Law firm intake metrics
Which intake numbers should a law firm track?
The seven numbers between a new lead and a signed case, how to measure each in a CRM, and where each one usually leaks.
By Charlotte Thompson, Co-Founder, Ad Hoc Digital
Last updated
The short answer
If you read one part of this page, read this.
Track the chain from lead to signed case: speed to lead, answer rate, contact rate, consult booked rate, consult show rate, signed rate, and cost per signed case. Each one points at a different leak, so together they tell you where cases are being lost.
Most firms we onboard can tell us how many leads came in last month. Far fewer can tell us how many of those leads a person actually spoke to, or how many consultations happened. That gap is where the money goes.
Below: each number defined, how to set them up in a CRM, why answer rate matters on Local Services Ads, and what the ABA says to collect at intake. We work with law firms across the US and Canada, and also in Australia and the UK.
The seven numbers
From first ring to signed case, in seven steps.
Every lead passes through the same stages, whatever the practice: someone reaches out, the firm responds, a conversation happens, a consultation is booked, it happens, and the person signs or doesn't. Measure each stage, and the weak one shows itself.
| Metric | What it means | How to calculate | Where it usually leaks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Speed to lead | Time from a lead arriving to a person at the firm reaching out (a call, not only the automatic text) | Median minutes from the lead's timestamp to the first human call or message | Nights, weekends, court days, and web forms sitting in a shared inbox |
| Answer rate | Share of inbound calls a person picks up live | Calls answered live ÷ all inbound calls | Lunch, court, calls routed to one lawyer's cell, voicemail used as the plan |
| Contact rate | Share of all leads (calls, forms, messages) someone actually spoke with | Leads with a real two-way conversation ÷ all leads | Follow-up that stops after one try, or only calls and never texts |
| Consult booked rate | Share of contacted leads who book a consultation | Consultations booked ÷ leads contacted | Long screening before anyone offers a time, or no next step on the first call |
| Consult show rate | Share of booked consultations that actually happen | Consultations held ÷ consultations booked | Consults booked days out, no reminders, no easy way to reschedule |
| Signed rate | Share of held consultations that become clients | Signed cases ÷ consultations held | No follow-up after the consult, unclear next steps, engagement letters that sit unsigned |
| Cost per signed case | What the marketing cost for each new client | Marketing spend for the period ÷ signed cases from that spend | Budget that keeps flowing to sources that bring leads but not cases |
The order matters. A firm with a weak answer rate can't fix its signed rate first, because the people it would sign never got through. We fix leaks from the start of the chain forward, which is how our intake and follow-up systems are built.
Speed to lead and answer rate
Why the first few minutes carry so much weight.
Someone who contacts a lawyer is usually working down a short list. Whoever reaches them first, and sounds like they can help, often gets the case.
On onboarding and check-in calls with firms, I hear the same story in different forms. The lawyer is in court until two, the paralegal is on another call, and a form that came in at 9:40 gets a reply after lunch. By then the person has spoken to someone else.
That lead often gets written off as "bad". It wasn't measured as slow, so nobody can tell the difference. Speed to lead and answer rate are the two numbers that settle the argument.
- Calls need a person, not a voicemail box
People calling a lawyer rarely leave a message and wait. If your answer rate drops whenever one person is busy, you need cover: a second line in the office, or an answering service briefed to book consultations and never screen anyone out.
- Forms and messages need an instant reply, then a human
A text that confirms the message and says someone will call shortly holds the lead for a few minutes. It doesn't replace the call. Facebook and Instagram lead forms are the clearest case: the person filled in a form while scrolling, and their attention moves on fast.
We wrote about this in Timing is everything. What has changed since is how easy it is to measure: a CRM can timestamp every lead and every first contact for you.
Local Services Ads
On Local Services Ads, a missed call costs you twice.
Google uses responsiveness when it decides how your ad ranks, and it can still charge you for a call nobody answered.
- Ranking: Google's Local Services Ads Help lists your responsiveness to customer inquiries as part of how likely your ad is to result in a lead, and says "Missed calls may negatively affect your responsiveness."
- Profile quality: the same page lists your rating, number of reviews and average response time, and says higher quality profiles may rank higher and may pay lower costs per lead.
- Charges: a missed call counts as a valid lead when it comes in during your business hours and the caller stays on the line for more than 20 seconds. A call that goes to voicemail or an automated greeting during business hours is charged on the same 20-second basis.
- Hours: "business hours" are the hours in your Google Business Profile. If you also run an ad schedule, unanswered calls are only charged when they fall inside both.
Put together: a firm that lets calls ring out pays for those leads, and the missed calls may also push its ads down, which can mean fewer, more expensive leads next month. That is why answer rate is the first number we check on any Local Services Ads account.
Setting it up
How to measure intake in a CRM, in four habits.
You don't need a new software project. You need four habits in whatever CRM you already use, kept every day.
Put a lead source on every lead
Every call, form, message and referral gets a source the moment it lands: Local Services Ads, Google search ads, Facebook, website, referral, and so on. Tracking numbers and form fields can fill this in for you. A lead with no source can't tell you where your next case should come from.
Use one status per stage
New, contacted, consult booked, consult held, signed, not a fit, lost. Each lead sits in exactly one at a time. Avoid a catch-all like "in progress", because that is where leaks hide.
Mark outcomes the same day
When a consultation happens, move it. When someone signs, mark them signed that day, above everything else. Outcomes entered from memory on Friday are guesses, and a missing "signed" makes a good channel look like a bad one.
Review weekly, judge in four-week blocks
Look at the numbers every week so problems surface early, such as a slow week of replies or a run of no-shows. Make decisions on four-week blocks, because a single week of leads is too small to tell a real change from noise.
With those four habits, every number in the table above falls out of the CRM. Cost per signed case then sits next to your ad spend by source, which is the comparison our guide on what law firm marketing costs is built around.
Conflicts and what to collect
Collect enough to check conflicts and fit, then stop.
Speed doesn't mean taking the whole story on the first call. The ABA's guidance points the other way: limit what you collect until you've decided whether to take the matter.
- Model Rule 1.18, Comment [4]
To avoid acquiring disqualifying information, a lawyer considering a new matter "should limit the initial consultation to only such information as reasonably appears necessary" to decide whether to take it on.
- Formal Opinion 492 (June 2020)
A lawyer is barred from a later matter against a prospective client only if the lawyer received information that could be "significantly harmful" to that person. Lawyers should warn prospective clients against disclosing detailed information; screening or informed consent can still let the firm take the new matter.
- Formal Opinion 510 (March 2024)
To stop one lawyer's conflict spreading to the whole firm, the lawyer must have taken "reasonable measures": limit the information requested, and caution the person at the start not to volunteer more than is asked. Lawyers who "seek and obtain information without limitations" fall short. The opinion notes that failing this is not misconduct, but the conflict is then imputed to the firm.
- Formal Opinion 10-457 (August 2010)
Websites that invite inquiries may create a prospective client relationship under Rule 1.18, so lawyers must carefully manage inquiries invited through the website. Comment [2] to Rule 1.18 adds that inviting information without clear warnings that limit the lawyer's obligations is likely to count as a consultation.
For intake, that means a short first step. Collect the person's name and contact details, the names of the other parties (and their lawyers, if known) for the conflict check, the type of matter and where it is, how they found you, and a good time to talk. Opinion 510 says a conflict check ordinarily needs the identity of other relevant parties, witnesses and counsel.
On web forms, add a plain line asking people not to share case details yet, and drop the open "tell us everything" box. A short form is also a faster form, so compliance and conversion point the same way. This is a plain summary for marketing planning, not legal advice. Your own state's rules control, and Canadian and UK firms should check their regulator's conflict rules.
A worked example
A hypothetical firm with 100 leads a month.
This is an illustration with round numbers, not a result from any client and not a benchmark. It shows how the chain works, and why fixing a leak often beats buying more leads.
| Stage | Leads left | Rate at this step |
|---|---|---|
| Leads in | 100 | $100 per lead |
| Contacted | 70 | 70 of 100 reached |
| Consult booked | 35 | 35 of 70 booked |
| Consult held | 25 | 25 of 35 showed |
| Signed | 10 | 10 of 25 signed |
- Option one: buy more leads
Raise spend to $12,000 for 120 leads. If every rate stays the same, that's 12 signed cases at $1,000 each. Two more clients, for $2,000 more.
- Option two: fix the contact rate
Keep spend at $10,000, but add an instant text back and follow-up that keeps going, so 85 of 100 leads are reached instead of 70. With the same rates after that, about 42 book, 30 show and 12 sign. Same two extra clients, no extra spend, and cost per signed case falls to about $830.
- Where the 30 lost leads went
In this example, 30 people never spoke to the firm at all. Some were wrong numbers or spam. Without a contact rate, all 30 get called "bad leads", and the firm never learns how many were simply reached too late.
What it looks like
When intake holds, the marketing pays off.
The same ads produce very different results depending on what happens after the lead arrives. These are real client results, as they happened.
- A DUI defense solo, a little over a year into practice, brought in 9 new clients in a single month, $45,000 in revenue, at over 60% lead-to-retained conversion. See our DUI defense marketing page for how those clients choose.
- An employment and personal injury firm went from one or two calls a month to 10 qualified calls in one day, 5 signed within 24 hours. Signing that fast depends on someone answering and booking on the spot.
- For an intellectual property lawyer, tightened targeting and a better intake changed who showed up. He started saying yes to the cases he wanted and no to the rest.
- A criminal defense firm hit record months inside three weeks of going live. The lawyer is strong at closing, and once enough good leads reached him, his signed rate compounded the lift.
Common mistakes
Where firms go wrong.
The same handful of mistakes show up in most intake numbers we're handed at onboarding.
Counting leads instead of signed cases
Lead volume is simple to report and says little on its own. A channel with fewer leads and a higher signed rate can be the better buy. Judge every source on cost per signed case.
Calling a lead bad before anyone reached it
If the lead was answered after four hours, or called once and dropped, it wasn't tested. Check speed to lead and contact rate before you blame the channel.
Stages nobody updates
A pipeline where half the leads sit in "new" for weeks produces rates that mean nothing. Fewer stages, kept current every day, beat a detailed pipeline nobody touches.
Taking the whole story on the first call
Long first conversations slow booking down, and under ABA Formal Opinion 510 they can turn one lawyer's conflict into the whole firm's. Collect what you need for conflicts and fit, then book the consultation.
Real results
What this looked like for real firms.
Four firms where intake made the difference: a DUI solo converting over 60% of leads, five cases signed within 24 hours, an IP practice that changed who showed up, and a closer whose signed rate compounded the lift.
Identifying details are anonymized to protect our clients. Individual result, not a promise or prediction of any specific outcome for your firm.
FAQ
Questions lawyers ask us.
Straight answers to the questions that come up most.
What is speed to lead?
Speed to lead is the time between a lead arriving (a call, form or message) and a person at your firm reaching out. Measure it in minutes, from the CRM's timestamps, and use the median so one slow weekend doesn't distort it. The automatic text back doesn't count, because it only holds the lead until someone calls.
What's a good answer rate?
We don't publish a target number, because it depends on your call volume and coverage. The useful questions are when you miss calls (lunch, court, after 5pm) and whether those hours are inside your Business Profile hours. On Local Services Ads, Google says missed calls may hurt your responsiveness and charges unanswered calls during business hours, so every missed call in those hours has a cost.
What's a good conversion rate for a law firm?
It varies too much by practice, market and lead source for one number to mean much, so compare your own four-week blocks against each other. One of our DUI defense clients converted over 60% of leads to retained clients, but that is one firm's result, not a benchmark.
Which CRM should a law firm use for this?
Any CRM that records a source on every lead, timestamps first contact, and lets you move leads through stages will work. Many firms keep a CRM for intake and sync signed clients into their practice management software, such as Clio or MyCase. The habits matter more than the brand.
Can a website contact form create duties to a prospective client?
It can. ABA Formal Opinion 10-457 says websites that invite inquiries may create a prospective client relationship under Rule 1.18, and Comment [2] to the rule points to clear warnings as what limits the lawyer's obligations. Keep forms short and ask people not to send case details until you've spoken.
Do missed calls on Local Services Ads still cost money?
Yes, in some cases. Google counts a missed call during your business hours as a valid lead if the caller stays on the line for more than 20 seconds, and the same applies to calls that reach voicemail. If you run an ad schedule, unanswered calls are only charged inside both the schedule and your business hours.
Can you set this up for our firm?
Yes. Our systems work covers the CRM pipeline, instant text back, follow-up, call tracking and reporting from source to signed case, and the firm owns all of it. Schedule a Consultation and we'll look at where your leads go today.
Where we do this
The services this guide touches.
What this looks like when we run it for a firm, with a demo for your practice on each page.
Sources
Where these facts come from.
Official pages we read when writing this page. Platforms and rules change, so check the current version before you act on any of it. This is marketing guidance, not legal advice.
- ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct, Rule 1.18, Comment
- ABA Formal Opinion 492, Obligations to Prospective Clients (June 9, 2020)
- ABA Formal Opinion 510, Avoiding the Imputation of a Conflict of Interest (March 20, 2024)
- ABA Formal Ethics Opinion 10-457, Lawyer Websites (August 5, 2010)
- Google Local Services Ads Help, how ad ranking works
- Google Local Services Ads Help, which leads you're charged for
Written by
Co-founder of Ad Hoc Digital. Leads social media and content, runs onboarding for new client firms, and is on the regular check-in calls with clients.
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