Client intake: generally  (Page 36/3)

Potential new client intake

Initial contact

A potential new client ( PNC    ) will contact your office in one of three ways:

1. Directly – The most common form of direct contact is for the PNC to call your office.
   
2. Human Intermediary – Most people have no idea how to find an attorney so they ask friends whom they think might have some experience in hiring an attorney. If that third party is a friend or business contact of yours, the friend of business contact might contactyou on behalf of the PNC and ask you to contact the PNC.
   
3. Digital Intermediary – Other PNC contacts will come in through email, web site forms, social media and other impersonal means. Some attorneys encourage this by making it nearly impossible to find their phone numbers on their web sites while prominently displaying a “contact us” web form. Other times it is the PNC who would rather make indirect contact.
   

No matter how a PNC contacts your office, it is very important that you make direct telephone contact with the PNC on the same day as the PNC contacts your office. This is not always possible, and when it is not, you have to exercise considerable discipline in communicating with the PNC. A direct telephone call has a beginning and an end--it won't go on forever. It also allows people to hear each other’s voices and feel a human connection.

Electronic communication can be impersonal and therefore inhibit the formation of a trust relationship, can be saved and fed back to you at an inopportune moment, and might continue for days. A PNC who contacts your office by email may turn that initial contact into an email exchange seeking more and more specific legal information, probably so that he or she can continue representing him- or herself. Avoid email exchanges with PNCs.

Goals

When a PNC contacts your office, you and the PNC each have goals. The PNC may want to know a little about the law practice, the attorney he or she will meet, and the cost of handling his or her matter. You have two goals: First, obtain enough information to perform an initial screening and to support post intake research and, second, to book a meeting between the PNC and an attorney in your office.

Everything that you say in the initial PNC phone call should get you closer to booking a consultation in your office with an attorney.

Information gathering – all pnc calls

To facilitate a meaningful consultation, the attorney will need certain information. Some information is absolutely required and you cannot book an appointment without it. Additional information, though not required in helping you fulfill your ethical obligations, may be necessary in preparingfor the consultation meeting.

Required information

You must obtain certain information from each PNC during the initial telephone call. If you cannot gather all of this information, you may not book a consultation meeting with an attorney.