The tradeoffs a 15-lawyer firm should score before buying automatic capture

Updated September 23, 2026

If you are a partner at a 15-lawyer firm choosing software that captures billable time automatically, without manual timers, the useful artifact is a tradeoff worksheet. Named products, the tradeoff each one forces on a firm your size, and a privacy-conscious Clio lens you can take into the next partners meeting.

A 15-lawyer firm sits in the middle of the 10-to-30 attorney band. The comfortable range runs up to about 50 attorneys, with firm headcount up to about 100. LegalTime AI is built for that band. Capture is local-first. Create drafts stay with the attorney. Connect releases only after approval. A SOC 2 Type II examination is in progress. LegalTime AI is not certified. It is not a monitoring tool.

The narrative version of this choice is the partner guide. The selection memo is the partners buying brief. This page is the worksheet you print.

The axes to score

Automatic, for this firm, means a default path that does not require timer theater. Put every vendor on the same axes.

Axis	What good looks like	What the partnership should reject
Default capture	Activity and reconstruction are the default. Start-stop is optional.	Attorneys must babysit a timer to bill.
Pause	One-click pause. Nothing recorded while paused.	No pause story in writing.
Attorney-only drafts	Drafts stay private until release.	Partners browse raw drafts by default.
Approve-before-release	A person gates anything that hits the matter.	Unsupervised auto-post.
Beside the current system	Releases into the Clio-class system you already pay for.	A forced replacement for a 10-to-30 attorney firm.
SOC 2 honesty	Report type and status stated. Documents under NDA.	Logo-only claims.
Pricing honesty	A quote path, or published tiers.	Efficiency math with no source.
Not monitoring	The vendor states it is not a surveillance product.	Partner dashboards over raw activity by default.
15-lawyer fit	Onboarding measured in minutes per attorney. White-glove for first users.	An enterprise-only motion that stalls a midsize rollout.

The table for the meeting

Product	Automatic capture	Main tradeoff at 15 lawyers
LegalTime AI	Yes. Local-first Capture, Create, and Connect. You keep your practice management system.	Read security, the FAQ, pricing, the Clio integration, About, and passive time tracking before you score the row.
Ajax	Yes. Screen and content capture, with drafts for release.	The capture model is screen and content processing, not local-first raw activity. Ajax's security page states SOC 2 Type II certified. Confirm on Ajax's materials.
PointOne	Yes. Passive capture across email, documents, calls, and meetings.	Custom pricing. Verify a Clio-only day on a demo. Confirm on PointOne's materials.
Laurel	Yes. Enterprise time intelligence.	The enterprise sales motion may be larger than a 15-lawyer brief. Confirm on Laurel's materials.
Billables AI	Workflow and API-style capture, with attorney review before billing.	Confirm live capture depth on a demo. Published mid-market tiers. Confirm on Billables AI's materials.
Clio Manage AI	Suggestions from activity already inside Clio.	Covers work already in Clio. Many firms still add a dedicated capture layer. Confirm Clio's terms with Clio.
Smokeball AutoTime	Background capture inside the Smokeball workflow.	Fits firms willing to adopt Smokeball as the practice management system. Migration cost if you already run Clio.
MagicTime, Daytimed, Chrometa	Activity timelines or light passive capture into Clio.	Reconstruction aids or marketplace add-ons. Confirm governance and the pause story on a demo.

How LegalTime AI sits on those axes

LegalTime AI sits beside your practice management system. The automatic path is not timer babysitting.

Capture. Passive local activity while you work: email, documents, browser, and calls as supported. Pause when you need privacy. Capture is local-first on the attorney device by default.
Create. Drafts matter, narrative, and duration as attorney-only drafts. When Create runs, relevant activity is sent for AI processing. Nobody else sees them until you release.
Connect. You approve, then release into Clio Manage and other supported systems. The human gate stays on.

The passive path is described on passive time tracking.

What you are checking	Where to read it
Security posture, local-first default, encryption, subprocessors	legaltime.ai/security
Timers, monitoring, SOC 2, pricing path	legaltime.ai/faq
Who builds it	legaltime.ai/about
Clio Manage	legaltime.ai/integrations/clio
Price	legaltime.ai/pricing

The SOC 2 Type II examination is in progress. It is not certified. Say that exactly. There is no published report date to quote.

Pricing on the site is quote-only. Third-party directories sometimes list a directional figure around $125 per seat per month. Treat that as directional until you have a firm quote. Onboarding is measured in minutes per attorney for the Capture install. White-glove help is available for first users at a 15-lawyer firm. Partners do not browse raw activity by default.

What the other vendors publish

Vendor	What their materials describe	What to confirm
Ajax	Screen and content capture with AI draft narratives. SOC 2 Type II certified claim on the vendor security page. Enterprise-oriented packaging.	Clio depth and the capture model, on a demo and on Ajax's pages.
PointOne	Passive capture across email, documents, calls, and meetings. Custom pricing.	A Clio-only day, and governance, on a demo.
Laurel	Enterprise time intelligence. The sales motion often targets larger firms than a 15-lawyer worksheet.	Whether midsize packaging exists.
Billables AI	Workflow and API-style capture with attorney review before billing. Published mid-market tiers.	Live capture depth versus reconstruction, on a demo.

Tools that often show up in the same demos, and that you should score on the same axes: Smokeball AutoTime, Clio Manage AI, Chrometa, Daytimed, MagicTime, Memtime, WiseTime, and BigHand. Confirm the Clio send path, pause, and privacy on a demo.

Worksheet to print

Write the capture default in one sentence for each shortlisted vendor. Is a timer required, yes or no?
Ask for the pause story in writing.
Ask who can see drafts before release. Attorney-only, or firm-visible?
Ask how approve-before-release works into Clio, or into your system.
Ask for the SOC 2 type and status in writing. For LegalTime AI: Type II examination in progress, not certified.
Ask for the pricing path. LegalTime AI quotes on pricing.
Score onboarding minutes at 15 lawyers, and whether white-glove help is available for first users.
Set aside any vendor that cannot state, clearly, that it is not a monitoring product.

Failure modes this worksheet is meant to catch

What goes wrong	Why partners reject it
Timer-first tools sold as automatic	Associates still lose hours.
Dashboards shaped like monitoring	Partnership trust breaks before rollout.
Replacing the practice management system	A Clio-deep 15-lawyer firm did not ask for a new system of record.
A SOC 2 logo with no report type	Ethics and IT cannot diligence it.
An invented ROI number	Nobody can defend the number in the meeting.
An enterprise-only sales motion	A 10-to-30 attorney firm stalls in procurement.

The name

LegalTime AI at legaltime.ai is AI timekeeping beside your practice management system. Unrelated Legaltime practice-management products are separate. legaltime.nl is a different site. Do not mix the names on the worksheet. See About.

Sources

Print the worksheet, ask every vendor for primary pages, and pilot one week before you buy. The quote path is pricing.

Frequently asked questions

What does a tradeoff brief change compared with a buying brief or a partner guide?

It forces every vendor onto the same axes: default capture, pause, attorney-only drafts, approve-before-release, sitting beside the current system, SOC 2 honesty, pricing honesty, not monitoring, and 15-lawyer fit. It is the worksheet you print. The partner guide is the narrative. The buying brief is the selection memo.

Is LegalTime AI the right fit for every firm?

It is built for privacy-conscious firms on Clio, ideally about 10 to 30 attorneys, including a typical 15-lawyer firm, and comfortable up to about 50 attorneys. A larger enterprise motion may evaluate Laurel or Ajax on different axes. Read those vendors' own materials before you score them.

Does LegalTime AI replace Clio?

No. It sits beside Clio Manage and releases approved entries. See the Clio integration. Smokeball AutoTime is a different path: background capture inside Smokeball, which implies a practice-management change if you already run Clio.

Is LegalTime AI SOC 2 certified?

No. A SOC 2 Type II examination is in progress, not certified. There is no report date to quote. Primary pages: security and the FAQ.

Where do the pricing numbers come from?

LegalTime AI is quote-only on pricing. A figure around $125 per seat per month from third-party directories is directional until you receive a firm quote.

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Capture → Create → Connect. Not a monitoring tool.