Pilae
Talk to us

Operate

Deploy

Services

Start with one workload

Fixed-price onboarding, then a monthly plan per managed app. Your estate grows one app at a time.

09:41 discover  keycloak 26.1.4
09:41 backup    verified, ch-zh1
02:00 apply     rolling, ok
02:01 restore   drill ok, 1m02s
Talk to us

By project

By industry

By role

Private AI, on your own servers

Chat, search and drafting with open models on infrastructure you control, operated by Pilae.

See private AI

AI and LLM

Workflow and data

Collaboration and identity

Business

Engineering and security

Browse

Security and operations

Compliance and legal

Request the security pack

DPA, sub-processor list and architecture overview, sent to your security or procurement team.

Request the pack

Learn

Compare

Company

Lausanne, Switzerland

Rue de Bourg 27, 1003 Lausanne. Swiss law, Swiss data protection, engineers on the support line.

Follow on LinkedIn
  1. Home
  2. Industries
  3. Legal and fiduciary

Private IT and AI for Swiss law firms, notaries and fiduciaries

Law firms, notaries and fiduciaries run client files, secure collaboration and private AI on their own servers or on dedicated machines in Switzerland, operated under confidentiality terms written for professional secrecy.

Talk to our teamBook a 30-minute briefing

Deployment
Your premises, Pilae Cloud in Zurich, or air-gapped
Operator
Pilae SA, a Swiss company with no US parent
Private AI
Open models on your machines, client files stay there
Confidentiality
Contract terms written with art. 321 SCC in mind

Professional secrecy does not stop at the server room

A client file is covered by professional secrecy wherever it is stored. The provider that runs your IT reaches that file too, so where it sits, whose law can compel access to it and who can open it are questions for the partners, not only for IT.

On your premises

Apps run on servers in your own office, so client files stay behind your door and under your network controls.

Or in Switzerland

Dedicated machines in Zurich, hosted in ISO 27001-certified datacentres, with Switzerland named in your contract as the location for your apps, data and backups.

Private AI for client work

Draft, summarise and search your own precedents with open models on your hardware. No brief, contract or client email goes to a public AI service.

Closed to the internet

Apps answer only on a private mesh network. One hardened gate on port 443 is the single way in, and you decide who may pass it.

Every access on record

Each change, approval and administrative session is written to an audit log the managing partner can read and export.

Backups tested every month

Daily encrypted backups, stored offsite in the country you choose, with a restore test every month recorded in the console.

Client files under professional secrecy

A law firm’s IT provider can reach every client file the firm holds. Article 321 of the Swiss Criminal Code extends professional secrecy to the auxiliaries of lawyers and notaries, so the terms under which that provider works matter as much as the software. Your contract binds Pilae and each engineer to confidentiality, names the engineers who can reach your systems, and records every session they open. The security page explains how access works.

Whose law can reach your data

Many of the file-sharing, email and AI services firms use belong to US companies, and the US CLOUD Act lets US authorities require those companies to produce data they control, wherever it is stored. Pilae SA is a Swiss company with no US parent. Your apps run on your premises, on dedicated machines in Zurich, or air-gapped, and the contract names each location. The jurisdiction page sets out which laws apply where.

Private AI for firms

Associates want to draft, summarise and search precedents with AI. The briefs and contracts they would paste into a public chatbot are exactly what professional secrecy protects. We run private AI on your own hardware, with open models and Open WebUI as the interface. The same setup serves a firm of any size.

The tools a firm runs every day

Client files and shared folders on Nextcloud, internal know-how on Outline, team messaging on Mattermost, passwords on Vaultwarden and one login through Keycloak. Scanned correspondence is filed and searchable in Paperless-ngx, PDFs are merged and redacted in Stirling PDF, agreements that do not need a qualified electronic signature are signed in Documenso, and billable time is recorded in Kimai. The Pilae Agent keeps each of them patched and backed up, with every change approved and recorded.

Talk to us

Contact us for a confidential briefing.

How we start with a firm

  1. Confidential briefing

    We sign your confidentiality undertaking first, then map your apps, your client data and your professional obligations with the partners and IT.

  2. Placement decision

    Together we decide what runs in your office, what runs in Zurich and what stays air-gapped.

  3. Fixed-price onboarding

    We install the apps, connect Keycloak or Entra ID with multi-factor authentication and move your files off the tools you are leaving.

  4. Managed operations

    The Pilae Agent plans each update and waits for your approval. Monitoring alerts reach Pilae engineers around the clock.

What your contract includes

Confidentiality
Obligations binding Pilae and each engineer, written with auxiliaries under art. 321 SCC in mind, on top of your own undertaking.
Data location
Named per app: your premises or Switzerland. Apps, data and backups stay there unless you agree otherwise in writing.
Access
Named Pilae engineers, over the private network, under access rules you set. Every session is recorded.
Data processing
A data processing agreement under the nLPD, with the full sub-processor list.
Availability
99.9% monthly availability commitment with service credits, in every plan.
Exit
A full export of files, data and configuration in open formats, at any time and at the end of the contract.

The apps behind it

Open WebUI

A chat interface over models you host, so prompts and the documents people paste into them never leave your network.

Replaces ChatGPT Team, Microsoft Copilot

Nextcloud

Files, calendars and shared documents for the whole organisation, on storage you can point at in a room you control.

Replaces Google Drive, Dropbox, SharePoint

Vaultwarden

A password manager for the whole organisation, compatible with the Bitwarden apps, on a server you choose and with vaults only your people can decrypt.

Replaces 1Password, LastPass

Keycloak

Single sign-on for everything else you run, with your own directory as the source of truth and no per-seat bill between you and it.

Replaces Okta, Microsoft Entra ID

Outline

A fast, well-structured team wiki and knowledge base, on a server you choose, signed in through your own identity provider.

Replaces Notion, Confluence

Mattermost

Team chat, channels and calls on a server in the country you choose, with the message history stored in your own database.

Replaces Slack, Microsoft Teams

Paperless-ngx

OCR, filing and full-text search for scanned and emailed documents, run in Switzerland, the EU or your own datacentre so invoices, contracts and letters stay on storage you control.

Replaces DocuWare, M-Files

Stirling PDF

PDF merging, splitting, conversion, OCR, redaction and signing in the browser, run in Switzerland, the EU or your own datacentre instead of on a public PDF website.

Replaces Adobe Acrobat online, iLovePDF, Smallpdf

Documenso

Electronic signing for contracts and approvals, run in Switzerland, the EU or your own datacentre, with the sealed PDFs and their audit trails on storage you name.

Replaces DocuSign, Adobe Acrobat Sign

Questions

How does Pilae fit professional secrecy under art. 321 SCC?

Article 321 of the Swiss Criminal Code covers lawyers, notaries, auditors bound by the Code of Obligations and their auxiliaries. Your contract binds Pilae and each engineer who can reach your systems to confidentiality on terms written for auxiliaries, access runs only through named engineers under rules you set, and every session is recorded. Whether a given arrangement meets your obligations is for you and your professional body to judge, and we give you the documents to do so.

Can fiduciaries and tax advisers use the same setup?

Yes. Fiduciaries hold client accounts, tax files and payroll data under contractual confidentiality, and under art. 321 SCC where they carry out audit mandates. The same placement, access rules and audit log apply.

Is our client data exposed to the US CLOUD Act?

The CLOUD Act reaches companies under US jurisdiction. Pilae SA is a Swiss company with no US parent, and your apps run in your office or on dedicated machines in ISO 27001-certified datacentres in Switzerland, run by European operators outside US jurisdiction. A few supporting services, such as the network edge and email delivery, are provided by US companies. They are disclosed in the DPA and do not hold your client files or databases. Connecting a US service yourself, such as a US-hosted AI model or Microsoft Entra ID, brings US exposure back, and we point that out when you choose.

Can lawyers use AI without sending client files to a public service?

Yes. Open WebUI runs on your machines with open models hosted there. Prompts, uploaded documents and answers stay inside your environment. The optional connection to an external model through an AI gateway stays off unless you decide to enable it.

Does a small firm need its own IT team?

No. Pilae runs updates, backups and monitoring. A partner or office manager approves changes from the console or by email, and your staff simply use the apps.

What does it cost?

Pricing is on request and depends on the apps, the number of users and where they run. Onboarding is quoted at a fixed price before work starts.

Related

Solutions

Private AI

A private ChatGPT for your teams in Switzerland: Open WebUI, LibreChat or Dify, open-weight models in your perimeter, answers grounded in your own documents.

Trust

Jurisdiction and the CLOUD Act

A Swiss operator under Swiss law with no US parent, and a deployment designed so US-controlled services stay outside your data path.

Platform

On your premises

Open-source apps on your own servers, operated by Pilae: installed, patched, backed up and monitored without your data leaving the building.

Trust

Security

Private networking, hardened machines, named access, tracked advisories and a full audit log, built to ISO 27001 controls.

Discuss your obligations in confidence.

Thirty minutes with an engineer, under your confidentiality undertaking if you wish. We come back with a placement proposal for each of your apps.

Talk to our teamBook a 30-minute briefing