This Week's Review: Tempello

Make your inbox time worth it with A.I. powered time entries

I frequently tell anyone who will listen that time entry is the absolute best current use case for generative A.I. as applied to the practice of law. Why? Well, while so many tools out there promise increased efficiency (drafting support, document analysis, etc.), if you are an attorney who bills by the hour, you may be asking, "Why would I buy a product that will help me bill LESS time?" ?? Well, get ready for a product that will actually CAPTURE more time from one of the tasks that often involves a very small amount of time, even though the total can add up: exchanging e-mails. Enter Tempello, where routine meets refinement, in an easy to use (and bill) manner. If you are a reader of the newsletter who uses the Clio practice management platform, Tempello offers an easy to install integration that is sure to show you what (time) you were missing out on.

Favorite law firm use cases: ?Tracking and generating billing entries for the time you are probably forgetting to enter when replying to a client matter e-mail. Billing for time you are spending in e-mail that is often missed.

Features & Functionality

By harnessing the power of A.I., Tempello enables law firms to optimize their billing practices and improve operational efficiency with one small change that won't force lawyers to go too far out of their regular routines.

Estimates show that lawyers spend fifteen to thirty minutes each day making notes and preparing time entries, a task they view as unproductive since it cuts into their billable hours. This leads to significant potential revenue loss in the form of "time leakage," where a lawyer works intensely for several hours but may lose roughly 10%-15% of billable time they neglected to track. Attempting to reconstruct the day's activities afterward often proves challenging and inefficient. This is especially true for attorneys who enter their time at the end of the week or end of the month. The time leakage phenomenon is especially prevalent when it comes to tracking the opening and reading of e-mails. ?Attorneys do this so frequently, they often neglect to bill for .1 here or .2 there and that can add up.

Enter Tempello, the platform scans incoming and outgoing emails to identify billable activities, extracting essential details such as client names, matter names and tasks performed. This automation eliminates the need for manual time entry of the time attorneys spend in e-mail, whether on their computer or mobile device.

So how does it work you ask? Onboarding is simple. If you log in to your Clio account, you can search for the Tempello integration in your integrations tab. A link to Tempello will pop up where you can set up an account (be sure the e-mail you use matches the e-mail you use for your Clio account). After you login you will see the simple and effective Tempello dashboard.

Under the Tools tab to the left you get a walkthrough of how to connect your law firm e-mail to Tempello.

After you connect your e-mail and make sure your Tempello account is connected to Clio, you should start seeing e-mails populate in the Tempello dashboard. This is where you see the magic happen. As long as an e-mail is connected to a Contact and Matter in Clio, Tempello will recognize the e-mail and match the e-mail to a matter in Clio. For any matches to an existing matter the A.I. will generate an invoice ready time entry (designed by the lawyers who founded the company) for you. If there is no match, no time entry is created. Pardon the redactions of client info, but this view should give you an idea of how it operates.

Tempello is built with simplicity in mind, focusing only on creating time entries for those e-mails attorneys so often forget to track time on. It does not go out of its way to intuit whether you just kept your email system open while you ran for a coffee or if you spent 1 minute or 10 minutes crafting a reply. The attorneys who built Tempello know lawyers, and know that MOST emails related to a matter received get a read and response within 6 minutes. And maybe for some who like to get really in the weeds, maybe 12 minutes. This is why they give you the option to select a default time to attach to the time entry for each e-mail of .1 or .2 hours. This way you don't have to think about the edge cases. Sure, if you see a time entry that was for .1 but you know you spent 30 minutes drafting a response, you can edit the entry, but the use case is clear. Tempello is designed to bill for the work you probably never bothered to capture before - getting caught up on your inbox.

So what happens to the time entries after they are created in Tempello? Well, after they are created you can verify the entry and push to send to Clio. Then you can go to your Activities tab in Clio and see the time entries yourself, ready to be added to any other time entries when it is time to generate client invoices. The automation of time entries not only improves billing precision but also streamlines workflows by freeing up valuable time for legal professionals to focus more on client services rather than administrative tasks. Simplicity is key with this product.?

There are other AI powered time keeping products for attorneys coming to market (I'll review others) and they all have their use cases. What I like about Tempello is that it appeals to attorneys who feel like they have their process under control for the most part and simply want another method for capturing time that they are probably just leaving on the table. This is an excellent way to "dip your toes" into the AI pool. And when you read about the pricing I think you will see the bang for your buck.

Currently, Tempello is only available to Clio users, however, with time they will turn an eye toward further integrations. Considering they were awarded Clio's Best New App award in this year's Clio Integration Awards, presented to the top integrations of the over 200 software products that integrate with the platform, it stands to reason demand will continue to grow and they will hear requests to integrate with more practice management and billing systems.

Pricing & Plans

Tempello.ai offers a straightforward pricing model at $0.29 per time entry created (though that will increase to $0.39 per time entry by next year). Considering that manual time entries can cost attorneys between $25 to $85 each when you think about remembering and finding an e-mail, creating a time entry, and writing the description, Tempello's automated solution provides significant savings. But this might be hard to conceptualize. Let me tell you how I see the value. Let's say of the 50 emails that hit your inbox in a day, 10 are related to a client matter. For each one you open and read, and perhaps shoot off a quick reply to, you are charged $0.29 for the time entry that is created. That's $2.90. Let's say you charge $290/hr. When you generate bills, you have just billed $290 additional dollars for that day at the cost of $2.90 and you did not have to lift a finger. They even have a calculator you can use so you can enter your hourly rate and calculate your anticipated savings. And let's say you don't want to bill each .1 and you want to comp it? If you bill clients you know the value of goodwill when they see a bill with a "No Charge" line item. When I look at the use case and pricing it seems like a no brainer. But try it for yourself. They offer a free 7-day trial, allowing firms to evaluate the platform's benefits before committing. And you don't need to commit the whole firm. Just test it for a user or two and see how it goes.

What Makes It A.I. Enabled?

At the heart of Tempello.ai lies its AI-driven automation. Tempello leverages Natural Language Processing (NLP) to analyze the content of emails, extracting relevant details such as client names, case numbers, and specific tasks performed. This capability allows the system to identify billable activities from communication threads effectively. It calls then refines the input through a large Language Learning Model (LLM) to deliver a description of activity worthy of a lawyer. And the platform employs machine learning algorithms to enhance its accuracy over time. By learning from historical data, Tempello improves its ability to categorize and generate time entries based on user behavior and past billing patterns.

Security & Privacy

Given the highly sensitive nature of legal work, Tempello goes above and beyond to ensure data security. With end-to-end encryption for all communications and data storage. The platform assures users that no data is shared with third parties or used for training its models, addressing one of the most significant ethical concerns surrounding AI in legal practice (the issue I care about most). You can learn more via their terms and privacy policy.

The Judgement

In a world where the work of legal professionals is continually commoditized, Tempello is a safeguard against giving away the time that is most commonly given away by attorneys who bill by the hour. You don't need to change all of your behaviors to adopt it. You just need to add this one tool into your existing system and you can easily supplement your law firm income for an incremental increase in your monthly budget. While it may not handle the heavy lifting of tracking ALL your time, it's a very user friendly and cost effective entry point for those who want to see how an A.I. enabled tool can enhance your practice in a way that will actually CAPTURE your billable hours, not reduce them. My recommendation? Start with the trial, and see how quickly you love it.

Feedback

This past week, a recent addition to the list reached out after last week's review:

"Love your article on Perplexity! It is my go to for almost everything. ?I think now may Google a few things a week, but pretty rarely. ?One note. They do have a free plan, but they also have a paid plan. ?As a LinkedIn member, I received the paid plan for free. A national legal expert spoke on how amazing Perplexity was about six months ago. That is how I found out about it. ?It is great that you’re sharing this as well. ?It’s a very approachable AI tool for lawyers to use, or frankly anyone. ?

Take care-?

Jeff Eberhard

Founder? Resolutn"

Thanks Jeff! Also, you should check out Jeff's product which I also like (a GREAT Legal Tech product if you to find a better way to track settlement negotiations).

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