Client Intake and Conflict Screening
AI for Law Firms
Respond to enquiries the day they arrive
Small firms lose work to slow intake more than to price. An enquiry arrives, sits until someone has time, and by then the prospective client has instructed someone else.,Your assistant handles the first pass: gathering the facts, running the initial conflict check against your records, and preparing the file so a fee earner can decide quickly.,The decision to take a matter stays with a qualified person. What changes is that it is made in a day with the information already assembled.
Benefits
How It Works
- Step 1:
- Step 2:
- Step 3:
- Step 4:
At a Glance
- Same day
- Enquiries acknowledged
- Structured
- Facts, not free text
- Screened
- Against your own records
- Minutes
- For the fee earner decision
Speed Wins More Instructions Than Price
Prospective clients contacting a small firm are usually anxious and often contacting several firms at once. The one that responds first, acknowledges the situation, and sets out what happens next has a substantial advantage before any discussion of fees. Firms lose work they would have won on the merits because the enquiry sat in a shared inbox over a weekend. Acknowledgement is the cheapest competitive move available and it is routinely the one not made.
Structured Intake Saves Time Downstream
Free-text enquiries arrive missing the facts that determine whether the firm can help: the dates, the jurisdiction, the parties, whether proceedings have started. A fee earner then spends time going back and forth to establish basics before they can judge the matter at all. Gathering them consistently at first contact means the decision is made once, with the information present, and it makes the initial conflict screen possible rather than partial.
Where the Regulated Line Sits
Intake is unusually sensitive because duties attach before a retainer exists. A prospective client who discloses material creates conflict implications regardless of whether the firm acts, and anything resembling advice given at this stage carries real risk. So the handling here is deliberately narrow: gather, screen, prepare, acknowledge, and say plainly that no advice is being given and no retainer exists. Everything past that line waits for a qualified person, and that boundary is the reason the arrangement is usable at all.
FAQ
Can it clear a conflict?
No. It runs the initial screen against your records and flags what needs looking at. Clearing a conflict is a professional judgement with regulatory consequences and stays with a qualified person, every time.
Can it tell a prospective client whether they have a case?
No, and it is built not to. That is legal advice, it requires a qualified person, and giving it to a non-client would be a serious problem. The acknowledgement is explicit that no advice is being given and no retainer exists.
What about client confidentiality at the enquiry stage?
Prospective client information attracts duties before any retainer exists, which is exactly why intake handling matters. Material stays inside your workspace and is not used to train anything. Given the regulatory context here, read our trust pages properly rather than relying on this answer.
Does it decide which matters to take?
No. It prepares the file so the decision is quick and informed. Whether to act is a commercial and professional judgement for the firm.