An Interview with Hilary Bowman, Founder of Querious^®

Every client conversation is a high-stakes moment. Whether it’s an initial consultation, strategic planning session, or advisory call, lawyers are expected to listen carefully, issue-spot in real time, provide sound advice, and document everything properly afterward.

Hilary Bowman, founder of Querious, believes technology can help attorneys do all of that – better.

We spoke with Hilary about Querious, the first Legal Conversational Intelligence™ platform, and what it means for law firms focused on excellence, efficiency, and ethical AI.

Camille: tell us about your background and what led you to build Querious?

Hilary: I spent over a decade of my career as a health-care attorney, including at K&L Gates and IBM Watson Health. 

From this experience, I understand firsthand the challenge of navigating client conversations. We must simultaneously spot legal issues, capture key details, and connect with clients on a personal level. It’s a lot to juggle mentally. I built Querious because I wanted technology to navigate these critical moments at the heart of legal practice: the client conversation.

I also personally appreciate the importance of building strong relationships with clients and protecting the confidentiality of their information. General purpose tools, including those with AI, are not necessarily appropriate for use by attorneys. From the very beginning, Querious was built with ethics, privilege, confidentiality, and independent professional judgment in mind.

Camille: Hilary, what is Querious, and what problem were you trying to solve?

Hilary: Querious is the first Legal Conversational Intelligence™ platform designed to transform client conversations into high-value legal services. 

During virtual client meetings, Querious delivers real-time insights through a sidebar highlighting potential legal issues, follow-up questions, and relevant legal content. It strengthens issue-spotting, sharpens analysis, and helps attorneys identify both risk and opportunity as conversations unfold. The goal is simple: elevate the quality and consistency of legal advice in every client engagement. 

After the meeting, Querious automatically drafts a summary email, detailed notes, and even a draft billing entry. It reduces the administrative burden on attorneys, which unlocks time that they can spend on higher value legal services that the technology identified in the meeting.

Put simply, we built Querious to help attorneys maximize their time with clients and minimize the administrative work.

Camille: “Legal Conversational Intelligence™” is a compelling phrase. What makes Querious different from general AI note-taking tools?

Hilary: Querious was designed specifically by attorneys, for attorneys. It analyzes legal conversations while they are taking place to support attorneys in identifying potential legal issues, asking follow up questions, and planning next steps.

After the conversations, Querious orchestrates effortless follow-ups by automatically drafting a summary email and detailed notes—including a draft billing narrative.

General AI note-takers record and transcribe the entire conversation, then summarize it after the conversation takes place. These tools do not offer real-time analysis. They are also capturing every word an attorney speaks, which may not be consistent with the unique privacy, security, and ethical considerations of legal practice. 

In short, Querious is built around how attorneys actually practice, not just how meetings are recorded.

Camille: Billing accuracy and efficiency are ongoing challenges for many firms. How does Querious help in that area?

Hilary: We know that contemporaneous time capture improves realization and reduces stress. Querious integrates with Clio and Smokeball, allowing attorneys to easily send auto-drafted billing narratives to their accounts.

Instead of trying to reconstruct a time entry for a meeting at the end of the day, or worse, the end of the week, attorneys receive a draft entry prepared immediately by Querious after every conversation. This approach improves accuracy, supports transparency, and better reflects the value delivered.

Querious was also a Finalist for the Clio Integration Award – Best New App of 2025, which reflects how important that workflow integration is to practicing attorneys.

Camille: Many Lawyers Mutual insureds are understandably cautious about AI. What should attorneys know about privacy and security?

Hilary: Privacy, security, and ethical AI are built into the foundation of Querious.

Querious is hosted in a secure cloud environment with end-to-end encryption (TLS 1.3 and AES 256). By default, the tool removes personal information from analyzed conversations, leverages privately deployed large language models, and offers zero retention on partial audio and transcript files from every meeting. Attorneys can also customize their data retention period for post-meeting summaries down from a default period of 60 days.

We are SOC 2 Type II Certified and have passed the privacy and security reviews of leading virtual meeting platforms such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and Google Meet, as well as legal practice management tools Clio and Smokeball.

Our goal is to give attorneys the tools to responsibly embrace innovation without compromising their ethical obligations.

Camille: Querious has already received significant industry recognition. Can you tell us about that?

Hilary: In 2025, we were honored to win the ABA TechShow Startup Alley Competition, the HeyCounsel Virtual Demo Day Competition, and The Legal Tech Fund Startup Showcase. We were also a Finalist for the Clio Integration Awards – Best New App. In 2026, we have been named a Finalist for LegalWeek’s Innovator of the Year.

In addition, Querious is an exclusive member benefit for more than 145,000 attorneys through bar associations including the New York State Bar Association, the State Bar of Michigan, and the Alabama State Bar. We have also finalized a collaboration with a legal malpractice insurance company, which will be announced on February 25, 2026.

This widespread recognition demonstrates how strongly the legal profession is responding to tools designed specifically for lawyers.

Camille: What would you say to a lawyer who is curious—but cautious—about trying Querious?

Hilary: I appreciate how deeply attorneys care about their clients. I understand why attorneys are hesitant to adopt any technology that could jeopardize the trust that they’ve worked so hard to earn from their clients. 

The conversations I’m having with attorneys about Querious and AI adoption generally are full of sharp questions and thoughtful feedback. I welcome each and every conversation. AI tools in law should be developed by input from every attorney, not just a select handful of attorneys. We assembled a Product Council of over a dozen attorneys to help shape the product. We’re always looking for new members.

If you’re curious about Querious and how a new technology can enhance every client conversation, and reduce the administrative burden, I would encourage you to book a demo or sign up for free at www.querious.ai. We provide demonstrations that are specific to your practice area. We also provide 1:1 support as part of the trial experience. 

Once attorneys experience how this technology supports them in real-time during conversations and simplifies follow-up, they understand that it’s not about replacing legal judgment – it’s about enhancing it.

Final Thoughts

As law firms navigate growing client expectations, increased competition, and rapid technological change, tools that enhance client communication while protecting confidentiality are increasingly important.

Querious represents a new category – Legal Conversational Intelligence™ – focused not just on recording conversations, but on helping attorneys deliver more value in every interaction.