Law firm intake is everything between a prospective client's first call or form and a signed engagement agreement: first contact, conflict check, qualification, consultation and engagement. To see where paid leads stop, count each of those steps by lead source for one finished month and start with the step that loses the most leads.
Quick answer
List last month's new leads, one row each, with the source and the furthest step reached: contacted, qualified, consult booked, consult held, retained. Divide each step by the one before it, per source. A drop at contacted points at staffing and speed, a drop at qualified points at the ads, and a drop after the consultation is a question for the lawyers. Two rules sit over every step. What a prospective client tells intake is protected by your state's counterpart to ABA Model Rule 1.18, and recording calls needs whatever consent state law requires.
What are the steps of law firm intake?
A conflict check is a search of the firm's records for the prospect and everyone on the other side, so a new matter does not clash with a current or former client. An engagement agreement is the signed contract that makes the prospect a client; a retainer is money paid up front against future fees.
| Step | What happens | Who |
|---|---|---|
| 1. First contact | A call, form, chat or text arrives and gets a response | Intake |
| 2. Conflict check | Names checked against the firm's records | Intake collects, the firm checks |
| 3. Qualification | Practice area, location, timing and fee fit | Intake, by the firm's criteria |
| 4. Consultation | A lawyer meets the prospect | Lawyer |
| 5. Engagement | The prospect signs and pays any retainer | Lawyer |
Steps 2 and 3 can run in either order; for measurement, each lead needs one status and one date per step.
Which numbers show where paid leads stop?
Count each step per source; contacted means a two-way conversation, not an attempt. A lead is one person with a new matter, counted once however many times they called; existing clients, vendors and spam are not leads. That is one reason an ad report's conversions (the calls and forms the account counts) differ from your count (why the ad account reports more leads than your records).
Illustrative: I invented the three-lawyer estate planning firm below and every figure in its table; none of it is client data.
| One month | Google Ads | Legal directory | Referrals |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spend | $6,000 | $1,500 | $0 |
| New leads | 80 | 20 | 12 |
| Contacted | 58 | 17 | 12 |
| Qualified | 30 | 12 | 10 |
| Consult booked | 22 | 10 | 9 |
| Consult held | 16 | 9 | 9 |
| Retained | 6 | 4 | 6 |
| Fees signed | $27,000 | $16,000 | $27,000 |
Three formulas for your own numbers:
- Step rate = a step's count ÷ the step before. Contacted: Google Ads 58 ÷ 80 = 72.5%, directory 17 ÷ 20 = 85%.
- Cost per retained case = spend ÷ retained. Google Ads $6,000 ÷ 6 = $1,000, directory $1,500 ÷ 4 = $375.
- Fees per ad dollar = fees signed ÷ spend. Google Ads $27,000 ÷ $6,000 = 4.5, directory $16,000 ÷ $1,500 = 10.7.
Google Ads loses the most leads at two steps. Of its 80 leads, 22 were never reached: at $75 a lead ($6,000 ÷ 80), that is $1,650 of spend nobody spoke to, a question for whoever staffs intake. Then 30 of 58 contacted leads qualified (52%), against 12 of 17 (71%) from the directory; if the reasons lost say practice area or location, that is a question for whoever runs the ads. Held ÷ booked, 73% against 90%, is a reminder question; retained ÷ held, 38% against 44%, is the smallest gap.
For contingency matters, record an estimated value at signing and the actual fee at resolution.
How fast does intake need to answer?
The one named source I cite here points to the first hour. James Oldroyd, Kristina McElheran and David Elkington wrote it up for Harvard Business Review in 2011. They sent a web test lead to 2,241 US companies; 37% responded within an hour, and 23% never responded at all. The same article reports a separate study of 42 US companies and their 1.25 million leads. When a firm's first contact attempt came inside the hour, it was nearly seven times as likely to qualify the lead, which the authors defined as getting a key decision maker into a meaningful conversation, compared with an attempt an hour later (Harvard Business Review, checked 2026-10-04).
The companies were US businesses in general, with no focus on law firms, and the second study stopped at conversations; it never got to retained clients. So time your own: minutes from each form or missed call to the first attempt, by source. Then match each missed call in your phone system or call tracking tool to a lead row or a logged callback.
Who should answer after hours?
| Option | What it covers | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Your staff on call | Same script, tool and conflict list | Longest wait last month; source on after-hours leads |
| Answering service | Takes a message or patches the call through | Keeps the number dialed; how fast messages reach intake |
| Intake service | Runs your script, can book consultations | Runs the conflict check or only collects names; shows screened-out calls, with reasons |
With a tracking number per source, a separate number for each ad or directory that rings at your desk, the dialed number names the source. ABA Model Rule 5.3 covers a nonlawyer employed or retained by a lawyer: a lawyer supervising one must make reasonable efforts to ensure the person's conduct is compatible with the lawyer's professional obligations (ABA, checked 2026-10-04). Get the script and the confidentiality terms in writing.
What should the intake form record so reports work by source?
| Field | Values | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Source | Fixed list: Google Ads, each directory by name, referral, website, other | Every count splits by it |
| Click id | Filled by a hidden field from the ad link | Ties a retained case to its ad click |
| Matter type | Fixed list of your practice areas | Shows which ads bring matters you take |
| Contact times | First contact, first response | Speed by source |
| Conflict check | Clear, conflict or pending, with date | Nothing books before it clears |
| Status | Contacted, qualified, booked, held, retained, lost | The monthly counts |
| Reason lost | Fixed list: no response, practice area, location, conflict, fee, other firm | Who fixes it |
| Engagement | Date signed, fee or estimated value | Cost per case, fees per dollar |
Also ask each lead how they heard of the firm, and keep that answer next to the assigned source. Clio Grow, one intake tool, has a lead source revenue report that counts intake matters, hired matters and the hired conversion rate per source, and shows a lead with no source as Unassigned (Clio, checked 2026-10-04).
The click id comes from auto-tagging, which adds a parameter called GCLID to the link a person clicks in an ad (Google, checked 2026-10-04). When a matter is retained, that id, the date and the fee can go back to Google Ads, so the account learns which clicks became cases; how that upload from your records works.
What do the ethics rules say about intake?
This section shows where intake touches the rule texts. It is not legal advice, and I'm not a lawyer. Most jurisdictions model their ethics rules on the ABA Model Rules (ABA, checked 2026-10-04), yet every state writes its own, and the text your own state adopted is the one that counts.
Under Rule 1.18, anyone who consults a lawyer about the chance of forming a client-lawyer relationship counts as a prospective client. What the lawyer learns from them stays protected even if the consultation never turns into that relationship: the lawyer may not use it or reveal it, beyond what Rule 1.9 would permit with information from a former client. Paragraph (c) adds a conflict. If the lawyer was given information that could be significantly harmful to the prospect in that matter, the lawyer, and the firm, can be barred from the other side of the same or a substantially related matter, with exceptions in paragraph (d) (ABA, checked 2026-10-04).
The commentary to that rule says that, to avoid acquiring disqualifying information, a lawyer should limit the initial consultation to information that reasonably appears necessary to decide whether to take the matter. It adds that a consultation is likely when the lawyer's advertising in any medium invites details about a possible matter without clear and reasonably understandable warnings limiting the lawyer's obligations, and the person sends them (ABA, checked 2026-10-04). Ask your ethics counsel what your web form and its notice should say.
Rule 1.7(a) describes a concurrent conflict, such as representing one client directly adverse to another (ABA, checked 2026-10-04). Rule 1.10(a) generally extends one lawyer's conflict under Rules 1.7 or 1.9 to every lawyer in the firm (ABA, checked 2026-10-04). On the intake form, that puts the other parties' names near the top, checked against the whole firm's records before the prospect tells the story.
Can you record intake calls?
Consent rules for recording calls differ by state. California Penal Code section 632, one state's example, makes it an offense to record a confidential communication (one held in circumstances that reasonably indicate a party wants it kept between the parties) intentionally and without the consent of all parties, and its definition of a person includes businesses (California Legislature, checked 2026-10-04). Before recording starts, check with counsel which consent your calls need, including calls from other states, and decide who can listen, since recordings hold what prospective clients told intake.
Which answers do you need from your agency and intake service?
- Which ads brought the leads that did not qualify, and what did you change?
- Does every lead reach my intake tool with its source and click id, after-hours calls included?
- How many minutes passed from form to first call attempt last month, by source?
- Which calls do you screen out, and do I see each one with the reason?
- Will retained cases go back to Google Ads, and with which value?
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Frequently asked questions
What is a legal intake form?
It is the form, on the website or in the intake tool, that records a prospective client's contact details, the matter type, the names needed for a conflict check and how they found the firm. The ABA's comment to Model Rule 1.18 says a lawyer should limit the initial consultation to what reasonably appears necessary to decide whether to take the matter, so the full story can wait until the conflict check clears. For reporting, source, matter type and status should come from fixed lists, not free text.
What does a law firm intake specialist do?
An intake specialist answers new calls and forms, screens each matter against the firm's criteria, collects names for the conflict check, books consultations and follows up until the prospect signs or declines. Questions about the merits go to a lawyer. Under ABA Model Rule 5.3, a lawyer who supervises a nonlawyer must make reasonable efforts to ensure that person's conduct is compatible with the lawyer's professional obligations, so the script and training are the firm's job, on staff or at an outside service.
How quickly should a law firm call back a new lead?
The one named study I cite points to the first hour. Harvard Business Review reported in 2011 on 42 US companies and 1.25 million sales leads: a first contact attempt inside the hour left a firm nearly seven times as likely to get a key decision maker into a meaningful conversation as an attempt made an hour later. Those were US companies in general, with no focus on law firms, and the study counted conversations rather than signed clients. Time your own minutes from form or missed call to first attempt, by source.
Should an answering service or an intake service take after-hours calls?
It depends on what has to happen before morning. An answering service takes a message or patches the call to someone on call, while an intake service runs your screening script and can book consultations. Whichever you pick, ask whether it keeps the number the caller dialed, so the call keeps its source, and whether you see every call it screens out, with the reason.
Do I need legal intake software to track leads by source?
No. A spreadsheet with one row per lead and fixed lists for source, status and the reason a lead stopped is enough to count one month. Software helps when it reports by source: Clio Grow's lead source revenue report, for example, counts intake matters, hired matters and the hired conversion rate per source, and shows a lead with no source as Unassigned. Either way, the report is only as good as the source field intake fills in.