Why this matters
Every week, people who are just starting a divorce email the firm with the same first question: what will this cost? Answering it well means the right fees, what a flat fee does and doesn’t cover, the conflict-check step, and not one word of legal advice in an email. Staff answer it five different ways, and one of them forgets the conflict check or quotes last year’s fee.
The harder part is the question tucked in at the end: “will I keep the house?” A kind, quick answer to that, from intake, by email, is exactly what a firm must never send. It can be read as legal advice before anyone has checked for a conflict or signed an engagement agreement.
In this module you set up a Claude project for the firm once. You write your tone and intake rules as instructions, add the fee schedule and the engagement and intake policy as project knowledge, and from then on every chat in the project quotes the right fees, asks for the conflict-check names, and offers a consultation instead of advice.
What you’ll build
A Claude project called Harlow & Pierce Intake, for a made-up family-law firm, with instructions for tone and intake rules, plus two documents as project knowledge: the 2026 fee schedule and the engagement and intake policy.
Inside it, a reply to Tasha Greene, a made-up prospective client: consultation $250 (credited if she hires the firm within 30 days), uncontested divorce $3,500 flat fee including one parenting plan, court fees separate, what happens if the case becomes contested, a request for both spouses’ full names for the conflict check, and an offer of a consultation for the question about the house. Then you add one new rule, the no-documents-by-email and no-attorney-client-relationship line, and every new chat follows it.
What you need
- Nothing to start the practiceClaude is a practice copy. The fee schedule and intake policy are already in the practice file picker.
- A Claude account, to do it for realProjects are on every plan, and the Free plan allows up to five. For client work, use a business plan (Team or Enterprise) that doesn’t train on your data, and follow your firm’s policy on AI tools.
- Your fee scheduleA PDF or Word file with your consultation fee, flat fees and what each one covers, retainers and hourly rates. The download below has an outline you can copy.
- Your engagement and intake policyOne page with the rules intake always follows: the conflict check, when someone becomes a client, how retainers work, and that legal questions are answered in a consultation.
- A lawyer’s reviewHave an attorney at the firm approve the instructions and any template reply before intake uses them.
Concepts
3 ideas you’ll use in the practice.
Instructions are how Claude acts; knowledge is what it knows
Your fee schedule and policy go in as files: they are facts that change once a year. Your tone and your intake rules go in the instructions: they decide what Claude may say and what it must never say.
Keeping them apart makes each easy to update. When the flat fee changes, you replace one file, and every reply after that quotes the new number.
The rule that matters most is the one about advice
A prospective client will almost always slip in a question about property, support or custody. Your instructions tell Claude to answer every one of them the same way: that is a question for a consultation with the attorney.
The conflict check works the same way. The instructions ask for both spouses’ full names and nothing else about the other person, so intake never collects more than it needs before the check is done.
What belongs in the project, and what stays out
Good project knowledge: fee schedules, the intake policy, your consultation booking steps and approved email templates. Firm documents, not client documents.
Keep out: matter notes, court filings, financial records and anything a client told you in confidence. In the lesson, the file window shows a client’s matter notes next to the fee schedule. You leave them alone.
Practice
Do every step yourself in a practice copy of the real tool. It checks your work, and “Do it for me” finishes any step you get stuck on.
Do it for real
Now repeat it in your own account. Tick each step as you go.
Downloads
- Intake project instructions and file outlines (.txt)The instructions, the new rule, outlines of the made-up fee schedule and intake policy, and Tasha’s email to try.
Quick check
3 questions to check you’ve got it.
1. Tasha asks whether she will be able to keep the house. What should the reply do?
- Explain how property is usually divided
- Offer a consultation with the attorney instead of answering by email
- Leave the question out
Show the answer
Offer a consultation with the attorney instead of answering by email. That is legal advice. The instructions say every property, support or custody question is answered in a consultation.
2. Before the firm can book her consultation, what does the reply ask for?
- Her husband’s income and address
- The full names of both spouses for the conflict check
- A copy of the deed
Show the answer
The full names of both spouses for the conflict check. The intake policy needs both names for the conflict check, and nothing else about the other spouse.
3. Which file in the picker should not go into the project?
- The fee schedule
- The engagement and intake policy
- Okafor matter notes
Show the answer
Okafor matter notes. Firm documents belong in project knowledge. A client’s matter notes don’t.
Stop Losing Billable Time: Turn Rough Notes into Same-Day Time Entries with an n8n AI Agent
Your intake desk now answers fee questions the same way every time. Next, stop losing billable time: Turn Rough Notes into Same-Day Time Entries with an n8n AI Agent.
Start module 14 →