The law firm client intake process: a complete UK guide

A law firm's client intake process is everything between first contact and an open file: answering the enquiry, recording who it is and what they need, qualifying it against the work the firm does, running conflict and identity checks, agreeing scope and cost in writing, and handing the matter to a named fee-earner. Each stage needs an owner and a time limit.

That definition sounds obvious, and most firms would say they already do all of it. The difference between a firm that converts its enquiries and one that does not is rarely whether these stages exist. It is whether anybody owns the gaps between them. This guide goes through each stage in the order a caller experiences it, says who should own it, and flags the traps we see most often. It is written from an operations point of view. Where a stage touches a regulatory duty, we describe what the published rule says and link to it; how your firm meets that duty is a question for your COLP.

What is client intake in a law firm?

Client intake is the process that turns an enquiry into an instruction. It starts the moment somebody contacts the firm, by phone, web form, email, chat or a referral, and it ends when a fee-earner has accepted the matter, the client has the firm's terms, and the file is open in the practice management system.

It is worth separating intake from two things it is often confused with. It is not marketing, which produces the enquiry in the first place. And it is not onboarding in the sense of the first weeks of the matter, which is fee-earner work. Intake is the handover zone between them, which is why it so often belongs to nobody. Reception thinks their job ends when they take a message. The fee-earner thinks theirs starts when the file lands on their desk. Everything in between is intake.

What are the stages of the client intake process?

We use seven stages. Some firms merge two or three of them, which is fine, as long as each one still happens and still has an owner.

• 1. First contact. The enquiry arrives and a person, or a system acting for the firm, responds.
• 2. Capture. The caller's name, contact details, the other party's name, and a short description of the problem are written down in one place.
• 3. Qualification. Does the firm do this work, in this location, at a price this person can pay, within any deadline that applies?
• 4. Conflict check. Is there a reason the firm cannot act, because it acts or has acted for the other side, or because of its own interests?
• 5. Identity and due diligence. Who is the client, and, where the work is in scope of the money laundering regulations, what checks does the firm's own policy require?
• 6. Terms and scope. The client receives the firm's terms, the scope of the work and the best possible information about cost.
• 7. Handover. A named fee-earner accepts the matter, the file is opened, and the client knows who to call.

We go through each one below. For a visual version of the same sequence, with the decision points drawn as branches, see our client intake process flow chart.

Stage 1: how fast should a law firm respond to a new enquiry?

As fast as the firm can, and in the same working day at the latest. The published evidence on this is mostly from the US, but it is stark. In the Clio Legal Trends Report 2024 secret-shopper study, only 40 per cent of firms answered a prospective client's phone call and only 33 per cent replied to an email. Nearly half did neither.

Whatever the precise UK figures are, the shape is familiar to anybody who has listened to their own firm's call log. People with a legal problem usually ring more than one firm, and the first one to have a real conversation with them has an advantage the others cannot recover later. We have written about the mechanics of this in speed to lead for law firms.

The practical rule for stage 1 is simple: every channel needs a named owner and a response standard. The phone is answered, by a person or by something that can hold a conversation, not a voicemail box. Web forms and emails get a human reply within a set number of working hours. Out-of-hours calls are covered, because that is when a lot of private clients ring.

Stage 2: what information should you capture at first contact?

Enough to call the person back, run a conflict check, and route the enquiry. No more. The temptation at first contact is to collect everything, and it slows the call down and irritates the caller.

The minimum set we use is: full name, best phone number and email, how they heard about the firm, the other party's name (and any business name), the area of law in the caller's own words, any date they mention (a hearing, a completion, a deadline), and whether they have spoken to another solicitor about it. Our law firm client intake form template sets out the full field list, including what to leave until later.

One trap: capturing in more than one place. If reception writes on a pad, a fee-earner takes notes in email, and the web form lands in a shared inbox, the firm has three partial records and no single view of the enquiry. Pick one place and make it the only place.

A second trap is personal data. The Information Commissioner's Office says privacy information must be provided at the time you collect personal data from someone. Your intake script and your web form both need to cover that, and your data protection lead should approve the wording.

Stage 3: how do you qualify a legal enquiry?

Qualification answers one question: should this enquiry go to a fee-earner, and if so which one? It is not legal advice, and whoever does it, whether reception, an intake specialist or an automated system, should not drift into advice.

We use five tests, in this order:

• Area. Is it work the firm does? If not, is there a firm you refer to?
• Location and jurisdiction. Can the firm act where the problem is?
• Urgency. Is there a date that changes how fast this has to move?
• Fit. Does it fit the firm's minimum matter size, fee model or funding options (including whether the firm does legal aid work)?
• Readiness. Is the person ready to instruct, or gathering information?

A firm should write its own qualifying questions for each practice area and keep them short. A family team's questions look nothing like a conveyancing team's; our guide to family law intake questions is a worked example for one area.

An enquiry that fails qualification still deserves a proper answer. A clear "we do not do this work, but here is who might" is good for the caller and, over time, good for the firm's referral relationships.

Stage 4: when should a conflict check happen?

Before anybody hears the substance of the matter in any detail, and certainly before the firm agrees to act. The SRA Code of Conduct sets out the conflict rules at paragraphs 6.1 and 6.2, and the SRA's guidance on conflicts of interest says it is better to avoid a conflict arising in the first place by declining to act.

The operational problem is that a proper check needs the other party's name, and the first call is where that name is most easily collected. Our post on running conflict checks at intake sets out a two-pass method: a quick name search during or straight after the first call, and a full check before terms go out, without making the caller wait on the line.

Stage 5: what identity checks happen at intake?

Paragraph 8.1 of the SRA Code says a solicitor identifies who they are acting for in relation to any matter. For work within scope of the Money Laundering Regulations 2017, firms also carry out client due diligence under their own documented policy, and the SRA points firms to the Legal Sector Affinity Group guidance for how.

For intake design, the practical point is timing. Tell the client early what they will be asked to provide and why, and ask for it in one go rather than in three separate emails. How much checking a given matter needs is set by your firm's AML policy and your MLCO, not by the intake team.

Stage 6: what does the client receive before work starts?

Paragraph 8.7 of the SRA Code says clients should receive the best possible information about how their matter will be priced and the likely overall cost, both at the time of engagement and as the matter progresses. Paragraph 8.3 says clients are informed in writing at the time of engagement about their right to complain, how to complain, and the Legal Ombudsman. In most firms this arrives as a client care letter with terms of business attached.

We cover the letter itself in detail in client care letters for solicitors, and the difference between that and the US-style document in engagement letters vs client care letters. The intake point is that stage 6 is where many good enquiries stall. The client said yes on the phone, the letter took four days to go out, and by the time it arrived they had instructed someone else. Set a time limit on it.

Stage 7: how should an enquiry be handed to a fee-earner?

With a written summary that the fee-earner can act on without calling the client to ask the same questions again. The summary should say who the client is, what they want, the other party, any key date, what the caller has already been told (including about cost), and what was promised as a next step.

Then the fee-earner, not reception, confirms acceptance and makes the first call. If the fee-earner is in court, somebody should tell the client when they will hear back. We have written more on this in law firm client handoffs.

Who should own client intake in a law firm?

One person should own the whole process, even if many people carry out parts of it. In a small firm that is often the practice manager or a partner; in a larger one it may be an intake team or an operations lead. Our post on what a legal intake specialist does looks at when a dedicated role makes sense.

The owner's job is not to answer every call. It is to know, every week, how many enquiries came in, how many were answered, how many became instructions, and where the rest went.

How do you measure whether intake is working?

Four numbers are enough to start with:

• Enquiries received, by channel.
• Response rate and time, for calls and written enquiries separately.
• Enquiry-to-instruction conversion, by practice area.
• Time from first contact to terms sent.

Here is a hypothetical example, with invented numbers, to show why the order matters. A firm receives 200 enquiries in a month. It answers 150 of them. Of those, 110 qualify, 100 clear conflicts, 60 receive terms, and 45 instruct. Its conversion rate is 22.5 per cent. Looking only at the end, the partners might think the problem is price. Looking at the chain, they would see that 50 enquiries were lost before anyone spoke to them, and 40 qualified clients never received terms. Neither of those is about price.

Our guide to the enquiry-to-instruction conversion rate explains how to define and count each step so the numbers stay comparable month to month.

What can be automated in client intake?

The mechanical parts: answering, capturing, routing, reminding and sending standard documents. Not the judgement parts: whether to act, whether there is a conflict, what the matter will cost, and anything that amounts to advice. We set out a full line between the two in law firm intake automation, and what to look for when choosing tools in client intake software for law firms.

A useful test for any automation: if it went wrong silently for a week, would anybody notice? If not, it needs a check that looks at the outcome, not just the configuration.

What are the most common intake mistakes?

• No owner for the gaps. Every stage is somebody's job except the moves between stages.
• Voicemail as a front door. Many callers will not leave a message, and the firm will never know they rang.
• Too many questions on the first call. Capture enough to call back and check conflicts. Save the rest for the fee-earner.
• Advice by accident. A helpful receptionist who says "you should be fine" has created a problem.
• Slow terms. The client says yes and waits days for a letter.
• No record of lost enquiries. A firm that only records the enquiries that became matters cannot see what it lost.

Where WasilX fits

The first two stages, and the summary in stage 7, are where firms lose the most work without knowing it, because they happen at the busiest and least-watched moments. That is what we built Cam, our AI Engagement Coordinator, to cover. Cam takes calls on the firm's line at any hour, says it is AI, asks the firm's own qualifying questions, books the call back and sends the firm a summary. Cam does not give legal advice, run conflict checks or agree terms; those stay with the firm. If you would like to walk through your own intake process with us, start a conversation.

Frequently asked questions

What is the client intake process in a law firm? It is everything between first contact and an open file: answering the enquiry, capturing the details, qualifying it, checking conflicts and identity, sending terms and cost information, and handing the matter to a named fee-earner.

How long should law firm intake take? There is no single standard. A useful internal target is a same-day response to every enquiry and terms sent within a set number of working days of the client agreeing to instruct. Measure your own times before setting targets.

Who is responsible for client intake? One person should own the whole process, even if reception, intake staff and fee-earners each carry out parts of it. Without an owner, the gaps between stages belong to nobody.

Is a conflict check part of intake? Yes. The SRA's conflicts guidance says it is better to avoid a conflict arising by declining to act at the outset, so the check belongs before the firm agrees to act. Your COLP sets how it is done.

Can client intake be automated? The mechanical parts can: answering, capturing details, routing and reminders. Decisions about whether to act, conflicts, cost and anything resembling legal advice should stay with people.