Human conductor model
Each area of focus is led by a lawyer who exercises judgment, ethics, and relationship intelligence while AI agents handle volume and consistency under scoped, delegated authority.
- Judgment
- Delegation
- Supervision
selfdriven Services · Legal Practice
Law reimagined for an AI-native world.
selfdriven.legal is an organisational framework for legal practices built from the ground up with AI agents, cryptographic identity, and human conductors — not bolted-on technology.
Explore the framework Or see how the identity layer holds up in court85%
of lawyers now use generative AI in their work each week
92%
of civil legal problems go inadequately served
25%
higher realisation rates for AI-native firms
$30tn
in assets within reach of AI-native legal platforms
The paradigm shift
Not AI-enabled. AI-native.
AI-enabled firms add technology to existing structures. AI-native practice is architected so every workflow, credential, and client interaction flows through intelligent systems — with humans conducting, not just clicking.
Conductors judge. The system performs.
Read the full frameworkCryptographic trust layer
Every credential, engagement letter, evidence submission, and authority delegation is anchored in KERI key event logs and ACDC verifiable credentials. No passwords. No paper. No doubt.
- KERI
- ACDC
- vLEI
Full-stack AI integration
Every intake form, research task, drafting workflow, and billing cycle runs through AI agents as the operating substrate — not an add-on layer. Attorneys supervise; agents execute at scale.
- Intake
- Research
- Drafting
Cryptographic trust
Identity that holds up in court.
Legal practice needs an identity layer that is not merely auditable, but mathematically verifiable, self-sovereign, and tamper-evident by architecture. That is KERI/ACDC.
-
01 · Identifiers
Self-certifying identifiers
Every practitioner, client, agent, and matter holds a KERI Autonomous Identifier — a self-certifying key pair with no dependency on central registries or certificate authorities.
icp · pre-rotation committed · witnesses 3 -
02 · Credentials
Verifiable credentials
Qualifications, engagement authorities, court representations, and agent scopes are ACDC credentials — cryptographically chained, independently verifiable, and instantly revocable.
ACDC · schema legal-authority-v1 -
03 · Delegation
Scoped agent authority
AI agents operate under KERI-delegated identifiers — authority that is scoped, time-limited, and anchored in the key event log. An agent cannot exceed the delegation its conductor granted.
dip · scope drafting-only -
04 · Record
Tamper-evident record
The Key Event Log is append-only and witnessed by distributed nodes. Passkey-bound conductor actions and vLEI organisational trust give a chain of custody that survives any dispute.
KEL · witnesses 3 · threshold 2-of-3
Organisational framework
Eight areas of focus for legal practice.
Every selfdriven legal entity is structured around the 8 Areas of Focus — each led by a human conductor orchestrating a team of AI agents with scoped, cryptographically delegated authority.
-
01 · DIRECTION
Strategy & governance
Regulatory positioning, practice-area roadmap, AI ethics policy, and jurisdictional licensing strategy.
- regulatory-monitor.agent
- strategy-analyst.agent
- ethics-review.agent
-
02 · ENGAGEMENT
Client & community
Client relationships, community legal programs, referral networks, and ecosystem partnerships.
- intake-triage.agent
- client-comms.agent
- community-legal.agent
-
03 · ENABLEMENT
Education & skills
Legal-engineer training, AI literacy programs, client education, and practitioner reskilling.
- research-assist.agent
- training-content.agent
- prompt-library.agent
-
04 · PROTOCOLS
Identity & standards
KERI/ACDC identity infrastructure, vLEI organisational credentials, agent delegation protocols, and integration standards.
- keri-witness.node
- credential-issuer.agent
- aid-resolver.agent
-
05 · SUSTAINABILITY
Revenue & viability
Outcome-based pricing models, resource stewardship, AI cost management, and long-term practice economics.
- billing-engine.agent
- cost-tracker.agent
- scope-modeller.agent
-
06 · PROCESSES
Operations & delivery
AI-orchestrated matter workflows, document drafting pipelines, discovery automation, and service delivery.
- drafting-engine.agent
- discovery-review.agent
- matter-tracker.agent
-
07 · ACCOUNTABILITY
Compliance & audit
Professional conduct obligations, AI output review, hallucination safeguards, audit trails, and regulatory reporting.
- ai-reviewer.agent
- compliance-monitor.agent
- kel-audit.agent
-
08 · ORGANISATIONAL
Structure & culture
Legal-engineer teams, conductor appointments, decentralised practice structure, and cultural alignment with AI-native values.
- conductor-registry.agent
- team-analytics.agent
- culture-pulse.agent
Explore the practice
The framework, the identity layer, and the people who run it.
Four practice pages and four emerging roles — each a full walk-through of how AI-native legal practice is built and staffed.
Practice
How the practice is built.
The organisational framework, the cryptographic identity layer, and the agents and credentials that run on it.
- FrameworkThe AI-native practice frameworkThe complete organisational model across the 8 Areas of Focus — principles, practice layers, and the conductor model.
- IdentityIdentity layerKERI self-certifying identifiers, ACDC credentials, passkey authentication, and the tamper-evident key event log.
- AgentsAgent registryAll 24 AI agents, grouped by Area of Focus, with their KERI-delegated AIDs and scoped authority.
- CredentialsCredential schemasThe ACDC schemas governing roles, engagements, agent delegations, and legal-instrument provenance.
Roles
New professions for legal engineering.
The practitioners who will define the next era of legal work.
- EvolvedHuman conductorsSenior practitioners who orchestrate AI agents across an Area of Focus and sign consequential outputs via passkey.
- New roleLegal engineersConvert statutes, precedents, and procedure into agent pipelines, prompt architectures, and automated workflows.
- New roleAI compliance officersMonitor, review, and govern agent output — catching hallucination, jurisdictional error, and conduct breaches before sign-off.
- New roleAccess-to-justice strategistsTurn AI surplus capacity into genuine legal access — service models, pricing, and community legal design.
How it works
From matter intake to verified resolution.
Every matter flows through a cryptographically anchored, AI-orchestrated pipeline — with human conductors exercising judgment at every consequential decision point.
-
01 · INTAKE
Passkey intake & AID binding
A client authenticates with a FIDO2 passkey, creating or recovering their KERI identifier. An ACDC engagement credential scopes the matter — no paper retainer, no wet signature, no ambiguity.
-
02 · TRIAGE
AI triage & conductor assignment
An intake agent assesses complexity, jurisdiction, and risk — routing to the right human conductor and spawning a delegated agent team with scoped KERI authority for this specific matter.
-
03 · EXECUTE
Agent-executed research & drafting
Research agents synthesise precedents, statutes, and guidance. Drafting agents generate first-version instruments. All output is logged against the matter's KEL for audit and review.
-
04 · REVIEW
Conductor review & signing
The conductor reviews agent output, exercises professional judgment, amends, and signs consequential documents via WebAuthn assertion — creating a legally meaningful KERI interaction event.
-
05 · DELIVER
Verified delivery & audit trail
Documents are delivered with ACDC provenance — clients, courts, and counterparties can independently verify authorship, revision history, and the chain of authority that produced the instrument.