$150,000 in unbilled time. Every year. Just from one problem.

Not from lazy associates or forgetful partners. From something far more systemic: the 6-minute increment trap.

The Math That's Killing Your Margins

Here's what actually happens when a partner reviews a contract:

• 11:47 AM - Opens document, reads through changes (8 minutes)

• 12:03 PM - Takes a quick call with opposing counsel (4 minutes)

• 2:15 PM - Drafts response email to client (7 minutes)

• 4:30 PM - Final review before sending (5 minutes)

Total actual time: 24 minutes

Time billed: 0.0 hours

Why? Because at the end of a 12-hour day, no one remembers those four separate micro-tasks. They're too small to feel significant, too scattered to recall accurately.

Multiply this across 45 attorneys, 250 working days, and you're looking at six figures walking out the door annually.

"But We Use [Insert Software Here]"

I hear this constantly. And yes, you probably have Clio, or PracticePanther, or even a custom solution.

The problem isn't the software. It's the data entry.

Traditional time tracking requires three things:

1. Remembering what you did

2. Stopping your actual work to record it

3. Deciding what increment to bill

Every single one of these introduces leakage.

A 2023 study of mid-market firms found that attorneys capture roughly 65% of their billable time. Not because they're lazy. Because they're busy practicing law instead of practicing time tracking.

The Partners Who Solved This

I spoke with a 30-attorney firm in Chicago last month. They implemented AI-powered automatic time capture six months ago.

Their results:

• Billable hours increased 18% per attorney (same workload, better capture)

• Time entry dropped from 45 minutes/day to 8 minutes/day

• Billing disputes decreased 40% (more detailed, accurate entries)

• One partner alone recovered $47K in previously unbilled time

The managing partner told me something that stuck with me:

"I thought we had a revenue problem. Turns out we had a visibility problem."

What Actually Works

After studying dozens of firms making this transition, three patterns emerge:

1. Passive Capture is Non-Negotiable

If attorneys have to actively start and stop timers, they won't. The solution needs to work in the background, capturing everything without requiring conscious effort.

2. AI Needs Context, Not Just Activity

Knowing someone spent 12 minutes in a document isn't useful. Knowing they spent 12 minutes reviewing Exhibit A in the Morrison contract for Client X is useful. The AI needs to understand what matters.

3. The "6-Second Review" Test

If reviewing and approving time entries takes longer than 6 seconds per entry, adoption dies. Partners are too busy. The AI should present pre-written, accurate time entries that just need a quick approval.

The Fixed Fee Future

Here's what many partners miss: this isn't just about hourly billing.

More firms are moving toward fixed fee arrangements. But here's the brutal truth: if you don't know your true cost of delivery, you're guessing at your margins.

I've seen firms discover they're losing money on 30% of their fixed fee matters simply because they never had accurate time data to base their estimates on.

AI-powered time tracking gives you the baseline data to:

• Price fixed fee work accurately

• Identify which practice areas are actually profitable

• Spot scope creep before it kills your margins

• Make staffing decisions based on reality, not intuition

The Competitive Reality

Your competition is already moving on this.

The AmLaw 200 firms have entire teams dedicated to pricing and project management. They have the data, the analytics, the insight.

Small to mid-market firms have always competed on agility, relationships, and value. But you can't demonstrate value if you can't measure delivery cost.

The firms winning new business in 2025 aren't just saying "we're efficient." They're proving it with data.

What To Do Monday Morning

If you're a managing partner or practice group leader reading this, here's my advice:

Run the leakage audit. Pick three attorneys. Have them track their time manually for one week in excruciating detail—every email, every call, every document review. Compare it to what actually gets entered into your system.

The gap will shock you.

Then ask yourself: if this is happening with three people for one week, what's happening across your entire firm for an entire year?

The technology exists today to fix this. The question isn't whether it's possible.

The question is whether you can afford to wait another year while that revenue walks out the door.

Want to see what automatic time capture looks like in practice? We're offering free time leakage audits for firms with 20+ attorneys. No sales pitch, just data. Book a 20-minute analysis.