Client intake: where most of the time is lost

Nine steps to an open file

A phone call, a few questions about the facts, an appointment: that is how taking on a matter feels. Look closely and there are considerably more steps. One list from the legal tech scene counts nine: answer the enquiry, collect initial details and deadlines, check for conflicts of interest, schedule an appointment, request documents, hold the initial consultation, gather further documents, have the power of attorney signed, open the file. According to that list, at least ten days pass on average between first contact and a fully completed file.

Anyone running a law firm with two or three lawyers knows what follows. Each of these steps triggers queries, and every query interrupts the actual work. The same list cites a figure from occupational psychology: after an interruption it takes around 23 minutes to regain concentration. Ten small interruptions a day thus add up to half a working day.

The time is lost in the gaps

Each individual step costs little. The power of attorney is printed in two minutes, the conflict check in the software hardly takes longer. What is expensive are the gaps in between: the email asking for documents that goes unanswered for three days, the return call that never reaches the prospective client, the appointment the client attends with only half the paperwork.

Then there are initial consultations that never turn into a matter. The list above names them as a problem in their own right: they take up lawyers' time without any instruction following. Often this was foreseeable after the first phone call, but nobody asked the right questions. If you only clarify the area of law, the opposing party, the deadlines and the amount in dispute during the consultation, you clarify them too late.

Conflict checks and the Money Laundering Act

Two steps cannot be shortened, they can only be done early. The first is the check for conflicts of interest. Since August 2022, professional conduct rules have stated expressly that a lawyer may not act if they have already advised the opposing party in the same case. The check must come before acceptance and must cover each lawyer's personal prior involvement, not just the firm's matters. One lawyer with prior involvement taints the entire partnership. If you only notice during the initial consultation that the opposing party is a former client, you have held the meeting for nothing and annoyed the prospective client.

The second step is identification under the Money Laundering Act (GwG). It does not apply to every matter, only to certain listed transactions, such as property purchases or company formations. There, the lawyer must verify the identity of the client, of the persons acting and of the beneficial owners, and assess the risk of the matter. The German Federal Bar (BRAK) published model forms for this in 2024. If you build them into the workflow, the documentation is done when the file is opened rather than weeks later from memory.

The forgotten notice of the right of withdrawal

One step is missing from many workflows altogether, and it can cost the entire fee. If a matter with a consumer is concluded solely by email, telephone or contact form, distance selling law applies. The client may withdraw from the contract within 14 days. Without the required notice, that period never starts to run.

The Regional Court of Flensburg decided such a case in 2025. A client had instructed a law firm by email, the firm had prepared an opinion and billed more than 21,000 euros. The client withdrew. The court held the withdrawal to be effective, and the firm received nothing, not even for the work already done. A notice of the right of withdrawal sent automatically with the confirmation of instruction costs nothing and therefore belongs firmly in the workflow.

A fixed workflow instead of ad hoc calls

The solution is less a piece of software than a plan. It makes sense to write the steps down once, in the order in which they actually happen in your own firm. That reveals which steps are lawyers' work and which are not. The initial consultation is for the lawyer. Collecting names, addresses, the opposing party and deadlines, the conflict check, scheduling and the request for documents are not.

For these steps an online form on the firm's website is often enough, gathering the details in structured form before anyone picks up the phone. As early as 2019, in a survey of a good 900 lawyers, mostly from small firms, just under 40 per cent expected such forms to break through strongly. Individual firms now report that they use a chatbot on their website to collect the details on which they base their decision to accept, and transfer the data straight into their practice management software. Whether form or chatbot, the benefit is the same: the details are available before a lawyer invests any time.

• Write down all the steps from first contact to open file.
• Define mandatory details that must be available before every appointment.
• Run the conflict check straight after the enquiry, not during the consultation.
• Send the notice of the right of withdrawal to consumers automatically.
• Prepare document checklists for each area of law and send them with the appointment confirmation.