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