Before a free consultation, your prospective client answers about 30 questions, mostly with a tap, in about 15 minutes. You clear their names for conflicts, then read a short brief: the issues, the documents to ask for and other work you could offer.
$75 a brief, never more than $199 a month per lawyer. Your first three briefs are free.
No card. We set it up with you on a 15-minute call.
Conflict check before the brief
No AI
Never recorded
Deleted after 14 days
Names clearedMade-up example · Example Co, a sauce maker with its first big retail deal
The recipe may not be fully theirs
“Our recipes were developed with a contract manufacturer in Ohio, and I’m not sure who owns them.”
Ask on the call
Did they develop the recipe before working with the manufacturer, or together?
What did they sign with the manufacturer: a supply agreement, an NDA, a quote, or nothing?
Can the manufacturer make the same product for anyone else, and what happens if the relationship ends?
What settles it
The manufacturing, co-packing or supply agreement, and any NDA with the manufacturer.
Work you could offer
Review and negotiate the retailer’s vendor agreement, which is what they asked about. Before that: confirm who owns the recipe, and put the founders’ ownership in writing.
At most, Tellbrief costs one lawyer $2,388 a year.
Quote on the first call. You go in knowing the issues and the documents, so you can propose the work and a fee before you hang up.
Scope the whole job. Each brief sorts the work into what they asked for, what to check first and what can wait. Copy your picks as a draft email or engagement-letter scope.
Be there for the next matter. Save a 60-day calendar reminder with a check-in email listing the work you didn’t offer. Your client can save a 3-month reminder linking back to you.
Skip calls you can’t take. If the names show a conflict, you decline before you meet, and the brief costs nothing.
Results depend on you and your clients, so we don’t promise them.
How it works
It starts after the client books
Send your link. Put it in your booking confirmation, and every new client gets it.
They answer about 30 questions. Clients don’t make an account. They get a copy of their brief, with no legal advice or conclusions in it.
You run the conflict check first. Then the brief opens.
You read the brief and take the call. It opens on your dashboard.
Before they’re your client
You clear the names before you read their answers
Rule 1.18’s comment says a lawyer considering a new matter “should limit the initial consultation to only such information as reasonably appears necessary for that purpose.”1 So the brief stays locked until you’ve run your conflict check. Security details
Names reach you first. The email says names are waiting, with no client details.
You clear or decline. If you decline, the brief is deleted unread.
Names to checkWaiting on you
Company
Example Co
Founder
Pat Example
Other side
Example Grocer, Example Manufacturer
Answers locked until you decide
ClearDeclineCopy names
No AINo AI model reads your client’s answers. The brief pairs their answers with notes we wrote ahead of time for each business situation.
It comes from you after they book, with your firm’s name on it. Every answer a brief needs is a tap, and they type only the names for your conflict check and an email address. If they skip it, the call goes ahead as usual. Answer it as your client and time it yourself.
You could build a form in an afternoon, but it would only collect answers. Tellbrief does five things a plain form doesn’t:
You check conflicts before you read anything. A form emails you the client’s whole story, so you know it before you know whether you can take them. Tellbrief shows you only the names. The answers open after you clear them. If you decline, they’re deleted unread and we email the client that you can’t take it on.
You get a brief you can quote from. Tellbrief checks the answers against notes we wrote on 23 issues business lawyers look for. For each one that applies, you get the questions to ask and the documents that settle it, so you can propose the work and a fee on the first call.
You see other work the client may need. Tellbrief also asks about the business: who owns what, what they’ve signed and what data they hold. Each brief lists work the client didn’t ask about, with a draft email offering it.
The client comes prepared. They get their own copy with a list of documents to bring, so you don’t spend the call asking for them.
There’s nothing for your firm to run. We handle the encryption, the deletion schedule, the emails to clients and the PDF. With your own form, someone at the firm would have to.
If you already have a form, keep it for booking. The Tellbrief link goes in the confirmation your booking tool already sends. Open the demo brief and put it next to what your form sends you.
Is it worth $75 a brief?
Three briefs are free. After that, clients you decline cost nothing, and one lawyer never pays more than $199 a month. Firms set up before April 1, 2027 get the founding price for a year.
Does it give my client legal advice?
No. Their copy says it isn’t legal advice and doesn’t create an attorney-client relationship, and it holds no legal conclusions. The advice is yours to give, once you take them on.
Starting a pilot
Tell us about your firmYour firm, practice area and state.
We set up your link with youOn a 15-minute call. You paste one line into your booking confirmation. No confirmation email yet? Start from our consultation email template.
You decide after three briefsYour pilot report shows how many clients sent a brief, how many hired you, and how many hired you for more than they asked.
You can try it without changing your website. Before your first real client, we agree in writing on the price and how client information is handled. If someone at your firm approves new tools, send them the firm packet.