AI phone receptionist for law offices

What the assistant does on a law-office line

The assistant answers the number on the letterhead. It speaks to the caller the way a receptionist would, then it does something with the result: books a first meeting, attaches a note to a file number, sends the SMS, or writes down what was said and puts it in front of a lawyer.

The caller decides the topic. Civil, family, criminal and employment work arrive on the same number. The assistant records the area the caller named, in the caller’s words, so the right lawyer sees the note. It does not compare remedies, estimate prospects, or tell anyone they probably have a case.

The line that matters is between taking a request and giving advice. Recording that someone was served this morning, that they have file 2024-118, that they want a first meeting about an employment dismissal — that is reception, however serious the subject. Telling them what the paper means, whether to sign, or whether a judge will grant the application is legal advice. The assistant does not do that.

So you tell it which calls it can finish and which it must not. A client who wants Thursday’s file appointment moved to Friday can be finished on the phone: the assistant asks for the file number, checks the diary, offers a time that is actually free, books the change and texts the confirmation. A caller who asks whether they should sign the paper in their hand cannot be finished on the phone, and the assistant says so.

Why nobody can pick up on a sitting morning

Greek courts sit in the morning. A Tuesday with three hearings is not twenty-eight calls spaced through the day. It is a cluster between half past nine and half past twelve, while both lawyers are on the court list or behind a closed door with a client who is already paying for that hour. The secretary may be at the courthouse with a file. The person who could have picked up is not at the desk.

A second secretary on the quiet afternoons does not fix the cluster. The third and fourth caller still hear a busy tone.

A new matter is a person who was given your name and three others. They are not leaving a message. They are dialling the next entry. The existing client with a file number will often wait. The person who has not yet instructed you will not.

A person who was just served, a relative at a police station, someone with a hearing this afternoon — they cannot wait until the lawyers come back from the list. The assistant must not invent the next steps either. It takes a name and a number and puts the call through.

August is quieter in court and quieter in the building. A tourist held at a station, a foreign buyer who was just served at a property, an expat whose spouse left with the children — those calls still come, and the principal is often away. The assistant answers then the same way it answers in March.

New matter or existing file

Set this first.

A new matter is a first meeting. The assistant collects the caller’s name, a number, the area they named (civil, family, criminal, employment, or whatever else you actually handle), a short description in their words, and whether anyone else at the firm has already spoken to them. It then offers a first-meeting time that is free in the diary, or takes a callback if the calendar cannot be reached. It tells them that first-meeting fees are determined at the meeting, and what to bring — identity, the papers they were given, any letter with a date on it.

On an existing file the assistant starts with the file number. No file number, no lookup. The assistant takes the number, reads it back, and then either moves an appointment, records a document that has arrived, or flags a request for the lawyer who owns the file. It does not narrate the case back to the caller. It does not confirm facts the caller did not just give.

If the caller cannot find the file number, the assistant takes enough to let a person match it — name, the other side if offered, approximate year — and promises a callback, not a diagnosis.

Same person, same file, two different jobs. “I’m an existing client, file 2024-118, I need to move Thursday” is a diary change. “I’m an existing client, what should I do about the letter?” is a request for advice. Only the first one is finished on the phone.

“Do you take family matters?” is a fact about the office. The assistant can answer it from the material you supplied. “Should I file for divorce?” is advice. The assistant books a first meeting or takes a callback. It does not choose a remedy.

First-meeting fees are determined at the meeting

Callers ask. They ask early. They ask as a condition of booking. An assistant that fills the silence with a round number has set a price the principal has not seen.

Give it a short line and put that line in the greeting, not only in a note you hope it will remember: fees for a first meeting are determined at the meeting; the assistant can book the time and send the SMS; a lawyer will explain the basis once they have heard the facts. If the caller will not book without a figure, that is a callback, not a negotiation on the line.

The same rule covers retainers, success estimates, and “roughly what would this cost if we went to court”. Those are not reception questions. They are the meeting.

A number said on the phone becomes the firm’s number, whether anyone meant it to or not. Reception already knows this. The assistant only knows it if you write the sentence down.

Detention, papers, a hearing today

Write a short list. A long list fires on everything and gets ignored.

Typical items in this trade: someone is at a police station or being held; papers were served today; there is a hearing today or tomorrow; a child has not been returned; a limitation date is being named in the next few days.

The escalation goes to a phone, not to an email that will be read after the last conference. And the assistant keeps collecting a name and a number while it connects, because a transfer that reaches voicemail still needs a way back.

What the list must not contain is a prompt to advise. “Tell them not to sign” is advice. “I am putting you through now” is reception.

A tourist or a foreign seafarer held at a station in Piraeus or Athens often calls in English, German, or another language the duty lawyer does not speak well. The assistant answers in the caller’s language — 70+ languages — takes the name and the number, and puts the call through. Speaking the language does not mean it may tell them what to say to the officer.

The other side uses the same number

The opposing party, a process server, and a journalist use the number on the letterhead. So does a relative who is not the client. The assistant must take a message without confirming that a file exists, without discussing it, and without putting two sides of the same matter into one conversation.

It asks for a file number. A name alone is not a file. If the caller cannot give the number and is not clearly the client, the assistant takes a message and a callback number. It does not say “yes, we act for them” or read back a status.

A conflict check is a lawyer’s job. The assistant can collect the caller’s name and the other side’s name, when offered, and put both on the note. It does not search the case-management system and announce a match.

It will not contact the other side. Outbound is your clients and your own diary — hearing reminders, a document chase, first-meeting confirmations. It is not a channel to opposing counsel.

When someone says time is running

A caller who names a date and says they were served, or that a deadline is next week, is asking you to calculate a limitation period. The assistant does not calculate dates. It flags the call as time-sensitive and either transfers or books the earliest first meeting the diary actually has.

It does not say “you still have a few weeks”. It does not say “you are probably too late”. Both sentences are advice given on a document the lawyer has not seen.

If the caller is already a client and has the file number, the note goes on that file and the lawyer who owns it sees it the same day. If they are not, it is a new-matter first meeting, booked as soon as the diary allows, and the papers in their hand go on what to bring.

Greek, English, and the rest of the week

In Athens or Thessaloniki the lawyers take Greek on most calls and English on the ones from a foreign buyer, a company served at a Greek address, an expat family matter, a seafarer at a station. German, Albanian and Russian turn up in the same week. The assistant speaks the caller’s language, so a new-matter caller stays on the line long enough to give a name and a number.

The material you give it stays in the language you wrote. Areas you take, sitting days, what to bring, the fee sentence, the urgent list — write those in the words you actually say on the phone. The assistant does not invent a translation of “we do not take criminal work this month”.

Parking, the buzzer, which floor — those belong at the end, after the file number or the first-meeting time is settled, and only if the caller asks or you left a short line for it.

How you put it on the line

1. Your number stays yours. You add a forwarding rule at the provider — everything, or only what has rung unanswered for the seconds you choose. If someone at the desk picks up, the call stays there. See pricing for how answered-by-you versus answered-by-the-assistant is treated.
2. Every line is answered at once. A burst of callers is a burst of conversations, not a queue of busy tones while a hearing runs on.
3. It knows the office, because you gave it your own material: which areas you take, whether you are accepting new matters this month, sitting days, where to park, what to bring to a first meeting.
4. It asks new matter or existing file first, and it asks for a file number before it looks anything up. A name alone is not a file.
5. It checks the diary before it offers a time, and books into the same calendar the lawyers work from. It never offers a time that collides with a hearing.
6. It confirms by SMS, and reminds before the first meeting — which is the cheapest way to stop a no-show from wasting a reserved hour.
7. Urgent is a transfer. Detention, service this morning, hearing today: tagged and sent to a real phone, not filed in an evening digest.
8. You get the transcript, the summary, and the details — pushed into whatever the office already uses.

What it will not do

It will not give legal advice. Not a little, not “just this once”, not because the caller is upset. It takes the request. A human decides.

It will not quote a first-meeting fee. Those are determined at the meeting.

It will not say whether you have a case, how long it will take, or what a judge will do. Those sentences are advice. They stay off the line.

It will not discuss a file with someone who cannot give the file number and is not the client. The other side gets a message taken. They do not get a status.

It will not advise on a limitation period. If a caller says time is running, the assistant flags the call and transfers or books the earliest first meeting the diary actually has. It does not calculate dates.

It will not contact the other side. Outbound is your clients and your diary.

What is left is still most of the work: first-meeting booking, file-appointment changes, “are you taking employment / family / civil / criminal matters”, parking, sitting days, “what do I bring”, and the capture of everything a lawyer should see before they pick up a pen.

What these calls sound like

On a call like the one above, the assistant will not say whether the caller has to go to court. It will not quote a first-meeting fee. If it tells a person holding freshly served papers that they probably have a few weeks, the firm owns that sentence — and the lawyer has not seen the document.

Turn on SMS reminders first. A first meeting that does not attend is an hour a lawyer cannot sell twice, and a text is the cheapest way to find that out the day before.

Then listen to the first fifty transcripts. You are listening for the moment it almost gave advice, almost quoted a fee, or almost confirmed a file to someone who did not have the number. Those failures show up in the first week if you read the record.

What you configure first

1. Areas you actually take, in the words callers use — civil, family, criminal, employment, and the ones you turn away. A turned-away area becomes a polite close and, if you want, a referral name. It does not become a first meeting you will later cancel.
2. The file-number question, as a required step on any call that claims to be an existing client.
3. The fee sentence, verbatim: determined at the meeting.
4. The urgent-transfer list, short, to a phone.
5. Which times are first meetings and which are already reserved for hearings, filings and conferences that must not be offered out.
6. What to bring, so the lawyer starts the first meeting with papers on the table rather than with a second appointment.
7. The names that must not be confirmed. It only treats a file as real when the caller can give the number.

Write those down the way you would brief a new receptionist on their first sitting Monday. The assistant keeps the order when both lawyers are on the list and nobody is at the desk.