AI Receptionist for Solicitors: Every Call Answered and Logged
Your fee earners are in court, at a closing or with a client. The AI answers the practice line, takes the matter details and the parties, and routes the call to the right person — without ever giving legal advice.
An AI receptionist for solicitors is a voice AI agent on your practice line. It answers every call 24/7, captures the matter type, the parties and the caller's contact details, runs your front-end conflict-of-interest prompt, and routes the enquiry to the right fee earner. It takes instructions to pass on — it never advises.
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Playing now: the solicitors demo — a new enquiry taken, matter details captured, no advice given. Three other sectors shown for comparison.
Nobody in a Law Firm Is Free to Answer the Phone
It's the structural problem of a practice. Your solicitors are in the District Court all morning, at a closing in the afternoon, or in a consultation they can't interrupt. So every call funnels to one receptionist who is also handling the post, the DX, the counter and the file requests — and when she's on a call, the next caller gets voicemail. Most don't leave a message.
The cost isn't evenly spread, either. A missed call from an existing client wanting an update is an irritation. A missed call from someone who was rear-ended on the M50 last Tuesday, or a couple who have just gone sale agreed, is a matter worth thousands walking to the next firm on the search results. People shopping for a solicitor ring three or four in a row and instruct whoever picks up and sounds competent. Speed of answer is, uncomfortably, a bigger factor than reputation at that first moment.
And then there's the volume of update calls. Conveyancing clients ring to ask whether contracts have come back. Litigation clients ring the week after a hearing. Each call is thirty seconds of information and five minutes of interruption, and it lands on the person you can least afford to interrupt. We wrote about that pattern in more detail in our guide to AI automation for solicitors in Ireland.
A Legal Call Answering Service That Knows Its Limits
It captures, it routes, it logs. It does not advise.
Takes the Matter, Not the Message
Instead of "someone rang about an accident", you get the area of law, the date of the incident, the parties involved, whether proceedings have issued and how urgent it is — structured the same way every time, ready for a file opening.
Conflict Prompt at First Contact
The agent asks who the other side is and whether another firm has been consulted, before anyone in the practice starts discussing the matter. Your formal conflict search still runs — but the names are captured at hello, not three days later.
Routes to the Right Fee Earner
Conveyancing to the conveyancing team, probate to probate, a Garda station call at midnight to the on-call solicitor's mobile. Routing rules are yours; the agent applies them consistently, including at 4am on a bank holiday.
On Your Practice Line in Days
We Learn Your Practice
One call covers your areas of law, which fee earner takes what, your intake questions, your conflict prompt, what you'll quote on the phone and what you won't, and who is on call after hours.
We Set the Boundaries
We write the guardrails with you: no advice, no fee estimates beyond your published figures, no file details to unverified callers, and a hard escalation rule for anything urgent or distressed.
It Answers, You Review
Your number stays as it is — the agent takes overflow, after-hours or every call, as you prefer. Each call arrives as a transcript and a structured summary you can drop straight into the file.
How the AI Handles a Solicitor's Calls
Five calls a typical Irish practice takes in a day, and exactly what the agent does with each.
| The call | What the agent does | What it never does |
|---|---|---|
| New personal injury enquiry | Captures the date and location of the accident, the other party, the insurer if known, and whether the Injuries Resolution Board has been involved; books a callback with a litigation fee earner | Estimate the value of the claim, or comment on limitation periods |
| Conveyancing enquiry | Takes the property address, sale or purchase, whether contracts have issued, the target closing date and the lender; routes to the conveyancing team | Confirm a fee beyond your published quote, or advise on stamp duty |
| Existing client wanting an update | Identifies the matter reference, records the question and passes it to the fee earner with a callback time | Read anything from the file back to an unverified caller |
| Out-of-hours arrest or injunction | Recognises the urgency and rings the on-call solicitor's mobile with a summary of who, where and why | Leave it sitting in an inbox until morning |
| Cold sales call | Politely declines and ends the call; logged, not escalated | Interrupt a fee earner with it |
The professional conduct boundary, stated plainly
An AI answering your line must not do anything that looks like practising law. Ours doesn't. It identifies itself as an assistant, gathers the information a solicitor would need before advising, and says clearly that a solicitor will come back to the caller. It won't opine on the merits of a case, it won't quote fees you haven't approved, and it won't reassure a caller that they "have a good claim". Under the Law Society of Ireland's professional conduct standards the advice — and the responsibility for it — stays with the solicitor on the file. The agent is intake, nothing more.
Confidentiality, GDPR and where the data sits
Legal professional privilege and client confidentiality are not negotiable, so we set the agent up to hold less, not more. Callers are told the line is answered by an AI assistant and that the call may be recorded. Recordings and transcripts are processed and stored within the EU under a data processing agreement — your firm is the controller, we're the processor — with a retention window you choose, typically 30 to 90 days, after which they're deleted. Access is restricted to the people you nominate, subject access requests are straightforward to service because everything is indexed by call, and the whole arrangement is designed to be defensible to the Irish Data Protection Commission rather than merely compliant on paper. No file data is ever pushed into the agent, so a caller cannot extract it.
If you'd like the general version of all this first, our AI Receptionist product page covers the features, the AI receptionist overview explains how the technology works, and AI receptionist services in Ireland covers coverage and pricing nationally. Firms weighing this against a human-staffed option should also read our comparison with a virtual receptionist — the honest summary is that a human is better on the difficult, emotive call, and the AI is better at never missing the other ninety.
Compared With the Other Ways Firms Cover the Phone
Voicemail, another pair of hands at the desk and a general answering bureau each solve part of it. Here is the honest comparison.
| How the call is covered now | What actually happens | With the AI receptionist |
|---|---|---|
| Voicemail at lunchtime and after hours | Most callers don't leave a message — they ring the next firm on the search results | Answered live, matter details taken, a callback time committed to before they hang up |
| One receptionist covering the desk, the post, the DX and the counter | Whoever rings while she is already on a call goes to voicemail | Simultaneous calls are all answered — the agent does not queue callers behind each other |
| A second person on reception | Adds cover during office hours only, and one call at a time | The same script at 4am on a bank holiday as at 11am on a Tuesday |
| A general answering bureau | Takes a name and a number; the area of law, the parties and the conflict names still have to be gathered again | Captures the matter type, the parties, the dates and your conflict prompt in your own intake structure |
| Overflow diverted to fee earners' mobiles | Interrupts the person you can least afford to interrupt, usually mid-consultation | Only genuinely urgent calls escalate; everything else arrives as a written summary |
| Any of the above, on the advice question | Varies with whoever picked up and how rushed they were | Never advises, in any circumstance — it says a solicitor will come back and takes the details |
Which AgentHub Agent Fits Which Practice Problem
The practice line is one channel. If the pinch point in your firm is somewhere else, start there instead.
| The problem | The agent | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Calls ring out while everyone is in court or at a closing | AI receptionist — this page | Answers 24/7, captures the matter type, the parties and the conflict names, and routes to the right fee earner |
| The practice inbox is never properly triaged | Email management for solicitors | Our Email Manager reads every message on arrival, sorts new enquiries from existing matters and drafts replies your team approves |
| New enquiries sit unchased for days | Lead generation for solicitors | Our Leads Outreach agent contacts every new enquiry within minutes and books the consultation |
| You want the whole business side looked at, not one channel | AI solutions for solicitors | Phone, inbox, intake and follow-up across the practice — the administration around the file, never the legal advice on it |
What Our Clients Say
We were losing new enquiries every time court ran late. Now every call is answered, the intake details are already structured when I read them, and I open the file the same day instead of playing phone tag.
The part that convinced our partners was the boundary. It takes the matter and the parties, it says a solicitor will advise, and it stops. Our conveyancing clients get their update logged without interrupting anyone.
An Irish AI Company, Not a Reseller
Built in Ireland
Configured and supported here, by people who know the difference between the Circuit Court and the Injuries Resolution Board — see who we are.
PhD-Led Team
Founded by a Computer Science PhD with 27+ years in software, including 15 years at IBM Ireland.
Security First
Co-founded by a Security Architect. Client data, recordings and transcripts are handled under GDPR with EU storage and a retention policy you set.
Live in Days
Most practices are live within days. You hear it handling your own intake questions before the first invoice.
AI Receptionists for Law Firms: Your Questions
Will the AI receptionist give legal advice to callers?
No, and that boundary is built in. The agent takes the matter type, the parties, contact details and urgency, then hands over. It will not comment on the merits of a claim, limitation periods or fees beyond the published figures you approve, and it tells callers plainly that a solicitor will advise them.
How does an AI receptionist handle conflict of interest checks?
It runs the front-end prompt your firm already uses: it asks for the names of the other parties and any firm already acting, and flags the enquiry before anyone in the practice discusses the matter. The formal conflict search stays with your team — the agent simply makes sure the names are captured at first contact.
Where is the call data stored, and is it GDPR compliant?
Recordings and transcripts are processed and stored in the EU under a data processing agreement, with a retention period you set — commonly 30 to 90 days. You remain the controller, we are the processor, and callers are told the call is handled by an AI assistant and may be recorded.
Can it take new personal injury and conveyancing enquiries properly?
Yes. For an injury enquiry it captures the date, where it happened, whether the Injuries Resolution Board has been involved and whether another firm has been consulted. For conveyancing it takes the property address, whether contracts have issued, the target closing date and the lender.
What happens when an existing client rings for an update on their file?
The agent identifies the matter reference, takes the question and logs it for the fee earner with a callback commitment. It does not read file contents back to an unverified caller — confidentiality is enforced by design, so a chatty caller cannot talk their way into someone else's matter.
Does it cover out-of-hours calls, like a Garda station arrest?
Yes — that is where firms feel it most. Genuinely urgent out-of-hours calls, such as a client detained at a Garda station or an injunction that cannot wait, are recognised and escalated straight to the on-call solicitor's mobile with a summary. Everything else waits until morning as a written message.
The Enquiry You Miss Instructs the Firm Down the Road
Tell us how your practice takes calls and we'll set the agent up on your intake questions — free setup until 31 August.
Prefer to talk? Email sghaith@agenthub.ie or call 087 788 2676.