AI Receptionist for Law Firm Intake: Ethics and Setup

A law firm can use an AI receptionist for intake if it limits what the AI collects (contact details, matter type, parties for a conflict check, urgency), forbids anything resembling legal advice, discloses that the caller is speaking with an AI, protects recordings and transcripts as confidential, and has a lawyer supervising the setup. ABA Formal Opinion 512 (July 2024) makes clear that a lawyer's existing duties apply to generative AI tools; it doesn't prohibit them.

This guide covers practical setup. It isn't legal advice about your jurisdiction's rules; check your state bar's guidance.

The ethics framework

ABA Formal Opinion 512 addresses lawyers' use of generative AI and applies existing Model Rules, including:

• Competence: understand the tool's capabilities and limits well enough to use it responsibly
• Confidentiality: evaluate the risk that client information entered into the tool could be disclosed or accessed by others
• Communication: consider what clients should know about how AI is used
• Supervision: lawyers supervising nonlawyers and tools must make reasonable efforts to ensure conduct is consistent with professional obligations
• Fees: don't bill for time the AI saved as if it were spent

For intake specifically, the duties to prospective clients matter. Under Model Rule 1.18, information learned from a prospective client is generally confidential even if no representation follows, and receiving significantly harmful information can create conflicts that limit whom the firm can represent later.

What the AI should collect

Collect	Why
Caller's name and contact information	Follow-up
Type of matter (e.g., family, injury, estate, business)	Routing
Names of other parties involved	Conflict check
Key dates or deadlines (court date, statute concern, closing)	Urgency
How they heard about the firm	Marketing
Preferred consultation times	Scheduling

What the AI should not collect

• A detailed narrative of the facts
• Admissions, evidence or documents
• Financial account details or Social Security numbers
• Medical details beyond the type of matter

Instruct: "Don't ask for details of what happened. If the caller starts explaining, politely say an attorney will go over the details in the consultation, and collect only the information on the list."

This keeps intake useful while reducing the risk of receiving information that complicates conflicts or confidentiality before a lawyer has reviewed the matter.

No legal advice

Callers will ask "Do I have a case?", "Should I sign this?", "What should I say to the police?" The AI must not answer. Write it plainly:

"Never give legal advice or opinions about a caller's situation, chances, deadlines or options. Say an attorney will discuss that in the consultation."

Urgent legal situations

Define urgent triggers that go to a lawyer immediately:

• Someone has been arrested or detained
• A court date or filing deadline within days
• A protective order situation or safety concern (also: "If you're in danger, call 911")
• A closing or signing scheduled imminently

Transfer to the on-call attorney or mark urgent if nobody answers.

Disclosure and honesty

The greeting should say it's an AI assistant. It should also avoid any suggestion that speaking to the AI creates an attorney-client relationship. Example:

"Thank you for calling Reed & Alvarez. I'm an AI assistant. I can take some basic information and set up a consultation with one of our attorneys. Speaking with me doesn't create an attorney-client relationship. How can I help?"

Have a lawyer review the exact wording for your jurisdiction.

Recordings and transcripts

Recordings of prospective clients can contain sensitive information. Consider:

• Consent: Several states generally require all parties' consent to record, and California's Supreme Court held in Kearney v. Salomon Smith Barney (2006) that California's all-party rule can apply to calls recorded from another state into California.
• Access: limit who can listen to or read intake recordings and transcripts.
• Retention: decide how long intake records are kept and delete them on schedule.
• Providers: know which vendors process the audio and whether they use it to train models.

Many firms choose not to record intake calls at all and rely on structured notes.

Supervising the tool

Treat the AI like a new intake assistant:

• A lawyer approves the greeting, instructions and facts
• Someone reviews a sample of intake conversations weekly
• Mistakes are corrected in the instructions, not just noted
• Staff know where intake messages go and who runs conflict checks
• The firm documents its AI use policy

Example instructions

You are an AI assistant for Reed & Alvarez answering new-client calls.
Collect, one at a time: caller's name, phone, email, the type of legal
matter, names of other people or companies involved, any court dates or
deadlines, and how they heard about the firm. Then ask for preferred
consultation times and schedule a callback.
Never give legal advice, opinions or predictions. If the caller starts
describing details, say an attorney will cover that in the consultation.
Urgent (transfer to on-call attorney, or mark urgent): arrest or
detention, court date within 7 days, safety concerns (tell them to call
911 if in danger). If asked, say you are an AI assistant.

Existing clients

Existing clients calling about their matters should reach their lawyer or paralegal, not an intake script. Add: "If the caller is an existing client, take a message for their attorney or transfer." If your contacts include client records, the AI can recognize known numbers.

Outbound calls

Avoid AI outbound calls to prospective clients unless they've clearly agreed. Beyond TCPA consent requirements for artificial voices, state lawyer-advertising rules restrict solicitation. Keep AI to answering and scheduling.

Law firm intake checklist

• State bar AI guidance reviewed
• Limited intake fields defined
• No-advice rule and narrative-avoidance rule in instructions
• Greeting discloses AI and no attorney-client relationship
• Urgent triggers and on-call attorney set
• Recording decision made; consent notice if recording
• Access and retention for transcripts decided
• Weekly supervision routine

Law firm intake in Callata

Callata's Custom role lets you write intake instructions like the example above. Agents state only facts you've written, take messages and callback requests for your team, say they're an AI assistant when asked, and transfer to a chosen attorney, skipping anyone on Do Not Disturb. Call recording is a separate setting; when on, callers hear "This call may be recorded." Callata's privacy policy states that it doesn't use your communications content to train AI models, recordings are stored privately and shared through short-lived signed links, and each business's data is isolated.

Callata Office is $99 per month for up to five users, plus $20 for each additional user at the firm, with AI minutes at $0.25 per minute. Review your obligations with your own counsel before launch. Explore Callata for your firm.