AI agent
After-hours Receptionist
Answers calls and website chats when your office is closed, takes clear messages, books appointments and hands anything complex to a person.
AI Agents · Best for law firms
AI client intake agent for law firms
The Client Intake Agent, by Pylon Digital, is an AI client intake agent for law firms. It qualifies website and email enquiries, collects the details a lawyer needs, prepares a conflict-check prompt for a lawyer to decide and books first meetings. Nothing reaches a prospective client until someone at your firm approves it.
Last updated:
Is it right for you
Who it's for
The Client Intake Agent suits 10–100 person law firms that receive new-matter enquiries by web form and email, where a lawyer or assistant reads each one and chases the missing details by hand. The usual trigger is enquiries sitting unanswered overnight, or first calls spent on matters the firm does not take.
- Firms in enquiry-heavy practice areas such as family law, wills and estates, property and employment
- Practices where first calls go on matters outside the firm's areas, location or budget
- Firms that want the same conflict-check discipline on every enquiry
- Firms that also miss phone enquiries, which the After-hours Receptionist answers
How does the conflict-check prompt work?
The conflict-check prompt is a structured request to a lawyer, not a decision. The agent lists every name in the enquiry, including other parties and related companies, searches your records for possible matches where your system allows, and sends the lawyer the list and any matches. The lawyer clears the check, declines the matter or asks for more.
This keeps the duty where it sits. The Australian Solicitors’ Conduct Rules require a solicitor and a law practice to avoid conflicts between the duties owed to current and former clients (rule 10) and between two or more current clients (rule 11). An agent can make the check consistent and well recorded; it cannot own it. This is general information, not legal advice.
Where does the Client Intake Agent fit?
The Client Intake Agent covers first contact up to the first meeting. It is one of six AI agents for professional firms that Pylon Digital builds and runs on the same guardrails. Our guide to AI client intake for law firms explains the approach in more detail.
Capabilities
What it does
You get a working intake agent configured to your practice areas and intake rules, documented and handed over.
Enquiry triage
Each enquiry is sorted by practice area and urgency, and checked against the matter types, locations and criteria your firm sets.
Structured intake questions
Follow-up questions for each practice area collect names, other parties, key dates and contact details in a consistent format.
Conflict-check prompts
Every name is listed, searched against your records where your system allows, and sent to a lawyer to decide. The agent never clears a conflict.
Draft replies for approval
Acknowledgements, follow-up questions, declines and referrals are drafted in your firm's voice and wait for a person to approve them.
Meeting booking
Once the conflict check is cleared, the agent offers times from the lawyer's calendar, and a person approves the invitation.
Intake summary
A one-page summary for the lawyer, plus a new contact or prospective matter in your practice-management system where it allows.
Guardrails
What it will never do on its own
The agent reads, sorts and drafts. Decisions that carry professional responsibility stay with a lawyer, and nothing leaves the firm without a person's approval.
- Human approval before anything leaves the firm, including every reply, decline and meeting invitation
- A full audit log of every enquiry, prompt, draft, edit and approval
- Enquiry data stored in fully GDPR-compliant data centres
- Conflict checks are prompts only: the agent flags possible matches and a lawyer decides
- No legal advice: the agent never comments on merits, prospects or strategy
- No retainers: engagement and costs documents come from a lawyer, not the agent
Process
How it works
The path is short and fixed: a discovery call, a scoped build and a supervised start, then a monthly service that keeps the agent running.
- Step 0145 minutes, free
Discovery call
We look at how enquiries reach you today, which matters you take and who decides on conflicts.
- Step 02Agreed in writing
Intake rules and wording
We agree practice areas, qualifying questions, decline and referral wording, and the conflict-check workflow with your partners.
- Step 03Timeline in your proposal
Build and connect
We connect your website form, inbox, calendars and practice-management system, and test on sample enquiries.
- Step 04Timeline in your proposal
Supervised start
The agent handles live enquiries while your team approves every reply, and we tune questions and wording from their edits.
- Step 05Monthly, ongoing
Run
We host and monitor the agent under Managed AI and review the audit log with you.
Integrations
Systems we work with
The agent works in the systems your firm already uses, and records new contacts in your practice-management system where its integration options allow.
- Microsoft 365
- Outlook
- Actionstep
- LEAP
- Clio
- Website enquiry forms
Security & data residency
Where your data goes, and who can see it
Enquiries carry personal and sometimes sensitive information before your firm has agreed to act, so the agent treats them as confidential from the first message.
- Where enquiry data lives
- Enquiry records and the audit log are stored in fully GDPR-compliant data centres. Our security and data residency page explains how we protect them.
- Minimum details first
- Until a lawyer clears the conflict check, the agent asks only for names, other parties and the type of matter, not detailed instructions.
- Named access
- Only the lawyers and staff you nominate can see enquiries, approve replies or change the agent's settings.
- Model training
- Your proposal shows each AI provider's terms on model training, and we switch on the settings each provider offers to keep client data out of it.
- Privacy
- Your intake form carries your firm's own collection notice, and the handover documentation records what personal information it holds, where it is kept and who can see it.
Pricing
Pricing guidance
Pricing model: Setup + monthly
Setup fee plus a monthly fee, both quoted in writing after the free discovery call. Setup depends on the practice areas, intake channels and systems we connect. The monthly fee covers hosting, monitoring and wording changes under Managed AI.
Illustrative example
Example: family law and property enquiries at a 25-person firm
Talk through a similar buildIllustrative scenario: a 25-person firm receives family law and property enquiries by web form and email, and a legal assistant replies when she can, often the next day. With the Client Intake Agent, each enquiry is sorted as it arrives and an approved acknowledgement asks for the other party's name. A family lawyer receives both names as a conflict-check prompt, clears it, and approves a first-meeting invitation. Enquiries outside the firm's areas receive an approved referral reply.
Commitments
What you can hold us to
These are the working rules behind every engagement, from the first discovery call to the monthly Run service. Ask us on the call how each one works for the system you have in mind.
Scope and price in writing first
Every build is scoped and priced in writing before work starts, so there are no open-ended hours.
A person approves what agents send
Our AI agents draft; a person at your firm approves what they send. The After-hours Receptionist answers live only from wording your firm approves in advance.
Every agent action logged
Every action an agent takes is recorded in an audit log, so you can see exactly what it did.
GDPR-compliant data centres
Client data in the systems we build and run is stored in fully GDPR-compliant data centres.
Accessible, fast websites
Websites are designed and tested against WCAG 2.2 level AA and Google’s Core Web Vitals “good” thresholds.
Built and run under one roof
A build can move straight onto a monthly Run service with us, so it is not handed over and forgotten.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
Does the Client Intake Agent decide whether we have a conflict?
No. The agent collects the names of the prospective client and other parties, searches your records for possible matches where your system allows, and sends a lawyer a conflict-check prompt showing what it found. The lawyer decides. Under the Australian Solicitors' Conduct Rules, the solicitor and the law practice must avoid conflicts between the duties owed to clients, so the decision stays with you.
Will the agent give prospective clients legal advice?
No. It acknowledges enquiries, asks the questions your firm has approved, explains next steps and offers meetings. It does not comment on the merits of a matter, likely outcomes or strategy. If someone asks for advice, the agent drafts a reply explaining that a lawyer will discuss it at the first meeting, and a person at your firm approves that reply before it is sent.
What happens to enquiries we do not take?
The agent drafts a polite decline or referral using wording your partners have approved, and a person approves it before it is sent. You set the rules: practice areas, locations, matter types and any referral partners. Declined enquiries stay in the audit log, so you can see what the firm turned away and why, and adjust the criteria over time.
Which systems does the Client Intake Agent work with?
It reads enquiries from website forms and Microsoft 365 mailboxes, offers times from Outlook calendars, and records new contacts and prospective matters in Actionstep, LEAP or Clio where each system's integration options allow. We confirm exactly what is possible with your systems in the free 45-minute discovery call, before you commit to anything.
How much does the Client Intake Agent cost?
It is priced as a setup fee plus a monthly fee, both quoted in writing after the free discovery call. The setup fee depends on the number of practice areas, intake channels and systems we connect. The monthly fee covers hosting, monitoring, audit-log reviews and changes to questions and wording under our Managed AI service.
Secure by design. Set up correctly. Fully managed.
Talk to us before you commit to anything
Start with a free 45-minute discovery call. We look at your systems and priorities, then recommend a first step with a fixed scope, or tell you if we are not the right fit.
Keep exploring
Related services and reading
AI agent
Drafting Assistant
First drafts of letters, file notes and summaries, built from your precedents where Private AI is in place and reviewed by a qualified person before use.
Industry
Law firms
Private AI over your precedents, supervised agents for intake, email and first drafts, and weekly matter-level WIP and lock-up reporting for Australian law firms.
All agents
AI agents for professional firms
Six AI agents that chase documents, handle intake, answer after-hours calls and draft replies, with human approval before anything leaves your firm.