Legal Intake Specialist: What Do They Do?
A legal intake specialist is an integral part of a law firm’s sales process. The primary function of a legal intake specialists varies from firm to firm, as does what they are called (legal intake coordinator, legal intake representative, etc.). Regardless of what they are called, their main responsibility should be as an intake representative. An intake representative is a person who guides a prospect through the first stages of retaining a lawyer. In the case of law firms (versus other types of firms that offer legal service), that first stage is a client consultation. In order to properly guide a prospect through this process, intake specialists must have basic knowledge of ethics and law. Legal intake specialists serve two functions for a law firm. The first function is more important from a marketing perspective. By properly handling the initial contact with your prospective clients , intake professionals can serve as the gatekeepers for your firm. This means that they they pre-qualify potential clients and schedule them with the most appropriate attorney in your practice group. For legal intake professionals the second function is even more important. They do the bulk of the task of breaking down the communication barriers between your firm and your prospective client. They are responsible for making your prospective client comfortable enough to talk about their legal problem. They do not have to be lawyers but they must have a good understanding of the legal process in order to be helpful to your potential clients. In order for them to guide your prospective clients they must be: The legal intake process includes many responsibilities. The majority of the work should be handled the marketing end. Marketing involves broad advertising promotions and campaigns. Internally, a communications program that sends you all the leads. The closing process includes the attorney initially meeting with the client and giving them a fairly comprehensive overview of the case. In most cases, the case industries can’t do every step of the process. Since you are a law firm you have to finalize the details of the case. In more detail, legal intake specialists are responsible for answering client inquiries (many times these inquiries come by phone or other channels and therefore a quick reply is necessary), gathering information about the client’s case, and generally managing a follow-up communication process.
Skills Needed for Legal Intake Specialists
Employees who have legal intake skills can handle calls and initial meetings with clients. These are excellent legal intake skills because it demonstrates that you can engage the client with your communication skills. It’s not just that though, a legal intake specialist is not just a gatekeeper. With a little training, they can help you with some research.
One of the things we find helpful is to have access to name and address of the client right in the phone book. It saves having to look it up on the computer.
Attention to detail is another aspect of being a legal intake specialist. You could get calls from people who have been forced into bankruptcy by a bank. Their home may be in foreclosure. They want a lawyer now!
If your intake specialist misses a number or letter in the name or gets the wrong email address, you have lost a potential client. Now the client will have to call back to get that number or letter and hope that he or she has gotten to you before someone else did.
We find having script frequently helps in these situations. The script contains the type of questions you would have asked and information you need to gather.
At Jones & Fuller, our legal intake skills depend on our ability to understand the problems our clients are in. An intake specialist needs to have some base understanding of legal terms related to their area of practice in order to gather the right information. Another resource that I like is an A-Z legal dictionary.
Listen to the client when you ask them why they are calling. Be sure to restate what they have said to you. This shows you are paying attention and gives you a better opportunity to understand their situation. Repeat the important things back to them. Once again, a legal intake skills is like being a foreign correspondent. You must be the mouth, or phone, of the lawyer.
A legal intake skills that entire staff should learn is to be able to sign up a new client for services. As the lead intake specialist, I am often the busy lawyer and the secretary is also busy doing something else. We know what the paperwork should look like and how to fill out the retainer agreement. This is something that falls between the chairs and we have trained others to know how to sign up a new client for with services.
They also need to be able to gather information about the case when the lawyer is not available. That makes our legal intake skills valuable to the law firm.
Daily Tasks of Legal Intake
The daily activities of a legal intake specialist can be varied, but the common link for all is that they serve as the first point of contact for prospective clients. Typically employed by law firms or in-house legal departments, intake specialists are trained to assess new client cases and either schedule consultations with attorneys or properly refer callers elsewhere.
Intake specialists handle day-to-day tasks through a variety of methods. First, they answer incoming calls or emails and initiate the process of onboarding clients. The specialist often follows a detailed script as a guide, asking questions in a specific order. They dig deeper into information that they have learned through the script, asking clarifying questions to determine the nature of a potential client’s legal matter, such as personal injury, bankruptcy or other civil litigation matters. The information collected is ultimately used by partners and associates for conflict checking and evaluation purposes.
Intake specialists also keep detailed records of all communications – including notes of calls, copies of correspondence, and a spreadsheet of scheduled appointments. These documents are later reviewed by lawyers and paralegals so they can plan for the intake strategy of the following day. After evaluating priority calls that have been scheduled for certain times and emergencies, the intake committee creates the schedule for the day. This meticulous approach to legal intake ensures that all of the priority matters are seen and referred to partners, while other matters are evaluated and covered by associates.
Intake specialists must also weigh in on why a prospect should not be seen after they have spoken to them. While legal intake training is helpful, experience is also important. When specialists have had a large number of consultations, they become adept at knowing which calls to push through to an attorney client meeting versus which ones should be handled by another firm, transferred to a different department, or otherwise abstracted from the firm or agency.
Training and Education for Legal Intake Specialists
While formal legal education is not required to become an intake specialist, applicants for such positions should have a minimum of a high school diploma or GED. Two-year degrees may be preferred, especially in positions that also require assistance with marketing and other non-customer service tasks. Prospective intake specialists typically have expertise in a variety of office software programs, including Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint), Adobe Acrobat , and Google Drive. Familiarity with telephone and email support systems is also considered a plus.
A background in customer service is somewhat common among intake specialists. Other relevant experience includes helping with case management and file/document management. Many intake specialists also have prior experience working as paralegals or in some other aspect of the legal field. Professional certifications are not usually required, although they can be helpful on resumes and applications.
Much of the preparation for becoming an intake specialist occurs on the job. Some firms and organizations may offer on-the-job training to new intake specialists, while others do not. Specific areas where on-the-job training can be particularly important include learning about membership-based law firms, bankruptcy service providers, marketing, and other aspects of small business development.
Job Outlook and Advancements
As demand for legal services continues to evolve, legal intake specialists have found career opportunities extending into an increasingly broad array of legal fields. The skills legal intake specialists gain to excel in the client-facing aspects of the intake process are transferable, whether that legal specialty is immigration, personal injury, bankruptcy, or criminal defense.
Legal intake positions can be threefold or multifold, depending on the size of the firm and the volume of calls. Smaller firms may direct all of their incoming calls from prospective clients to the same legal intake specialist, while larger firms may find a need to divide these responsibilities into multiple roles.
Solo practitioners may hire legal intake specialists directly, but they often use virtual or outsourced legal intake providers to increase staff scalability without the withdrawal of a salary from the practice.
Larger and mid-sized firms usually employ one or more full-time legal intake specialists to handle incoming calls, schedule appointments, and initiate the intake process. A single appointment setter may also assist prospects in filling out legal intake forms before or after their appointment with an attorney.
The primary career path of a legal intake specialist is upward, as firms look to their most experienced and skilled legal intake staff to take on supervisory or managerial roles. The role may also evolve into a full-time settlement writer role where the staff member is responsible for communicating with adjusters to negotiate settlements for injured clients.
Firms may prefer to hire legal intake specialists with some experience, although recent or upcoming graduates can just as easily be hired either directly or indirectly through a third party, like a staffing agency or virtual assistant company.
Established firms with robust intake departments may also offer legal intake specialists the opportunity to work on additional ancillary functions like lead generation, legal intake analytics, and marketing.
An alternative side-career path for legal intake specialists interested in sales or business development might be client or business development representative. This role includes developing relationships, building rapport with current firm clients, and reaching out to former clients who have not retained services in the last year.
Problems for Legal Intake Specialists
Despite the importance of their work, legal intake specialists can face a number of unique challenges in their roles. These challenges can impact their ability to deliver quality service to their firms and clients and increase the stress levels involved with their jobs. One of the most common challenges faced by legal intake specialists is the high volume of inquiries that they must handle on a daily basis. In some cases, particularly for larger law firms, these inquiries can number into the hundreds or thousands over the course of a single day. At larger law firms , legal intake specialists must reliably and consistently contact legal prospects to determine their case needs and whether or not the firm may be able to assist them. Legal intake specialists also deal with high-pressure situations on a daily basis. They are responsible for asking the right questions to efficiently and effectively determine the needs of a legal prospect. They must deliver this information to a supervising attorney so that they can quickly and accurately assist prospective clients. The speed with which legal intake specialists contact prospective clients and complete their questions is of paramount importance with regard to the legal intake process. At the same time, legal intake specialists must also listen to the concerns of prospective clients and demonstrate empathy for their situation. Legal cases involve family, income, reputation, and sometimes freedom. This makes many prospective legal clients emotional and irritable. Legal intake specialists must be able to walk the line between professionalism and empathy, oftentimes at a moment’s notice when they are interacting with potential clients.