Training for the people who take first calls: what to say at each stage, how to handle the fee and the hard questions, and where the line sits so they never give legal advice.
The caller says: A caller who has never spoken to a lawyer, nervous, and unsure they are in the right place.
"Law office, how can I help you? ... Okay, what is your last name? Phone number?"
The caller is a ticket before they are a person.
"Thank you for calling [firm]. This is Dana. May I ask your name? ... Thank you, Maria. Tell me what is going on, and I will ask a few questions so the attorney has what she needs."
The name is used, the reason for the questions is stated, and the caller is told what is coming.
The caller says: "That is more than I expected."
"I know, I know. Let me see if the attorney can do something."
The fee is discounted before the caller has decided anything, and the person has now promised something that is not theirs to promise.
"I understand. What were you expecting? ... The consultation is [the firm's fee] and it is the hour where the attorney hears everything and tells you the next step. I can hold Thursday at ten until noon tomorrow if you want to think it over."
The concern is understood before it is answered, the fee is not apologized for, and a slot is held.
The caller says: "I am calling a few firms before I decide."
"Sure, no problem. Call us back if you decide to come in."
The call ends and the firm never hears from them again.
"That makes sense, it is an important choice. What matters most to you in the firm you pick? ... Then I would suggest the consultation, so you can hear how the attorney works. I can hold Thursday at ten, and I will call you tomorrow at noon either way."
Respect for the comparison, a question about what matters, and an agreed follow-up call.
The most careful, service-minded people on an intake desk are the ones most likely to soften the fee, avoid the ask or wait for the caller to decide. The behavior is not a knowledge gap. It is a pattern that fires under pressure, and it can be named, measured and changed.
The pre-hire screen shows which candidates will avoid the ask before the offer is made. See the pre-hire screen.
Training fades unless the desk has a routine. The routine is small: the intake manager scores three to five recorded calls per person each week, including at least one that did not book. The weekly one-to-one opens with the scorecard: here is the item you skipped on three of five calls, here is the line, let us say it twice now, and next week I will count it. Nothing else is on the agenda until that item moves.
Each person is assessed with the R2R Assessment first, so the coaching goes to the moment they are most likely to avoid, not the whole desk.
Scope, plainly: everything on this site concerns the conversation that turns an inquiry into an engagement. Nothing here is legal advice, nothing touches the legal work or the attorney's judgment, and any wording a firm adopts is reviewed by the firm against its jurisdiction's rules on attorney advertising, solicitation and fee communication before it is used.
Dr. Jeffrey Scott Stanton, DCH is a behavioral strategist and the founder and Chief Learning Officer of R2R Diagnostic Group. He is the former EVP of Learning & Development at Douglas Elliman Real Estate, where he trained sales professionals on the conversations that turn an inquiry into a commitment. He applies the same method, the R2R Assessment and a 14-item call-review scorecard, to law firm intake teams. The work is the conversation only; legal questions and judgment stay with the attorney.
More on the method, the scripts, the dialogues and the scorecard is on the legal intake pages at jeffreyscottstanton.com.
Send a handful of recordings or transcripts and get a scored review by person.