Client Intake Form For Litigation: Fill & Download for Free

I don’t run a solo practice, but I know quite a few people who do.There’s some advantages and disadvantages.On the upside, you are your own boss. Don’t want to work today? Fine. Take the day off. (Well, if you don’t have any scheduled things like court appearances, etc.) You have full control over your business. You can turn down a case. You can decide where your office is going to be. You get all sorts of autonomy. You can research what you want to research. You can focus on a practice area you like. There’s a certain amount of freedom in the whole thing.On the other hand, cash flow is always a concern. Having enough cases is always a worry. There’s lean months when you have to get really good at budgeting. If you fail, it’s on you. If a client doesn’t pay (which happens more often than you’d like to admit,) then you have to deal with it.If you’re doing really well, maybe you can get yourself a paralegal to deal with some of the bureaucracy and client intake. But if you get a few months without a lot of cases, then you might have to dismiss that person. That’s stressful.Again on the upside, you get to work directly with clients. If you decide to take a “biglaw” track, you will be doing research and pushing pencils for years, not working with clients. In a solo practice, you get that interaction. On the other hand, if you like working in research and litigation support and you don’t like clients, in a solo firm, you will have to work with clients. You won’t get that option. You don’t get to pass sending out letters off to someone else.There’s a freedom with solo practice. There are great risks, but also great rewards.But it’s certainly not less stressful. It’s just a different kind of stress.

Usually as the lead partner for a client you start by listening, not asking questions. After the pleasantries it's best to have them do an informal pitch / product demonstration, and then you pitch yourself and your firm. Ask them to send you their deck and make sure somebody is taking notes.One good, direct question to avoid beating around the bush is "how can we help you?" The first three companies below sound like small talk but they frame lots of issues. After that it's directed brainstorming.Tell me about your company. What's its name? What does it do?Who do we know in common? How were we introduced? What brings you here?Where are you based? Where's your office? What's it like?Are you incorporated? When? Who did it? What state?Who is your lawyer now? Do you currently have an in-house lawyer or someone else within the company handling the legal matters? Are you satisfied with their work? Is it cost effective? Is there anything you want and expect from a lawyer you are not getting now?How many cofounders do you have? Have they quit their day jobs? Are they getting paid? Do they have any other engagements or ongoing obligations? What's the equity split and understanding among them? What are their roles? Who will be the lead in dealing with legal matters?What are the founders' personal objectives in running the company? What other experience do they have in entrepreneurship (or big business, academia, finance, government work, politics, nonprofits, etc.)? How do they know each other and how long? Have they worked together before?Do you have investors? Who invested and who is the lead? When? What form? How much money? How documented?Have you issued stock certificates and signed stock purchase agreements and other founding agreements? Have you kept up with Board minutes and approvals? Government filings? A cap table?Do you have a Board of Directors and/or a Board of Advisors? Who?Any employees? Contractors? Vendors and suppliers? Strategic partners? Who are they / what's their background? Do you have agreements in place with them?Is anyone working from another country or place? On visa? Trying to get a visa? Under a noncompete from a former company or other restriction?Is there anyone who left? How was that handled or documented?Do you have any pending legal questions or issues? Involved in any disputes or concerned about them? Licenses or applications?What's the product or service you're offering? What parts of it are you building? Renting? Buying? Reselling?At what stage is your product / company? Idea/concept? In development? Prototype? Beta? In operation? Pivoting? Who is building the productWhat's your sales model?Do you have a pitch deck? Business plan? Accountant? Executive summary? One-pager or marketing materials? Budget? Any other way of documenting, or thinking through, your future plans?Who are your main competitors? Suppliers? Actual or potential business partners?Who are your customers? How many of them do you have? Where are they located? What kinds of people / companies are they? How much are they paying? What kind of agreements are they signing or going to sign?How are you marketing, advertising, and distributing your product? Where and in what channels? With whom?Do you think anything about your product, service, sales, or operations are unique? Novel? Have you considered trademark and copyright protection? What's your strategy for copyrights and trade secrets?All this is second nature after you've been doing it for a while. One question leads to another, and you brainstorm through things. Whether at the first meeting or promptly after engagement you need to suss out a few things. You can also ask them directly.How can we help them?How complete and solid are the company's legal documents, and in what areas does it need work? Are they ready to do that work?What jurisdictions (US and foreign) are implicated?Does the firm have the resources and competencies to serve the client? Is there a good personal and business fit?Are there any conflicts of interest?Which other lawyers is the client talking to? Do they seem to prefer a solo lawyer? Small firm? Big name?How likely is it to be a potential client, when, at what dollar level, and for what purpose? Can the company afford it, and if not what alternate billing arrangements make sense if any?Do we want to work with them? Does it fit our firm's mission?Are there any applicable regulations and regulatory risks to their business?How sophisticated, capable, and high level is the team?What's the likelihood of this company's growth and success?What are the likely growth paths? Funding? Acquisition? Long-term cash operation?Going to be a good client? Listen to advice? Keep things orderly? Likely to get into lots of trouble?Any actual or potential legal red flags, litigation, disputes? Common red flags include founder disputes, fundraising or solicitation that violates securities laws, lack of documentation, history of suing people or getting sued, financial duress, being underfunded and unfundable, not paying bills or firing their lawyers, labor and wage violations such as unpaid interns or treating employees as contractors, operating in a regulated field without a proper license or compliance, poor or no company structure, IP lost due to not being protected (or infringing 3rd party IP).Is the business operating in known territory where there are legal exemplars and best practices, or is it going to require lots of custom work?Free-form: brainstorm through the legal issues raised by their particular business model and product, consider whether it is in a field with a known way of operating and existing form agreements (e.g. e-commerce, contract development, renting out hotel rooms, etc.)What IP filings, risks, protections, potential infringement are present?What's the HR situation?A few things are absolutely required, either by bar ethics / law, or by your malpractice firm. These include a signed engagement agreement that clearly states who the client is and what the rates / fees will be, making sure you're competent to do the work, assessing any firm risk management issues, and running the client's friendlies and hostiles through a conflict check system.My firm's playing around with the idea of an online questionnaire or white paper, either to show the client in advance to demystify the engagement process, or to a client service specialists within the firm to standardize new client intake.

That’s a tough one because there are many ways a client can be “bad.” I’ll give you my top 3 signs that this is going to be a problem client:Unreasonable expectations - in every client intake session I go into detail about the fact that there is no way to know how long anything in litigation will take. Certainly some deadlines are set, 30 days to answer Interrogatories, etc., but as far as motions, trial settings, etc. - that is always the great unknown. “Bad” clients tend to call repeatedly wondering why ‘X’ hasn’t happened and I have to go through the whole process again while also explaining that I am not the one holding things up.Questioning/not following advice - the client has come to me because I have expertise in the area of commercial litigation. If they constantly question the advice I give them and/or refuse to follow it - it is not only annoying, it can impact my ability to represent them.Non-responsiveness - See No. 1, above. Some things DO have deadlines and, when I tell a client I need this document signed or I need this information produced by May 31st, I’m not making up an artificial deadline. Back before the courts accepted fax signatures and now e-filing, I did occasionally set artificial deadlines (saying I needed it 2 days before I absolutely had to have it) with some clients just to make sure things got to me in time to file. Those were some nail-biters, waiting for something to come across the fax that needed to be filed by 5:00 PM and rushing down to the courthouse or FedEx drop at that last minute - not fun.So those are my top 3 signs of a “bad” client. Some lawyers might also include the late paying clients, but that’s never been a huge issue for me as I’m very clear up front and in my engagement letter that, if they don’t pay on time, as expected, I will withdraw. And, as I’ve gotten older, I’m more and more serious that I will not work for free, so don’t even try me on that issue.