# Law firm client-intake process workshop checklist

Updated 18 August 2026

Canonical reference: https://koltra.ai/answers/client-intake-process-flow-chart/

Use this worksheet to turn a generic intake flow chart into an operating
procedure for one law firm. It is educational material, not legal advice, and
not evidence of a live or announced Koltra legal product.

## 1. Define the intake boundary

- [ ] Name the enquiry types this process covers.
- [ ] Write the notice shown before sensitive or substantive information is collected.
- [ ] State that administrative intake does not establish representation.
- [ ] Name the decisions reserved for authorised firm professionals.
- [ ] Record the jurisdictions, practice areas, locations, and hours that shape routing.

## 2. Define every stage

Complete the five fields for each stage. A box without these fields describes
an intention, not an operating step.

| Stage | Required input | Current owner | System of record | Exception path | Observable exit state |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Respond |  |  |  |  |  |
| Screen |  |  |  |  |  |
| Collect conflicts information |  |  |  |  |  |
| Gather facts and documents |  |  |  |  |  |
| Schedule consultation |  |  |  |  |  |
| Attorney review |  |  |  |  |  |
| Decide and record |  |  |  |  |  |

## 3. Test the exception branches

- [ ] A possible conflict appears.
- [ ] Identity, consent, or required information is uncertain.
- [ ] The requested work is outside the firm's practice areas or jurisdiction.
- [ ] The enquiry includes an urgent or sensitive circumstance.
- [ ] A required document never arrives.
- [ ] A consultation cannot be scheduled under the normal rules.
- [ ] The prospective client stops responding.
- [ ] A system write fails or appears to have been submitted twice.
- [ ] The professional handoff enters a queue but nobody accepts it.

For every exception, record what stops, what remains known, who owns the next
decision, the response target, and the state written to the authoritative
system.

## 4. Approve the terminal states

- [ ] `consultation_booked`: the attorney, time, required information, confirmation, and calendar record agree.
- [ ] `more_information_required`: the missing items, request, deadline, and follow-up owner are recorded.
- [ ] `professional_review_accepted`: an authorised person or queue accepted the intake and owns the remaining judgment.
- [ ] `declined_referred`: the firm-owned disposition, permitted communication, referral if any, and delivery record are complete.
- [ ] `follow_up_owned`: the next attempt, date, and named owner are visible.
- [ ] `unresolved`: no authoritative outcome or accepted owner can be proved. Never report this as completion.

Administrative completion must remain distinct from conflict clearance, legal
assessment, client acceptance, representation, advice, and any other
professional decision.

## 5. Choose the first measures

- [ ] Time to first response.
- [ ] Required-field completeness before review.
- [ ] Screen-to-consultation conversion.
- [ ] Consultation show rate.
- [ ] Accepted-handoff rate.
- [ ] Terminal-state coverage.
- [ ] Drop-off stage and unresolved-enquiry count.
- [ ] Re-intake caused by missing or unusable information.

## 6. Run the acceptance test

- [ ] Replay at least one ordinary enquiry and three exception cases.
- [ ] Confirm the person's own words remain distinguishable from normalized fields.
- [ ] Confirm missing and uncertain information stays visible.
- [ ] Confirm no software or service clears conflicts, assesses merits, gives advice, or accepts representation.
- [ ] Confirm every system action records its permitted payload, result, and duplicate control.
- [ ] Confirm a professional handoff is complete only after an authorised person or queue accepts it.
- [ ] Confirm every test ends in one approved terminal state.

## Limits and reuse

This worksheet is a planning aid. It does not replace a firm's professional,
ethical, privacy, security, records, or jurisdiction-specific review.

CC BY 4.0. Reuse and adapt it with attribution to Koltra AI and a link to the
canonical reference above.