What is a managed firm brain?

A managed firm brain is a supervised AI layer that connects a law firm's existing systems — case management, email, documents, billing, phones, and tasks — into one place that can answer questions and prepare work. FirmOps builds it, connects it, and manages it on an ongoing basis, so the firm gains AI capability without hiring or managing AI staff.

Does the AI ever contact clients on its own?

No. FirmOps operates behind approval gates. The firm brain drafts client updates, follow-ups, letters, and reminders, but nothing client-facing is sent, filed, or published until a human on staff reviews and approves it.

Which systems does FirmOps connect to?

FirmOps connects across the legal-tech stack a firm already owns, including case management platforms like Clio, email, document storage, billing and trust accounting, phone systems, and task managers. It reads across all of them so answers reflect the whole firm rather than one siloed tool.

How does FirmOps start with a new firm?

Engagements begin read-only. FirmOps connects with visibility-only access, proves it can answer real cross-system questions, and then turns one recurring bottleneck into an approval-gated workflow. New workflows are added only after earlier ones earn trust.

What results has the model produced?

Inside Conduit Law, the personal-injury firm where FirmOps was built, case launch fell from about 2.5 hours to roughly 10 minutes, a 47-step case-opening process was reduced to a single click, and more than 1,000 cases have been processed through the system.

Do we need a technical team to use FirmOps?

No. FirmOps is done-for-you and managed. There is no new app for staff to learn as the integration layer, and no in-house engineers required. FirmOps builds, runs, and maintains the firm brain while the firm keeps ownership and control.

Law firm intake automation

Legal intake automation built around accountability, not another form.

Legal intake automation should do four things every time: capture every lead, qualify it consistently, route the next step, and log the source of truth. The safe first build is usually a Managed Firm Brain — read-first visibility, prepared handoffs, and human approval before any sensitive send or record change.

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Operating map

What to automate first in law firm intake.

Most intake pages talk about forms, chatbots, and CRM features. The operator question is narrower: what must happen every time so a good lead does not disappear between systems?

Intake step	Automate	Keep human
Capture	Make every call, form, chat, referral, and after-hours inquiry land in one accountable queue.	Someone still owns exceptions, conflicts, urgent facts, and source-quality review.
Qualify	Collect consistent facts: matter type, date, location, injuries, prior counsel, deadlines, and contact permissions.	A human decides case fit, legal judgment, and whether the firm should engage.
Route	Assign the next task, reviewer, and deadline based on the firm’s actual intake rules.	Escalate edge cases instead of burying them in a status field no one checks.
Follow up	Prepare reminders, call-back prompts, document requests, and draft messages for review.	Client-facing sends and sensitive representations stay approval-gated.
Log	Write clean source, status, owner, and next-step context back to the right system of record after approval.	Do not let automation overwrite records when the source of truth is unclear.

Decision matrix

Start where the dropped balls are visible.

Is intake volume the visible bottleneck?

Start with Managed Firm Brain for capture, qualification, routing, and source-aware follow-up.

Is staff copying the same facts between systems?

Automate the handoff only after naming the system of record and reviewer.

Are leads waiting overnight or over the weekend?

Use read-first coverage that prepares next steps without pretending to replace intake judgment.

Are bad-fit leads consuming staff time?

Tighten qualification prompts and exception routing before adding more marketing spend.

Operator move

Use Managed Firm Brain as the intake control layer.

FirmOps does not treat intake automation as a standalone chatbot. The Managed Firm Brain reads the approved context, prepares a clean next step, and gives staff a review path before a client-facing message, retainer handoff, or system update goes out.

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Pilot checklist

Run intake automation as a supervised pilot.

1Name the intake source, owner, reviewer, and system of record before building anything
2Start with read-first summaries and draft next steps before write-heavy automation
3Define the human approval gate for client messages, retainers, matter creation, and status changes
4Track dropped-ball signals: no owner, no next task, stale follow-up, duplicate entry, and unclear source
5Review exceptions weekly before expanding into managed agents or deeper workflow automation

Not a fit

Do not automate intake to avoid making operating decisions.

Letting an AI tell a caller whether they have a case without attorney-reviewed boundaries
Sending client-facing messages or retainer communications without human approval
Automating around a broken intake policy no one has agreed to own
Buying another intake tool when the real gap is routing, accountability, or follow-up discipline

Common questions

Legal intake automation, answered.

What is legal intake automation?

Legal intake automation captures every call, form, chat, and referral in one accountable queue, collects consistent qualifying facts, routes the next task, and logs the source of truth — while a human keeps judgment over case fit and client-facing sends.

What should a law firm automate first in intake?

Start where the dropped balls are visible: capture and qualification. Make every lead land in one queue with consistent facts, then add routing and read-first follow-up before any write-heavy automation.

Can AI qualify leads without an attorney?

AI can collect consistent intake facts and flag missing information, but a human decides case fit and legal judgment. Never let automation tell a caller whether they have a case without attorney-reviewed boundaries.

How do you keep human control over intake automation?

Define an approval gate for client messages, retainers, matter creation, and status changes. The safe first build is a Managed Firm Brain that reads context, prepares next steps, and keeps a human in front of sensitive sends and record changes.

Next reading

Fit intake automation into the broader FirmOps cluster.

Bring one intake bottleneck. We will decide what is worth building.

The pilot path turns one intake problem into a working, supervised system before the firm expands into more managed agents.

Watch the demo See the pilot offer