Is This Process Costing You Clients? The Importance Of Intake For Law Firms
Let’s be honest—you can spend all the money in the world on marketing, build the most beautiful website, and dominate Google ads… but if your intake process is broken, you’re just pouring water into a leaky bucket.
I’ve worked with hundreds of law firms to know that intake is either your greatest growth driver or your most expensive bottleneck. It’s not sexy. It’s not glamorous. But it’s the frontline. It’s where clients are made or lost. It’s the moment someone decides if your firm is the one they trust with their life-changing case.
Why Intake Deserves More Respect
Too many law firms treat intake like a back-office function. They don’t invest in it, don’t train for it, and definitely don’t monitor it. But here’s the truth: Intake is sales (note that it took me years to accept this. Please don’t fight it.) And just like any high-performing sales team, your intake team needs structure, feedback, incentives, and accountability.
When someone calls your firm, they’re likely in crisis. They’re confused, overwhelmed, angry, or scared. And they have no idea who to trust. How your team responds in those first few minutes will define how they view your brand forever. That’s not an exaggeration. That’s reality.
First Impressions Matter—More Than You Think
Imagine you get in a serious car crash. You’re shaken up. Maybe you’re hurt. Maybe your spouse or child is hurt.
I understand that deeply. Unfortunately, I’m not only a personal injury attorney and Intake Expert, I’m also a victim. Please click here to learn more about my special boy, Ethan.
So what does one do? You Google a law firm (or happen to see a lawyer ad on tv), call the number, and the person who answers sounds half-asleep, distracted, or robotic. Are you going to trust them with your case?
Now flip it.
You call a firm, and someone picks up with warmth, clarity, and purpose. They listen. They validate what you’re going through. They ask the right questions and explain the process. That call is the beginning of a relationship. It’s the moment that potential claimant turns into a real client.
Intake Is Not Just a Script—It’s a System
You can’t just hand someone a script and expect them to succeed. Great intake is about timing, empathy, tone, follow-up, CRM usage, lead tracking, and constant training.
Ask yourself:
- Do you mystery shop your own firm?
- Do you record and review intake calls?
- Do you role-play objections and tough scenarios?
- Are you incentivizing performance?
- Do your intake specialists know your brand voice and values?
- Are you looking at the correct metrics in your CRM?
- Do you have smoke signals set up to alert you of a potential issue?
- Are you still outsourcing any inbound calls to a call center? (Please say “no” and go check out CaptureNow right now.)
If the answer is “no” to any of these, you have work to do. And that’s a good thing—because intake improvements create immediate ROI.
In one of our recent masterclasses, we walked through 20 specific intake scenarios and how the first 30 seconds of your call can change the outcome. Firms realized they weren’t losing leads because of cost or competition—they were losing them in the opening hello.
Intake Stats That Should Scare You (or Motivate You)
- The average law firm takes 3+ hours to respond to a web lead. That’s not slow—that’s a lost case.
- 78% of people hire the first attorney they speak with.
- 60% of law firms don’t follow up after the first call.
- The average conversion rate for a marketing law firm is as low as 78%.
- Only 10% of law firms have an escalation process available to their intake team.
This isn’t a marketing issue. It’s an operational one. And it’s costing you six or seven figures a year, depending on your practice size.
Your Intake Team Is Your Growth Team
You wouldn’t let a brand-new associate start trying cases without training, feedback, and supervision. So why do we let intake specialists handle every single lead with minimal oversight?
If you want to grow your firm, start with intake:
- Hire the right people (warmth + detail-oriented + hungry)
- Train them weekly
- Review calls and give feedback
- Use CRM data to track conversion rates
- Celebrate wins and identify where leads are falling off
Make intake a profit center, not a cost center.
Intake Is Also Retention
You want Google reviews? Better intake. You want more referrals? Better intake. You want less client drama down the line? Better intake.
When intake is strong, the client journey starts on solid ground. That initial trust carries through onboarding, treatment, negotiations, and—if needed—trial. Intake sets the tone.
What I Recommend
If you're reading this and thinking, "Yeah, we need to fix this," here’s where to start:
- Audit your current intake process
- Call your own firm as a secret shopper.
- Review CRM reports on contact rates, response times, and conversion.
- Implement call scoring
- Grade every call on empathy, accuracy, speed, tone, and follow-up.
- Set minimum standards and reward top performers.
- Incentivize your team
- Tie bonuses to KPIs like conversion rate and review volume.
- Train every week
- Role-play. Review real calls. Keep the team sharp.
- Track and measure everything
- Intake is data. Treat it like it.
Final Word
If you care about justice, you should care about intake. Because the people who need you most? They don’t know the law. They just know how your firm made them feel when they reached out for help.
And when you outsource your calls to an off-site call center without access to your CRM or brand voice, you're gambling with your reputation. That’s why tools like CaptureNow exist—to make sure those first conversations don’t feel outsourced, disjointed, or disconnected. Your intake process should feel like your firm from the first ring to the last follow-up.
Don’t let that moment go to waste.
Fix your intake. Fuel your growth. Change more lives.
Questions? Contact me anytime at Gary@intakeplaybook.com.

About the author:
Gary P. Falkowitz
Managing Partner | Founding Attorney
Falkowitz Law Firm, PLLC
Gary P. Falkowitz is the Managing Partner and Founding Attorney of the Falkowitz Law Firm PLLC‚ one of the premiere personal injury law firms in New York. Gary received his J.D., in 2005 from St. John’s University School of Law, where he was a member of the Senior Board of the Moot Court Honor Society. After law school, Gary served as an Assistant District Attorney with the Kings County District Attorney’s Office, where he sought justice on behalf of the Kings County community. Thereafter, he briefly represented hospitals and doctors from medical malpractice claims. During his tenure at one of the top medical malpractice firms in New York City, Gary realized that his services were needed by those individuals that did not have the resources to obtain the justice that they deserved. As a result, he decided to dedicate all of his efforts to representing those individuals who were seriously injured due to motor vehicle accidents‚ construction accidents, medical malpractice, product liability and, to put it simply, the negligent acts of others.