Questions lawyers ask
What business lawyers ask before they send Tellbrief to a client, answered plainly. If yours isn’t here, ask us.
Ethics and confidentiality
Is it confidential?
Names and briefs are encrypted before they’re stored, each firm’s records are kept apart, and your copy of a brief is deleted 14 days after it reaches you. No AI and no ad trackers. If someone gets into your records without permission, we tell you within 72 hours of learning of it. The security page has the details, for your file.
Why do I only see names at first?
Rule 1.18 advises limiting what you learn from a prospective client to what you need to decide whether to take the matter.1 So the client gives the names first: their own, their company’s and the other side’s. You clear them, and only then does the brief open. If you decline, it’s deleted unread, and the client is told you can’t take it on, with no reason given.
Is paying for Tellbrief paying for referrals?
Rule 7.2(b) bars giving anything of value to someone for recommending your services.2 Tellbrief doesn’t recommend you or send you clients. You pay a flat monthly fee for software you use with clients who already came to you, and Tellbrief takes no share of your fees. Check your own state’s version of the rule.
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.
Your clients
Will my clients actually fill it out?
It comes from you, and it opens with your firm’s name. It’s about 30 questions, most of them one tap, and takes 10 to 15 minutes on a phone or a computer. “Not sure” is always an answer. Your pilot report shows how many clients who started went on to send it.
Will it make us look less personal?
The client sees “Before your first call with” your firm, and every message you send with the link is yours to edit. The call itself is still you. It just starts with their questions instead of the background. Try it as your client to see it.
What does the client get?
Their own copy of the brief as a PDF: their situation in their words, questions worth asking and the records to have ready. They’re told Tellbrief isn’t a law firm and doesn’t give legal advice.
Your systems
We already send clients our own questionnaire. Why use this?
A fixed questionnaire asks everyone the same thing, and you still read raw answers. Tellbrief asks follow-up questions based on what the client says, so a founder who mentions freelancers is asked whether they signed over their work. Then it turns the answers into the issues to raise, with what to ask and which documents settle each one. The names come first, for your conflict check, and the client keeps a copy of their own.
We already have intake software. Do we need this?
Keep it. Intake software answers new inquiries and gets engagements signed. Tellbrief is the step before the first meeting, and it doesn’t replace your contact form.
How does it fit with our booking, website and case management?
There’s nothing to install. Your link goes in your booking confirmation, your reply to new inquiries, your website and your email signature, and your dashboard has the wording for each. Coming out, names copy into your conflict system in one click, the brief saves as a PDF named for the matter, and a short summary pastes into your case management or calendar. The setup guide has the steps for common tools. There’s no direct connection to other software, on purpose: client details go only where you paste them.
Can several lawyers at the firm use it?
Yes. Your firm has one dashboard and one key, and whoever has the key sees what comes in. Pricing is per lawyer.
The brief
Where does the brief come from, and can I trust it?
Everything in it comes from the client’s answers. Their words are quoted exactly. The notes on each issue come from a fixed library, written for a lawyer to check, and each one says what document would settle it. Nothing in the brief is a legal conclusion. You decide what matters.
What if the brief raises something we don’t act on?
Treat it like any detailed intake form: it’s what the client told you, organized, with notes for you to check. What you do with it is your judgment. If you want to keep it, save the PDF to your matter file, because Tellbrief deletes your copy 14 days after it reaches you.
What kind of matters is it for?
Business law: formation, ownership between founders, customer and supplier contracts, retail deals, hiring, raising money, IP owned by contractors, and disputes. See three example briefs.
Price
What does it cost, and is there a contract?
Free for 60 days, with no card. After that it’s $99 a month for each lawyer who gets briefs, billed monthly. Lawyers at the firm who don’t use it don’t count, and you can stop any month. Any calendar month in which no brief reaches you is free: we refund or credit that month, so a slow month costs nothing. If you stop, nothing new reaches you.
We charge for first consultations. Does it still help?
Yes. If the client pays for the first hour, the brief means that hour goes to advice instead of background, and the client notices. Your pilot report counts the minutes it saved either way.
What do you need from us to start?
A 20-minute call. We need your firm’s name, the email where alerts should go, and three rough numbers: new business consults a month, how many become paid work, and how many minutes of a first call go to background. We set up your link and dashboard on the call, and you can put the link in your booking confirmation before we hang up.
How do we know if it’s worth it?
On the setup call we write down three of your numbers: consults a month, how many become paid work, and how much of a first call goes to background. After each first call, you record what the brief saved and whether they hired you. At day 45 you print a one-page report with your numbers before Tellbrief next to the pilot’s. $99 is about 16 minutes of business-law time at the average rate.3 See the dashboard demo.
About Tellbrief
Who’s behind it?
Tellbrief is a small company. Read about us. It isn’t a law firm, and it doesn’t give legal advice.
What happens to our data if we stop?
Your link stops taking new briefs, and what’s already stored is deleted on the same schedule, even after you leave. Your PDFs are yours.
Try it with your clients
$99 a month per lawyer. Free for the first 60 days.
Start a free pilot See the demo Back to Tellbrief for lawyers
1. ABA Model Rule 1.18, comment [4], 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.
3. Clio, average lawyer hourly rates by practice area (opens in a new tab): $378 for business formation and compliance work in 2025.
General information for your firm’s review, not legal advice.