For law firms and barristers’ chambers
Answered as your firm, never as your lawyer.
Whether it’s a new enquiry, a message for a fee-earner or the documents a file is waiting for, the work can be done by a team of ours, set up for you, or planned with our advice.
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What we do
Before any advice is given, there is an enquiry to take, names to note and paperwork to chase. That part can be ours. As a team that does the work, as a set-up, or as advice.
Taken down, never weighed up
Who is calling, who else is involved and what it’s about are taken in full, to your questions. Whether there is a case, what it might cost and what to do next are for your own lawyers.
Which parts we take on is up to you
It could be new enquiries alone, whenever reception can’t pick up. It could be nothing on the phone at all, such as the documents a new file is waiting for. For chambers, it might only be fees outstanding with instructing solicitors.
Who gets in touch, and why.
Callers to a law firm need different things from whoever picks up. A few need a lawyer at once. Others need taking down properly, or passing to the right person.
Needs a lawyer now
At any hour, where your firm takes urgent work
- “My son’s been arrested. He’s at the police station.”
- A court office, asking for whoever has the hearing
- “He hasn’t brought the children back.”
- Something that has to be filed today
Needs taking down properly
Someone new, often ringing more than one firm
- “Do you deal with…?”
- “How much would it cost?”
- A house purchase, with an offer just accepted
- A will, a divorce, a dispute at work
- Replying to something you’ve advertised
Needs the right person
While a matter is under way
- “Any update on my case?”
- “Did my documents arrive?”
- Moving an appointment
- A message for a fee-earner
- An estate agent or a broker, asking for progress
What we’d take on.
A team of ours runs each of these to your written process, in your firm’s name. How an enquiry reaches you is yours to choose. It could be your case management system, your own intake form or a secure message.
- New enquiriesCalls, website forms and chat, where you have it, taken to your questions for each area of law. The names of everyone involved are noted first, for your conflict check.
- Calls when reception is busy or closedCallers answered in your firm’s name and passed to the right person. A request for an update is taken with the reference for the fee-earner, and nothing about the matter is confirmed.
- An urgent line out of hoursWhere you have someone on call, the kinds of call you’ve named as urgent are put through in the order you set. Everything else is taken down for the morning.
- What a new file is waiting forClients who haven’t finished what a new file needs are reminded and rung. That might be the identity check, the signed terms or the forms on your list. Your own people make the checks.
- Overdue invoicesInvoices owed by business clients followed up on a regular schedule, with anything disputed brought to you.
- For chambers, fees with instructing solicitorsFees outstanding with instructing solicitors followed up from the list your chambers gives us, with any query passed back.
New enquiry · Saturday, 10:15
Buying a first flat, offer accepted yesterday
- Buyers’ names, the address and the estate agent taken, for your conflict check
- The price, the lease and the mortgage taken, to your questions for a purchase
- The estate agent wants their solicitor’s details by Monday
To the caller
I’ve taken everything our property team needs to send you a quote. They also know the estate agent is waiting to hear by Monday.
With your property team as a new enquiry
Past the switchboard
And the things you hadn’t thought to ask for.
You may have come for someone to pick up when reception can’t. Here are other things we could run, set up or advise on.
- We set it up
First-call questions for each department
What to ask a new caller about a house purchase, a will or a dispute at work, written down so that reception and the team take an enquiry the same way.
Processes and knowledge base - We run it
A separate line for something you’re advertising
A number of its own, answered to your questions for that campaign and set up before it starts. The team never says whether someone qualifies.
Dedicated helplines - We set it up
Enquiries by area of law
Each enquiry recorded with what it was about and where the caller heard of you, so you can see what is coming in and from where.
Reporting - We run it
Forms and voicemails from the weekend
Enquiries that arrived while the office was closed rung back, taken to your questions and passed on like any other.
Reception and call answering - We set it up
Training material for your own reception
What your receptionists may say and what they pass on, as material your own people can train new starters from.
Training - We plan it with you
From first call to file opened
A look at how an enquiry travels through the firm today, where it waits, and what to change.
Consultancy
Where the team stops
Some questions the team answers. Others it only writes down.
A caller often asks both kinds in the same breath. These are four calls to a firm with several departments. What the team may say from your notes is yours to set beforehand. What it never does is advise.
The team answers
Written down for your lawyers
Employment · someone new
The team answers
“Do you take on dismissal cases?”
Yes, from your list of the work you take. Her name and her employer’s are taken.
Written down for your lawyers
“Do you think I’ve got a case?”
Not answered. What happened is written down as she tells it.
Property · a buyer
The team answers
“What ID do you need from me?”
Read out from your checklist for a purchase.
Written down for your lawyers
“Can you give me the bank details for the deposit?”
Never given or changed by the team. A message goes to whoever has the file.
Wills · someone new
The team answers
“How much is a will?”
Read from your published prices, where you publish them.
Written down for your lawyers
“Should we put the business in a trust?”
Not answered. Noted for the solicitor who takes the enquiry.
Family · a new client
The team answers
“Did you get the ID I sent on Monday?”
Checked against what her new file shows as done.
Written down for your lawyers
“Where has my case got to?”
Nothing is confirmed. The request is taken with the reference, for her solicitor.
Where the line falls on prices and appointments is yours to set. On advice, and on any matter, it doesn’t move.
The team behind it.
Callers are dealing with your firm. The team works to your questions and your rules, and passes your lawyers whatever is theirs.
Our employees, and our job to manage
Trained on your process and your departments before they take a call. Each team has a team lead whose job is coaching.
How we workOne location, agreed at the start
The Philippines, Portugal or Ireland. Which one depends on the hours you need covered and the work.
Where we workWhat callers tell the team
Handled on your instructions and nobody else’s. Each person has a named login with access only to what the work needs, and one client’s information is never visible to another client’s team.
Security and data protection
Questions, answered.
The things law firms are likely to ask first.
Will the team ever give legal advice?
No. It doesn’t advise, give a view on whether someone has a case, or say what a matter might cost beyond a price you publish. When a caller pushes, the team says it can’t advise and that the question will go to a lawyer. The wording it uses is agreed with you beforehand.
How does our conflict check work when you take the first call?
The team takes the names first. That means the caller, the other side and anyone else involved, before anything more is discussed. The names reach you with the enquiry, and your own people run the check. The team doesn’t run it, and doesn’t tell a caller whether you can act.
How does an urgent call reach our on-call solicitor at night?
You name the kinds of call that count as urgent, and who is on call for each. The team rings them in the order you set and puts the caller through. What happens if nobody picks up is agreed with you beforehand. Every other call is taken down for the morning.
What happens when a client rings for an update?
The request is taken with the matter reference and passed to the fee-earner. The team confirms nothing about a matter to a caller, who may not be the client. The same goes for an estate agent, a broker or anyone else asking for progress.
What stays with our fee-earners?
The legal work, and every decision around it. That includes advice, whether to take a client on, what to charge and anything said to the other side. The identity check on a new client is yours too. The team collects and chases the documents for it, so they are ready for your own people to make the check. Bank details are never given out or changed by the team.
Does the team need a login to our case management system?
No. If you’d sooner not give one, the work doesn’t depend on it. An enquiry can reach you through your own intake form or by secure message. Where you do give access, each person needs a login of their own, and what it shows them is yours to set.
Can the team chase fees for us?
Yes, where the invoice is owed by a business. For chambers, that means fees outstanding with instructing solicitors. An individual client’s unpaid bill isn’t something the team chases.
Who manages the team?
We do. Hiring, the rota, cover and performance are ours, and each team has a team lead whose job is coaching. Nobody at your firm hands out the work or checks it. You deal with one person who owns your service.How we work
What if the work I need help with isn’t listed here?
Tell us about it. This page covers the work law firms are most likely to need, not everything we do. If the work follows a process and happens on the phone, in an inbox or in your systems, there’s a good chance we can take it on. If it isn’t one for us, we’ll say so.Tell us about your business
More for professional services firms.
- Professional services and financeAccountancy practices, recruitment agencies, brokers and the others in this group.
- Reception and call answeringNew enquiries taken and calls answered in your firm’s name.
- Cover when you need itOut of hours, when reception is busy, or a line for one campaign.
- All industriesThe other kinds of business we work with.
Let's talk.
Tell us what's going on. If we're not the right fit, we'll point you to someone we trust.
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