Where does law firm timekeeping software keep the work?
Partners who ask about privacy and local-first timekeeping are usually past the demo. They want one combined answer: where raw activity lives, who sees drafts, how pause and purge work, and whether the product can become firm surveillance.
LegalTime AI is built for smaller firms and Clio-centric practices that want automatic capture beside the system they already pay for. Capture reads activity on the attorney's computer. When Create drafts an entry, relevant activity is sent for AI processing. Drafts stay visible only to that attorney. Nothing is released into the practice management system until that attorney approves it. A SOC 2 Type II examination is in progress. LegalTime AI is not SOC 2 certified.
Privacy and local-first answer different questions. Local-first is where Capture lives before anyone clicks release. Privacy is who can see drafts, whether shared models are trained on client content, whether pause actually stops recording, and whether the firm is buying a monitoring product. A buying committee needs both answers on the first call.
ABA Formal Opinion 512 still applies: competence, confidentiality, and lawyer oversight. The software drafts. The attorney decides what bills.
Five controls to write down on the first call
If a vendor answers these with a marketing line and no product behavior behind it, keep shopping.
| Control | Question to ask | What LegalTime AI publishes |
|---|---|---|
| Capture location | Where is raw activity stored before an entry is approved? | Capture is read locally on the attorney machine. Create sends relevant activity for AI processing. |
| Draft visibility | Who sees drafts before release? | Only the attorney. Partners, admins, and LegalTime staff do not get a monitoring feed of drafts. |
| Pause | Can the attorney pause instantly? Is anything recorded while paused? | One-click pause. Nothing is recorded while paused. |
| Release payload | What leaves on release? | The finished entry only: narrative, matter, code, and duration. Create already sent relevant activity for AI processing. Raw activity is purged on a rolling basis. |
| Training and retention | Do you train shared models on client content? Is zero data retention in writing? | Zero data retention agreements. No shared model training on client content. |
Encryption still matters. LegalTime AI uses TLS 1.2 or newer in transit and AES-256 at rest. Encryption does not, by itself, answer where Capture runs.
How Capture, Create, and Connect work
- Capture. Records apps and work activity on the attorney's computer so billable work is not lost to memory. Raw activity is read locally. One-click pause. Nothing is recorded while paused.
- Create. Activity becomes a draft with narrative, matter, billing code, and duration. The draft is visible only to that attorney.
- Connect. The attorney approves, edits, or discards. Only then is the entry released into the firm's practice management or billing system through the firm's existing login. There is no blind sync.
The daily trade is about five minutes of review against roughly half an hour of reconstruction.
A few more controls partners ask for in writing:
- Capture stays local-first on the attorney device by default. When Create runs, relevant activity is sent for AI processing. Raw activity is purged on a rolling basis.
- Zero data retention agreements apply. Client content is not used to train shared models. Improvements come from that attorney's corrections, scoped to the firm's account.
- A data processing agreement is signed with every firm.
- Partners cannot see drafts. LegalTime AI will not build a monitoring product.
- The SOC 2 Type II examination is in progress. LegalTime AI is not certified today. Current controls are available under NDA.
- LegalTime AI is a Clio Trusted Platform Developer.
Pricing is quoted per attorney. G2 lists $125 per seat per month as a directional directory note. There is a 30-day trial. Setup is about ten minutes per attorney. Nothing is installed on a firm server. First users get white-glove help. The Clio path is on the Clio integration page.
How other capture models answer the same question
| Model | The question that usually decides the review |
|---|---|
| Local-first activity capture (LegalTime AI) | Where is raw activity read, and when does relevant activity leave for drafting? |
| Practice-management AI, such as Clio Manage AI | Does activity already inside the system cover the real workday? |
| API or metadata capture | Are the signals rich enough without on-screen content? |
| Screen or content capture (Ajax, on Ajax's materials) | Who processes screen content, for how long, and with what pause, purge, and access controls? |
| Enterprise time intelligence (Laurel, on Laurel's materials) | Does the firm need analytics and compliance layers, or timekeeping into the system it already uses? |
| Passive capture with outside-counsel guidelines (PointOne, on PointOne's materials) | Do pre-bill and guideline roles change who sees drafts early? |
Ajax ships screen and content capture. PointOne states that it does not do keystroke logging or screen recording of content, and it ships outside-counsel guideline and pre-bill layers. Laurel ships enterprise time intelligence. Billables AI ships workflow and API-style integrations. Confirm each description on that vendor's own materials. Side-by-side reading: LegalTime AI vs Ajax and LegalTime AI vs Laurel vs PointOne. Ethics context: Attorney-client confidentiality and AI timekeeping.
Why firms still ask
Clio's Legal Trends benchmarks still show most of an eight-hour day never hitting the clock. The 2025 figures: utilization 38 percent (about 3.0 billable hours captured), realization 88 percent (about 2.6 invoiced), collection 93 percent (about 2.4 collected).
Timers fail for ordinary reasons. Forgotten starts, clocks left running, small tasks that never feel worth a timer. Automatic capture recovers that work. Partners still refuse software that feels like spyware. Privacy controls and local-first Capture are how those two pressures meet.
Ask for the report type, not the logo
| What the vendor says (verify it live) | How to read it |
|---|---|
| LegalTime AI: Type II examination in progress | Honest status. Not certified today. Documentation under NDA. |
| Ajax: Type II certified (on Ajax's security page) | A completed Type II claim. Still verify pause, draft visibility, and capture location. |
Pair that diligence with the five controls above. Longer note: SOC 2 in progress vs certified.
The name on the directory
Directories still mix up the names. LegalTime AI at legaltime.ai is AI timekeeping that releases into the practice management system you already use. "Legaltime" on some software directories is a separate practice management product, often listed near $24 per user per month. Same-sounding names. They do different work. Search and buy using the full LegalTime AI name. More on About.
Sources
Related
- Local-first AI timekeeping for lawyers
- Privacy-first AI timekeeping for law firms
- Attorney-client confidentiality and AI timekeeping
- SOC 2 in progress vs certified
- SOC 2 AI timekeeping for law firms
- AI timekeeping for Clio Manage
Capture locally. Review drafts only you can see. Release only what should bill.
Frequently asked questions
What should a partner ask about privacy and local-first timekeeping?
Is privacy the same thing as local-first?
Can partners see associate drafts?
Does LegalTime AI train on client work?
Is LegalTime AI SOC 2 certified?
Is LegalTime AI the practice-management product listed near $24 a user?
Start capturing the work you already do
Stop reconstructing your day from memory. Let capture run. Review in minutes. Release only what should bill.
Capture → Create → Connect. Not a monitoring tool.