Lawyers hate timesheets. This startup wants to do them for you.

In the legal profession, tracking billable hours is often viewed as a necessary evil. However, a startup named PointOne aims to alleviate this burden. Utilizing an AI-driven platform, PointOne passively monitors a lawyer's computer activity to automatically generate timesheets, allowing attorneys to focus on their work rather than tedious time tracking. Since its inception, PointOne has seen remarkable growth, with revenues increasing tenfold since July as it has onboarded a diverse array of law firms, from large global outfits to solo practitioners. The company's co-founder, Katon Luaces, reported that investors have taken note of its success. Notably, 8VC, a venture firm founded by Joe Lonsdale, is spearheading a $16 million Series A funding round for PointOne, alongside contributions from established investors like Bessemer Venture Partners, General Catalyst, and Y Combinator. The legal tech sector is burgeoning, with numerous startups vying to harness the potential of large language models to create trusted products for law firms, a market estimated to be worth around $1 trillion. Jack Moshkovich from 8VC highlighted the crowded landscape of companies focused on enhancing lawyer productivity, suggesting that PointOne is tapping into a less saturated area—operational efficiency. Luaces, who began his journey not as a lawyer but as a computer science major and Google intern, recognized the repetitive nature of legal tasks as an ideal application for AI technology. In 2023, he, along with his roommate Jeremy Ben-Meir and co-founder Adrian Parlow, conceptualized PointOne after hearing repeatedly from lawyers that timekeeping was the aspect of their work they despised the most. Typically, lawyers bill clients by the hour, meticulously logging their activities in six-minute increments, often using spreadsheets or handwritten notes. PointOne's software operates seamlessly in the background, recording time spent on various applications and generating detailed entries that include client information, descriptions of tasks, and relevant legal codes. Addressing concerns around security and confidentiality—paramount in the legal industry—PointOne ensures that all sensitive data is encrypted and does not use firm data for training its models. Luaces asserts that lawyers’ aversion to timekeeping can outweigh any discomfort they might feel about software monitoring their activities. The primary goal of PointOne is not merely to save lawyers time, but to help firms capture billable hours that might otherwise go unrecorded. Many attorneys, especially junior ones, often overlook small tasks when logging hours due to the time-consuming nature of the entry process. Luaces emphasizes that his software can enhance revenue by capturing this often-missed billable time. PointOne faces competition from other players in the market, notably Laurel, which has raised over $150 million since 2016, focusing on providing analytics for professional service firms. As pressure mounts from clients seeking to control skyrocketing legal costs and as AI continues to reshape the landscape of billable hours, PointOne is positioning itself to adapt to a changing pricing model in legal services. Luaces believes that the insights generated by PointOne can assist firms in understanding their labor costs better, paving the way for more accurate pricing structures for legal work.