Build the factual record your attorney needs after the client signs.
Use this post-retainer checklist to turn the client’s account, documents, dates, and follow-up into an attorney-ready factual handoff. Adapt every field and review step to your firm, practice area, and jurisdiction.
Attorney-ready handoff
- 01Original client account preserved
- 02Events ordered with date confidence
- 03Evidence connected to specific facts
- 04Missing and conflicting information visible
- 05Focused follow-up assigned
- 06Attorney review status recorded
A law firm client intake checklist covers the work between a signed engagement and substantive case work: preserving the client account in their own words, building a dated chronology from it, recording who was involved, linking the documents you hold to the facts they support, and writing down what is still missing or unresolved.
A signed client is not the same as a prepared matter.
Lead intake answers whether the firm should speak with a prospect, can take the matter, and has completed the steps needed to begin the relationship. Case fact development answers a different question: does the legal team have a reviewable record of what happened and where each important fact came from?
The checklist below starts after your firm’s qualification, conflicts, engagement, and required onboarding process. It is an operational framework, not a universal legal intake form. The attorney responsible for the matter should decide which facts, warnings, documents, and approvals your workflow requires.
Eight steps from client account to attorney-ready matter record.
The sequence matters less than the controls: preserve the source, label uncertainty, connect evidence, and keep human review visible.
- Step 01
Confirm scope, consent, and communication rules
Record the matter scope, approved contacts, language or accessibility needs, client communication preferences, and the firm’s instructions for submitting information securely.
ScopeConsentAccessSecure channel - Step 02
Capture the client’s account in their own words
Let the client describe what happened before forcing the story into legal categories. Preserve the original response so reviewers can compare later summaries with the source.
Original accountPlain languageSource preserved - Step 03
Identify people, organizations, places, and dates
Create consistent records for each participant and location. Mark dates as exact, approximate, a range, disputed, or unknown instead of creating false precision.
PeoplePlacesDate confidence - Step 04
Turn the account into a proposed chronology
Place each material event on its own row with the client source, participants, location, impact, and review status attached. Do not replace the original narrative.
See how a legal case chronology is builtEventsChronologyReview status - Step 05
Create an evidence and document inventory
List each record the client has, expects to obtain, or believes exists. Record its location, custodian, related events, and whether the team has actually reviewed it.
See legal evidence organizationDocumentsCustodianReceived status - Step 06
Connect sources to the facts they support or question
Link documents, statements, messages, and other sources to specific events. Keep support, contradiction, and mere mention separate so the summary does not overstate the record.
SupportConflictAttribution - Step 07
Turn gaps into focused follow-up work
List missing dates, unclear identities, conflicting accounts, unavailable documents, and unanswered questions. Assign an owner and status instead of leaving gaps inside free-form notes.
See how gaps become tracked workOpen questionOwnerNext action - Step 08
Prepare and review the attorney handoff
Present the chronology, evidence map, unresolved issues, and impact record together. Require an attorney or designated reviewer to verify the factual summary before it is used for legal analysis or drafting.
Use the client interview to case summary workflowMatter summaryAttorney reviewDecision log
Fields that make the intake usable after the interview.
A long narrative can still be hard to act on. These fields make the factual record easier to review and update.
Source
Who said it or which document contains it, with a way to return to the original.
Event
What happened, when and where it happened, and who was involved.
Date confidence
Whether the date is exact, approximate, a range, disputed, or unknown.
Evidence relationship
Whether a source supports, contradicts, or merely mentions the event.
Review status
Whether the proposed fact is unreviewed, accepted, edited, rejected, or disputed.
Follow-up
The unanswered question or missing record, its owner, priority, and current status.
What breaks between intake and substantive case work.
The summary replaces the source
A polished paragraph is treated as authoritative even though the reviewer cannot compare it with what the client actually said.
Documents live beside the story, not inside it
The firm has the files, but no shared record shows which event each document supports or calls into question.
Uncertainty disappears
Approximate dates and second-hand statements become exact facts as information is copied between forms, notes, and summaries.
Follow-up stays in someone’s inbox
Missing records and questions are discussed in email but never become assigned work with a visible status.
Client intake and case preparation FAQ
- What information should a law firm collect during client intake?
- The answer depends on practice area and jurisdiction. After required identity, conflicts, engagement, and onboarding steps, the factual workflow commonly needs the client’s original account, people, dates, locations, events, documents, impact, uncertainty, and open questions.
- How do you turn a client interview into a case summary?
- Preserve the interview, propose separate events, attach sources, label uncertain dates, identify missing or conflicting information, and require human review. The final summary should point back to the record instead of replacing it.
- Is case intake different from lead intake?
- Yes. Lead intake generally focuses on inquiry capture, qualification, conflicts, consultation, engagement, and conversion. Case intake or fact development builds the deeper factual record the legal team uses after the relationship begins.
- How can a law firm track missing client documents?
- Use a shared evidence inventory with the requested item, related event, expected source, request date, owner, status, and review result. Keep this connected to the chronology so the reason for each request remains clear.
- Can AI create the attorney handoff automatically?
- AI can propose events, document links, follow-up questions, and a draft summary. A legal professional still needs to compare the output with the sources, correct errors, resolve uncertainty, and approve any use.
Where this leads next.
- Guided intakeClients tell their story onceRead on
- Client interview to case summaryTurn an interview into a reviewable factual handoffRead on
- For paralegalsStructured intake instead of a forwarded email thread, with a follow-up list generated from the actual gaps in the matter rather than kept by hand.Read on
Test your post-intake handoff on a representative matter.
Use a synthetic or fully redacted matter to evaluate whether MatterGraph fits the way your firm develops facts after signing a client.