Legal intake has gates a sales funnel does not: conflict checks, scope, fee basis and a retainer that must arrive before work begins. From ₹899/user/month.
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Enquiries reach a receptionist, a partner's mobile and a website form, and each takes a different path. Some are answered within the hour, some within the week, and a few are discovered later in a folder nobody owned.
The cost is quiet and reputational as much as commercial. A prospective client who called twice without a response tells other people, and the referral that produced them stops producing.
Legal intake is not ordinary selling, because one step can stop a matter regardless of its value. The conflict check belongs early and explicitly, with a date and a named person, rather than as an assumption that someone probably looked.
Six stages hold the work: enquiry received, conflict check cleared, consultation held, fee proposal issued, engagement letter signed, retainer received. Everything before the retainer is investment; everything after it is practice.
Conflict check cleared means it was performed and recorded. Consultation held means the meeting happened and the facts are on the file, which also protects the firm if the same matter returns months later through a different route.
Fee proposal issued means a written scope and fee basis reached the client. Retainer received means the advance is in the account. Work that begins before that stage is a decision the firm should take deliberately, not by drift.
The timings below suit commercial and civil practices. Litigation instructions under time pressure compress the sequence, while corporate mandates with in-house legal departments extend the proposal stage considerably.
| Stage | What it means | Exit criteria (evidence) | Typical time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enquiry received | Prospective client contact logged | Contact reached, matter type noted | Same day |
| Conflict check | Check performed on parties | Check dated and recorded by name | 1 to 3 days |
| Consultation held | Facts discussed with the client | Attendance note on the file | 2 to 10 days |
| Fee proposal | Scope and fee basis offered | Written proposal sent to the client | 2 to 7 days |
| Engagement signed | Terms accepted in writing | Signed engagement letter on file | 1 to 4 weeks |
| Retainer received | Advance in the account | Payment reference recorded | Closed |
Four lists, fifteen minutes. Enquiries not yet conflict checked. Consultations with no proposal issued. Proposals untouched for a fortnight. Engagement letters signed with retainers outstanding. Each line ends with a partner's name and a date.
Keep it short. Intake is the part of a firm most easily crowded out by matter work, and a meeting that overruns is a meeting that will be cancelled during a busy month, which is precisely when it matters.
Intake conversion by matter type and referral source, which shows which relationships produce work worth accepting. Aged fee proposals, which is already- scoped recoverable work. And expected fees by practice area and month for resourcing.
Software cannot supply the intake discipline a firm has never had. If enquiries are answered on personal phones and never logged, no intake report can exist. Start by routing every enquiry into one list with an owner, and add stages once that holds.
This is not practice management, matter management, time recording or billing. It records that a conflict check was done; the judgement remains professional work. Conduct rules on advertising, solicitation and confidentiality stay with the firm.
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Enquiries arrive by phone and email, and nobody can say which ones were never followed up or why.
Every enquiry becomes a record with a responsible person and a next action date, so intake is a worked list rather than whoever happened to answer the phone.Structured intake
Conflict checks are done informally, and occasionally a matter progresses further than it should before anyone raises the question.
Conflict check is a gate with a recorded date and clearer, so no enquiry advances to consultation until that step is complete and visible.Conflict check gate
Fee proposals go out and are never chased, because chasing feels commercially awkward in a professional context.
Aged proposals appear on a weekly list with the responsible partner named, so the follow-up is scheduled work rather than an uncomfortable decision.Aged proposal lists
The firm cannot say what fees are likely this quarter, so hiring and workload planning happen after the pressure arrives.
Proposals carry a fee basis, an expected value and a practice area, so the fee pipeline can be read by month and by team.Fee pipeline by practice area
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