Law Firm Intake Automation: From a New Enquiry to Accept or Decline, With the Reasons Shown
Law firm intake automation reads each new enquiry into a record, checks every name against the firm's conflict list, scores the matter against the firm's written acceptance criteria, and builds the reply from the firm's own wording, sending it by the firm's rule or holding it for an attorney. We built a working legal intake desk system as a demonstration on sample data. Each decision shows its reason, and a conflict is never answered without an attorney.
The problem, in the owner's words
The hiring manager's sentence is: "We need someone to take every new enquiry, check it and answer it properly." An enquiry arrives by web form, by a call note or by email, and before anyone answers it has to be read, checked for a conflict and measured against what the firm takes.
That is the stretch between a stranger's first message and the point where an engagement letter can start. It is clerical and it has to be right, because a missed conflict or a wrong decline costs more than a slow reply.
The job this replaces, and what it costs
The role is an intake specialist or a legal assistant, with an attorney deciding. We cite no pay figure: our role pages cover AI, systems and marketing roles, and we have not read a sourced figure for legal intake staff. The closest role page we have is the business systems analyst.
This system ends where our engagement documents system begins: that one starts after the client says yes. We have delivered work for law firms, but this demonstration is a new system built to show the intake step, not a client's.
How the demonstration works, step by step
The legal intake desk system below is a demonstration system running on invented sample data. No client uses this legal intake desk system, and nothing in it is a result anyone achieved. Here is the legal intake desk system recording, and below it the same path in order.
- The enquiry list shows 14 enquiries, with E-2041 from Marisol Vega, a web form, not yet read.
- Read into a record turns the form into fields: 10 of 11 fields are read, and each value shows the words it was read from, such as the other party, Brightwater Freight Co, in Ohio. What cannot be found is shown as "Not stated".
- The conflict check compares 2 names against the 24 on the firm's list. No conflict is found, and the closest name to the employer, Brightwell Foods Inc, is 57 percent similar, below the firm's 85 percent threshold. The reason is on screen.
- The matter is scored on the firm's written criteria. 6 of 6 are met, each with its reason, and the outcome is to offer a consultation, by the firm's rule 2.
- The reply is built from 6 blocks of the firm's own wording: greeting, thank you, an offer of two times, what to bring, a line that it is not legal advice, and the sign-off. It is marked sent by rule, and sending is simulated on the page.
- The next enquiry is a phone call, E-2042. 3 names are checked, and the supervisor named in the call is on the firm's list as a current client. Conflict found. The standard decline is built and held for an attorney, with nothing sent.
What the sample data shows
The board counts the 14 enquiries by source (web form 6, phone call 4, email 4) and by six stage columns. Beyond the main path, an email about a road accident is not a matter type the firm takes, so the standard decline is sent by rule 3, and the attorney approves the held decline before it is marked sent.
Every person, company and matter is invented, no statute or deadline is cited and nothing in it is legal advice. The script that walks the path passed 13 checks, including that every screen fits a 390 wide screen.
Hire it, rent it or own it
The job a legal intake desk system does can be done by a person, by rented software or by a system you own. This table sets hiring, renting and owning a legal intake desk system side by side, using only what is on this page.
| Hire the role | Rent software | Own a system built for you | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it costs | Pay and benefits for the person who does intake; we cite no figure | A monthly fee for as long as you use it | One fixed fee, from $10,000, quoted after the audit |
| The conflict check | A search by eye, reasons in someone's head | The vendor's matching, rarely explained | Every name against your list, with the closest hit and its score shown |
| Who decides | The attorney | The attorney, in the vendor's screen | The attorney: conflicts and declines are held until approved |
| If you leave | The knowledge walks out | Your intake rules stay in their system | You hold the code, the criteria, the wording and the accounts at handoff |
What building it for your company involves
To build this for your firm we would load your conflict list, write your acceptance criteria and sending rules with you, and enter your own reply wording. We would test the conflict step on your known edge cases before anything else, and the read step on your real enquiries.
The customised legal intake desk system starts with the $499 AI-Ready Audit, with your money back if it is not worth it. Then comes a legal intake desk system prototype built on your real data, ready in 7 to 10 days and free of any build fee. Pricing for a production legal intake desk system starts at $10,000 as a single fixed fee, and the code and accounts are yours when we hand over. Care for the legal intake desk system, if you want it, is $997 a month.
Questions people ask
Does it decide who the firm takes?
It applies the firm's own written criteria and shows each one with its reason. A conflict is never answered by the system: the decline is held for an attorney, and the firm sets the sending rules.
How does it tell a conflict from a near miss?
Each name is compared with every name on the firm's client and adverse party list, and the closest hit is shown with a similarity score against a threshold the firm sets. An exact match or a near match goes to an attorney.
Does it use a language model to read enquiries?
No. The demonstration reads by rules, and the same code reads the web form, the call note and the email. It keeps the words each value came from, and what it cannot find is shown as Not stated and turns into a follow-up question.
Is a law firm using this intake desk today?
No. Alderbrook Sample Law Office, its 14 enquiries and its 24 listed names are invented, and sending is simulated on the page. It is a new system, not a client's, and it holds no firm's data and cites no statute or rule.
What would an intake desk for our firm cost?
A custom system starts at $10,000 as one fixed fee, quoted after the $499 audit looks at your conflict list and criteria. A prototype reading your own past enquiries comes first, in 7 to 10 days, and your firm owns it at handoff.
Keep reading
See other working demonstrations beside the legal intake desk system in the prototype library, the hiring data on Business systems analyst pay and true cost, and AI consulting for law firms. Or order the $499 AI-Ready Audit.