AI phone assistant for law firms
A caller with a deadline will not leave a voicemail. Tel-Agent takes the matter and the date, and runs the conflict question first.
- Matter type
- Deadline
- Conflict check first
Why a law firm cannot let the phone go to voicemail
Somebody ringing a firm usually has a date attached to their problem - a deadline, a hearing, a letter that arrived this morning. They will not leave a message and wait. They will ring the next firm on the list, which is why an AI phone assistant for a law firm is a client acquisition question as much as an admin one.
How the AI receptionist handles a call to a law firm
It answers and asks what the matter is about, in general terms.
It asks who the other side is - the conflict question, before anything else can proceed.
It takes any date or deadline attached to the matter.
It confirms whether the caller is an existing client, and takes a callback number and a safe time.
The enquiry reaches a fee earner as a written note with the conflict answer already in it.
What the agent is told to ask
Written by you, in your own words, as the assistant’s instructions.
What a legal phone assistant must never do
What it does
- Answers outside office hours and during hearings
- Runs the conflict question before the matter is discussed
- Records the deadline that makes a call urgent
- Delivers a written enquiry rather than a voicemail
- Keeps privileged material on the firm's own machine
What it never does
- Give legal advice of any kind
- Say whether a claim is strong or a deadline is missed
- Accept instructions or confirm that the firm is acting
- Quote a fee that is not in the firm's own list
- Send anything a caller said to a third-party server
Conveyancing
Chain updates and completion dates, taken without breaking the file.
- Matter reference
- Which property
- Exchange date
Criminal defence
Is somebody in custody right now - and if so, reach a person.
- In custody now
- Which station
- Duty solicitor
Employment law
Take the date and the employer's name before the story starts.
- Employer name
- Date of dismissal
- Conflict check
Family law
Ask about safety first, and reach a person before anything else.
- Safety first
- Other party name
- Safe to call back
Questions
Why does it ask who the other side is?
Because a firm cannot take on a caller before it knows it is not already acting against them. The conflict question comes before the matter itself, and it is the reason this call cannot simply be taken as a message.
Can it give legal advice?
No, and it is instructed never to try. It takes the matter type, the date and a number, then hands over. A sentence that sounds like advice from a machine is a problem no booking is worth.
Is what a caller says privileged?
A caller naming their opponent, their employer or their diagnosis has said something sensitive into a phone. Self-hosting is what keeps that on one machine you control rather than on a vendor's as well.
Can it take instructions from a client?
No. It records that a call happened, what it was broadly about and any date attached to it. Accepting instructions creates a retainer, and that is a decision for a person with a practising certificate.
How does the conflict question work?
It asks who the other side is before the matter is discussed in any detail, and the answer goes on the note. The firm still runs its own conflict check - what this prevents is a caller telling a firm their case before anybody knows the firm cannot act.
Does it work for a firm with several departments?
The type of matter is asked so the enquiry reaches the right team. Employment, family and property enquiries have different urgency and different people, and routing on the first call saves an internal handover.
Does the EU AI Act allow an AI to answer a first enquiry?
Yes, under Article 50 of Regulation 2024/1689, which asks that the caller be told they are speaking to a machine - that line belongs in the greeting you configure. Nothing about this work falls under Annex III, the list of high-risk uses. The distinction the Act draws is between assisting and deciding, and this agent assists: it never gives legal advice or runs a conflict check. Austria's KI-Servicestelle at RTR publishes the same reading of the transparency duty.
Who is the data controller for what a caller to a law firm says on the phone?
You are. A first enquiry is material that is usually privileged from the first sentence of the call, and Tel-Agent is self-hosted with your own model keys, so the recording, the transcript and the record it writes stay on your server and never reach Dpro GmbH. There is no processor agreement to sign with us because we never receive the data, and the source is AGPL-3.0, so you can check that rather than take our word for it.
Can a law firm run this in the United States?
There is no single federal AI statute to comply with, but a phone line carries older rules. US state bar rules on confidentiality reach any vendor that can hear a client call, which is an argument for having no vendor at all. Consent to record is set state by state, and California and Illinois among others want every party to agree. Running the software yourself makes you the caller of record, so the disclosure and the recording switch are yours to set.
Not usable yet. The day it answers a real call will be a release, not a newsletter.
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