Law Firm Client Intake Template
Four sheets and six documents that run intake in the order the conduct rules assume: the names, then the conflict search, then the story.
Free download · No account needed
Two-Stage Intake · one firm’s existing intake form, re-sorted
Eight questions, and three of them belong on the first call
Every question below is on a real intake form in use somewhere. The problem is never how many you ask. It is how much you hear before the search comes back.
| Question on the form today | Stage | What hearing it early costs |
|---|---|---|
| Full legal name, and any name you trade under | One | Nothing. This is the string the search runs on |
| Everyone else involved, by full legal name | One | Nothing |
| Parents, subsidiaries, guarantors, insurers | One | Nothing, and leaving it off is why searches come back empty |
| Please describe what happened | Two | The facts of the matter, from someone the firm may end up opposite |
| What outcome are you hoping for | Two | Their commercial objective, which is the most useful thing the other side could have |
| What documents do you have | Two | Custody of material before anyone knows whether it can be received |
| Have you instructed anyone else on this | Two | Their alternatives, and how far along they are |
| What budget do you have in mind | Two | What they can sustain, which prices a strategy against them |
Why the line falls exactly there
The screening route out of a firm-wide disqualification opens only where the lawyer who heard the information took reasonable measures to avoid exposure to more disqualifying information than was reasonably necessary to decide whether to act. Rows four to eight are those measures, not taken.
The form does not get shorter. It gets cut in half, and the second half runs after the conflict search clears.
The intake templates competing for this query compete on completeness, and one of them advertises fifty-plus questions. The conduct rules run the other way. Washington's rule on duties to a prospective client opens one route out of a firm-wide disqualification, and it has a condition. The lawyer who heard the information must have taken reasonable measures to avoid exposure to more disqualifying information than was reasonably necessary to decide whether to act. The fifty-question first call is the fact pattern that closes it.
A lawyer must inquire into and assess the facts and circumstances of each representation to decide whether it can be accepted, and this pack makes that inquiry leave a trace. Every enquiry gets a Prospective Client Record whether the firm acts or not, categorising what was heard rather than quoting it. Each one carries a proposed view on whether any of it could be significantly harmful, with the reasoning in the next cell. Undecided is a permitted answer with a named lawyer against it.
The Conflict Search Log never records the word clear on its own. It carries the exact strings run, why those strings, which systems, whether the search reached the whole firm and the count, because a hit under a party's pre-2021 registered name is a real hit that no current-name search returns. Then the engagement letter goes out, since the scope and the basis or rate of the fee must be communicated before or within a reasonable time of starting.
What's in the pack
Two-Stage Intake
Which questions belong on the first call and which wait for the search, with the rule text that puts the line there.
Conflict Search Log
Strings run, why those strings, systems searched, whole firm or not, date, who ran it and the hit count.
Prospective Client Record
One row per consultation, taken or declined, with a reasoned view on whether anything heard could be significantly harmful.
Intake Register
Every enquiry with the stage it reached, the outcome, and the named lawyer who decided it. No blank Decided By closes.
Conflict Search Standard
Who gets searched, which name strings, which systems, and the legacy database from a merged practice that nobody migrated.
Advance Consent Note
Wording for the notice given before a caller speaks, so what they say does not stop the firm acting for someone else.
Engagement, Declination and Notice letters
Scope written in terms that can be checked, a declination that explains nothing, and the written notice a screen depends on.
Matter Opening Checklist
Every row with an owner, a date and an evidence reference, and the two rows that block substantive work marked as blocking.
How to use it
- 1
Open in River, or take it blank
Open the pack in River and hand it your client list and your current intake form, or download the Word documents and CSV sheets from the template library and run it yourself.
- 2
Cut your own form in half first
Sort the questions you already ask into stage one and stage two before changing anything else. Most firms find three or four belong on the first call.
- 3
Fix the list the search runs against
A conflict search is only worth what the index behind it is worth. Former clients, closed matters and enquiries that never became matters all belong in it.
- 4
Open a record for the calls you turn away
The enquiries a firm declines are the ones somebody asks about later, and that record only exists if it was made at the time. A privilege log entry works the same way.
Frequently asked questions
Is this template free?
Yes, and there is no account or card. The download is Word documents and CSV sheets in a zip. Edit with AI is the second half of it: the agent sorts your existing intake questions into the two stages, builds the name strings, and fills the registers. More packs in the template library.
What am I actually downloading?
Six Word documents and four CSV sheets, zipped. The sheets open in Excel, Numbers or Google Sheets straight off the download, and the letters and protocol documents open in Word or Pages. Nothing in the zip needs River to be useful.
Doesn't asking fewer questions just mean a second phone call?
It means one short call and one long one instead of one long one. That is a real cost and it buys back the screening route out of a firm-wide disqualification, which is only available where the lawyer took reasonable measures to avoid hearing more than was necessary.
What if the enquiry form already collected everything?
Then say so on the record and stop treating the form as neutral. A firm that invites a description of a potential matter without a clear warning attached is inviting a consultation. Everyone who fills that box in becomes a prospective client, including the party the firm is about to be adverse to.
Does it decide whether the firm can act?
No. It describes the hit, names the matter and the side the firm was on, and stops. Acceptance, declination and any view on whether something heard could be significantly harmful take a named lawyer and a date, and the Intake Register has a column for each.
Which jurisdiction's rules is this written to?
The rule text quoted throughout is Washington's, because it publishes the full current text of every rule as a free PDF. Adoption differs by state, and the imputation and screening provisions in particular are not uniform, so the documents tell you to check your own before relying on the wording.
How does this fit with the other legal packs?
This one covers whether the firm can act, and on what terms. Those terms get their number from the budget built from your closed matters. Once open, applying your recorded positions to an inbound contract and reading a data room against a deal structure pick it up. A hit the search returns gets sorted by which rule disqualifies it.
Run intake in the order the rules assume
Take the Word documents and CSV sheets blank, or open this exact pack in River and hand it your current intake form.
Edit with AI