Step 1: Build Your Intake Pipeline
The pipeline is the visual backbone of your intake. Open the Opportunities tab and create a new pipeline called "Client Intake" with stages that match your actual intake process.
A typical personal injury or family law pipeline:
- New Lead — just came in through a form, ad, or referral
- Contact Attempted — intake coordinator has reached out
- Consultation Scheduled — booked on the calendar
- Consultation Completed — consult happened, decision pending
- Retainer Sent — engagement letter + fee agreement out
- Signed Client — retainer returned, case opened in practice management
- Lost / Not a Fit — declined, referred out, or unqualified
For transactional practices (estate planning, business formation), simplify to: New Lead → Qualified → Proposal Sent → Engaged → Complete.
Each lead becomes an opportunity card. Your intake team drags cards between stages as the lead progresses. The dollar value attached to each opportunity gives you a real-time view of pipeline revenue.
Step 2: Set Up the Intake Form
The intake form is the entry point. Don't over-engineer it — the bigger the form, the lower the conversion.
Minimum fields to capture:
- Full name
- Phone number (make it required — SMS is your fastest channel)
- Email
- Brief description of the legal matter
- How they heard about you (for attribution)
Optional fields that help qualification:
- Timeline (urgent / within 30 days / just researching)
- Location (for jurisdictional qualification)
- Opposing party name (for conflict pre-screening)
Place the form on a dedicated landing page, your website's contact section, and inside automated email signatures. Every form submission fires a workflow (next step).
Step 3: Build the Speed-to-Lead Workflow
This is the single highest-ROI automation in any law firm. The workflow triggers the moment a form is submitted.
Instant actions (0-60 seconds):
- Send SMS: "Hi [First Name], this is [Attorney Name] from [Firm]. I got your message about [matter type]. I can call you in the next 10 minutes or we can set up a consult — what works better?"
- Send email: "Thanks for reaching out — I've received your inquiry and will be in touch shortly. If it's urgent, reply to this email or text me directly at [number]."
- Notify intake coordinator via internal SMS: "New lead: [Name], [Phone], [Matter Type]. Respond within 5 minutes."
If no response in 15 minutes:
- Send follow-up SMS with calendar booking link
If no response in 2 hours:
- Trigger second email with case-specific content (e.g., "What to Do After a Car Accident" PDF)
If no response in 24 hours:
- Intake coordinator gets a task to make a personal call
The firms that win personal injury and criminal defense leads are not the firms with the biggest billboards. They're the firms that call back first.
Step 4: Wire Up the Consultation Calendar
Create a calendar inside GoHighLevel called "Consultation" with 30-minute slots during your actual consult availability.
Settings to configure:
- Buffer time (15 minutes between consults for notes)
- Minimum scheduling notice (4 hours so you're not ambushed)
- Maximum bookings per day (protect your time)
- Automatic reminders: SMS + email at 24 hours, SMS at 1 hour
- Post-consult automation: follow-up email with next steps 2 hours after the scheduled end time
The calendar link goes everywhere — email signatures, SMS follow-ups, website, Google Business Profile, social media bios. A lead who can self-book at 11 PM on Sunday is a lead you didn't have to chase on Monday.
Step 5: Build the Retainer Follow-Up Sequence
After a consult, most firms lose the deal in the gap between "great conversation" and "signed retainer." A structured follow-up sequence keeps the momentum.
Hour 2 after consult: Automated email with:
- Summary of what was discussed
- Link to the engagement letter / fee agreement
- Next steps and timeline
Day 2: SMS from the attorney (templated but personal-feeling): "Hi [Name], wanted to check in after our consult yesterday. Any questions on the engagement letter?"
Day 4: Email with case-relevant value content — a blog post, a guide, a past case result in a similar situation.
Day 7: Final check-in SMS. At this point, either the client signs or the opportunity moves to the "Lost" column with a "Nurture" tag so they get dropped into a long-term drip campaign.
Step 6: Set Up Post-Case Review Requests
Google reviews are the single most important local ranking factor for law firms. Most clients are happy to leave one — they just don't do it unprompted.
Build a workflow that triggers when an opportunity moves to the "Case Closed — Positive Outcome" stage (you'll tag this manually or sync it from practice management via Zapier/Make).
Immediate: SMS thank-you with a direct Google review link: "Thanks for trusting us with your case, [Name]. If you've got 30 seconds, would you mind leaving a quick Google review? It genuinely helps us help more people like you: [link]"
Day 3: Email with the same ask if no review was posted.
Day 7: Final email with a referral ask bundled in.
A law firm posting 2-4 Google reviews a week ranks higher, converts more, and needs less paid ad spend to hit the same case volume.
Step 7: Set Up Long-Term Nurture for Lost Leads and Past Clients
Legal needs recur. The DUI client from 2023 may need an estate plan in 2026. The divorce client refers a coworker. The slip-and-fall that "wasn't strong enough" calls back six months later with documentation.
Tag every lead and client with:
- Matter type (DUI, PI, divorce, estate, etc.)
- Status (active, past, lost — unqualified, lost — didn't convert)
- Referral source
Build a monthly nurture email for past clients: practice updates, recent case wins (with permission), relevant legal news, holiday messages. Light touch, infrequent, always valuable.
For lost leads, a quarterly check-in ("Still thinking about taking action on that [matter type] issue?") pulls back a surprising number of converts.
