What to ask before you buy AI time tracking tools
Partners searching for AI time tracking tools often need a buyer's guide: what to evaluate, which questions to ask, how to run a pilot, and how named tools sit against a privacy-conscious Clio firm of about 10 to 30 attorneys.
LegalTime AI is built for that firm, comfortable up to about 50 attorneys, with headcount up to about 100. Capture is local-first. Drafts stay with the attorney. The attorney approves before release. A SOC 2 Type II examination is in progress. LegalTime AI is not SOC 2 certified. It is not a monitoring tool. It sits beside the practice system.
How to read vendor claims
| What you are checking | How to treat it |
|---|---|
| Competitor capture model, certification claims, published integrations, pilot length, published tiers | Vendor primary pages for Ajax, PointOne, Laurel, and Billables, or LegalTime AI's comparison notes dated to this update. These are not third-party audits. |
| LegalTime AI architecture, pause, drafts, Zero Data Retention, Connect, trial length | Security, FAQ, pricing, Clio |
| SOC 2 | Report type (I or II) and status. LegalTime AI: Type II examination in progress, not certified. Ajax live: Type II certified (per Ajax). Laurel and PointOne: Type 2 claims per those vendors. Ask for the report and the date. |
| Price | LegalTime AI is quoted per attorney on pricing. G2 lists $125 per seat per month as a directional directory note only. Laurel, PointOne, and Ajax: custom (per those vendors). Billables tiers are Billables' published prices. |
| Savings claims | Ajax materials claim roughly 12% more billable time. That figure stays attributed to Ajax and is not verified here. |
| A person in the loop | Time that posts with no review fails this guide. ABA Formal Opinion 512: competence, confidentiality, oversight. Tools draft. You decide what bills. |
| Firm size | Prefer about 10 to 30 attorneys (up to about 50; headcount up to about 100) over a vague "small firm" label. Partner politics, Clio already paid for, no program office. |
If a vendor cannot explain pause, who sees drafts, and what leaves the machine, that row does not clear a privacy-conscious committee.
Checklist before you compare logos
| Buyer question | What "clear" looks like on a demo |
|---|---|
| Where does raw activity live? | Local-first for drafting, or a screen and content story you can defend to partners |
| Who sees drafts before release? | The attorney, until that attorney releases. Partners cannot browse drafts. |
| Is pause real? | One click. Nothing recorded while paused. Easy to show in a partners meeting. |
| Is there a human gate into the practice system? | Approve, edit, or discard, then release. No blind sync. |
| Does it sit beside Clio, or a peer? | Finished entries go through the firm's existing login. The practice system stays. |
| How long to onboard one attorney? | Minutes, not a week. White-glove help for first users matters at about 15 seats. |
| What is the trial or pilot? | Long enough for real matters. LegalTime AI: a 30-day trial. |
| SOC 2 type and status? | Report type and date under NDA. A logo is not enough. |
| Is it monitoring software? | An explicit design that is not a monitoring tool, or an explanation partners will accept |
Operating notes: passive time tracking, passive time tracking for lawyers, attorney-client confidentiality.
Named tools against that checklist
The lens is a firm buying AI time tracking tools, sized for about 10 to 30 attorneys.
| Product | What it does | Where the claims come from |
|---|---|---|
| LegalTime AI | Local-first raw activity; attorney-only drafts until release; pause; approval before release into a Clio-class system; 30-day trial; built for privacy-conscious Clio firms of about 10 to 30 attorneys | Security, FAQ, pricing, Clio, passive time tracking |
| Ajax | Screen and content capture across apps, documents, email, calls, and the browser; drafts for common practice systems; pause available; SOC 2 Type II certified claim on the live security page | Ajax primary materials (per Ajax) |
| PointOne | Passive capture across email, documents, calls, and meetings; stated policy against keystroke logging and screen recording of content; outside counsel guidelines, pre-bill, and time intelligence on one platform | PointOne primary materials (per PointOne) |
| Laurel | Enterprise time intelligence across tools of record (capture, analytics, compliance, work observability); BYOK, ISO 42001, and SOC 2 Type 2 claims | Laurel primary materials (per Laurel) |
| Billables AI | Workflow and API-style integrations; attorney review before billing; published mid-market tiers | Billables primary materials (per Billables) |
| Clio Manage AI | Suggestions from activity already inside Clio Manage | Clio product materials. Useful when the billable day mostly lives in Clio. AI timekeeping for Clio Manage |
| BigHand SmartTime, Intapp Time | Firm-scale automated capture plus assist and compliance | Vendor materials. Useful for mid-to-large firms already on those stacks. |
| Memtime, WiseTime, MagicTime | Activity timelines or light passive capture | Vendor materials. Useful as reconstruction aids or light tiers. |
Questions to copy into the RFP
Require written answers.
- Where does raw activity live during drafting, and for how long?
- Who can see drafts before release? Can partners browse associate drafts?
- How does pause work, and what is recorded while paused?
- What exactly is released into the practice system, and through whose login?
- Can time post with no review? If yes, how do you keep ABA Formal Opinion 512 oversight?
- What is the SOC 2 report type and date? Will you share the report under NDA?
- What is onboard time per attorney, and what does the first week look like?
- What is the trial or pilot length on real matters?
- Is the product designed as monitoring software? How do you show that it is not?
- How does pricing work, per attorney or platform, and what is excluded?
For LegalTime AI, start with security, the FAQ, and pricing. For Ajax, PointOne, Laurel, and Billables AI, verify on the vendor's pages and on a live demo.
If the committee already named those three: Choosing between Laurel, PointOne, and Ajax and Comparing Laurel, PointOne, and Ajax.
A pilot partners will trust
Week 0. State the lens out loud: privacy, Clio, about 10 to 30 attorneys. Or name a different lens if that is not your brief. Walk security with partners before day one.
Week 1. Onboard a small cohort. LegalTime AI: about ten minutes per attorney, and nothing on a firm server. Run a pause drill so partners see that nothing is recorded while paused.
Week 2. Compare drafted narratives to how attorneys would have written the entry. Edit freely. Discard freely. Confirm there is no blind sync.
Week 3 and after. Approve and release through the firm's existing login. Clio path: integrations/clio.
LegalTime AI: a 30-day trial on pricing. Ajax materials: a roughly two-week, 14-day pilot. Laurel and PointOne: custom evaluations. Confirm current terms with each vendor.
Clio's 2025 Legal Trends figures: utilization 38% (about 3.0 billable hours captured), realization 88% (about 2.6 invoiced), collection 93% (about 2.4 collected). Those figures describe the market. They are not a savings claim for any vendor. ABA Formal Opinion 512 still applies on every row.
What you are buying with LegalTime AI
LegalTime AI sits beside your practice system. It is not practice management, and it is not a monitoring suite.
- Capture. Records apps and work activity. Raw activity is read locally. One-click pause. Nothing is recorded while paused.
- Create. Drafts narrative, matter, billing code, and duration. Visible only to you.
- Connect. You approve, edit, or discard, then release through your firm's existing login. No blind sync.
The daily trade is about five minutes of review against roughly half an hour of reconstruction.
- Capture stays local-first on the attorney device by default. When you use Create, relevant activity is sent for AI processing. Raw activity is purged on a rolling basis.
- Zero Data Retention is in writing. No shared model training on client content.
- The released payload is the finished entry only (TLS 1.2+ in transit; AES-256 at rest).
- Partners cannot see drafts. LegalTime AI is not a monitoring tool and will not build one.
- A SOC 2 Type II examination is in progress. LegalTime AI is not SOC 2 certified. Docs are available under NDA.
- LegalTime AI is a Clio Trusted Platform Developer.
It is built for privacy-conscious firms on a Clio-class system, ideally 10 to 30 attorneys. Pricing is quoted per attorney. G2 lists $125 per seat per month as a directional directory note. The trial is 30 days. Onboarding is about ten minutes per attorney.
Longer diligence: Zero Data Retention, privacy and local-first, About.
Vendor notes
Ajax (joinajax.com), per Ajax: screen and content capture across apps, documents, email, calls, and browser tabs; drafts for Clio, SurePoint, Filevine, and peers; outside-counsel-guideline-aware drafting; pause and release controls. Ajax materials claim roughly 12% more billable time and list a roughly two-week, 14-day pilot. The live security page states SOC 2 Type II certified. The capture model is screen and content processing, not local-first raw activity on the attorney machine. Verify pause, purge, draft visibility, and the report date on a pilot.
PointOne (pointone.com), per PointOne: passive capture across email, documents, calls, and meetings; a stated policy against keystroke logging and screen recording of content; outside counsel guidelines; pre-bill review; time intelligence; SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001, GDPR, and HIPAA claims on the homepage. Custom pricing. Integrations listed include Aderant, Elite 3E, Clio, SurePoint, MyCase, LeanLaw, and others. Verify guideline depth and how passive capture behaves on a Clio-only day at 10 to 30 attorneys.
Laurel (laurel.ai), per Laurel: time intelligence for legal and accounting (capture, analytics, compliance, work observability); BYOK; ISO 42001; SOC 2 Type 2; single-tenant and no-public-LLM messaging. Custom pricing. Enterprise sales motion. Enterprise stack and a Microsoft Marketplace path. Verify whether a 10-to-30 attorney Clio firm needs the full suite or timekeeping into Clio.
Billables AI (billables.ai), per Billables: published tiers at $47, $109, and $169 per user per month; workflow and API-style integrations across email, calendar, browser, meetings, and documents; attorney review before billing. Confirm live capture depth and guideline handling on a demo.
Clio Manage AI suggests entries from activity already inside Manage. Many Clio firms still add a capture layer for off-platform work.
BigHand SmartTime and Intapp Time sit at firm-scale automated capture plus assist and compliance, for firms already on those stacks.
Memtime, WiseTime, and MagicTime offer activity timelines or light passive capture, for smaller teams that want reconstruction aids or clear plan tiers.
Directories still mix up names. LegalTime AI (legaltime.ai) releases time into the practice system you already run. "Legaltime" on some directories is a separate practice-management product, often listed near $24 per user per month. About.
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Frequently asked questions
What should a law firm buyer check?
How should we run the pilot?
Is LegalTime AI SOC 2 certified?
How much does LegalTime AI cost?
What should the RFP demand in writing?
Is LegalTime AI the same as Legaltime practice management?
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