How does AI legal intake work?

Why does intake speed decide who gets the client?

The numbers are stark. In Clio’s research, 57 percent of clients who hired a lawyer contacted more than one firm, and 42 percent said that after a great first conversation they ended the search without contacting anyone else.¹ Meanwhile the 2024 secret shopper study found only 40 percent of law firms answered the phone, 48 percent could not be reached by phone at all, and a third responded to email.² The firm that answers and delivers first holds the advantage, and most firms are not in the race at all.

What happens between the call and the signature?

• Capture. Whether staff or an answering service takes the call, the system takes the case details the moment it ends. Friday nights and holiday weekends included.
• Screen. The case is evaluated against the firm’s own criteria, the way the firm’s best intake person would screen it, with anything borderline flagged for a human call.
• Draft. Retainer, authorizations, and intake documents are generated immediately, matched to case type and firm templates.
• Approve and send. One attorney review, one click, and the package goes out for electronic signature.
• Start the case. The signed retainer triggers the first round of record requests, drafted and waiting for approval.

Does the attorney stay in control?

Yes, structurally. Nothing goes out without an attorney approving it. Automation moves the drafting and the waiting; the judgment about which cases to take and what goes out the door stays with the lawyer.

Where does Execute fit?

Execute Intake runs this sequence as the first of four products: the sign up documents are drafted the moment the call ends, screened the way the firm screens, and waiting for approval. The race figure on that page shows the whole story in one chart.