TLDR
A solo attorney's client intake process needs to accomplish five things before any legal work begins: screen for conflicts of interest, conduct an initial consultation, get a signed engagement letter, collect the retainer into your IOLTA trust account, and open the matter in your practice management system. Doing these out of order — particularly starting work before the engagement letter is signed or the retainer is collected — is the most common source of fee disputes and bar complaints for new solos.
- Conflict of Interest
- A situation where an attorney's ability to represent a client is compromised by a competing obligation to another client, a former client, the attorney personally, or a third party. Attorneys must check for conflicts of interest before accepting a new client representation. Rules vary by jurisdiction but generally prohibit representing a client whose interests are directly adverse to a current or former client without written informed consent.
DEFINITION
- Engagement Letter
- A written agreement between attorney and client defining the scope of the representation, fees, billing practices, and retainer terms. Required by bar rules in most jurisdictions above a certain fee threshold; best practice for all engagements regardless of size. Signed before work begins.
DEFINITION
- IOLTA Trust Account
- The bank account where attorneys hold client funds — retainers, settlements, real estate escrow — separately from the firm's own operating funds. Interest earned on pooled client funds is remitted to a state legal aid fund. Depositing client funds into any other account is commingling, a bar rules violation.
DEFINITION
- Matter
- In practice management software, the record for a single client representation. Contains the client's contact information, opposing party details, case notes, documents, time entries, billing history, and trust account ledger for that engagement.
DEFINITION
Why Intake Is Where Solo Practices Break Down
Most solo attorney practice problems trace back to intake. Not because solos take bad cases, but because the intake process is where the engagement terms get established — and when that process is informal, the terms are unclear.
A fee dispute arises because the client believed the engagement covered something it did not. A bar complaint about failure to communicate starts with a client who was never told how often to expect updates. A trust account problem begins with a retainer deposited to the wrong account on day one.
A defined intake workflow — not an elaborate one, just a consistent one — prevents most of these problems before they start.
The Conflict Check Discipline
The conflict of interest check is the easiest step to skip when you are eager to take on a new client. It is also the step that protects your ability to continue representing existing clients.
The check works on whatever data you have entered about past representations. A solo attorney who has always entered the opposing party’s name on every matter can search for that name and find it. A solo who has never entered opposing party information gets no protection from the conflict check.
The habit to build: for every new matter you create in your practice management system, enter the opposing party’s name and any related parties as part of the matter setup, even when it feels unnecessary for a simple transaction matter. Six months from now, that data is what makes your conflict check meaningful.
The Engagement Letter Is Your Agreement
The engagement letter is not a formality. It is the contract that governs every aspect of the representation that is disputed later.
When a client says “you agreed to do my appeal” and you have no written agreement saying appeal work is included, you have a problem. When a client says “you never told me you billed for phone calls” and your engagement letter clearly states your billing practices, you have documentation.
The letter should be specific enough that there is no room for the client to claim they were not told something. Vague engagement letters create vague disputes.
The Trust Account First Rule
The retainer goes to IOLTA trust before any work begins. Not to your operating account. Not to a personal account. Not “I’ll move it later.”
The moment client funds are deposited anywhere other than your IOLTA trust account, you have a commingling problem. The problem does not go away when you move the money later — the deposit itself is the violation. Set up your intake process so that the trust account deposit is the only available path for retainer payments, and there is no alternative to accidentally take.
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See plans & pricingQ&A
What should a solo attorney's client intake process include?
A complete intake process for a solo attorney covers: initial contact and conflict check, consultation with a defined structure, signed engagement letter, retainer deposit to IOLTA trust account, and matter creation in practice management software. All five steps should be completed before legal work begins. Skipping or reordering these steps — particularly starting work before the engagement letter is signed — is the primary source of fee disputes and bar complaints.
Q&A
How do solo attorneys run conflict checks efficiently?
In practice management software, conflict checking is a keyword search across all client and matter records. You enter the potential client's name and any known opposing parties, and the system searches existing matters for matches. The value of this search depends on how consistently you have entered party information on all previous matters. For a new solo, starting the discipline of thorough party entry from day one means the conflict check is actually useful when your client list grows.
Q&A
What should be in a solo attorney's engagement letter?
Every engagement letter should specify: the scope of the representation (what work you are doing and what is excluded), the fee arrangement (hourly rate, flat fee, or contingency), billing frequency and payment terms, the retainer amount and how it will be applied to fees, how the representation ends, and any jurisdiction-specific required disclosures. For contingency fee engagements, most state bars require specific language about the fee percentage and cost deductions.
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