Guide · Law firms
A client intake portal for small law firms
In a small firm, intake is usually a phone call, a Word questionnaire sent by email, a PDF engagement letter that gets printed and scanned back, and a bank transfer someone has to match up. It works, but every step is a chance for the client to stall, and each one lands on whoever answers the phone.
What intake has to capture
- Who the client is, and every other party involved, so you can run a conflict check before you take the matter on.
- The facts of the matter, asked in a structured way for the practice area (a family matter and a probate matter need different questions).
- Proof of identity, where your anti-money-laundering or know-your-client rules require it.
- The signed engagement letter, with scope and fees.
- The retainer or first payment, through your own payment account and handled under your bar or regulator's rules for client money.
Doing it in one place
An intake portal turns those steps into one link. The prospective client answers the questions on their phone and uploads ID. The other party names go to whoever runs conflicts. Once you accept the matter, the engagement letter is ready to sign, and payment follows. Staff see one list: who is waiting on the client and who is waiting on the firm.
Confidentiality first
Intake answers are confidential and may be privileged. A portal built for a firm should keep them in private storage with access limited to named staff. It shouldn't feed them to analytics or advertising tools, and AI must only be used where you've switched it on. If AI summarises an intake, a lawyer reviews the summary. It is never advice to the client.
Where a small custom portal fits
If your case-management system already has intake forms your clients use, extend those. A custom intake portal suits firms whose process doesn't fit the generic forms, or who don't have a case-management system yet and don't want one just for intake.
Try it · sample data only
The working example is the accounting version of the same portal. It shows the request list, document checks, e-signing and payment on fictional clients. I'll build a law-firm version on your own site if you ask.
Open the sample-data demo