Lead Intake & Routing for Law Firms
Capture every new lead, qualify them automatically, and route to the right person — no manual sorting.
Why this matters for Law Firms
Law firm intake is a mess of PPC leads, referral calls, web form submissions, and walk-ins — each needing a conflict check, a matter-type qualification, and a routing decision before a partner's time is spent. The bottleneck is usually the intake coordinator manually re-typing the same fields into Clio, Smokeball, or Filevine, then pinging the right attorney on Slack. AI-powered lead intake pulls structured data from every inbound channel, runs a first-pass conflict check against your client matter database, scores the lead on matter value and urgency, and routes it to the right practice group — family to one attorney, bankruptcy to another, PI to the litigation partner. This isn't about replacing the intake coordinator. It's about letting them spend their time on relationship-building, not data entry.
Real examples from Law Firms
A multi-practice firm in Houston routes PI leads with medical treatment in progress straight to the senior litigator's calendar, while slip-and-falls with only soft tissue go to associate review — partner time up 22%. A family law office in Seattle uses AI to flag contested custody matters for immediate callback and sends uncontested divorces to a templated retainer flow, cutting intake coordinator workload by 14 hours per week. A bankruptcy practice in Cleveland auto-qualifies Chapter 7 vs. Chapter 13 based on income and asset intake, assigning the right paralegal before the consult even starts.
Workflow Steps
Unify your lead sources
Connect all lead sources (website form, Google Ads, Facebook Lead Ads, phone) into a single CRM — typically GHL or HubSpot.
Auto-create contact and set pipeline stage
When a lead comes in, automatically create a contact record, set the pipeline stage to 'New Lead', and tag by source.
Send immediate acknowledgment
Fire an automated SMS and/or email within 2 minutes: 'Thanks for reaching out! We received your inquiry and will be in touch shortly.'
AI qualification (optional)
Use an AI chatbot or SMS sequence to ask 2-3 qualifying questions: service needed, location/zip code, timeline, and budget range.
Route to the right rep
Based on service type, location, or lead score, automatically assign the contact to the correct salesperson or team member in your CRM.
Notify the assignee
Send a Slack message or email to the assigned rep with all lead details so they can follow up immediately.
Copy-paste templates
Tuned for Law Firms. Use as-is or adapt to your voice.
You are an intake classifier for a law firm. Given the inbound message below, extract: (1) matter type [PI, family, criminal, bankruptcy, estate, business, other], (2) urgency [immediate, this week, this month, exploratory], (3) jurisdiction, (4) opposing party if mentioned, (5) estimated matter value tier [small/medium/large]. If the sender mentions an active court date within 72 hours, flag as URGENT. Output JSON only.
Inbound message: {{message}}Run this check against our client matter database before scheduling any consult: 1. Exact name match on prospective client 2. Name match on opposing party 3. Name match on any related party mentioned (spouse, business entity, co-defendant) 4. Fuzzy match on DBA or trade names If any hits, route to conflicts attorney for manual review before any consultation is scheduled. Do not return a calendar link until cleared.
IF matter_type=PI AND treatment_status=ongoing → route to Senior Litigator (calendar A) IF matter_type=family AND contested=true → route to Family Partner (calendar B) IF matter_type=family AND contested=false → route to Associate + templated retainer flow IF matter_type=bankruptcy → route to BK Paralegal for means-test intake first IF matter_type=criminal AND hearing_within_48h → SMS + phone call to on-call attorney ELSE → intake coordinator manual review queue
Hi [First Name]! Thanks for reaching out to [Business Name]. We got your message and someone from our team will contact you shortly. Questions? Reply here anytime.
Hi [First Name], this is [Business Name]. Quick question before we connect — what type of [service] are you looking for, and when do you need it? (We want to send the right person your way!)
New Lead: [Contact Name] | Source: [Lead Source] | Service: [Service Type] | Phone: [Phone] | Email: [Email] | Assigned to: [Rep Name]
When NOT to use this
Avoid this workflow if your lead volume is very low (under 5/week) — the setup overhead won't pay off. Also review your qualification questions carefully; asking too many questions upfront can reduce response rates.
Weekly workflow ideas for Law Firms
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