsoft.
A free log-in, a lawyers' call and a transcript nobody planned
In spring 2026 lawyers on each side of a dispute held meet-and-confer calls on Microsoft Teams. Defence counsel later objected to being “completely unaware that it was being recorded until after the meeting ended and an email permitting a download of the transcript was provided.” Plaintiffs' counsel was told the defendant had apparently triggered the service with a free log-in, then paid Otter.ai for the complete transcripts and filed them with a brief.
The court sealed them and refused to use them:
“[T]he Court will not consider the transcript or any arguments based upon those ‘transcripts’ for the simple reason that no party has made any effort to demonstrate its accuracy or trustworthiness.”
The court did not rule on consent or privilege, so read it as a warning about what happens. Consider the same chain of events on a client call in your firm: a tool nobody chose starts recording, a copy sits with a vendor, and someone outside the firm can get a link.
Keep the summary. Delete the transcript.
NYC Bar Opinion 2025-6 treats an AI summary like the lawyer's own file memo only if the recording and transcript “are eliminated” and the lawyer has reviewed the summary. The workflow to require, from any vendor:
- Before: give notice and get consent at the start of the call.
- Check: the lawyer checks the summary against the transcript while both exist.
- Keep: the reviewed summary goes on the matter file.
- Delete: the recording and transcript go on a clock set in advance.
- Stop: deletion stops once a legal hold applies or a dispute is foreseeable.
It has a cost. After deletion nobody can check the summary against its source, so the check has to come first. Set the retention rule before any dispute: deleting something inconvenient once a dispute is foreseeable is a different act and can be sanctioned. Some matters and regulators may require a fuller record, and most of the published authority is American, so state your own jurisdiction before you rely on any of it.
Inside the review
- My rating of each tool for personal use, firm use, a firm needing EU storage and a firm needing enforced notice
- One page on each tool, quoting its own terms
- The authorities behind the duty, and where each one stops
- A policy you can adopt, scaled for a firm without a general counsel or a security team
- Six questions for the board
- What to keep and what to delete, and what that costs
- What I could not check
I read each vendor's own help, security, pricing and policy pages on 4 November 2026. These are vendors' claims. I tested none of the products for this review, and I saw no audit report.
Get the review
Education, not legal advice. I read the terms on 4 November 2026, and they change, so recheck before you buy.
Disclosure: I use Fathom and Wispr Flow. I run ChiefofStaff.pro, which is not rated in the review. It reads Fathom and runs on Microsoft 365, which I rate Strong, so weigh that rating accordingly.
Craig Miller, Founder, ChiefofStaff.pro