Client Intake Checklist for a Small Law Firm

Intake is the stretch between a stranger’s first call and the day you open a file. Most of the trouble a small firm runs into later, such as a missed conflict, a fee dispute or a client who thought you were handling something you were not, traces back to a step skipped here. Treat this list as a starting point and adjust it to your practice area.

This is general information, not legal advice. Professional conduct rules differ by state, and your state bar’s rules and guidance have the final word. The ABA’s Model Rules of Professional Conduct show the general shape most states follow.

Before anyone tells you the whole story

• Record the caller’s name, phone number, email and how they found you.
• Write down every person and company they mention: the other side, spouses, co-owners, related businesses, insurers.
• Ask whether a deadline is already running, such as a hearing date, a response due to a court or an event that may start a limitations period.
• Keep early detail thin. A prospective client is owed confidentiality even if you never take the matter, and what you hear can create a conflict. Collect what you need to check conflicts and to decide whether the matter fits.

Run the conflict check

• Search every name from the first call against current clients, former clients and prospective clients in your records.
• Search alternate spellings, maiden names and the names of related companies.
• Sort the result into clear, needs a closer look, or conflict. Some conflicts can be cured with the affected clients’ informed consent and some cannot, and your state’s version of the conflict rules decides which is which.
• In a firm with more than one lawyer, one lawyer’s conflict is often treated as the whole firm’s. Check how your state handles it.
• Save a record of the check: the date, the names searched and the result.

Decide whether to take the matter

• Is it work you handle, with enough time left before any known deadline for you to do it properly?
• Does the client accept your fee arrangement?
• If the answer is no, send a short written decline. Say you are not representing them on this matter, that any deadline they mentioned may still be running, and that they should speak to another lawyer promptly. Do not give advice in it. Keep a copy.

Set up the engagement

• Send an engagement letter or fee agreement and get it signed. It should name the client, describe what the work covers and what it does not, explain how you charge and bill, and say how either side can end the relationship.
• State how expenses are handled and whether any advance deposit is required. Contingent fee agreements generally must be in writing under state rules.
• Confirm who the client is. For a company or an estate, confirm who has authority to give you instructions.
• Ask for identification where your state, your malpractice insurer or the nature of the matter calls for it.
• If you collect an advance deposit, it normally goes into your trust account and stays there until earned. See trust account basics before the first payment arrives.

Open the matter

• Create the matter in your practice software with a consistent number and naming pattern. The practice software guides cover what to look for.
• Enter every party and related person so that future conflict checks will find them.
• Put each deadline on the calendar now, with reminders ahead of it and a named person responsible. The deadlines and calendaring guides explain how firms keep that system reliable.
• Save the signed letter, intake notes and any documents the client handed over in the matter file.

Welcome the client

• Send a short note that says what happens next, who to contact, how quickly you normally reply and what you need from them by when.
• Say how you will communicate and which channels you consider secure.
• Ask them to check with you before they sign or answer anything from the other side.

One week later

• Is the signed engagement letter back?
• Has any deposit cleared and been recorded on the right client ledger?
• Are all known deadlines on the calendar?
• Did the client receive the welcome note and know whom to call?

If your firm is new, the guide to opening a small firm shows where intake fits among the other setup work.