Otter.ai for Legal Dictation and Meeting Transcription

Go to otter.ai and sign up with your work email. The free tier gives you 300 minutes of transcription per month — sufficient for testing and light use.

Download the Otter.ai app on your smartphone (iOS or Android). This is how you'll capture attorney dictation: the attorney speaks into the phone, Otter transcribes in real time.

1. In Otter.ai, go to Settings → Speaker ID
2. Have the attorney speak a few sentences into the mic to create their voice profile
3. Otter learns to identify the attorney's voice and label their speech automatically

This is especially useful in meeting transcripts — Otter will label "Attorney Name:" vs. "Client:" vs. "Opposing Counsel:" automatically after speaker setup.

Method A — Live recording:

1. Open the Otter app → tap the red record button
2. Attorney speaks their dictation (letter content, billing notes, meeting follow-up)
3. Otter transcribes in real time
4. Tap stop when done
5. The transcript appears in your Otter account, fully searchable

Method B — Upload an existing recording:

1. In Otter, click Import Audio/Video
2. Upload any MP3, MP4, or WAV file (recorded phone calls, Zoom recordings, voicemails)
3. Otter transcribes and returns the text within a few minutes

1. Open the transcript in Otter
2. Click any word to edit it — Otter highlights the audio that corresponds to that word
3. Correct any transcription errors (legal terms, proper names often need correction)
4. Export: click Export → choose Word or TXT format
5. Paste into your document drafting workflow