AI for law firm intake: from the first email to a signed engagement letter
Intake is where a small firm loses the most time and the most clients. Here is what AI can take off it, and what should stay with the lawyer.
The problem
A new client writes in. The lawyer reads it between two other things, replies when there is a moment, asks the intake questions one at a time, runs the conflict check, fills the engagement letter in Word, sends it, and then types the same details again when the matter opens.
None of that is legal judgment. All of it is the lawyer's time, and the slower it goes, the more likely the client has already called someone else.
What changes
The email opens the lead. Each firm gets its own intake address. A client's email opens a lead with a summary of what the client needs, the parties and the urgency.
The first reply is drafted, not sent. A first reply is drafted in the firm's style for a lawyer to read and approve. When the draft carries a price, a link, a phone number or a promise, the firm's fixed template is used instead.
The engagement letter comes from the firm's own template, after a conflict check, and is signed electronically.
Nothing is typed twice. On signing, the lead becomes a client and the matter opens with the facts from the conversation and the signed letter on it. The client then gets an upload link that files straight into the matter.
What stays with the lawyer
Whether to take the client. What to say to them. Whether the engagement letter is right. The AI does the reading and the paperwork; the decisions are the lawyer's, and the product is built that way.
And what it does not do yet: it does not collect the client's payment for the firm. A lawyer marks the fee as received. Every run we describe here was on a demonstration matter.
Further reading
Intake is one stage of ten. The rest of the matter, and how other products compare, is in The best AI for law practices in 2027.