How a Solo Transactional Attorney Uses Litera and Lito to Compete with Big-Firm Teams

AI is compressing billable hours and raising client expectations for value, predictability, and responsiveness across the profession of law. Firms that cannot demonstrate genuine investment in their clients' long-term success risk losing relationships that past experience and reputation alone used to protect. That pressure is felt acutely by solo practitioners. Federico A. Dumenigo runs a solo transactional law practice serving businesses in healthcare, hospitality, real estate, and general corporate work. His clients range from hotels and restaurants managing multiple portfolios to medical professionals and real estate developers, all of whom depend on him for the full scope of their operational legal needs, from NDAs and leases to equity purchase and operating agreements. These are clients who expect their attorney to bring business insight and proactive counsel that protects their interests over the long term.

Despite working alone, Federico routinely faces large law firms with teams of four or five attorneys on the opposing side. Those firms have access to enterprise-level AI platforms and technology resources that are neither available to nor affordable for a solo practitioner. Federico needed a way to match the quality and efficiency of those larger teams without the overhead, and to demonstrate to his clients that he is investing in their success just as seriously as any firm with hundreds of lawyers.

At the same time, as a transactional attorney handling a high volume of document review and negotiation, Federico was spending significant time wading through redlines using Microsoft Word's built-in comparison tools. Word's formatting noise and limited visibility made it difficult to isolate substantive changes quickly, consuming time that belonged on advisory work. He needed tools built by people who understood legal workflows.

Solution

Federico discovered Litera after noticing that the large firms on the other side of his transactions were already relying on it. The platform was a known standard at the enterprise level, trusted by more than 15,000 customers and used by over 1 million users daily. That track record was enough for Federico to commit, and the return on that decision became clear quickly.

Litera's redline algorithm isolates what matters

Litera's comparison became the foundation of Federico's daily workflow. The proprietary redline algorithm is built on 30 years of legal-specific development, cutting through formatting noise to surface the substantive edits that matter on every document. On high-stakes transactional work where a probabilistic answer is too risky, Litera's rules-based engine gives Federico the confidence to move quickly and act on what he finds. That accuracy reflects a platform focused exclusively on legal workflows and informed by 30 years of product data on how lawyers work.

"Even though I am a solo, due to the nature of my work and clients, I oftentimes come up against national law firms … they have just this massive AI type database and access that I don't have access to. I said, well, they're using it. I should use it as well. I should be on their level." — Federico A. Dumenigo, Founding Attorney, Dumenigo Law

Connected workflows that turn documents into client insight

For a restaurant client managing multiple commercial leases, Federico began using multi-document review grids in Lito to extract and compare terms across documents. Comparing per-square-foot rates, deadline provisions, and operational obligations across an entire portfolio gave him something his clients had been asking for: visibility they couldn't assemble on their own. The grid, quality control checks, and cross-document redline capabilities work together as part of Litera's connected workflow, replacing hours of manual review with portfolio-level analysis his clients experience as strategic counsel.

Lito works inside Microsoft 365 with no adoption cost

Lito, Litera's award-winning Legal AI agent, is available directly inside Microsoft Word, Outlook, web, and mobile. Federico didn't need a separate application, a new login, or any change to how he works. For a solo practitioner who can't afford the productivity cost of learning a new platform, that meant value from day one. Federico also takes a deliberate, clause-by-clause approach to AI, avoiding bulk uploads of sensitive documents. Litera's certifications, including ISO 27001 and SOC II Type 2, give him and his clients the confidence that security is engineered into the platform. For a solo practitioner evaluating a crowded market of AI tools, that combination of legal-specific depth and enterprise-grade security is what newer entrants can't replicate.

Results

Litera and Lito are now central to how Federico runs his practice. Document comparison anchors his daily workflow, and the platform's broader capabilities are reshaping how his clients experience his counsel.

Federico works with the same technology as the firms across the table

Litera and Lito gave Federico access to the same document comparison and review technology the enterprise-level firms use daily. That technology is a platform shaped by 30 years of product data, built by Legal Knowledge Engineers and Product Consultants who understand how lawyers work, and surfaced by Lito inside the tools lawyers use daily. Federico now reviews and compares documents with the same precision and efficiency as teams staffed with far greater resources.

A tool that justifies itself on one feature alone

Federico is unequivocal about the value of Litera's document comparison. The precision and visibility it delivers over Word's built-in tools justifies the investment on its own. That confidence comes from a platform built on 30 years of legal-specific development, something no AI-first entrant can replicate overnight. Every additional capability, from Lito's embedded intelligence to grid comparison and quality control checks, Federico treats as a bonus on top of an already proven foundation.

"Even if it just compared documents for me, it's so much better than Word and so much easier to see than Word, that alone is sufficient. So anything else to me is a bonus." — Federico A. Dumenigo, Founding Attorney, Dumenigo Law

Litera and Lito repositioned Federico as a strategic partner

Document comparison remains Federico's primary use case, but the platform has already begun to reshape how his clients see him. By delivering portfolio-level lease analysis, flagging issues his clients did not know to ask about, and working with the same tools and precision as the largest firms in the market, Federico has moved beyond transactional service delivery. His clients now turn to him for strategic insight that protects and grows their businesses.

He views AI as an evolving second associate, one that handles routine tasks today and will take on more as the technology matures. Lito and Litera's platform require minimal deployment effort and work within his existing environment, with more capability ready to activate as his practice grows.