AKIOS — Case Studies

Law firms sit on mountains of documents: contracts, depositions, discovery materials. AI can review them orders of magnitude faster than paralegals. But legal documents carry an obligation no other industry faces: attorney-client privilege.

If an AI system leaks privileged communications or sends client data to a third-party API, the privilege may be waived — permanently. This isn't a fine. It can lose cases.

AKIOS solves this with a Security Cage where AI processes legal documents without ever exposing privileged content outside the boundary.

The Problem

Document review is one of the most expensive parts of litigation. A single eDiscovery matter can involve millions of documents. AI can classify, summarize, and flag relevant documents in hours instead of weeks — but the moment you connect an AI model to privileged communications, you're creating a waiver risk. One API call to an external service with privileged content, and opposing counsel will argue the privilege has been breached.

AKIOS ensures that privileged content never leaves the local machine.

The Regulatory Landscape

Legal AI in the United States must navigate unique professional obligations:

Regulation	Scope	How AKIOS Enforces It
ABA Model Rules (1.6, 5.3)	Duty to protect confidential information and supervise technology assistants including AI	Immutable audit log proves attorney maintained oversight of AI tool (Rule 5.3 compliance).
FRCP (eDiscovery)	Federal Rules of Civil Procedure require defensible, auditable eDiscovery workflows	Every classification step cryptographically signed. Defensible chain of custody.
CCPA / State Privacy	Client personal data in legal documents subject to state privacy regulations	All PII redacted before AI processing. No personal data retained by model.
SOC 2 Type II	Many corporate clients require law firms to demonstrate auditable security controls	Merkle-chained audit trail satisfies SOC 2 evidence requirements for AI-assisted review.
State Bar Ethics	State-specific ethics opinions on AI use — many require disclosure and competent supervision	Complete transparency: audit trail shows exactly what AI did, when, and on what content.

AKIOS enforces these requirements at the runtime level — privilege never leaves the cage.

The Concept: Policy as Code

AKIOS introduces the concept of a "Security Cage" — an ephemeral, sandboxed runtime where data is processed under strict, code-defined policies. For legal, the key innovation is complete network isolation: no data leaves the local machine, making privilege waiver through external API calls physically impossible.

The Workflow: Privileged Document Review

Step	What Happens	Security Control
1. Ingestion	Contracts or discovery documents loaded into the cage	Names, account numbers, and client identifiers redacted in-memory.
2. Redaction	Client PII and potentially privileged markers stripped before AI processing	SSN, email, address, client codes replaced with tokens. Originals never reach the LLM.
3. AI Review	LLM classifies documents, identifies key clauses, flags potential issues — all on redacted content	Complete network isolation. Budget capped ($0.50/document set). No persistent storage.
4. Privilege Check	Before output leaves the cage, AKIOS verifies no privileged content is included	Flagged items go to human review. AI cannot waive privilege.
5. Audit	Every document access, classification, and output logged with cryptographic signatures	Complete chain proves review was conducted within privilege boundaries.

Architecture

graph LR
    DMS["iManage / NetDocs\nDocument Mgmt"] -->|"contracts\n(encrypted)"| FS["filesystem agent\nprivilege-scoped"]

    subgraph CAGE["AKIOS Security Cage"]
        FS --> PII["Redaction Engine\n«SSN» «EMAIL» «CLIENT_ID»"]
        PII --> LLM["llm agent\nclause analysis"]
        LLM --> TE["tool_executor\nrelevance scoring"]
        TE --> PRIV["Privilege Check\nconfidential content gate"]
        PRIV --> VALID["Output Validation\nno privileged content"]
        VALID --> MERKLE["Merkle Chain\nSHA-256 signed"]
        MERKLE --> COST["Cost Kill-Switch\n$0.50 / doc set"]
    end

    COST -->|"review report\n(privilege-safe)"| Report["Review Dashboard"]
    Report --> Attorney["Supervising\nAttorney"]
    MERKLE -->|"audit export\n(immutable)"| GC["Privilege Log"]
    GC --> Ethics["State Bar\nEthics Board"]

Policy Configuration

The entire compliance posture is defined in a single YAML file:

# legal-privilege-policy.yml
security:
  sandbox: strict
  network: blocked  # absolute network isolation — no API calls
  allowed_endpoints: []
  pii_redaction:
    enabled: true
    patterns: [ssn, email, address, phone, client_code, case_number]
    mode: aggressive
  budget:
    max_cost_per_run: 0.50
    currency: USD
  audit:
    merkle_chain: true
    export_format: jsonl
    retention_days: 3650  # 10 years — litigation hold support
  constraints:
    privilege_check: mandatory
    network_access: blocked_at_kernel

What the Attorney Sees

At the end of the workflow, the supervising attorney receives a structured report:

Field	Value
Document Set	matter-2026-0209-****7163 (142 documents)
Relevant	23 documents flagged as highly relevant to breach of contract claim
Key Clause	Indemnification cap of $5M identified in Section 8.2 — inconsistent with $10M cap in Amendment 3
Risk Flag	🔴 Change of control clause triggered — merger notification deadline is 30 days (expires March 12)
Privilege Flag	⚠️ 3 documents contain potential privileged content — routed to attorney review
Confidence	92%
Audit Hash	`b7e4c2...d91a`
Network Access Attempted	❌ None — all network syscalls blocked at kernel level

No client names. No case details. No privileged content in output. Just contract intelligence with a defensible proof chain.

Why It Matters

Privilege Preserved: Complete network isolation means privileged documents never leave the local machine. No data is sent to external APIs — ever.
ABA Compliant Supervision: The immutable audit log proves the attorney maintained oversight of the AI tool, satisfying Rule 5.3.
Defensible eDiscovery: Every step in the review process is cryptographically signed. If challenged, the firm can prove exactly how documents were processed.
Cost Control for Clients: Hard budget limits per document set make AI-assisted review predictably priced — a major selling point for clients tired of billable hour surprises.
Ethics Board Ready: Complete audit trail shows exactly what the AI analyzed and produced, satisfying state bar ethics disclosure requirements.

Try It Yourself

pip install akios
akios init my-project
akios run templates/file_analysis.yml

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