Automated Client Intake for Chen & Associates
A 6-attorney immigration firm was spending 12 hours a week on intake calls that could have been handled before the phone rang.
The Situation
Chen & Associates is a six-attorney immigration law firm based in Houston. They handle family petitions, employment visas, naturalization cases, and deportation defense. Strong reputation, full caseload, long waitlist.
Their problem was a familiar one for service businesses that have outgrown their systems: intake.
Every new client inquiry started the same way — a phone call, usually lasting 30–45 minutes, handled by one of two paralegals. That call gathered the same information every time: visa type, country of origin, current status, case history, urgency. Essential information, but not skilled work. And it was consuming two people's time all day.
The Problem
The paralegals were drowning. Not in complex legal work — in repetitive data collection. And because intake bottlenecked through them, new clients waited up to 11 days for their first real consultation.
That wait cost Chen clients. By the time the firm called back, some prospects had gone elsewhere. Others arrived at consultations underprepared because their initial information hadn't been gathered properly.
The specific problems:
- 30–45 minute intake calls requiring dedicated staff
- 11-day average time from first inquiry to attorney consultation
- Inconsistent information gathering (different paralegals asked different questions)
- No triage — urgent deportation defense cases waited in the same queue as routine renewals
- Zero intake capability outside business hours
The Plan
We designed an AI-powered intake system that lives at two touchpoints: their website and their intake phone line.
Web Intake: A structured conversational flow that guides prospective clients through a case questionnaire. The AI understands immigration law well enough to ask the right follow-up questions based on answers ("You mentioned an expired visa — when did it expire, and have you remained in the US continuously since?").
Phone Intake: For clients who call the main number after hours, an AI voice agent handles the intake call. Same structured flow, voice interface. Transcripts are processed and routed before business hours begin.
Triage Engine: Cases are scored for urgency and complexity. Deportation defense and detention matters get flagged immediately and routed to a partner. Routine renewals land in the standard queue. The attorney walks in Monday morning knowing what they're walking into.
The Build
The intake system connects to Chen's case management software via API. When an intake completes, a new matter is created automatically with all collected information pre-populated.
We built a custom immigration knowledge layer — a structured document covering 40+ visa categories, common disqualifying factors, document requirements, and case complexity indicators. The AI uses this to ask precise questions without practicing law.
The voice intake required additional work: accent-aware transcription, handling for legal terminology, and graceful handling of emotional situations (clients in deportation proceedings are often distressed).
We built an explicit escalation path — if a caller expresses they are currently in detention or facing immediate removal, the system immediately routes to an emergency contact protocol.
The system was live in 18 days. Staff training took one afternoon.
The Results
In the first 30 days, 68% of new client cases arrived at the attorney's desk fully pre-qualified — information gathered, documents checklist sent, urgency scored.
Paralegal intake calls dropped by 80%. The two paralegals who previously handled intake full-time shifted to substantive casework. The firm didn't hire to grow capacity — they unlocked the capacity they already had.
Average time from inquiry to consultation dropped from 11 days to 4 days. For urgent matters, same-day consultation became possible for the first time.
Our paralegals are doing real legal work now instead of asking people the same twenty questions on repeat. The system doesn't miss anything — honestly, it asks better intake questions than we were. And we're taking on cases we would have had to turn away before because we didn't have the bandwidth.