AI Receptionist for Law Firms

An AI receptionist for a law firm is software on the phone number that answers with the firm's words, sorts a new inquiry from an existing client, and then takes a structured message, offers a consult window the calendar actually has, or transfers to a person. It is not a lawyer. It does not predict an outcome, name a fee you did not publish, or invite a caller to narrate a confidential story into a recording the firm has not decided how to store. The managed version of this work is an AI receptionist for law firms. The general product explanation is what an AI receptionist does.

This page is not legal advice, and it is not a substitute for the rules of the jurisdiction where the firm practices. Advertising limits, confidentiality, and conflicts are the firm's to confirm with counsel who knows that jurisdiction. What follows is the operating shape of the phone: what the line may finish, what it must refuse, and how that lines up with the website and with ads.

What the call is allowed to finish

Write the finished tasks before you write the greeting. A law line usually has four, and they are narrower than a home-service line.

• Take a new-matter request for a practice area the firm still accepts: name, callback number, city, the type of matter from a list you wrote, and one sentence in the caller's words.
• Take a message for an existing client that does not discuss the substance of the matter: who is calling, the lawyer they asked for, and a callback window the desk will actually use.
• Transfer to a person when the caller asks for one, when the matter is on a list you marked urgent, or when the script does not recognize the request.
• Offer a consult only when the calendar exposes a real opening and the matter type is one you are willing to screen. If the calendar cannot do that, collect a preferred window and let a person confirm.

Everything else is a refusal or a transfer. A friendly sentence that says "we can help with that" is a promise. The line should say the firm will review the request. It should not say the firm will take the case.

The website has to match this menu. If the phone refuses a practice area the homepage still advertises, the caller will quote the homepage back to you. The design notes for a law firm site are the page version of the same rule: matters you accept, one page per real office, and a form that does not invite confidential facts.

Confidentiality is a collection problem

The ABA's Model Rule 1.6 says a lawyer shall not reveal information relating to the representation of a client unless the client gives informed consent, the disclosure is impliedly authorized to carry out the representation, or an exception applies. Model rules are not the law of any state until that state adopts them, and adopted versions differ. They are still the right starting point for a phone script, because the failure mode is the same everywhere: the line stored more than the firm meant to store, in a place the firm does not control.

A new caller is not yet a client. That does not make the recording harmless. Many jurisdictions treat some prospective-client conversations as confidential even when the firm declines the matter. The practical response is to collect less. Ask for the category. Do not ask for the chronology, the other party's name, account numbers, or a medical history "so the lawyer can prepare." A person can ask those questions after the firm has decided the conversation should happen, on a channel the firm chose.

Where the audio lives

Before the published number points at the software, the firm should be able to answer four questions in writing.

1. Who can play the recording or read the transcript, and how that access is removed when someone leaves.
2. How long audio and transcripts are kept, and how a deletion request is actually done.
3. Whether the vendor will use the calls to train a general model. If the answer is yes, or if the vendor will not say, that vendor is the wrong vendor for this use.
4. What happens when the firm turns the feature off. The number should return to a path a person controls. A cancelled subscription should not be the only copy of last month's intake.

None of that is a certification badge. It is the minimum a managing partner can explain to a client, or to a bar inquiry, without guessing.

Do not paste a medical script onto a law line

HIPAA and an AI receptionist is a different problem. HIPAA applies to covered entities and their business associates. A general practice, a family firm, or a litigation boutique is not a covered entity because it has a phone. Some firms do handle protected health information under a business associate agreement, or they practice in a way that a health-privacy statute actually reaches. Those firms should not borrow this article as their compliance plan. Everyone else should not borrow the dental script either. A dental line is built around appointments, swelling, and a chart. A law line is built around matters, conflicts, and a duty not to collect the case on a recording.

If a caller starts describing an injury, a diagnosis, or a child's situation, the line should stop the narrative and take a callback. It should not "be helpful" by asking clinical follow-ups. Helpful, on this phone, means a short record and a human.

Advertising rules apply to the greeting

The ABA's Model Rule 7.1 says a lawyer shall not make a false or misleading communication about the lawyer or the lawyer's services. A communication is misleading if it omits a fact necessary to make the statement not materially misleading, or if it creates an unjustified expectation. States adopt their own versions, and some add disclaimer and specialization rules that are stricter than the model.

The greeting is a communication about the firm's services. So is any sentence the line is allowed to say about fees, results, or "we handle these cases all the time." Read the script the way you would read a homepage. If you would not put the sentence on the site, do not put it in the voice. "We will fight for you" is a slogan. It does not belong in an automated greeting. "The firm reviews new inquiries for the practice areas listed on the website" is a sentence you can defend.

Fees, specializations, and other people's results

Do not let the line quote a fee unless that fee is a number the firm is willing to honor for that matter type, in writing, on the site. A "free consult" that is free only for some matters has to say which matters. A specialization or a certification has to be one the jurisdiction allows the firm to claim. Another client's outcome is not a script line. The phone does not have the judgment to know when a result story is misleading, and it should not try.

PPC for law firms runs into the same limit on a shorter clock. The ad, the landing page, and the phone have to describe one menu. If the ad says the firm takes a matter the phone is trained to refuse, you paid for the complaint.

Conflicts and the matters you will not take

A conflict check is a lawyer's job. The phone can still ask the questions that keep the firm from learning too much about the wrong matter. Typical questions, when you want them at all, are the caller's name, the other party's name, and whether the caller has already spoken with someone at the firm. Some firms would rather not collect the other party's name until a person is on the line. That is a reasonable choice. Write it down so the script does not improvise.

The refusal list matters as much as the acceptance list. A firm that does not take criminal cases, or does not take cases outside a county, or does not take a matter below a threshold, should hear that refusal in the firm's own words. "We do not handle that, and we cannot refer you" is cleaner than a rambling apology. If you do make referrals, the line should use only the names you approved, and it should not describe the other firm as "the best." You do not control that claim.

Urgent matters need their own rule. A caller who describes an immediate deadline, a service of process, or a safety issue should reach a person or the instruction you wrote for after hours. The line should not estimate whether the deadline is real. Lawyers disagree about deadlines. Software should not settle the disagreement out loud.

After hours is the point, and it is also the risk

The useful hours are the ones the desk cannot cover: the last hour of the day, the lunch overlap, and the evening when someone has finally sat down to deal with a letter. Voicemail versus an answering path is the category choice. Use that article when you are deciding whether software belongs on the line at all. Use this one when you already want software and you need it to behave like a firm.

After hours, the failure mode is confidence. A caller who reached a voice will believe the firm heard them. If nobody will read the transcript until Monday, the greeting has to say when a person will respond. "Someone will call you back shortly" is a lie at 9 p.m. on a Friday if the desk opens Monday. Say Monday. If a lawyer is truly on call for a narrow set of matters, transfer only those matters, to a number that is actually attended. Existing clients usually need a named lawyer, not a new-matter speech. Take the name, the lawyer, and the callback. Do not ask them to retell the case, and do not let the voice pretend it opened the file.

One office, one number, one map

Firms with two real offices need two sets of facts: address, hours, and the lawyers who sit there. A single phone script can still answer, as long as it asks which office the caller wants and does not invent a third. A neighborhood page that only swaps Boston for Philadelphia is not a second office. Those cities are different markets, and neither page on this site is a claim that CodeHunterz keeps a desk there. If the lawyers are in one suite, the phone should name that suite's hours. It should not offer coverage in a county where no one will meet.

What to test before the published number moves

Hear the line before clients do. A partner who does not want to listen to ten calls will still have to answer for the eleventh. Record a test sheet and keep it.

| Situation | What the line should do | | ----------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | New inquiry in a practice area you accept | Take name, number, city, matter type, one sentence. No advice. | | Matter you do not take | Refuse in the sentence you wrote. Offer only approved next steps. | | Caller asks for a specific lawyer | Take a message or transfer. Do not discuss the file. | | Caller asks "what are my chances" | Stop. Say a lawyer has to review it. Transfer or take a callback. | | Caller starts a long narrative | Interrupt politely. Collect the short record. | | Caller asks for a person | Transfer, or say when a person will be available if the office is closed. | | Fee question | Quote only a published number, or say a person will discuss fees. | | Caller is upset or mentions safety | Follow the urgent rule you wrote. Do not improvise. |

Call from a cell phone, not from the office wifi, and call after hours. Read the transcript the next morning and mark every sentence that gave advice, invented a time, or stored a fact you did not ask for. Fix the script. Repeat until a partner can sign the sheet.

Then point a test number at the software for a week while the published number still reaches a person. Compare the messages. If the software's messages are thinner and cleaner, you are ready to talk about the published number. If they are longer and stranger, you are not.

How this sits next to the website, ads, and price

The phone is the last step of a path that usually started on a map listing, an ad, or the site. Law firm SEO and the pages on the site should name the same matters the phone will accept. A page that ranks for a case type you stopped taking is an expensive way to train the line to apologize.

The price of the phone is separate from the price of the site and from ad spend. Public ranges are in the AI receptionist cost guide. Those ranges are market talk, not a quote. The CodeHunterz AI Receptionist plan starts at $600 per month after a 20% launch offer (regular starting price $750 per month), plus setup. Setup is the script, the number path, the refusal list, and the tests above. A firm with several offices, a conflict questionnaire, and a review by outside counsel is a larger setup than a single suite with one calendar. A website rebuild is a different line, covered in the website cost guide. Limited-time launch offer, final quote after free strategy call.

What a bad install looks like

A bad install is recognizable in a week. The greeting is longer than the firm's own lawyers can stand. The line asks for the story "so we can help." It quotes a result, a timeline, or a fee nobody published. Transcripts land in a mailbox nobody checks on Monday. The vendor cannot say whether calls are used to train a model. The firm has no written answer for who can listen. Any one of those is a reason to keep the published number on the desk.

A usable install is quieter. The greeting is short. The questions match the practice areas on the site. Refusals sound like the firm. Audio has an owner, a retention period, and an off switch. A person still decides whether the firm will take the matter. That is the whole product. It does not replace a lawyer, a conflict check, or the judgment about what to say next.