John MacGillis.
Software & automation for professional firms

I build the software that does your firm’s paperwork.

Intake, document drafting, requests and follow-ups, and reporting, connected to the systems you already use, so skilled people can get back to skilled work.

I learned how inside a large regional law firm, where I ran growth and led the team that built its in-house software.

John MacGillis
John MacGillisHalifax, Nova Scotia
10,000+

requests sent automatically in four months

29

production services built for one firm

4

provinces of rules, forms and offices covered

$600K

a month in advertising managed, so I know what a client costs to win

Featured work

An automated records desk for a large regional law firm

The problem
Staff at a firm operating in four provinces were preparing thousands of records requests to hospitals, clinics, insurers and government offices by hand. Whether a follow-up went out depended on someone remembering, and more clients meant hiring more assistants.
What we built
A system connected to the firm’s case-management software. It reads plain-language requests, matches them against a directory of 30,000 contacts, assembles the right forms with signatures, sends them, tracks replies, and follows up automatically with escalating letters.
The result
Follow-ups send themselves, and the system alerts the team when something needs a person.

Built with a second developer as part of a 29-service platform designed to replace the firm’s case-management software.

What I build

Tools that do the preparation, so your people can make the decisions

01

Requests and follow-ups that run themselves

Type a request in plain language. The system picks the right recipient, forms and signatures, sends it by email, fax or mail, then follows up on its own until the answer arrives.

02

AI document review you can check

AI reads long files such as records, contracts and statements and drafts summaries and timelines. Every line links back to the page it came from.

03

Documents drafted from your data

Letters, forms, filings and reports in your house style, ready for a professional to review and sign.

04

Systems that talk to each other

Practice management, accounting, Microsoft 365, Teams, phone and fax, connected instead of re-typed. Outgrown a vendor? I’ll get your data out and build what’s missing.

Hosted in Canada On your own cloud account, under your control.
Your data never trains AI Client files are processed, never used to train models.
A person approves everything Nothing goes to a client, court or third party without sign-off.
A good fit if

You’ll recognize these

  • Your staff re-type the same information into three different systems
  • Chasing documents from third parties is someone’s full-time job
  • Taking on more work means hiring another assistant
How I work

Practical, honest, built to last

  1. Find the bottleneckA short conversation about where your team loses the most time, and an honest answer on whether software will fix it.
  2. Build around what you haveNo new platform to adopt. I connect to the systems you already pay for.
  3. Run it like productionTested before every release and monitored, with alerts when something needs attention.
About

Business side first, then the code

As Director of Growth at a large Atlantic Canadian law firm, I ran about $600K a month in advertising and led a seven-person team across growth and technology. That’s why the software I build starts from how a firm actually makes money, not from a list of features.

I trained as a journalist at Carleton, which is mostly why I start every project by asking a lot of questions.

2025–26Director of Growth, regional law firm (Atlantic Canada)
2023–25Director of Marketing; Digital Marketing Strategist, same firm
2022–23Communications & Projects Advisor, Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society
EducationMaster of Journalism and Bachelor of Journalism (minor in Business), Carleton University
StackPython, FastAPI, React, TypeScript, Azure, Claude AI, Microsoft Graph, Xero
Get in touch

Call or text me at 902-403-4993

Tell me where your team is losing time, and I’ll tell you honestly whether software will fix it.