A phone menu for a law firm

Who is calling, and what do they need?

Prospective clients ask whether the firm handles a matter and how to arrange an initial conversation. Current clients may need their legal team or a time-sensitive update. Route by caller need, not practice-group jargon.

Keep the top-level menu in the caller’s language. In Auto Attendant each option does one thing: it rings up to three phones one after another (each for 10 to 60 seconds, never together), takes a voicemail, or plays a message and hangs up. Point each option at the person, or the shared phone, that actually handles this call, and add a backup only where a missed call costs you.

How law firm calls actually go

A law firm’s phone has two audiences with different needs: strangers deciding whether to hire you and clients who already trust you with something sensitive. The menu should separate them quickly, because the first group is time-pressured and comparing firms, and the second expects continuity with their own lawyer’s team.

Language matters more than usual. Callers rarely know the firm’s practice-area names, so “for a new legal matter” works better than “for litigation intake”. The greeting should also avoid anything that sounds like legal advice or a commitment to represent; its job is to route and to say when someone will respond.

Recommended menu

Scroll the table sideways to see every column.

Shaded text is a fill-in field: replace it with your own.

This example uses 3 menu options. Auto Attendant allows up to seven; add an option only when it sends a distinct kind of caller to a meaningfully different destination. A call that rings every phone you listed without an answer goes to voicemail. The menu can be in English, French or Spanish, and a line can also skip the menu and go straight to one action.

Greeting script

Business name. For a new legal matter enquiry, press 1. If you are an existing client, press 2. For a time-sensitive matter, press 3.

Shaded text is a fill-in field: replace it with your own.

24 words, about 10 seconds spoken at 150 words per minute. The estimate is calculated from the script above; allow extra time for pauses and clear delivery.

Read each reason before its key, as in “For a new enquiry, press 1”. Replace the shaded fields and any role or service wording before you type the greeting into the menu; a text-to-speech voice reads it to callers.

A worked example

Illustration: a five-lawyer firm offers 1 for a new matter, 2 for existing clients, 3 for time-sensitive matters. Option 1 rings the intake paralegal. Option 3 rings the duty lawyer’s mobile, and a call the duty lawyer misses goes to voicemail. The voicemail after option 1 asks for name, number, and “a brief description of what you need help with, without confidential details”.

Where it breaks: a firm lists option 3 as “urgent” without defining the term, and every anxious caller presses it. Within a week the duty lawyer’s mobile is a general line. The remedy is a definition in the greeting (“for a court deadline in the next two business days”) and an owner who is allowed to say no.

After hours, weekends, and holidays

Give the next business opening time and explain whether an after-hours contact is monitored. Do not imply that leaving a message creates an engagement or that it will be reviewed immediately.

Set the next staffed date and time explicitly. If a duty contact is available, make the scope and coverage window clear in the greeting.

Outside the hours you set, Auto Attendant plays your closed message and then takes a voicemail or ends the call; it does not forward calls after hours, and holidays are closed all day. Where the advice above mentions an on-call route, either keep that person’s option within your set hours or give the arrangement in the closed message.

Check the greeting after every schedule change. A voicemail arrives by email with the recording attached and a transcript when one is produced, but it does not make the call live or guarantee a response time.

Rules and standards worth knowing

Lawyers’ duties are set state by state, but nearly every state follows the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct, which address confidentiality, conflicts and the treatment of people who consult a lawyer without yet becoming clients 12. The Model Rules are not binding on their own, so check your own state’s version. The practical consequence for a phone menu is to keep the greeting and the voicemail prompt from inviting detailed confidential disclosures before anyone has run a conflict check.

Voicemail is also a recording of the caller. Federal law permits recording where one party consents 3, but many states require all parties to consent, and the Reporters Committee’s state guide is a quick way to see which rule applies in your jurisdiction 4. Auto Attendant does not record calls; voicemail callers know they are leaving a message. If you add recording elsewhere, follow the stricter state rule.

Accessibility duties apply to law offices as places of public accommodation, including effective communication with people who have hearing or speech disabilities 56. Offer a non-voice route and honour relay-service calls 7.

This is general information, not legal advice. Rules differ by state and change; confirm anything that affects your business with the source or an adviser.

Common menu mistakes

• Using practice-area labels a first-time caller may not recognise.
• Promising a callback time the firm cannot keep.
• Routing confidential matter details to a mobile that many people share.

Keep the greeting short, use the same names callers see elsewhere, and make sure every route has a sensible end when nobody picks up.

Check the menu before you publish it

• Have a partner approve the wording of any “time-sensitive” option and its definition.
• Make the voicemail prompt ask for contact details first and discourage confidential facts.
• Confirm which state’s recording rules apply to any call recording your office does separately.
• Check that no route sends a prospective client’s message to an unmonitored shared mailbox.
• Test the number from a mobile and from a landline.

Related guides and templates

• Accounting and bookkeeping firm: phone menu guide
• Insurance agency: phone menu guide
• Real estate brokerage: phone menu guide
• After-hours greeting: call-flow template
• Role mailbox greeting: call-flow template
• Service versus sales submenu: call-flow template
• Call routing and menu design
• What is an auto attendant?
• Auto attendant or answering service
• Frequently asked questions