Voting ends this Friday to pick the 15 legal tech startups that can get to compete within the ninth annual Startup Alley at ABA TECHSHOW in April. Because it seems, I just lately received an replace from the winner of the very first Startup Alley again in 2017, then often known as Time By Ping, however since a 2023 rebranding, now referred to as Laurel. Late final yr, I caught up with its founder and CEO Ryan Alshak.
The corporate has come a great distance since its launch in 2016 and its Startup Alley win the subsequent yr. Now a Collection B firm with $55 million in enterprise funding, Laurel was one of many first to make use of AI, after which generative AI, to automate time seize for attorneys.
Extra just lately, it has expanded past authorized into the accounting and consulting sectors, In 2024, it was named as 700th on the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing firms within the U.S.
The corporate experiences 300% year-over-year progress, with its accounting enterprise now representing one-half of its operations, Alshak mentioned.
Associated: Time By Ping Raises $36.5M Series B; Exclusive LawNext Interview with CEO Ryan Alshak.
At the moment, Laurel has developed past its unique imaginative and prescient of automating time seize for attorneys to additionally present regulation companies with subtle analytics about their operations, together with the power to measure the affect of generative AI instruments on lawyer productiveness.
Affect on Corporations’ Backside Line
Alshak says that Laurel’s AI-powered timekeeping system will increase lawyer billing by a median of 28 minutes per day and improves realization charges by 1-4%, leading to revenue will increase of 4-11% for regulation companies that use its platform. A Huge 4 accounting agency has independently validated these outcomes, he says.
“We’re nonetheless the primary and solely firm to use gen AI timekeeping to enterprise skilled service companies,” Alshak mentioned. “The incumbents, in fact, have gen AI on their roadmap. I do consider that they may wrestle fairly a bit when it comes to productizing AI, but in addition marrying gen AI with consumer expertise. So we not solely have a lead, however we’ll proceed to speed up that lead.”
Learn extra about Laurel within the LawNext Legal Technology Directory.
The corporate’s platform works by integrating with just about each program that attorneys use to create digital work, together with e-mail, Microsoft Workplace functions, PDF readers, net browsers, and video conferencing platforms. It then makes use of AI to research that digital footprint and convert it into ready-to-review time entries.
Laurel founder and CEO Ryan Alshak.
In accordance with Alshak, the common lawyer interacts with 250 distinct actions in a given day. The platform’s AI clustering mannequin appears for similarities throughout these actions to group associated work collectively into ready-to-review time entries.
For instance, if a lawyer is engaged on a abstract judgment movement, the system will group collectively all associated actions, corresponding to engaged on Phrase paperwork, reviewing PDF templates, conducting authorized analysis, and sending emails concerning the movement.
Making certain Guideline Compliance
One of many platform’s key improvements, Alshak mentioned, is its compliance module, which ingests agency billing tips, consumer tips, and matter tips, and trains its massive language mannequin to provide compliant narratives. The system flags non-compliant narratives in real-time, permitting attorneys to appropriate them earlier than submission.
“Non-compliant narratives are the primary cause why a invoice doesn’t receives a commission or will get rejected by the consumer,” Alshak mentioned.
The platform serves as the first time-keeping interface for customers whereas integrating with companies’ present follow administration methods, together with Elite 3E, Aderant, SurePoint, Clio, ActionStep, and ProJuris.
Three quarters of Laurel’s customers both solely or primarily depend on its AI to assist them with their time entries, with most customers finishing their earlier day’s time entries between 8 and 10 a.m. the next morning.
Operational Analytics
Past time seize, Laurel is more and more centered on offering companies with detailed analytics about their operations. The platform can observe the place customers are working and the way it pertains to productiveness, doubtlessly serving to companies make data-driven selections about things like return-to-office insurance policies. It may additionally analyze what Alshak calls the “form of labor” – exhibiting how attorneys’ time is spent throughout totally different actions and functions.
One of many platform’s newer capabilities is its means to measure the affect of generative AI instruments on lawyer productiveness. As companies make investments closely in gen AI functions, Laurel AI can observe modifications in how a lot time attorneys spend in varied functions earlier than and after the implementation of gen AI instruments.
“These companies are spending hundreds of thousands and hundreds of thousands of {dollars} on gen AI tooling, however they don’t have any subtle approach to measure the ROI of that funding,” Alshak mentioned. “We are able to let you know these are the packages that had been getting used earlier than gen AI, these are the time being spent on packages after gen AI, and you can begin to grasp the affect of those instruments throughout your agency.”
The corporate can also be experimenting with pure language interfaces to its knowledge. In a single proof of idea, it enabled a CFO at an accounting agency to make use of pure language queries to determine CPAs who had been working adequate hours in line with Laurel’s monitoring however not billing sufficient hours within the billing system.
“Earlier to Laurel, companies solely had entry to what received billed, however what received billed is lacking all of the non-chargeable time, it’s very inaccurate. Laurel, for the primary time ever, is surfacing the supply of reality of what hours labored appear to be.
“The explanation that is so highly effective is now you can begin to perceive precise utilization and throughput – these customers are working between 180 and 190 hours a month, however they’re solely billing between 120 and 140.”
Affect On Profitability
The monetary affect for companies will be substantial. Alshak shared an instance of a 600-lawyer agency with a blended fee of $375 per hour projecting $20 million in further bottom-line revenue from utilizing the platform. One other agency, with 1,300 timekeepers, reported validated will increase of twenty-two minutes of further time per day per timekeeper, leading to $42 million in further income.
Laurel AI primarily serves AmLaw companies, but in addition works with mid-market companies which have at the very least 50 timekeepers. Implementation sometimes takes between two to 4 weeks for companies utilizing already-integrated billing methods. A latest integration with Clio indicators the corporate’s intention to additional increase into the small and medium-sized agency market.
For companies already utilizing the platform, the outcomes have been compelling sufficient to drive inner adoption. Alshak shared an instance the place a agency’s COO despatched an e-mail to all attorneys noting that after 5 months, attorneys utilizing Laurel had been billing practically 52 minutes extra per day – virtually a full billable hour – than these not utilizing it.
“After this e-mail received despatched,” Alshak instructed me, “the half of customers not on Laurel immediately wrote, saying, ‘Hey, how do you get me on this platform? My colleagues are getting an additional hour of credit score a day working the identical quantity that I’m.’”
From Copilot to Autopilot
Wanting forward, Laurel’s growth into accounting and different skilled companies verticals opens avenues for progress past the authorized market. “The imaginative and prescient of the enterprise has all the time been to not solely perceive time for skilled service companies, however finally any data employee as we transfer extra from a copilot to an autopilot,” Alshak mentioned.
It’s a imaginative and prescient that has developed significantly for the reason that firm’s Startup Alley win in 2017, and it demonstrates how a authorized tech startup can develop from a promising idea into a serious business participant. As this yr’s Startup Alley opponents put together to make their pitches, maybe Laurel’s journey will encourage them to think about what is feasible.
