Law Firm Client Intake Process: 8 Steps and a Form

The eight steps of client intake

Intake is the first work a firm does on a matter, and the first that can go wrong. The steps run in the order that protects the firm: only names and the kind of matter come in before the conflict check, and no work starts before the engagement letter is signed.

1. Record every enquiry in one place

Enquiries arrive by phone, by e-mail, through the website and at the front desk. Each one goes into the same list the moment it arrives, with the time and the person who took it, so that none waits in a personal inbox.

Record: the person's name and contact details, how they reached you, the kind of matter in one line, and the names of the other parties.
Warning sign: nobody can say how many enquiries came in last month, or how long the first reply took.

2. Screen the matter

Before anyone books time, check that the matter is one the firm takes: the practice area, the place where it must be handled, the size of the work against the team's capacity, and any date that may already be running, such as a limitation period or a hearing.

Record: the outcome, to proceed, to refer or to decline, with the reason and the date.
Warning sign: a deadline found only after the consultation, or matters taken on because nobody decided to decline them.

3. Check for conflicts of interest

Search the names of the prospective client, the other parties and any related companies or people against your current clients, your former clients and the parties to past matters. Do it before the prospective client tells you the facts: what you hear in a consultation can bind the firm even if it never takes the matter.

Record: the names searched, the date, who ran the search, what it found and who cleared it.
Warning sign: only the client's own name searched, or the search run after the consultation.

4. Hold the first consultation

The consultation sets out the facts, the client's goal, the options and the likely work. Collect what the advice needs and no more, and say at the start whether the firm has agreed to act: a consultation on its own does not make the person your client, but what they tell you stays confidential either way.

Record: the facts given, the documents received, the next step agreed and any date mentioned.
Warning sign: advice given with no note of it, or a person who leaves believing the firm now acts for them.

5. Accept or decline, in writing

Decide promptly and tell the person in writing either way. A letter that declines says that the firm does not act, that it has not checked any time limit for them, that limits may already be running, and that they should take advice elsewhere without delay; it returns any original documents.

Record: the decision, its reason from a fixed list, the date and the letter sent.
Warning sign: people who were declined but never told, or reasons in free text that nobody can count later.

6. Name the client and confirm who they are

Name the client exactly: a person, a company, or several people with the same interest, and who gives instructions for them. Where the rules on money laundering or the law society's rules require it, identify the client and verify that identity from documents, in the cases those rules set out.

Record: the client's full legal name, who instructs the firm for them, and each identity check with its date.
Warning sign: work started for "the family" or "the group", with no named client.

7. Agree the engagement letter

The engagement letter, or retainer agreement, turns the decision into terms: who the client is, what the firm will do and what it leaves out, who will do it, how fees and expenses are charged with an estimate of the total, when invoices are sent, how the client can complain, and how either side can end the engagement.

Record: the signed letter, the date it was signed, and every later change to the work agreed.
Warning sign: work started before the letter is signed, or a scope that says only "legal services".

8. Open the matter

Opening the matter carries everything from intake into the file: the client and the other parties, the documents, the deadlines in the calendar, the responsible lawyer and the team. The client then hears what happens next and whom to contact.

Record: the matter number, the team, the first deadlines and the first task, each with a person responsible.
Warning sign: details typed again from the intake notes, or deadlines kept in one lawyer's diary.

What to ask on a client intake form

Ask in two rounds. The first, before the conflict check, takes only what the screening and the check need. The second, once the firm agrees to act, takes what the advice and the engagement letter need.

The questions of an intake form, and the round each belongs to
Question	Why you ask	When
Full name, and the company if the client is one	The first name searched for conflicts	First round
Phone, e-mail and the way they prefer to be reached	The reply and the follow-up	First round
The other parties, and anyone related to them	The conflict check	First round
The kind of matter, in a few words	Screening against the firm's practice areas	First round
Any date already set: a hearing, a deadline, a time limit	How urgent the matter is	First round
How they heard of the firm	Which sources bring matters	First round
The facts in full, with the documents	The advice and the estimate of the work	Second round
The outcome they want	The work the engagement letter covers	Second round
Who instructs the firm, and the identity documents the rules ask for	Naming the client and confirming who they are	Second round
The billing address, and who pays	The engagement letter and the invoices	Second round

What to leave out of the first round

Identity numbers, health details, financial records and the full story wait for the second round, when the firm acts and needs them. Personal data laws ask an organisation to collect only the personal data its purpose needs; the rules below say where.

What the professional rules ask at intake

A summary of the rules that bear on intake in four countries, each linked to the regulator's own text. Your own state, province or territory may add to them.

United States

Each state adopts its own rules of professional conduct. The American Bar Association's Model Rules of Professional Conduct, adopted in 1983, serve as models for the ethics rules of most jurisdictions.

Prospective clients: under Rule 1.18, what a lawyer learns from a prospective client may not be used or revealed even when no client relationship follows, and information that could be significantly harmful to that person can stop the lawyer acting against them in the same or a substantially related matter.
Conflicts: Rule 1.7 on current clients and Rule 1.9 on former clients.
Fees and scope: under Rule 1.5, the scope of the work and the basis or rate of the fee and expenses are communicated, preferably in writing, before or within a reasonable time after the work starts; a contingent fee agreement is in a writing signed by the client.
Protecting information: Rule 1.6(c) asks for reasonable efforts to prevent unauthorised disclosure of, or access to, client information.

England and Wales

Solicitors follow the SRA Code of Conduct for Solicitors.

The client: paragraph 8.1 of the Code asks you to identify who you are acting for in each matter.
Conflicts and confidentiality: under paragraph 6.2 you do not act where there is a conflict of interest or a significant risk of one, except in the two cases the Code allows; under paragraph 6.3 the affairs of current and former clients stay confidential.
Costs and complaints: paragraph 8.7 asks for clear information about how the matter will be priced and its likely overall cost at the time of engagement, and paragraph 8.3 for the client's right to complain, including to the Legal Ombudsman, given in writing at the same time.
Identity checks: for work within regulation 12 of the Money Laundering Regulations 2017, such as buying and selling property or businesses and managing client money, regulation 28 asks the firm to identify the client and verify their identity.
Personal data: Article 5 of the UK GDPR asks for personal data that are adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary.

Canada

Each province and territory has its own law society and rules. Ontario's are given here.

Conflicts and confidentiality: rule 3.4-1 of the Law Society of Ontario's Rules of Professional Conduct forbids acting, or continuing to act, where there is a conflict of interest, except as the rules permit; rule 3.3-1 covers confidentiality.
Identity checks: under Part III of By-Law 7.1, a lawyer takes the client's identifying details when retained, and verifies the identity from documents when receiving, paying or transferring funds, with the exemptions it lists.
Personal data: where it applies, PIPEDA's principle of limiting collection asks for no more information than the identified purposes need.

Australia

Every state and territory has adopted the Australian Solicitors' Conduct Rules through its own legislation; the Legal Profession Uniform Law applies in New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia.

Conflicts and confidentiality: rules 10 and 11 ask solicitors to avoid conflicts between the duties owed to current and former clients, and between two or more current clients; rule 9 covers confidentiality.
Costs: under section 174 of the Uniform Law, as the Victorian Legal Services Board and Commissioner explains, for most matters the client receives a written costs disclosure, with a genuine and reasonable estimate of the total legal costs, soon after engaging the firm.
Personal data: for organisations the Privacy Act covers, Australian Privacy Principle 3 allows collecting only personal information that is reasonably necessary for their functions or activities.

How to measure client intake

Count these each month from the list of enquiries; each needs only the dates and outcomes recorded in the steps above.

Six measures of client intake
Measure	How to count it	What it shows
Time to the first reply	From the enquiry to the firm's first answer	Whether enquiries wait
Consultation rate	Consultations held ÷ enquiries	Whether screening and follow-up work
Acceptance rate	Matters accepted ÷ consultations held	Whether the right matters reach a consultation
Reasons for declining	Declined enquiries, counted by reason	Which areas, places or conflicts turn work away
Time to the signed letter	From acceptance to the signed engagement letter	Whether work risks starting without terms
Where matters come from	Accepted matters, counted by how the client heard of the firm	Which sources bring work

A client intake checklist

One list for every enquiry, whatever the way it arrives.
A time for the first reply that the firm sets and measures.
Screening questions written down: practice area, place, capacity and dates already running.
A conflict search on every name, before the facts.
The limits of the first consultation said at its start.
Notes and documents kept with the enquiry.
A decision in writing either way, with its reason from a fixed list.
A letter that declines, with the warning about time limits.
The client named exactly, and identity verified where the rules require it.
A signed engagement letter before the work starts.
The matter opened from the intake record, with its deadlines in the calendar.
The six measures read each month.

How client intake works in jaah law

This part is about our own product; each line states a fact of the product itself.

A request form can sit on any page of the firm's website, and clients with a portal account file and follow their requests there.
The portal form asks for the opposing party, and approving the request carries it into the new case or consultation, where the lawyers enter the parties.
Each request reaches the client's own lawyers or the intake lawyers, with a deadline and a review to-do.
Find / Create Client looks for a contact with the requester's e-mail or phone and creates one when none matches; a request is approved only once it has a client.
Cases and consultations keep their opposing parties as contacts, and both lists search by client and by opposing party.
Rejecting a request asks for a reason from the firm's own list, which ships with reasons such as Conflict of Interest, Outside Jurisdiction and Out of Practice Area; each reason shows how many requests it rejected.
Approving a request opens a consultation, a case or an enforcement file, filled in from the request.
The client signs a contract from the link in an e-mail, without an account; the contract turns valid once both sides have signed.
The client's contact gathers their requests, consultations, cases, contracts and invoices.
Tasks carry a deadline, a priority and reminders, and take the client of the record they belong to.
A user guide for the legal apps.

Which apps each plan includes is on the pricing page, and every app is described on the law firm management software page.

What jaah law does not do at intake

It runs no automatic conflict check at present: the firm searches the names itself, in its contacts, cases and consultations.
It does not verify identity documents: those checks are made outside it.
It has no booking page where a prospective client picks a consultation time.

Questions about client intake

What is client intake in a law firm?

Everything between a first enquiry and an open matter: recording the enquiry, screening it, the conflict check, the consultation, the decision, naming the client, the engagement letter and opening the file.

What is the difference between client intake and client onboarding?

Intake decides whether the firm will act, for whom and on what terms. Onboarding starts once it will: the file is opened, the team assigned, and the client told what happens next and whom to contact.

When should a law firm run a conflict check?

Before the prospective client tells you the facts, with the names of everyone involved, and again each time a new party, company or person appears in the matter.

Does a first consultation make someone a client?

Not on its own: the relationship starts when the firm agrees to act. What a prospective client tells you is still confidential, and it can stop the firm from acting against them later.

What should an engagement letter include?

Who the client is, the work the firm will do and what it leaves out, who will do it, how fees and expenses are charged with an estimate of the total, when invoices are sent, how to complain, and how either side can end the engagement.

How long should client intake take?

As long as the conflict check, the decision and the engagement letter need, and no longer. Set a time for the first reply and for the decision, write both down, and measure them each month.

Sources

Each rule was read on its regulator's or publisher's own page on 7 November 2026. General information, not legal advice: read the text that applies where you practise.

Law firm client intake process