From Time Keeping To A $100m Raise – Artificial Lawyer

A lot has happened since AL first met Laurel at Mishcon de Reya’s MDR Lab eight years ago. It’s changed its name, grown hugely, and is now seeing major investment. Artificial Lawyer caught up with co-founder and CEO, Ryan Alshak, to hear the Laurel story: the highs, the challenges, what’s been learned along the way, and what next…?

You just raised $100M, are in profit, and building out major new features… but how did it all start? What made you decide that you wanted to do ‘legal tech’ and especially time-keeping software?

It started with a personal frustration. I was a litigator at a major law firm. Every six minutes of my day had to be accounted for. But the process of reconstructing my time at the end of the week – usually by memory, spreadsheet, and email search – felt dehumanizing. I wasn’t alone. Billions of dollars in revenue were being lost or delayed because professionals couldn’t remember what they worked on. 

So we asked: What if machines reminded us what we did at work, instead of the other way around? What if we could use AI to surface time for lawyers, accountants, and consultants alike? That question became Laurel. And though we started with timekeeping, what we’re really building is a Time Intelligence layer for knowledge work.

It’s been a long journey to here – eight years or more – and that’s a long time in legal tech land. What has changed, especially in your segment of the market?

When we started, timekeeping software was seen as a cost centre. Nobody expected it to be strategic. But today, the market understands that time data is the foundation for everything: pricing, profitability, staffing, forecasting, and ultimately, the foundation for a cogent AI strategy.

At the same time, generative AI has changed the expectation of what’s possible. Soon, automated timesheets will be table stakes. The real shift is towards not only capturing the work but also explaining it, analyzing it, and guiding decisions about it.

On this journey what was the most impactful thing you learned?

That time is not just a billing input. It’s the most under-utilized strategic asset in professional services. Once we realized that, everything changed.

Billable hours only tell part of the story. Non-billable work – business development, recruiting, training – drives culture, innovation, and long-term value. But firms can’t manage what they can’t see. Laurel surfaces what we call ‘True Time’ – the complete picture of where time actually goes. 

And also, what has been the greatest challenge?

Getting the industry to believe that timekeeping could be better – not just automated, but accurate, trustworthy, and most importantly, actionable.

There’s been a lot of scar tissue from legacy tools. We had to overcome skepticism, one pilot at a time. But once firms saw that Laurel actually worked – and that it saved their professionals 1-2 hours a week while increasing revenue by an average of 7.26% – they didn’t just adopt it; they told their peers. That’s how we grew – harnessing word-of-mouth in an industry where trust is everything.

Now, in 2025, Laurel is clearly very successful. Where is the company now in terms of size and product capabilities, client base?

We now power time for many of the world’s top professional service firms, including MBB, the Big-4, and the AmLaw 5.

We process over $4.4 billion in professional time per year. If we were a country, we’d rank above 40 others in GDP. Our net revenue retention is over 175%. We’re cash-flow positive. And with our Series C, we’re investing deeply in AI and data products that move us from time capture to time intelligence.

What is the product roadmap? Where next for you? You spoke of three stages for example.

Our vision has always had three stages:

Account – Make timesheets something a professional finalizes instead of creates.

Understand – Use AI to explain the time: what was done, for whom, and why it mattered.

Automate – Quantify and surface low-leverage workflows that agents can automate, moving professionals up the value chain.

We’re nailing Account. We’re now into stage two. And in 2026, automate is front and center. That means building analytics for fixed-fee pricing, forecasting capacity, measuring the impact of GenAI, and giving firm leadership unprecedented visibility into how time—and talent—is deployed.

And finally, do you think the way law firms bill will ever change? Will time-based billing always dominate?

It’s already changing. Clients are demanding more predictability. AI is reshaping what ‘work’ looks like. The old incentives of time-based billing – do more hours, make more money – don’t map cleanly to a world where machines can draft 80% of a document.

As Charlie Munger said: ‘Show me the incentive, and I’ll show you the behaviour.’ If the legal profession wants to embrace AI at scale, it has to rethink its pricing models. But that’s only possible if you understand your cost of delivery.

So no – time-based billing won’t always dominate. But time data will always matter. And we intend to be the platform that makes it matter more.

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Thanks Ryan and congrats on the success and growth!

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You can find more about Laurel here.

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Legal Innovators Conferences in New York and London – Both In November ’25

If you’d like to stay ahead of the legal AI curve….then come along to Legal Innovators New York, Nov 19 + 20, where the brightest minds will be sharing their insights on where we are now and where we are heading. 

And also, Legal Innovators UK – Nov 4 + 5 + 6

Both events, as always, are organised by the awesome Cosmonauts team! 

Please get in contact with them if you’d like to take part