Diwadi for Lawyers
A private desktop workspace for the documents, exhibits, and filings you cannot upload to a random server.
Built for solo and small-firm attorneys. Runs on Mac and Windows. No per-seat subscription, no cloud account.
Download Diwadi FreeSix file workflows lawyers do every day
And that your practice-management software does not.
Combine exhibits into a single filing-ready PDF
Drop in scans, screenshots, Word drafts, and opposing-counsel attachments. Order them, add slip sheets, output one filing-ready PDF — locally.
Compress a brief under your court's CM/ECF limit
Federal courts cap PDF size between 3MB and 200MB depending on the court. Compress to your court's limit without uploading the brief to a third-party server.
Redact a deposition exhibit before service
Destructive redaction: text glyphs, image pixels, and vector paths inside the redaction box are removed and the output is re-walked to confirm nothing redactable survives. FRCP 5.2 personal-data redaction, with rasterizing available as a belt-and-braces fallback for the most sensitive material.
Strip metadata from a Word draft before sending
Convert the Word file to a clean PDF in Diwadi, then strip the PDF's metadata (author, timestamps, modification history). Practical workflow for the 'tracked changes still in the file' problem — Diwadi does not edit the .docx in place.
Annotate and mark up a contract for the partner
Highlights, sticky notes, drawing, signature placement. Save locally, send as an attachment — no cloud sync, no SSO friction. Annotation Memory resumes your markup state when you reopen the file.
Convert old client scans (TIFF, image-only PDFs) into usable files
Convert legacy TIFF medical or scanned legal records to PDF or JPG locally. Combine and compress for filing. If the scan needs to be made searchable, see the OCR note in the FAQ.
Where Diwadi fits in your stack
Practice Management (Clio / MyCase / Smokeball / Filevine / PracticePanther)
↓ documents stored in / referenced from your matter system
Diwadi (the file layer: convert, compress, combine, redact, annotate, sign)
↓ filing-ready output
CM/ECF · opposing counsel · client · regulator
Diwadi sits below your case-management software. It handles the file work; your matter management stays where it is. We are not trying to be your matter system, your billing system, or your e-discovery platform.
What 'local-first' actually solves — and what it doesn't
What local-first solves
- ✓ Exposure to unknown third-party servers for routine file work (compress, combine, convert, redact, annotate).
- ✓ Per-seat cloud-subscription bloat that scales with headcount instead of usage.
- ✓ 'Free' online-converter terms-of-service that grant the operator rights to your uploaded content.
- ✓ Metadata travelling with the file when it's converted in a hosted environment.
What local-first does NOT solve
- — Legal hold, privilege logs, or e-discovery review — you still need a discovery platform for that.
- — Your firm's overall information-security posture (endpoint security, MDM, backups, password hygiene).
- — Jurisdictional rules on what must be redacted — Diwadi destroys what you mark; deciding what to mark is the filer's responsibility.
- — Verifying that your own redaction worked before service or filing — always check.
The PDF tools, in legal terms
The same toolkit your daily file work needs, named the way you'd say it in an email.
| Workflow | Diwadi tool |
|---|---|
| Get a brief under your court's CM/ECF limit | Compress PDF → |
| Hit a hard 5MB / 2MB / 1MB e-filing portal cap | Compress to 5MB → |
| Build an exhibit book from scans, screenshots, and Word drafts | Merge PDF → |
| Split a multi-volume exhibit set into individually filable PDFs | Split PDF → |
| Password a protective-order exhibit before transmitting | Protect PDF → |
| Open a password-protected file the client sent (when you have the password) | Unlock PDF → |
| Pull a single deposition page out for a motion | Extract Pages → |
| Re-order pages in a deposition transcript | Reorder Pages → |
| Rotate a sideways scan a paralegal sent | Rotate PDF → |
| Convert a PDF back into a Word draft for editing | PDF to Word → |
| Convert a legacy TIFF medical record into a usable image | TIFF to JPG → |
How the privacy story actually works
- · Files are processed on your computer. Conversion, compression, merging, redaction, and annotation all run locally in the Diwadi desktop app — your file does not transit our servers for any of these tasks.
- · No telemetry on file contents. We do not log what you opened, what you compressed, or what you redacted.
- · No AI training on your files. We do not use your documents to train models.
- · Open output formats. Diwadi writes standard PDF, DOCX, JPG, PNG, MP4, CSV — no proprietary container, no lock-in.
- · One-time install, no account required for local features. Cloud OCR and cloud AI services (TTS, transcription) are opt-in and clearly labelled.
- · Mac and Windows desktop only. No Linux build, no iPad app today.
Reference reading
Cited as public reference points only — not endorsements of Diwadi.
- ABA Formal Opinion 477R (reasonable security for client communications)
- ABA Formal Opinion 06-442 (metadata in electronic documents)
- Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 5.2 (privacy protection for filings)
- PACER CM/ECF size-limit FAQ
Where lawyers in different practice areas put Diwadi to work
Light treatment — Diwadi is one workspace, not a separate product per practice area.
Litigation
Combining exhibit books, compressing motion packages under ECF limits, redacting deposition exhibits before service. The trial-prep file work.
Transactional / M&A
Cleaning metadata off Word drafts before sending to opposing counsel, annotating contracts for partner review, signing retainers offline.
Immigration
Converting and combining piles of supporting-document scans into single petition PDFs sized for USCIS portal limits.
Family
FRCP 5.2 redaction of children's names, financial-account numbers, and SSNs before filing. Privacy by architecture for sensitive family matters.
Criminal defense / IP
Stripping metadata from forensic exhibits, combining discovery productions, redacting witness identifiers. Workspace under whatever case-management software you already use.
What Diwadi is not
Honest scope keeps everyone out of trouble. Diwadi is a file workspace, not a legal-tech suite.
- · Not an e-discovery platform. No technology-assisted review, no production-set management, no privilege log, no Concordance load-file output.
- · Not a practice-management or billing system. Diwadi does not replace Clio, MyCase, Smokeball, Filevine, or PracticePanther — and is not trying to.
- · Not a legal-hold or chain-of-custody system. If you need to preserve metadata for evidentiary purposes, use a discovery tool.
- · Not a substitute for verifying your own redactions and metadata removal yourself before service or filing. Always check.
- · Not certifying any specific bar-ethics, HIPAA, or jurisdictional compliance. Local processing reduces exposure to third-party servers — compliance is the firm's responsibility.
- · Not a Bates-numbering tool today. Stamp Bates upstream in your existing tool, then bring the file to Diwadi for compression, combining, redaction, and metadata stripping.
- · Not a certificate-backed e-signature service. Diwadi can place a drawn signature on a PDF, which is useful for client-facing retainers; for certificate-backed signatures, use a dedicated service.
- · Not a Linux or iPad app today. Mac and Windows desktop only.
Frequently asked questions
Is Diwadi a replacement for Clio or MyCase?
No. Diwadi is a file workspace — it sits below your practice-management software. Keep using Clio or MyCase for matter management, billing, and client portal; use Diwadi for the file work (compress, combine, redact, annotate, convert) that those systems either don't handle well or hand off to Adobe Acrobat.
Can I use Diwadi for privileged client documents?
Diwadi processes your files on your computer — they do not transit our servers for any of the file-handling tasks (compress, combine, redact, annotate, convert). That reduces your exposure to third-party server risk relative to free online converters. Privilege handling, however, is your firm's responsibility — Diwadi cannot certify privilege compliance for you.
How is Diwadi different from Adobe Acrobat?
Diwadi is desktop-only and runs locally without a cloud account; Acrobat is increasingly cloud-anchored and requires a per-seat subscription. Diwadi is not a complete Acrobat replacement — Acrobat has features Diwadi does not (e.g., Bates numbering, certificate-backed e-signature). For the daily file work most solo and small-firm lawyers actually do (compress, combine, redact, annotate, convert, sign retainers), Diwadi covers it. See our Adobe Acrobat alternative comparison for details.
Does Diwadi do OCR?
Yes. Diwadi's Extract Text tool runs OCR fully on-device with no upload — suitable for routine work where you need to copy text from an image or scanned page. There is also an optional cloud OCR path (OpenAI or Gemini, with explicit per-file consent) where you want the higher-end accuracy of the frontier providers. For accuracy-critical legal work — deposition exhibits, evidence, contract text where a single misread word can matter — we still recommend running OCR in a tool purpose-built for that accuracy bar (ABBYY FineReader or Adobe Acrobat with local OCR enabled), because AI-based OCR can occasionally misread regardless of whether it runs locally or in the cloud. Use Diwadi's OCR for routine work; route to specialist tools for evidence-grade work.
Does Diwadi do Bates numbering?
Not today. If you need Bates stamps on production exhibits, stamp them upstream in your existing tool (Power PDF, Acrobat Pro, PDFpen) and then bring the Bates-stamped file to Diwadi for the steps that come after: compress under the ECF limit, combine into an exhibit book, redact, strip metadata.
Does the redaction actually destroy the underlying text?
Yes. Diwadi's redaction permanently removes text glyphs, image pixels, contained vector paths, and inline images inside the redaction region, then re-walks the output to confirm nothing redactable survives. It fails closed when content cannot be redacted faithfully. For FRCP 5.2 redaction of personal-data identifiers (SSNs, financial account numbers, minor children's names, DOB, home addresses) this is the correct behavior. As a belt-and-braces precaution for the most sensitive material, you can also rasterize the page after redaction.
Is local processing enough to satisfy my state bar's ethics opinion on cloud use?
ABA Opinion 477R (reasonable security) and Formal Opinion 06-442 (metadata) are the public reference points. Local processing eliminates one specific category of risk — exposure to unknown third-party servers for routine file work — but the overall reasonableness analysis is the firm's call. Diwadi cannot certify compliance with any specific state bar's opinion; we can only describe what the software does.
What happens to my files?
Nothing — they stay on your computer. Diwadi reads them from disk, processes them locally, and writes the output back to disk. There is no automatic upload, no server-side storage, and no telemetry on file contents.
Can a paralegal use Diwadi on a shared workstation?
Yes. Diwadi is installed per-machine and operates on whatever file you open. There is no per-seat subscription that locks the install to one user account. For shared workstations, follow your firm's standard hygiene (separate OS accounts, locked screens, full-disk encryption).
Does Diwadi work on Mac and Windows?
Yes — Diwadi is a Tauri-based desktop app for macOS (including Apple Silicon) and Windows. No Linux build today. No iPad / iOS app today. If those matter for your practice, factor that in.
Can I sign a client retainer in Diwadi?
You can place a drawn signature on a PDF retainer and save it locally. This is suitable for many client-facing forms. It is not a certificate-backed (PKI) e-signature like DocuSign — if your filing or jurisdiction requires a certificate-backed signature, use a dedicated e-signature service.
Can I try Diwadi before committing?
Yes — Diwadi has a free tier you can install and use without a subscription. Download it from the link above. The privacy story is architectural, not policy-based — the same install you try is the same install that processes files locally.
Bring the file work back to your desk
Diwadi is free to install and runs locally on Mac and Windows. The privacy story is architectural — your files stay on disk.
Download Diwadi Free