Clean Energy Counsel case study: $190K a month recovered
Clean Energy Counsel is a Chambers USA-ranked renewable energy law firm headquartered in San Francisco, with 36 lawyers across more than 14 states. Founded in 2014 by Steve Holman, the former general counsel at SunEdison, and Brad DeJean, the firm handles the full lifecycle of clean energy work: solar project finance, wind development agreements, M&A, and regulatory matters.
That work is a timekeeping nightmare by design. An attorney might spend 20 minutes on a solar power purchase agreement, switch to an email about a wind project, then review a regulatory filing for a third client. The transitions are where billable time disappears.
"I was really bad at it"
Shane Devins, an attorney at the firm, is honest about the before state: he worked extremely hard and tracked his time badly, because stopping to record every task in the middle of complex transactional work meant things got lost constantly.
With Ajax reading the work on his screen and drafting entries in his voice, his result: "Literally a 50% increase in recorded time. I just was really bad at it, and now Ajax is making sure I put it all in - every little 0.1. It adds up."
The learning surprised him too: "I've already noticed it learned. The second I corrected it for one matter, it's doing it every time. It's been really good about learning." One client requires every entry to open with a specific requested-by phrase. Ajax picked the pattern up and started applying it automatically.
The firm-wide numbers
Measure | Before Ajax | With Ajax | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
Billable hours per day | 3.8 | 5.2 | +1.3 |
Billable dollars per day | $2,238 | $3,158 | +$919 |
Extra revenue per user, per month | $21,146 | ||
Recovered per month, across nine timekeepers | $190,318 | ||
Return on investment | 117x |
At the firm's rates of $510 to $735 per hour, an extra 1.3 hours a day is serious money, and it compounds every month.
The adoption question, answered by a Luddite
Kristen Berry, an attorney at the firm, describes herself bluntly: "I'm a Luddite and I don't really like technology for the most part, but this I really appreciate because it's taking the mental load away from me."
She also did the math out loud: "All those 0.1s and 0.2s that your platform's catching - that's going to result in additional money for our firm. And more money in my pocket too."
Emily Hager was surprised by quality: "Some of those entries were better than my entries. I was like, oh, wow, that's actually a really great way to put that."
Jackie Lewis was blunt about why she started: "At the end of the year, everything blew up on me, and I think I missed time. I don't want that to happen again."
And Kami Calderon, the firm's COO, on the rollout itself: "Their onboarding was 100% white glove service and super responsive."
Frequently asked questions
Does Ajax handle client-specific billing formats? Yes. Ajax learns per-client narrative requirements, from required phrases to task codes, and applies them automatically once corrected a single time.
What kind of firm sees returns this large? Specialty practices with heavy context-switching and meaningful rates. The more matters an attorney touches per day, the more increments there are to lose, and to recover.
How is $190,318 a month calculated? Against the firm's own billing history: each timekeeper's captured billable time before Ajax versus with Ajax, summed across the nine timekeepers measured.
If your attorneys jump between a dozen matters a day, book a demo and measure a pilot against your own numbers, or start with how law firms stop losing billable hours.
