What an intake process has to answer
Three decisions carry most of the weight.
What must a requester tell you before anyone starts? For a contract request that might be the counterparty, the deal value, the deadline, the business owner and the template in use. If the honest answer is "it depends," split the request types until each has a fixed list.
Who gets it? Name an owner for each request type and a fallback. "Whoever is online" means you don't have routing yet.
What can be answered without a lawyer, and what always goes to one? Draw that line yourself. Otherwise the tool's default draws it for you.
The 10-minute test
Open your legal inbox and read the last 10 requests. For each one, write down the facts you had to ask for. Whatever repeats is your intake form. It's also the first thing any intake tool will need from you.
The one-page template
| Section | What to write |
|---|---|
| Request types | The 5 to 8 kinds of request you get most, in the business's words |
| Required fields | For each type, the facts needed before work starts |
| Owner and backup | Named person per type, plus who covers absence |
| Self-serve answers | What can be answered from a template or policy without a lawyer |
| Always-escalate list | Matters that always go to a lawyer, such as litigation threats or regulator contact |
| Review step | Who checks an AI first pass before it goes back to the business |
| Response targets | How fast each type gets an acknowledgment and an answer |
| Record | Where requests and answers are stored, and who can see them |
Where AI fits
AI intake agents, like the ones Harvey and Legora launched in October 2026, collect missing information, route requests and prepare a first pass. They depend on the rules above. A vendor can't know that your team treats a vendor NDA over a certain value differently, unless you've written it down.
Keep the human review step explicit. The AI review playbook guide covers who owns the standard an AI first pass is held to. And before you connect any tool to company data, run it through the vendor security questionnaire.
Common mistakes
- Buying the tool first. The tool then dictates your fields and routing.
- One form for everything. A single long form gets skipped. Short forms per request type get used.
- No owner for the exceptions. The "it depends" requests are the slowest, so name who takes them.
- No record. If answers aren't stored somewhere searchable, you answer the same question again next month.
For a comparison of intake tools by firm type, see best AI for client intake, and for in-house tool options, Harvey alternatives for in-house legal teams.
Sources
- Non-Billable on Harvey and Legora Intake (Oct 14, 2026) (Used only for the October 2026 launch context)
- Artificial Lawyer on Harvey Intake (Oct 14, 2026) (Used only for the October 2026 launch context)
Questions and answers
What is legal intake?
It's how requests reach a legal team: the channel, the information collected, the routing to an owner and the response. In-house teams usually handle it through a shared inbox, a form or a ticketing tool.
What should a legal intake form include?
Request type, requester and business owner, the facts needed to start (for example counterparty, value and deadline), the deadline and any attachments. Fields differ by request type.
How do I improve legal intake without new software?
Read your last 10 requests, list the facts you had to ask for, and turn the repeated ones into required fields on a short form or a Slack or email template.
Do I need AI for legal intake?
No. The rules matter more than the tool. AI agents can speed up collection and first-pass work once the rules exist.
What should I ask an intake vendor?
Who configures required fields, what the AI answers alone, how escalation works, whether there's an audit trail and which systems it connects to.
Operational information, not legal advice. The template is our framework, not a study; adapt it to your team.