Introduction
As 2024 drew to a close, I found myself reflecting on a career that has spanned half a century in the legal technology sector. From the days of punch cards and mainframes to the dawn of AI-powered time recording, the journey has been nothing short of extraordinary. The legal profession’s relationship with time—how it’s tracked, billed, and analysed—has evolved dramatically, and I’ve had the privilege (and sometimes the pain!) of witnessing and shaping that evolution first-hand.
The 1970s: Punch Cards and Mainframes
My accidental, but fortuitous, entry into legal tech began in the late 1970s, selling for a Yorkshire company called William Jacksons. Hardly anyone, including myself, had any idea what IT was, and here I was – not even knowing what IT stood for. My only experience with lawyers was buying a house and so for the many lawyers I met at the start of my career it was a journey of discovery.
William Jackson had a mainframe, originally used for bakery operations. They became the unlikely birthplace of one of the UK’s first digital time-recording solutions for law firms. The process was ingenious for its time: lawyers used punch cards to record client, matter, and activity data. Couriers collected these cards every Friday, and by Monday morning, firms received printed readouts of time spent by client and matter. This replaced the laborious process of secretaries transcribing dictations and accounts teams manually compiling bills—a leap in productivity that set the stage for further innovation.
The 1980s: Minicomputers and the Rise of Software
The mid-70s and 80s saw the arrival of minicomputers—compact enough to fit in a law office. AIM Ltd (Automatic Information Management), the legal tech division spun out from William Jacksons, developed software in Assembla for time entry and legal accounting. These green-screen systems, running on as little as 128k of RAM and 11MB of removable disk, allowed up to six operators to record time and generate bills automatically. At the same time, the introduction of the Wang word processor revolutionised document creation, laying the groundwork for digital case management.
Yet, manual logs and Dictaphones still dominated, and much of the process relied on memory and transcription.
Jeff and the members of the AIM Training Services team.
The 1990s: Networks and Integration
The 1990s brought local area networks, enabling firms to share documents and printers. Case management systems emerged, integrating time recording with matter tracking. The six-minute unit became standard, reflecting the need for granular billing and client transparency. For the first time, time entry, billing, and data analysis began to converge, though the process still required significant human intervention.
The 2000s: Practice Management Matures
At the turn of the century, practice management software matured. Integrated billing, time recording, and document management became the norm. Remote access and mobile devices allowed lawyers to record time outside the office, but the core challenge remained: getting accurate, timely data into the system still depended on manual input, whether digital or not.
The Cloud Era: Mobility and Advanced Machine Learning
The second decade of the 21st century saw the rise of cloud computing and mobility. Despite these advances, the fundamental problem persisted: time entry was still a chore, often delayed or incomplete, and always requiring some form of human intervention. The legal world had come a long way from punch cards, but the “last mile” of time capture remained stubbornly manual.
The Breakthrough: Billables and AI
Everything changed when my company discovered Billables. For the first time in my IT career, we had a product that truly addressed the real issue of time recording. Billables’ AI-driven system promised to:
Eliminate human error
Fully automate time recording
Save lawyers and support staff valuable time
Identify all chargeable time
Remove the most hated administrative task in law
Provide 100% accurate data, regardless of billing methodology
Deliver reliable analytics for process efficiency and productivity
It was, quite simply, an administrative revolution—a “no brainer” for law firms ready to embrace the future.
Looking Ahead: What Excites Me About the Future
After 50 years in legal sales, I’m more optimistic than ever. The convergence of AI, cloud, and seamless integration means we’re finally on the cusp of making time recording invisible—something that happens in the background, accurately and effortlessly. This will free lawyers to focus on what matters: serving clients, strategizing, and delivering value.
The next frontier? I see AI not just recording time, but proactively suggesting process improvements, identifying unbilled work, and even forecasting workload and profitability. With reliable, real-time data, law firms can unlock new levels of efficiency, transparency, and client satisfaction.
Conclusion
From punch cards to AI, the evolution of time-tracking in law has been a story of relentless innovation—and occasional frustration! But as I look back, I’m proud to have played a part in this journey, and I’m genuinely excited for what comes next. For those still wrestling with manual timesheets, my advice is simple: the future is here, and it’s time to embrace it.
Jeff Lawler
About Jeff Lawler
Jeff Lawler, Director of Strategy at Tricostar, began his career with an unexpected pivot—from an initial acceptance to study medicine at Cambridge to launching his first business, which he successfully sold within five years. He went on to build a strong foundation in the pharmaceutical industry, advancing from sales to a senior management role at a major U.S. company. In 1978, Jeff found his enduring niche in legal IT, leading operations for a legal technology firm and later spending several years in the Gulf region with NCR, selling computer systems during the early years of enterprise computing. He also co-founded a venture in medical software before establishing his own company in 1988, specializing in legal technology solutions for time recording and case management—a focus that continues to define his strategic leadership today.
