AI for an industry
AI for law firms
A receptionist and a website chat that take a new inquiry the way your intake rules say and book the consultation, and never give legal advice.
Updated October 16, 2026
In short
For a law firm, AI fits at the first contact. A receptionist picks up when the desk is busy or the office is closed, and a website chat answers from your own pages. Both take only what your intake rules allow before a consultation is booked. It never gives legal advice. A firm wanting only its phones covered needs just the receptionist, priced for one number and one calendar app.
Key facts
California Rule of Professional Conduct 1.18 generally bars a lawyer from using or revealing protected information learned in a consultation, even when the person who consulted never hires the lawyer.
Source: State Bar of California, Rules of Professional Conduct, rule 1.18, checked October 15, 2026
The State Bar of California's 2026 AI guidance says that, as a general matter, a lawyer must not input confidential information into an AI tool that may present material risks to confidentiality or security, absent informed consent.
Source: State Bar of California, Practical Guidance for the Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence in the Practice of Law (2026), checked October 15, 2026
The State Bar of California's 2026 AI guidance lists intake that AI carries out on its own among its examples of agentic AI, and says that autonomy does not satisfy a lawyer's duty to exercise independent judgment.
Source: State Bar of California, Practical Guidance for the Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence in the Practice of Law (2026), checked October 15, 2026
The AI jobs that fit a law firm
The jobs below are the ones we would suggest building first, in order, each priced in the written plan that follows a short call. A job with its own page links to it, with how it works and what moves its price.
- AI receptionistTakes the caller's name and the names your conflict check needs when the desk is busy or closed, then books the consultation.Receptionist care, a monthly service fee after launch.How it works
- AI website chatExplains from your own pages which matters the firm takes, and offers a consultation time to anyone whose matter fits. It says it is AI in its first message.A care plan, a monthly fee after launch.How it works
- AI follow-up, text and emailReminds each person the day before a consultation and asks for the documents a new matter is waiting on, sent from your own accounts.Ops retainer, a monthly fee after launch.How it works
Where the line is
What it never does
It never gives legal advice
A question about a case goes to an attorney, and the receptionist takes only what the firm's intake rules allow.
Intake comes first
What a person tells a firm before it takes the case can limit what the firm may do later, even if that person never hires it. So the receptionist and the chat ask what your intake rules say to ask first, usually the names for a conflict check and the kind of matter, and leave the story of the case for the attorney.
Your firm writes those rules, and the written plan turns them into the script. A caller who starts telling the whole story hears that an attorney will want to go through it at the consultation.
What an intake call leaves behind is a text log in the firm's own account with the summary beside it, so the attorney who approves the script can check what each caller was asked.
Consultations land on the attorneys' calendars
Each consultation goes onto the calendar your attorneys already keep, once the written plan has checked that the calendar lets outside software in. If it does not, the call summary reaches your intake person, who books the time as before.
A worked example (hypothetical)
Both attorneys at a family law firm in Sherman Oaks spend their mornings in hearings, and the firm's part-time intake coordinator starts after lunch. The morning calls go to voicemail and are returned in the afternoon, when some callers have already hired someone else.
Those morning calls are what the receptionist would take, following the firm's intake rules and offering each caller a consultation time. With follow-up added, each caller would get a reminder the day before and a request for the existing custody order the attorney wants to read first. The firm's written plan would price the two jobs side by side before either is built.
The site and the software for a law firm
Intake forms that branch by practice area, and a portal where documents arrive instead of long email threads.
Your rules, your lawyer
In short
We build it and warn you in writing about the legal side. We do not give legal advice, so the rules your AI follows are yours, set with your lawyer.
No legal advice
We flag the questions in writing, and your lawyer answers them. This is general information, not legal advice. Your rules are yours to set with your own lawyer.
Common questions
Does it tell callers whether they have a case?
No, it never gives legal advice. It takes what your intake rules ask for and says that an attorney will go through the matter at the consultation.
How does it handle a conflict check?
It asks for the names your intake rules list, such as the other side's, and puts them in the summary for your team to check before the consultation. It does not run the check itself.
Will a caller know it is AI before describing their matter?
It can: if you choose it, the receptionist says it is AI in its greeting, before a caller starts on the details of a case, and the plan writes that choice down. Either way, it never claims to be a person.
Can it quote our fees?
Only what your intake rules let it say, such as whether a first consultation carries a fee. What a matter will cost is for the attorney to set once the facts are known, and neither the receptionist nor the chat takes a payment.
Start with a written plan
Tell us about the business and what you need. We reply with questions, then a written plan that lists the work and its price, and nothing starts until you have read it.