Names-first intake for business lawyers
Tellbrief is a link a business lawyer sends a new client before the first call. The client answers plain questions, the lawyer checks the names for conflicts before reading anything else, and the brief opens only after they clear. This page is written so you can forward it to members who ask about intake.
What the client does
- Answers about 30 questions, most of them one tap, on a phone or a computer. There’s no account to create.
- Is told who gets it. Before any details, the client is told the brief goes only to the firm that sent the link, that no lawyer has agreed to take the matter yet, and to leave out plans and strategy until one has.
- Gives the names last: their own, their company’s and the other side’s, for the conflict check.
- Reads the whole brief before sending it, and keeps a PDF copy.
What the lawyer sees, in order
- The names. Nothing else opens until the lawyer clears them.1 If they decline, the brief is deleted unread, and the client is told, with no reason given, and pointed to the ABA’s list of lawyer referral services.
- A short summary: the business, what’s changing and the issues to raise, without the client’s own words. The lawyer can decline from here too.
- The full brief, opened on purpose: the client’s own words, the issues to raise, what to ask and which documents settle each one.
What members tend to ask
Does it use AI?
No. AI features are switched off. Fixed rules pick the questions and build the brief, and no answers, briefs or call notes are sent to an AI model.
Is paying for it paying for referrals?
Tellbrief doesn’t recommend lawyers or send them clients. A firm pays for software it uses with clients who already came to it: the same price for every matter, not a share of any fee, and not tied to whether the client hires the firm.2 Members should check their own state’s version of the rule.
Where is client information kept, and for how long?
Conflict-check records and briefs are encrypted (AES-256) in private storage that isn’t reachable from the web. Vercel hosts the site and its storage, and Resend sends its email. The lawyer’s copy of a brief is deleted 14 days after it reaches them, and conflict-check details 45 days after the last step. Deletion runs daily. The security page has the rest.
What does it cost?
A firm’s first three briefs are free, then $40 a brief, never more than $99 a month per lawyer. A month with no briefs costs nothing. Law school clinics use it free.
What it doesn’t have yet
- No SOC 2 report. Tellbrief is a small codebase run by its founder. The security page lists specific promises, and automated tests check the code against them on every update.
- No connection to practice-management software. Lawyers copy the names and a summary, and save the PDF, into whatever they use.
- No insurance certificate yet.
The firm packet covers the same ground for a firm’s own review.
If you’d like to share it
Forward this page, or add it to a list of member resources. Members can try both sides without signing up: the lawyer’s demo and the client’s questions. Sharing it isn’t an endorsement, and we won’t name your bar or program anywhere without written permission.
Write to us Questions lawyers ask
A person reads every message. Please don’t send client information.
1. Rule 1.18, on duties to prospective clients: as Minnesota adopted it (opens in a new tab).
2. Rule 7.2(b) and comment [5], on paying for leads from someone who doesn’t recommend the lawyer: as Minnesota adopted it (opens in a new tab). Check your state’s version.
General information, not legal advice.