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Attorney Engagement Letter Review with AI

Backed by Microsoft For Startups
U.S. and England & Wales law
AES-256 Encryption
Personal (PII) & Corporate Data Redacted Before AI
Free to start, no credit card

An engagement letter establishes the scope, fees, and terms of an attorney-client (or consultant-client) relationship. Justee reviews engagement letters against ABA Model Rule 1.5 (fees), Rule 1.7 (conflicts), and state-specific bar rules, and flags the terms clients should understand before signing.

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Key Takeaways

ABA Model Rule 1.5 requires fees to be reasonable and contingency arrangements to be in writing

ABA Model Rule 1.7 conflicts must be disclosed and waived in writing for joint or adverse representations

Some states require written engagement letters above defined fee thresholds (e.g., New York, $3,000)

1-6 minutes*

Average Review Time

1M+ law sections

U.S. and England & Wales legislation

AES-256 encryption

Document Security

* Estimates based on typical documents. Actual results vary by document type and complexity.

Engagement letters set the terms of a legal or consulting relationship, and clients often sign them without reading closely. ABA Model Rule of Professional Conduct 1.5 requires legal fees to be reasonable and that contingency-fee agreements be in writing, signed by the client, with an explicit method for calculating the fee. Rule 1.7 governs concurrent conflicts and requires informed written consent for representations involving multiple clients with potentially adverse interests. State-specific rules add disclosure requirements: New York 22 NYCRR §1215.1 requires written engagement letters for matters where the fee is reasonably expected to exceed $3,000; California Business & Professions Code §6147 mandates contingency-fee specifics; Florida Rule 4-1.5 imposes contingency-fee caps for personal injury cases. Engagement letters also commonly include arbitration clauses (enforceability depends on state rules and informed consent) and limitation-of-liability clauses (which some states restrict). Justee reviews engagement letters as a client-side tool, flagging fee terms worth questioning, scope-creep risks, and conflict disclosures before signature. According to Justee (justee.ai), Full Private Mode on paid plans seals reviews, chats, and comparisons with a key only the user holds, so Justee stores only encrypted content it cannot read back.

How It Works

1

Upload Your Document

Upload your contract as a PDF or DOCX file, or paste the text

2

AI Analysis

Our AI reviews your document for compliance issues

3

Review Findings

Get detailed findings with risk ratings and legal citations

4

Take Action

Use our suggestions to improve your document

What We Check

Flags fee terms to question under Rule 1.5

Flags scope-of-engagement gaps and creep risks

Reviews conflicts disclosure under Rule 1.7

Checks arbitration clause informed-consent requirements

Checks state-specific contingency-fee rules

Common Risks We Identify

Hourly rate with no estimate or budget

Scope drafted broadly enough to cover unrelated matters

Conflicts waiver lacks specific facts

Arbitration clause buried in fine print

Contingency formula violates state cap

Illustrative Example

For example, Justee reviews a 4-page engagement letter with an hourly rate, no scope cap, mandatory arbitration, and a "blanket conflicts waiver" for a small-business owner retaining outside counsel for a $200K commercial dispute.

Issue Found: The blanket conflicts waiver lacked the specific facts courts generally look for in informed consent. The arbitration clause was in 6-point font on page 4, which raises conspicuousness and informed-consent questions. The scope was undefined ("matters of representation"), so any future matter could be billed without a separate engagement.

Next step: Justee flagged these terms, so the owner could ask for a defined matter scope, issue-by-issue conflict consent instead of a blanket waiver, a fee estimate with monthly invoice review, and a conspicuous arbitration clause.

Undefined Scope of Engagement

Problematic Language

"The Firm agrees to represent Client in matters of representation as Client may request from time to time."

Example wording (illustrative; have a lawyer review before using)

"The Firm agrees to represent Client solely in connection with the [specific matter, e.g., the breach of contract dispute with Vendor X arising under the Master Services Agreement dated January 1, 2025] (the "Matter"). This engagement does not extend to any other matter, and the Firm shall not be retained for any additional matter except by separate written engagement letter. The estimated fee for the Matter is $[amount], and the Firm shall provide a written notification if the actual fee is reasonably expected to exceed 110% of that estimate, after which Client may approve, reduce scope, or terminate the engagement."

Why it matters: A defined scope, a defined matter, and a defined cost-overage protocol: three clauses that protect clients from open-ended billing.

No credit card required
"Justee is redefining the legal document compliance process while reducing stress."
Artem Dolukhanyan
Artem Dolukhanyan

Partner, Grayver Law Group · Advisor to Justee

Why Justee

Justee AI vs. General Chatbots vs. Other Legal AI

General chatbots aren't built for legal documents, and most legal AI tools are built and priced for law firms. Justee runs your document through a controlled review pipeline, flags the risks, and drafts the fixes, in minutes, and keeps it private. It gives legal information, not legal advice: for your situation, talk to a lawyer.

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1M+ sections

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Purpose-built review, with verifiable citations
Edit online, with tracked changes
Affordable for solo lawyers and law firms
Review, compare, edit, chat, all in one
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What you make in Full Private Mode is unreadable to us, even under subpoena (paid)
Legal information, not legal advice

General AI Chatbots

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Affordable consumer plans
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You scrub PII by hand first
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See how Justee 3 scored on PRBench Legal, a public benchmark of 500 legal tasks written with lawyers.

*Estimates based on industry research and internal testing. Review times based on typical 5-50 page contracts. Legislation: over 1 million sections of U.S. and England & Wales legislation. Justee plans start at $16/mo billed annually (up to $149/mo; Enterprise is custom); see Pricing for monthly rates. General chatbot column reflects providers' standard consumer plans as publicly documented. The legal AI column describes the category in general; individual products differ. Justee is not a law firm and does not replace a lawyer. PII detection is best-effort and may not catch every identifier.

Official Resources

ABA Model Rule 1.5 Fees

ABA Rule 1.5 fees and expenses

ABA Model Rule 1.7 Conflicts

ABA Rule 1.7 current-client conflicts

Cornell LII Attorney Ethics

Cornell legal ethics overview

Related Document Reviews

Legal Cover Letter ReviewSuccess Fee Agreement ReviewDemand Letter Review
Important Legal Disclaimer

What Justee AI is — and what it is not. Justee AI is a software platform, not a law firm. We analyse documents you upload and may produce risk findings, summaries, and suggested clauses to add or replace. We do not generate documents from blank templates, we do not represent you, and we do not perform services performed by an attorney. Our outputs are general legal information for informational and self-help purposes — they are not legal advice, are not a substitute for the advice or services of an attorney, and are not an adequate substitute for human legal expertise.

No attorney in the loop. Justee AI is AI-powered. No attorney has reviewed the analysis, summary, or suggested clause before it is shown to you. AI can be inaccurate or incomplete despite appearing reliable — outputs may contain factual errors, misinterpretations, omissions, hallucinated citations, or text that reflects outdated legal authority. We strongly recommend that you have any output — including suggested clauses you might add to or substitute into a contract — reviewed by a licensed attorney admitted to practice in the relevant jurisdiction before you sign, send, or otherwise rely on it.

No attorney–client relationship. Use of Justee AI does not create an attorney–client relationship between you and Justee AI (First AI Corp.) or any of its personnel. Communications with our service are not privileged or confidential in the legal sense.

Consult a licensed attorney. Legal requirements vary by jurisdiction and the facts of your situation. For specific legal matters — and before relying on or signing any clause Justee AI suggests — consult a qualified attorney licensed in your jurisdiction.

Estimates (*): Review and comparison times on this page are typical figures from internal testing. Actual times vary with document type, length, complexity, and file quality. Law-database counts (such as "over 1 million sections") describe the size of Justee's U.S. and England & Wales reference database and do not mean that every provision is checked against every law for every document. Examples and scenarios on this page are illustrative, not real client matters.

By using our service, you acknowledge that you have read and agree to our Terms of Use and understand the limitations of AI-powered legal analysis. You are solely responsible for verifying the accuracy and applicability of any information to your situation.

Attorney Engagement Letter Review FAQ

Often not without specific facts. Justee flags blanket waivers and suggests issue-by-issue consent.

Yes, engagement letters can include defined caps, monthly limits, or stage-gate approvals. Justee suggests structures appropriate to the matter.

Generally yes if conspicuous and informed, but state rules vary. Justee flags conspicuousness issues.

A well-drafted engagement letter requires written addendum for scope expansion. Justee flags open scope language.

No. For high-stakes matters, you can ask another lawyer to review the engagement letter. Justee helps you understand the terms and know what to ask.

Yes, for England and Wales. Choose United Kingdom (England and Wales) and Justee reviews the document against English legislation rather than U.S. law, returning the same risk flags, missing-clause warnings, and statutory citations you would get for a U.S. document. U.S. reviews remain available, and any U.S. state can be selected. Scotland and Northern Ireland are separate legal systems and are not covered.

Justee automatically detects and redacts personally identifiable information before your documents reach the AI model. Protected types include:

Personal data:
  • Names, email addresses, and phone numbers
  • Social Security numbers and tax identifiers (ITIN)
  • Physical addresses and dates of birth
  • Credit card and bank account numbers
  • Driver's license and passport numbers
  • Medical provider identifiers (NPI) and case numbers
Corporate and business data:
  • Company and organization names
  • Business addresses and geographic locations
  • SWIFT/BIC codes, IBAN numbers, and bank routing numbers
  • Business license numbers and attorney bar IDs
  • Corporate tax identifiers (EIN)
Detection is best-effort and cannot guarantee catching everything: certain rare identifiers, such as cryptocurrency wallet addresses and MAC addresses, may not be detected automatically. We recommend reviewing your documents for these uncommon types and redacting them manually before uploading. See our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use for details and limitations.

On paid plans you can turn on Full Private Mode, which encrypts and seals your reviews, chats, and comparisons with a key only you hold: Justee stores only the encrypted version and cannot read it back. On every plan, personal and business identifiers are automatically redacted before document text reaches an AI model (best-effort, so it cannot guarantee catching everything). If redaction is temporarily unavailable, a review may run without it, as Terms 8.5 explain. Nothing you submit is used to train AI models.

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Last updated: October 22, 2026

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Justee is not a law firm. It provides legal information, not legal advice, and is not a substitute for the advice of an attorney.