How to Automate Client Intake for Law Firms Using n8n
Lawyers bill by the hour. Admin work doesn't bill at all.
Client intake is one of the worst offenders. A potential client fills out a contact form. Someone on staff manually enters them into the CRM. Someone else sends a welcome email and the intake questionnaire. Another person follows up two days later if the form hasn't come back. Someone else schedules the consultation. None of that requires a law degree.
Here's how to automate the whole chain with n8n.
What You're Building
A workflow that:
- Captures new intake form submissions
- Creates the contact in your CRM automatically
- Sends a personalized welcome email with the intake questionnaire
- Follows up automatically if the questionnaire isn't returned in 48 hours
- Notifies the attorney when a completed intake comes in
- Schedules the initial consultation based on real calendar availability
The whole thing runs without anyone touching it.
What You Need
- n8n (self-hosted or cloud — cloud is easier to start)
- Your intake form tool (Typeform, JotForm, Gravity Forms, or whatever you use)
- A CRM (Clio, MyCase, Salesforce, HubSpot — all have n8n integrations)
- Gmail or Outlook for the email steps
- A scheduling tool like Calendly or Acuity (optional but recommended)
Step 1: Set Up the Trigger
In n8n, create a new workflow and add a Webhook node as the trigger. This gives you a URL that your intake form will post to when someone submits it.
In your form tool, go to the integrations or webhooks section and paste that URL. From that point on, every new form submission fires the workflow.
If you use Typeform, n8n has a native Typeform trigger node — even easier, no webhook setup needed.
Step 2: Create the CRM Contact
Add a node for your CRM. If you use Clio:
- Action: Create Matter or Create Contact
- Map the form fields: name, email, phone, case type, how they heard about you
If you use HubSpot or Salesforce, the setup is nearly identical. Map the form fields to the CRM fields, save.
Now every intake form submission creates a contact automatically without anyone doing data entry.
Step 3: Send the Welcome Email
Add a Gmail or Outlook node.
- To: the email from the form submission
- Subject: "Thanks for reaching out — here's what's next"
- Body: a short, warm message explaining what happens next and including a link to the intake questionnaire (if you didn't capture everything in the initial form)
Keep the email short. People who just submitted a form don't want to read an essay.
Step 4: Add a 48-Hour Follow-Up
Add a Wait node set to 48 hours.
After the wait, add an If node that checks whether the intake questionnaire has been completed. How you check this depends on your setup — you might check for a tag in the CRM, a field update, or a second webhook from the questionnaire form.
If not completed: send a short follow-up email. One sentence. "Just checking in — did you get a chance to fill out the intake form? Here's the link again."
If completed: skip the follow-up and move to the next step.
Step 5: Notify the Attorney
When the intake comes in complete, send a Slack message or email to the responsible attorney with a summary: client name, case type, key details from the intake, and a link to the CRM record.
They should never have to go hunting for this information.
Step 6: Send the Scheduling Link
At the same time as the attorney notification, send the client a scheduling email with a direct Calendly or Acuity link. Let them pick a time that works without any back-and-forth.
If you want to get more sophisticated, you can use the Calendly API in n8n to pull available slots and embed them directly in the email rather than sending them to a landing page.
What This Saves
A typical law firm intake process takes 45-90 minutes of staff time per lead across all the manual steps. For a firm handling 20 new inquiries a month, that's 15-30 hours of admin work eliminated every month.
More importantly: response time drops from hours or days to minutes. Leads who get a response in the first hour are significantly more likely to retain you than those who wait until the next business day.
What to Build Next
Once intake is running, two natural extensions:
Document collection. Add a step that creates a client folder in Google Drive or SharePoint automatically and sends a document request for the initial paperwork.
Conflict check. Add a step that searches your CRM for the opposing party name and flags any potential conflicts before the consultation is scheduled.
Both can be added to the same workflow.
If you want this built for your firm's specific stack, whether you're on Clio, MyCase, or a custom setup, Aplos AI builds these for law firms at a fixed price. Most intake automation builds come in under $6,000 and recover that cost in the first two months.
Running a different practice management system? Drop it in the comments.
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