CentriWebA CRM for law firms handles everything that happens before a matter is opened: the enquiry, the intake questions, the consultation, the costs agreement and the follow-up when someone has gone quiet. Practice management software takes over once the file exists. Most firms have something for the second job and a spreadsheet, an inbox and a good memory for the first.
This guide is for principals and practice managers at small and mid-sized Australian firms. It covers what a CRM should do that practice management does not, what to hold in it, and what to check before client details go into another system. It is general information, not legal advice.
What practice management software does, and what it leaves out
Practice management systems are built around the matter. They record time, produce bills, hold documents and handle trust accounting. They are good at that, and a CRM should not try to replace them.
| CRM | Practice management | |
|---|---|---|
| Starts when | Someone first calls, emails or is referred | The matter is opened |
| Main job | Track enquiries, book consultations, chase costs agreements, keep referrers warm | Run the matter: time, billing, documents, trust |
| Key records | Source, matter type, stage, next action, reason a person did not proceed | Matter, client, fee earner, time entries, invoices |
| Who uses it | Reception, intake, principals | Everyone working on files |
| Question it answers | Which enquiries became clients, and why not the rest | What is the status and profitability of this matter |
Some practice management products include a leads or intake tab. If yours does, test it against the list further down before buying anything. If it reminds you to follow up and shows where each enquiry came from, you may already own what you need.
Where law firm enquiries are lost
Lawyers are in conferences, in court or on the phone, and enquiries arrive at the worst times. The usual leaks are:
- The missed call. The caller is often stressed and ringing more than one firm. Whoever answers, or replies quickly, gets the consultation.
- The after-hours form. Many people write to a firm at night. If nothing replies until mid-morning, the first real conversation may go elsewhere. Our guide to how fast to reply to an enquiry sets out realistic targets.
- The consultation with no next step. The person leaves saying they will think about it, and nobody writes down when to call.
- The costs agreement that sits unsigned. It went out on a Tuesday and was never mentioned again.
- The referrer who never hears back. An accountant or broker sends someone over, hears nothing, and sends the next one elsewhere.
None of these needs clever software. They need one list, an owner for every line and a date beside each. A CRM is a way of keeping that list current when the office is busy.
What a CRM for law firms should hold at intake
Collect what you need to decide whether to take the matter and to run a conflict check, and no more. A workable intake record has:
- the person’s name, phone, email and preferred contact method
- the type of matter, chosen from a short list you control
- the names of the other parties, so conflicts can be checked before anyone discusses the detail
- any date the person says is urgent, such as a hearing, a settlement date or a deadline in a letter they received
- how they found you: referral (and who), search, existing client, or other
- a stage and a next action with a date and an owner
The urgent-date field matters more than it looks. It lets intake flag a matter to a lawyer the same day instead of leaving it in the queue behind routine work. Whether a deadline is real is for a lawyer to judge, so the field only raises a flag.
Confidentiality and conflict checks
An enquiry is the start of a confidential relationship, even before an engagement. Think about two things.
First, the conflict check. It needs names, and it needs them before the person tells you the full story. A good intake form asks for the parties first and the facts later, and the CRM record can be searched by name so the check does not depend on someone remembering. The professional conduct rules that govern conflicts and confidentiality come from your state or territory regulator and your professional body, so read those for your situation rather than relying on a general article.
Second, how much detail sits in the CRM. Sensitive facts belong in the matter file under your usual protections. The CRM can hold the matter type and a short note. Treat the system like any other place client information lives: limit who can see it, use two-factor sign-in, and know where the data is hosted. Our guide to the Privacy Act and AI covers the obligations that follow personal information into any system.
A pipeline that matches how a firm takes on work
Keep the stages few and define each one. For example:
- New enquiry (no reply sent yet)
- Contacted (a person has spoken to them)
- Conflict check cleared
- Consultation booked, then consultation held
- Costs agreement sent
- Accepted, then handed to practice management to open the matter
- Not proceeding, with a reason from a short list
The “not proceeding” reasons are where the learning is. If most losses are “went with another firm after the consultation”, look at your consultation and follow-up. If they are “price”, look at how and when fees are explained. If they are “not our area”, fix your website and your phone script so those calls stop arriving.
Follow-up that stays professional
Following up on a costs agreement is ordinary practice, and most people appreciate a short, polite check. A pattern many firms use is a message two or three working days after the agreement goes out, a phone call a few days later, and a final note that closes the loop. After that, stop and record the outcome.
Keep the tone professional and the content about their matter. Marketing is a different category. In Australia, commercial emails and texts are covered by the Spam Act 2003, whose headings include that unsolicited commercial electronic messages must not be sent and that they must contain a functional unsubscribe facility. The Australian Communications and Media Authority publishes guidance on what counts as consent. Legal advertising may also be subject to rules from your regulator, so check those before a newsletter or reminder campaign.
The practical habit is to keep matter-related messages separate from promotional ones, and to record in the CRM when and how each person agreed to hear from you.
Referrers are clients too
For many firms, accountants, financial planners, brokers and other lawyers send most of the new work. Record who referred each enquiry, and give every referrer a line in the CRM with the last time you spoke and the last time you thanked them. A report of enquiries by source takes seconds if the field is filled in every time and is impossible if it is not.
Sending a short update to a referrer when their referral signs, with the person’s agreement and only what is appropriate to share, builds the relationship without breaching confidence. Our guide to a CRM for accounting firms shows the same referrer-tracking approach from the other side.
Connecting the CRM to practice management
Agree where each record lives. A clean rule is that the CRM owns the person until the costs agreement is signed, and practice management owns them from then on. At acceptance, the name, contact details, matter type and agreed scope should pass across once, automatically or with one click, so nobody types them again.
Also decide what flows back. The date a matter closes can return to the CRM so a review request or a “how did we go” note goes out at the right time. Anything beyond that should justify itself, because each connection is something that can break and needs someone to look after it.
Do you need a separate CRM?
You probably do not if you are a sole practitioner or a two-lawyer firm taking a handful of enquiries a week, most come by referral and you can name every open consultation without looking. A tab in your practice management software or a well-kept spreadsheet will do. Our guide on when to switch from a spreadsheet to a CRM lists the signs.
A CRM starts to pay off when enquiries come through several channels, more than one person answers them, or you cannot say how many consultations became clients last quarter. As an example, if a firm holds twenty consultations a month and a quarter of them go cold with no follow-up, that is five conversations a month with nobody assigned to them. Put your own fee value against those five and you can see what a recovered consultation is worth.
CentriWeb sets up and looks after CRM systems for professional services firms, including intake forms, reminders and the handover to practice management. Our guide on law firm client intake automation covers the automation side in more detail.