Virtual receptionists for law firms: human, AI or both?

A virtual receptionist for a law firm is someone, or something, outside the office that answers the firm's calls in its name. Human virtual receptionists work from a call centre and take messages; AI virtual receptionists are software that answers and asks set questions. Many UK firms end up combining them: people by day, software for overflow and out of hours.

The phrase "virtual receptionist" covers both, which makes comparison pages confusing. This guide separates them, compares them on the criteria that matter to a solicitors' practice rather than to a generic small business, and sets out three models for combining them. For the full landscape of options, including in-house staff and voicemail, start with our pillar guide to law firm answering services in the UK.

What is a legal virtual receptionist?

In practice it is a diversion. When your own line is busy, rings out, or the office is closed, calls go to the virtual receptionist instead. They answer in your firm's name, follow a script you agree, and send you what they captured. Some can transfer a call live to a named fee-earner, book an appointment into a shared diary or complete a form.

"Legal" in the name usually means the provider has a page for law firms and may train operators on a short brief about your firm. It rarely means the operators have legal training. That is not a criticism; it is simply what the price buys. The value of any virtual receptionist to a law firm depends on the script and questions the firm supplies.

Human or AI virtual receptionist: how do they compare?

Here is the comparison on the eight points we think matter most. It is a general picture; individual providers vary, and you should test the one you are considering.

• Warmth with distressed callers. Human is usually stronger. A trained person hears fear in a voice and adjusts. Software can be designed to recognise distress and hand over, but ask exactly how.
• Consistency of questions. AI is usually stronger. It asks every question, every time. Human operators covering hundreds of businesses sometimes skip the one you cared most about.
• Capacity at peaks. AI is stronger. Several simultaneous calls cost it nothing. Human services queue or overflow to whoever is free.
• Legal context. Neither has it by default. Both depend on the questions and the no-go topics you write.
• Live transfer to a fee-earner. Human services have done this for years. Some AI products do it; check.
• Cost shape. Human services are often per call or per minute above an allowance. AI is often a flat monthly fee. See our answering service cost guide for published prices.
• Out of hours. Both can cover it, but human evening and weekend cover is frequently an add-on or a higher tier.
• Disclosure. A human operator is a person answering on your behalf. Software should say it is AI at the start of the call. A system that pretends to be a person is a risk for a regulated firm.

What do human virtual receptionists cost?

Published starting prices on providers' own pages, read on 18 September 2026: ReceptionHQ from £15 a month plus VAT for message-taking, rising to £30 for diary plans; Posh from £50 a month on a 30-day agreement; Face For Business from £49 for a Taster plan and £115 for Inclusive Minutes with evening and weekend support. Moneypenny quotes individually. Those are entry prices; a working firm's bill depends on volume and how calls are billed. Prices in this market change, so always read the current page.

What do AI virtual receptionists cost?

AI pricing tends to be flat. As one published example, Jodie lists £49, £99 and £199 a month tiers with enterprise pricing from £500, excluding tax (checked 18 September 2026). The useful comparison is not headline price but what each tier includes: call transfer, diary booking, the number of questions, and whether you control the script. Our guide to AI receptionists for law firms covers what the software does on a real call and where it falls short.

Which is better for a small law firm?

Size matters less than the pattern of your calls. Three questions decide it:

• When do you miss calls? If it is mostly lunchtimes and when the receptionist is on another line, you need overflow cover in the working day. If it is mostly evenings and weekends, you need out-of-hours cover. A two-week call log answers this.
• Who is calling? If most missed callers are new enquiries, qualification matters more than warmth: you want the right questions asked. If most are existing clients chasing updates, you want the caller recognised and reassured.
• What happens next? If nobody at the firm reliably returns a message within a working day, any virtual receptionist will capture enquiries that then go cold. Fix the call-back process first, or in parallel. Our guide to law firm lead response time explains why speed of that call back matters so much.

Can you combine a human and an AI virtual receptionist?

Yes, and for many firms it is the most sensible answer. Three models we see:

Model 1: people by day, software out of hours. Your in-house team or a human service covers the working day. Software answers evenings, weekends and bank holidays, when volumes are low but enquiries are often urgent. This is the simplest to set up. We compare the options for evenings in after-hours answering for law firms.

Model 2: software on overflow. Your receptionist answers first. If they are on another call, or the phone rings more than a set number of times, software picks up. This catches the Monday-morning pile-up without changing who clients normally speak to.

Model 3: software first, people for transfer. Software takes every call, logs new enquiries, and transfers existing clients or urgent callers to a person. This suits firms with high new-enquiry volume, but it changes the client experience most, so pilot it carefully.

The receptionist, human or software, has done its job when the message arrives. Whether the caller becomes a client is decided by what happens next.

A worked example: picking a model

A hypothetical firm, with invented numbers to show the method. It has four fee-earners across family and employment and one receptionist. Its two-week call log shows 22 unanswered calls: 9 between 12pm and 2pm, 5 on Monday mornings while the receptionist was already on a call, and 8 after 5.30pm or at the weekend. Of the 22, 15 were from numbers the firm did not recognise.

Reading that log: the daytime misses (14) are an overflow problem, and the evening misses (8) are an out-of-hours problem. Most are new enquiries, so qualification matters. A reasonable choice would be Model 2 and Model 1 together: software on overflow in the day and answering outright after hours, with the receptionist unchanged as the first voice most clients hear. If the log had shown mostly existing clients chasing updates, the answer would lean towards better update habits rather than more answering.

What should a law firm put in a virtual receptionist's brief?

Whichever you choose, write the brief yourself. A checklist we would use:

• The exact greeting, including your firm's name and, for software, a clear statement that it is AI.
• Your practice areas, in plain words, and the ones you do not handle, with where to point those callers if you have a referral arrangement.
• Two or three qualifying questions per practice area. For example, for employment: are you still employed, and what is the date of the event you are calling about.
• A list of topics the receptionist must never discuss: prospects, whether something is legal, what a court will decide, and fees beyond what you publish.
• What to say about timing of the call back. Make it something the firm will actually keep.
• Who receives each type of message, and a named back-up when that person is away.
• What to do if the caller is distressed, at risk or says they are in danger.

Our full call handling script for law firms gives wording for each of these.

Do virtual receptionists record calls?

Many do, some by default. A recording is personal data, and in a law firm it can easily include special category data such as health information. The ICO's guidance says people must be told about processing at the time their data is collected. Ask the provider whether calls are recorded, where recordings are stored, how long they are kept and whether you can change that, and take the answers to your DPO or COLP. We set out the guidance in should law firms record client calls.

How do you tell whether a virtual receptionist is working?

Pick four numbers and look at them weekly for the first two months: the share of calls answered, the share of new enquiries that got a call back within one working day, the number of consultations booked from those calls, and the number of complaints or confused clients. If the first number improves and the other three do not, the problem has moved from the phone to the firm's follow-up.

Where does WasilX fit?

WasilX is not a virtual receptionist service. Cam, our AI Engagement Coordinator, 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. Each fee-earner can also have a personal assistant that covers their calls in court and drafts matter updates for the fee-earner to approve. If you are weighing up a combined model and want to talk it through, start a conversation.

Frequently asked questions

What does a virtual receptionist do for a law firm? Answers the firm's calls in its name when nobody in the office can, follows a script the firm agrees, takes the caller's details and reason for calling, and sends the firm a message. Some also transfer calls live or book appointments.

Are virtual receptionists for lawyers trained in law? Usually not. Legal virtual receptionist services may brief operators on your firm, but the operators are generally not legally trained. The quality depends on the questions and no-go topics your firm writes into the script.

Is an AI virtual receptionist cheaper than a human one? Published AI prices are often flat monthly fees, while human services commonly charge per call or per minute above an allowance. Which is cheaper depends on your call volume. Compare against your own call log, and check current prices.

Can I use both a human and an AI virtual receptionist? Yes. Common models are people during the day with software out of hours, software only on overflow when the line is busy, or software first with transfers to people for existing clients and urgent calls.

Should a virtual receptionist tell callers they are AI? If it is software, yes. Telling callers at the start is the safe design for a regulated firm, and it avoids a caller feeling misled when they realise later.