Prepare a new-matter intake packet with a law-firm virtual assistant

A prospective client may send a long story, a stack of documents, and a deadline in the first message. A virtual assistant can turn that material into an orderly intake packet. The assistant cannot decide whether the firm should accept the matter, give legal advice, promise confidentiality beyond the firm's approved language, or imply that an attorney-client relationship exists. The packet should help a lawyer answer a bounded question: do we have enough verified information to run the firm's intake and conflict process? It needs the prospective client's contact details, all relevant names, the request in the person's own words, known dates, document inventory, source links, open questions, and the responsible lawyer. It should not contain an amateur legal theory presented as fact.

State the no-engagement boundary before collecting detail

Use the firm's approved intake notice at the start. It should explain the purpose of the form or call, what the firm has and has not agreed to do, how urgent deadlines are handled, and which channel the person should use for documents. The supervising lawyer approves that language. The assistant does not improvise when a prospective client asks whether the firm represents them. Separate receipt from acceptance in the intake system. "Submitted" means information arrived. "Conflict review pending" means the designated process has not finished. "Attorney review" means a lawyer is considering the request. Only an authorized person can change the state to accepted or declined under the firm's procedure. If a person reports an imminent deadline, capture the exact statement and route it immediately. Do not calculate a filing date, reassure the person that there is time, or say the firm will protect the deadline. A timestamped escalation is useful work. An unsupported answer can create serious confusion.

Capture names for conflict review

The conflict packet needs more than the prospective client's name. Ask for the people and organizations involved, known affiliates, opposing parties, key witnesses, former names, and the relationship each has to the request. Preserve spelling supplied by the person and record aliases separately. Do not combine two names because they look similar. Use stable intake and person identifiers. A common surname is not a match decision. The assistant may search the approved conflict system and prepare possible matches, but the lawyer or authorized conflicts professional decides what each result means. Restrict access to conflict notes and existing-client information. When the prospective client cannot or will not provide a name, mark the field incomplete and route the packet. Do not invent a placeholder that could be mistaken for a cleared party. Keep the original response beside the structured field so the reviewer can see the uncertainty.

Separate facts, questions, and conclusions

Organize the narrative by source. Record what the person says happened, what a document states, and what remains unknown. "Caller says the notice arrived Tuesday" is different from "notice served Tuesday." The second phrasing turns an account into a conclusion. Build a date list without labeling it a legal chronology. Include the stated date, event description, source, and confidence problem. If two documents conflict, preserve both entries and flag the discrepancy. The lawyer decides relevance and legal effect. The assistant can create a document inventory with file name, supplied description, source, received time, date shown, and access link. The assistant should not label a document privileged, dispositive, enforceable, or fraudulent. Those judgments belong to qualified reviewers.

Protect sensitive documents

Give the assistant access only to the intake queue and approved storage. Use individual accounts, multifactor authentication, role-based permissions, and activity logs when available. Do not collect documents through a personal mailbox or copy them into an unrestricted project board. Apply the firm's retention and deletion rules to declined or incomplete inquiries. The assistant can carry out an approved disposition after the responsible person authorizes it. Sensitive identity, health, financial, employment, family, and business records should not remain indefinitely because nobody closed the intake task. Unexpected archives, executable files, credential requests, or links to unknown storage belong in a security exception. The assistant records what arrived without opening unsafe content. The firm decides whether and how to retrieve it.

Work a representative intake example

Suppose a business owner reports that a former vendor sent a demand letter and says a response is due next week. The owner uploads the letter, two contracts, an invoice export, and an email chain. Several corporate names appear, and one contract uses an earlier company name. The assistant assigns an intake ID, records the owner's exact deadline statement, and routes the urgency notice to the intake lawyer. The packet lists every company and person with its source. It links each document, notes the earlier company name, and identifies the missing complete email headers. The assistant does not state that the demand is valid, that the deadline controls, or that the firm will respond. The conflicts reviewer examines possible matches. The lawyer then decides whether more information is needed and whether the firm can consider the matter. Every outbound message uses the approved status language until the firm's acceptance process is complete.

Hand off to the responsible lawyer

Order the packet for review: urgency and stated dates, conflict names, requested help, source narrative, document inventory, discrepancies, missing information, and contact preferences. Keep the prospective client's own words available. A polished summary should never erase a qualification that matters. The decision request should be specific. Ask whether to request named missing items, schedule a consultation, hold the packet, or send an approved decline message. Record who decided, when, and which version of the packet was reviewed. Pilot the workflow on synthetic or closed examples that include a conflict match, an urgent claimed deadline, incomplete names, unsafe attachments, and a matter outside the firm's scope. Lawyers should review every packet during the pilot. Track missing parties, unsupported conclusions, access exceptions, routing errors, and corrections by field. The American Bar Association Model Rules of Professional Conduct (https://www.americanbar.org/groups/professional_responsibility/resources/model_rules_of_professional_conduct/) provide general professional-conduct background. The applicable rules, law, firm policy, and duties depend on jurisdiction and circumstances; the firm's qualified lawyers must set the procedure. To scope administrative intake support, review legal assistance services (/services/legal-assistance) or request a role plan (/contact). Bring a redacted intake form, conflict-name requirements, approved notices, and the escalation list.