Intake of new enquiries
An assistant gathers the basics from new contacts (practice area, summary of the matter, urgency, documents available) and books the consultation. The lawyer gets an organized file before the first call.
AI for law firms
AI for law firms: more time for the case, less for the admin
In a law firm, AI helps where there's volume: intake of new enquiries, reading and summarizing contracts and documents, tracking deadlines, first drafts from your templates and keeping clients updated. Lawyers still decide, review and sign. The gain is the hours that go into repetitive reading and answering 'any news on my case?'.
A typical day in law firms
- New enquiries come in by email and web form, and nobody manages to triage them the same day.
- A lawyer reads a 40-page contract to find the three clauses that matter.
- Clients call every week for an update, and someone stops what they're doing to check.
- Documents arrive by email, upload and paper, and building the case file becomes a job in itself.
None of this needs legal reasoning, but it takes the time of people who should be thinking about the case.
What AI does in law firms
Contract reading and summaries
AI reads the contract and highlights parties, dates, amounts, penalties, termination terms and points of concern in a one-page summary with clause references. The lawyer reviews the summary and goes straight to what matters.
Deadline and task tracking
Court notices and key dates feed a workflow that extracts the deadline, creates the reminder and alerts the responsible lawyer. Less risk of a missed date because nobody was watching.
Automatic client updates
When a matter moves, the client gets a plain-language message explaining what happened and what's next, using wording approved by the lawyer. Calls asking for updates drop noticeably.
First drafts from your templates
From your firm's templates and the facts of the matter, AI prepares a first draft of letters, simple agreements or routine documents. The lawyer edits and checks every reference.
Document organization
Files arriving through any channel are named, classified and saved to the client's folder, with a list of what's still needed.
Workflow: from first contact to booked consultation
This workflow keeps you from losing clients to slow replies, and spares lawyers from triaging on their phone between hearings.
- 1
Enquiry arrives
Someone writes through your website, email or messaging, at any hour.
- 2
Guided intake
The assistant asks for the practice area and a summary of the matter and checks whether a deadline is running, without giving legal advice.
- 3
Conflict check
The other party's name is checked against the firm's client records before going further.
- 4
Consultation booked
The person picks a slot with the right lawyer and receives the list of documents to bring.
- 5
File ready
The lawyer gets a summary with the matter, urgency and documents, and starts the consultation already up to speed.
What is it worth to you?
Adjust your team's numbers and get an estimate of the time and money you'd get back each year.
Your business
Your estimated result
Hours back per year4,368 hfreed up for work that matters
Estimated yearly savings$187,824labour + fewer mistakes
ROI355%first-year return
Payback3moto pay for itself
Where the savings come from
A prompt ready to copy
Prompt: contract summary for review
Use it before reviewing a long contract, with party details removed.
You are a legal assistant at a law firm in [jurisdiction]. I'll paste a [type of contract] with the parties replaced by PARTY A and PARTY B. Provide: 1) The purpose of the contract in 3 lines. 2) A table with: each party's obligations, dates, amounts and payment terms, penalties, termination, governing law. 3) Clauses that deserve attention for [PARTY A / PARTY B], with the reason. 4) Ambiguous points or anything that seems to be missing. Cite the clause number for every item. Don't conclude on enforceability: that's for the lawyer's review. [PASTE THE CONTRACT HERE]
Questions about AI in law firms
Does using AI breach client confidentiality?
It depends on how it's used. Pasting client information into public AI tools is a real risk and should be avoided. The safe approach is contracted tools with terms that prevent your data being used for training, access controls and anonymized text wherever possible. Confidentiality and data protection are built into the design from the start, and responsibility for the work stays with the lawyer.
Can AI get case law or citations wrong?
Yes, and there have been well-known cases of invented citations reaching court. That's why nothing AI writes goes into a document without checking. AI is excellent for reading, summarizing, organizing and first drafts from your templates. Citations and authorities must be verified in official sources, and a good workflow makes that explicit.
Can the intake assistant give legal advice?
It shouldn't. It's set up to welcome people, gather information, spot urgency and book the consultation. Any question about the law or strategy goes to a lawyer. That protects the client and the firm, and keeps you in line with your bar or law society's rules. The assistant also introduces itself as a virtual assistant.
Do we need to replace our practice management software?
Usually not. Automations connect to what you already use: practice management, calendars, email, messaging and document storage. Where there's an integration, the connection is direct. Where there isn't, exports and spreadsheets work. The goal is to remove repetitive work around the system without changing how the firm runs matters.
Where should a small firm start?
With the work that takes the most time without needing legal reasoning. For many firms, that's intake of new enquiries or client updates. For firms heavy on contracts, it's reading and summarizing documents. Starting with one process, measuring the time saved and growing from there works better than changing everything at once.
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