Automating Law Firm Intake in Salesforce: What to Actually Build

The trap

Most firms that set out to "automate intake" end up with an intake form that captures 40 fields, nobody fills out completely, and doesn't actually do anything on submission. You haven't automated intake — you've built a bigger spreadsheet.

The firms that succeed do three things differently:

1. They capture only what the firm actually uses — not what they might someday use.
2. They automate every downstream action — no manual follow-up email, no manual matter creation.
3. They build in the conflicts check — because if the form submits a matter before conflicts are cleared, you've built a compliance liability.

Here's what to actually build.

The data model

You need three standard objects and one custom object:

• Contact — the prospective client (individual).
• Account — the firm, company, or household the Contact belongs to.
• Lead — optional; some firms use this as the pre-intake holding tank.
• Matter (custom) — the engagement itself. This is the core object everything else rotates around.

Fields on Matter that I recommend as a starting point:

Field	Type	Why
Matter Name	Text	Human-readable identifier
Practice Area	Picklist	Drives routing and reporting
Matter Type	Picklist	Dependent on Practice Area
Primary Attorney	Lookup (User)	Ownership and permissions
Status	Picklist	Intake → Conflicts Clear → Engaged → Active → Closed
Opened Date	Date	Reporting
Closed Date	Date	Reporting
Referral Source	Lookup	Marketing attribution
Conflicts Status	Picklist	Not Run / Clear / Potential Conflict / Blocked
Estimated Value	Currency	Pipeline reporting
Engagement Letter Sent	Checkbox	Process checkpoint

That's it. Fifteen fields. Add more only when you have evidence the firm actually uses them.

The form

The intake form itself can live in Salesforce (Experience Cloud, Web-to-Lead, or a Flow screen) or in a third-party tool that pipes into Salesforce (Formstack, FormAssembly, a Webflow form + Zapier). All of them work. I usually recommend a Flow-based form because it keeps the automation close to the data.

Fields the form should capture:

• Contact name, email, phone
• Company or household name
• Matter type and a dropdown of practice areas
• A narrative description (one free-text field)
• Known parties (for conflicts — repeatable rows)
• Referral source

Keep it under 12 fields. More than that and completion rates drop off a cliff.

The automation chain

When the form submits, a single Flow should do all of the following in one transaction:

1. Create or update the Account — match on name or domain, create if not found.
2. Create or update the Contact — match on email, create if not found, link to the Account.
3. Create the Matter in Intake status.
4. Run the conflicts check — query every Account, Contact, and related-party record for matches against the submitted parties. Set Conflicts Status accordingly.
5. Route the Matter to the right attorney based on Practice Area and workload (a round-robin, or rules you define).
6. Notify the attorney — email + Chatter mention + calendar reminder.
7. Log the intake event — a Matter History record with timestamp and submitter, for audit purposes.

If Conflicts Status = Potential Conflict, the Flow branches: instead of routing, it notifies the intake partner for review, and the Matter stays in Intake until a human clears it.

What to automate after intake

Once Status = Engaged, a second Flow should:

• Create a matter folder (in Salesforce Files or via an integration to your document system).
• Fire the engagement-letter task to the assigned attorney.
• Schedule a 48-hour follow-up reminder if the letter hasn't been sent.
• Create a kickoff meeting task with a standard agenda.

On Status = Active, template the initial matter plan (phases, milestones, deliverables) and assign to the matter team.

On Status = Closed, fire a close-out workflow: final invoice check, client survey task, archive action.

What not to automate

• The conflicts decision itself. The system flags; a human decides. Always.
• The engagement-letter content. Salesforce can fire the task — your attorney writes the letter.
• Anything client-facing without review. Automated client emails from a CRM are a good way to send something you regret. Keep a human in the loop for any outbound client communication in the intake window.

What "done" looks like

A good intake automation isn't invisible — it's predictable. Every new matter goes through the same sequence. Every status transition fires the same actions. Every attorney knows what'll happen when they change a field. And the managing partner can pull a report of every matter opened in the last 30 days, with referral source, practice area, and current status, in under five seconds.

That's the bar. If your current intake isn't there, it can be — usually in a few weeks.

Want one built for your firm? Book a discovery call — we'll scope it concretely.