Buttaci Leardi & Werner case study: five tools, one choice
Buttaci Leardi & Werner is a Princeton, New Jersey firm concentrated in health care, pharmacy, and life-sciences law. It is an hourly practice, so reimbursement disputes, regulatory and fraud defense, and pharmacy matters only become revenue once the work is written down.
When the firm set out to automate its timekeeping, it did not simply sign up for the first option.
The evaluation
Elizabeth Rice, the firm's general counsel and director of legal operations, ran a structured search, sitting through demos of five AI timekeeping tools before bringing a recommendation to the partners. The bar was clear: the firm wanted software that actually watched the work, a genuinely AI-first tool rather than a billing system with a timer bolted on.
Of everything Rice evaluated, PointOne came closest to Ajax. What set Ajax apart was how far it went: it reads the real work on screen, and it committed to build the firm's GoToConnect phone integration for the pilot.
In Rice's own words: "GoTo was a really big one that differentiated you from PointOne, which is, I think, your key competitor, because they're the most like you." And on the billing-system connection: "That was a differentiator between you and other competitors is the two-way sync."
BLW chose Ajax, and only Ajax, before running a single trial.
The pilot paid for itself many times over
The results showed up fast. Across the pilot group, Ajax returned 53 to 70 times what it cost.
Per workday | Before Ajax | With Ajax | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
Billable hours | 4.8 | 6.0 | +1.2 |
Billable dollars | $2,127 | $2,585 | +$458 |
Across the group, that adds roughly $52,626 in billable time every month, with each user measured against their own prior month.
For John Leardi, one of the firm's named members, the change registered in his first session: no changes to his apps, his websites, or how he works, and Ajax was already identifying the matters on his screen. His summary a few weeks in: "My wildest expectations have been exceeded."
Ajax also changed what he could see about his own habits: "What's occurred to me is that I'm leaving a lot of time on the table by block billing."
Frequently asked questions
How does Ajax compare to PointOne? They are different tools for different priorities. Firms that want pre-bill review and more detailed administrative settings tend to look hard at PointOne. Firms that prioritize capture depth and day-to-day user experience tend to choose Ajax, which is what BLW's five-tool evaluation came down to. Our comparison of the best AI timekeeping tools covers the field honestly.
Can Ajax capture phone calls? Yes. Ajax integrates with GoTo, Zoom, Teams, RingCentral, Dialpad, VXT, and other VoIP systems, and BLW's GoToConnect integration was built as part of its pilot commitment.
Did the firm have to change how it works? No. Ajax adjusted around each lawyer's existing workflow, drafted entries in the background, and each person reviewed and released their own time.
If you are evaluating AI timekeeping tools right now, do what BLW did and make the vendors show you real capture on your own work. Book an Ajax demo to start the comparison.
