What is legal intake software?
Legal intake software captures prospective client information and routes it through a structured review, follow-up, and qualification process.
Intake Guide
Legal intake software should make first contact easier to capture, route, and follow up.
Legal intake software helps firms standardize inquiry capture, assign ownership, track follow-up, and move qualified opportunities toward engagement or matter workflows.
How does it relate to CRM?
Intake handles first-contact capture and routing. CRM adds relationship history, pipeline visibility, and business development reporting.
Best for
Firms that receive inquiries through multiple channels and need clearer response ownership.
Key features to evaluate
Custom forms, routing, owner assignment, source tracking, follow-up queues, status stages, reporting, and handoffs to matter work.
Intake speed and ownership shape client experience.
The firm needs to know who owns each inquiry, what happened last, and what should happen next.
- Inquiry source
- Practice area
- Priority
- Assigned owner
Intake should feed business development visibility.
Intake data can show source quality, response patterns, conversion movement, and where follow-up stalls.
- Referral sources
- Stage movement
- Follow-up outcomes
- Partner visibility
What to compare before choosing software.
| Area | Basic Form | Legal Intake Workflow |
|---|---|---|
| Capture | Contact details only | Matter type, urgency, source, and routing fields |
| Ownership | Manual forwarding | Assigned queue and owner |
| Follow-up | Email reminders | Tracked tasks and status |
| Reporting | Limited | Source, volume, stage, and conversion visibility |
FAQ
Common questions from law firms.
What information should intake collect?
Collect enough information to route and evaluate the inquiry without overburdening the prospective client.
Can intake workflows vary by practice area?
Yes. Different practice groups can use different fields, routing rules, and next steps.
When should intake connect to case management?
When an inquiry becomes active work, context should move cleanly into the matter workspace.
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Next Step
Turn the research into a firm-specific demo.
Use a live walkthrough to map your workflows, modules, users, custom apps, implementation scope, and rollout priorities.