Legal Leader | Eric Zaarour – Co-founder, Laurel
Update: 2025-10-24
Description
In this episode of ADB Insights – The Legal Innovation Forum Podcast, Andrew Bowyer, Founder & CEO of the Legal Innovation Forum, speaks with Eric Zaazour, Co-Founder of Laurel, an AI-powered automation software that helps knowledge workers optimize timekeeping and boost productivity.
Eric shares how Laurel uses artificial intelligence to automatically generate accurate time entries while ensuring compliance with outside counsel guidelines. He traces the company’s AI journey since 2017, emphasizing the critical role of data collection and model training in creating more efficient, compliant workflows for law firms and professional services teams.
The conversation explores the broader transformation of the legal industry driven by AI — automating low-value tasks, improving accuracy, and freeing professionals to focus on higher-value strategic work. Andrew and Eric discuss how firms must rethink their business models to deliver measurable value beyond the billable hour, exploring approaches such as alternative fee arrangements and outcome-based pricing.
Together, they examine how data-driven insights into time usage can inform pricing models, operational decisions, and productivity strategies. Eric also looks ahead to the next wave of innovation, predicting the rise of localized language models and firm-specific AI tools that will redefine efficiency and autonomy across the legal and business landscape.
This episode offers a practical and forward-looking view of how AI and data are reshaping professional services — from how time is tracked to how value is measured.
Eric shares how Laurel uses artificial intelligence to automatically generate accurate time entries while ensuring compliance with outside counsel guidelines. He traces the company’s AI journey since 2017, emphasizing the critical role of data collection and model training in creating more efficient, compliant workflows for law firms and professional services teams.
The conversation explores the broader transformation of the legal industry driven by AI — automating low-value tasks, improving accuracy, and freeing professionals to focus on higher-value strategic work. Andrew and Eric discuss how firms must rethink their business models to deliver measurable value beyond the billable hour, exploring approaches such as alternative fee arrangements and outcome-based pricing.
Together, they examine how data-driven insights into time usage can inform pricing models, operational decisions, and productivity strategies. Eric also looks ahead to the next wave of innovation, predicting the rise of localized language models and firm-specific AI tools that will redefine efficiency and autonomy across the legal and business landscape.
This episode offers a practical and forward-looking view of how AI and data are reshaping professional services — from how time is tracked to how value is measured.
Comments
In Channel























