Firm operations

The enquiries that reach a firm when nobody is there

Someone looking for a solicitor at ten in the evening is usually looking because something happened that day. They will contact several firms, and the one that responds first is often the one instructed - which puts a real commercial interest directly alongside two professional constraints that cannot be traded away.

The line is advice, and it has to be refused rather than hedged

Explaining what a firm does, which areas it practises in, how fees are structured, what a first meeting involves and what documents to bring is information. Telling someone whether they have a claim, how strong it is, what a clause means for them or what they should do next is advice on a specific matter, and no automated system should produce it. The dangerous failure is not a blunt refusal - it is a system that softens into a general answer because refusing felt unhelpful, and a general answer about a specific matter is the thing being prohibited.

Conflict checks come before engagement, not after

An out-of-hours channel that gathers a prospective client's name and the other side's name has gathered exactly what a conflict check needs - and has also created a record about a matter the firm has not yet checked it can act on. Decide in advance how much detail the channel invites, who sees it first, and what happens to the record if the check fails. A channel designed without this is a channel that will one day hold notes on a matter adverse to an existing client.

Say clearly what the conversation is not

A prospective client who has typed four paragraphs about their problem at eleven at night may reasonably believe they have instructed someone. Whether that belief is reasonable is exactly the kind of question firms do not want litigated, so the cheapest protection is the plainest: state in the channel itself that no solicitor-client relationship is created, that nothing said there is advice, and when a human will respond. Written once, before anything is switched on.

What is genuinely worth automating

Everything that is published and nobody wants to repeat: practice areas, fee structures and what drives them, how the first meeting works, what to bring, timescales in general terms, languages the firm works in, how to reach the right department. None of it is advice, all of it is already written somewhere, and answering it at eleven at night is the difference between a prospective client who waits for you and one who contacts the next firm on the list.

Frequently asked questions

Can a chatbot give legal advice?
No, and a firm should require that it will not. The defensible scope is information about the firm: practice areas, fee structures, how an initial consultation works, what to bring, how to reach a department. Anything about the merits of a particular matter is advice, and the assistant's job at that point is to say so and route the enquiry to a person.
How do we test that it actually refuses?
Push it. Ask the same specific question three or four different ways, including one framed as hypothetical, and read what it does on the last attempt rather than the first. A system that refuses cleanly once and then produces "general information" that happens to answer the question has not refused. Ask any vendor, including us, for that transcript.
What about conflict checks?
Treat the channel as something that collects conflict-check material and plan accordingly: decide how much detail it invites, who reads it first, how quickly, and what happens to the record if the check fails. This is a workflow decision for the firm, not a software setting, and it is the one most often left until after launch.
Does an out-of-hours enquiry create a client relationship?
That is a question for your own jurisdiction and your regulator, not for us - and it is precisely why the channel should state plainly that no relationship is created, that nothing said there is advice, and when a person will reply. Put the wording in front of whoever handles the firm's professional obligations before launch.
What happens to what the prospective client wrote?
It should become a record with a name attached, waiting for the first fee-earner or clerk who opens the system - and you should know where it is stored, for how long, who can read it, and that it can be deleted on request and on account closure. Hosting in a jurisdiction your regulator expects is available on request.

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