Confidential by default
Phone Systems for Law Firms
For a law firm the phone is where matters begin and where client relationships are tested. A missed intake call is a file that goes to another firm; a call routed to the wrong lawyer is billable time lost twice. Most firms we work with need control and discretion far more than they need features.
Where law firms lose calls
Intake calls that don't wait
Someone looking for counsel calls three firms. Whoever answers properly, first, usually gets the retainer.
Counsel who aren't at a desk
Lawyers are in court, at mediation, or working from home. Calls to a desk phone that nobody answers look like an unresponsive firm.
Recording is a judgement call, not a default
Some conversations shouldn't be recorded at all, and where recording is used, retention and access need to be deliberate.
Reception fielding everything
One person routing every call by memory — which lawyer handles which matter — is a bottleneck and a single point of failure.
What we set up
The parts of the system that matter for this kind of business — configured for you, not handed over as a manual.
Auto attendant and dial-by-name
Callers reach the right lawyer or clerk directly, with a central phone book so the directory stays current.
Find me / follow me
A call rings the desk, then the mobile, then voicemail — so counsel out of the office still gets reached on one number.
Call recording with retention control
Recording can be enabled per extension or disabled entirely, with retention set deliberately rather than by default.
Call data records
A complete record of who called, when, and how long — useful when reconstructing the timeline on a file.
Mobile and desktop apps
Call from the firm's number on a personal phone, so lawyers never hand out their mobile to a client.
Voicemail-to-email and transcription
Messages become searchable text, delivered to email and easy to attach to the file.
Privacy & compliance
Confidentiality and Canadian obligations
Solicitor-client privilege and Law Society professional obligations shape how a firm's phone system should be configured — particularly around call recording, who can access voicemail and recordings, and how long anything is kept. PIPEDA governs personal information more broadly. We configure recording, access and retention to your firm's policy rather than applying a default, including disabling recording entirely where that's the right answer. If your firm has specific due-diligence questions about how the system handles client information, put them to us before you sign and you'll get straight answers.
Common questions
- Can we turn call recording off completely?
- Yes. Recording is configurable per extension and can be disabled entirely. Where a firm does use it, retention periods are set deliberately and access can be restricted to named administrators.
- Can lawyers make calls from the firm's number on their own phones?
- Yes. Our mobile and desktop apps place calls using the firm's caller ID, so counsel can work from anywhere without giving out a personal number. The call still appears in the firm's call records.
Tell us how your phones actually work today
We'll look at your current setup and tell you honestly what's worth changing — including when the answer is to keep what you have.