Starting a law firm: the phone and intake checklist
Opening a practice means a practising certificate, insurance and a trust account, and most checklists stop there. This guide covers the part they leave out: the number clients will ring, who answers when you are in court, what the first call has to capture, and where the record of it goes. The regulatory steps are set out for Victoria, and the phone and intake steps apply anywhere in Australia.
General information, not legal advice
This guide is general information for lawyers setting up a practice. It is not legal advice, and the regulatory steps differ between states and change over time, so check them with your regulator and law society before relying on them.
The regulatory steps come first
In Victoria these are set by the Legal Profession Uniform Law and the Victorian Legal Services Board and Commissioner. New South Wales and Western Australia are also Uniform Law states, with their own regulators, and the other states and territories have their own Acts.
A principal practising certificate
To practise as a principal you need a practising certificate that authorises it. In Victoria, an applicant for a principal practising certificate must complete an approved practice management course, which providers such as the College of Law and Leo Cussen run.
Notice to the Board before you start
A new law practice must notify the Victorian Legal Services Board of its intention to engage in legal practice before it starts. The form differs for a sole practice, an unincorporated partnership and an incorporated legal practice.
Professional indemnity insurance
A lawyer in private practice in Victoria must be covered by an approved PII policy before they can practise. The Legal Practitioners' Liability Committee generally issues these policies, and a lawyer with a policy from another insurer must apply for an exemption.
Trust money
If the practice will receive money on behalf of clients, the trust account rules apply from the first deposit, and the Board's trust account guidance sets out what is required before money comes in.
Decide what number clients will ring
The number you give your first client ends up on your website, your Google Business Profile, your law society listing, your letterhead, your email signature and every directory that copies them. Changing it a year later means chasing all of those, so it is worth choosing the right number before the first client has it.
Most new practices do best with one ordinary Australian number per lawyer, kept separate from the lawyer's personal mobile and able to be ported between providers. A personal mobile looks free, but clients will ring and text it at all hours, it is hard to take back, and calls on it leave no record on the file. A 1300 number looks established, but it is an inbound number that rings through to another line, and it carries a rental and usually call charges. A second number in an app on the phone you already carry gives you a business line without a second handset, and our page on business phone apps for lawyers sets out the options.
Decide who answers when you cannot
A new practice is usually one lawyer, and that lawyer cannot answer in a hearing, in a client meeting or on the road. A prospective client who reaches voicemail often rings the next firm instead of leaving a message, and in the first year every one of those calls matters. There are four common answers: voicemail, diverting the line to someone else, a human answering service that takes messages, and an automated service that takes the intake and books a call back.
Each has a different cost as the calls grow. Our guide to what an answering service costs works through published 2026 prices at 30, 80 and 150 calls a month, and the comparison of AI and human answering sets out where a person is still the better answer.
Write the intake questions before the first call
Whoever answers, the first call has to collect enough to open a file and run a conflict check, or it has only created another call to make. Six things cover most practice areas: the caller's full name and the number they want called back on, the other party's full name, the matter in the caller's own words, any date that is close, what they want to happen next, and how they found the firm. The last one is the only way a new practice learns which of its marketing is working. Our page on the law firm answering service explains why each question is there.
Decide where the record of each call goes
Much of a matter's history begins on the phone, and a call with no note on the file is a call nobody can prove happened. Choose your practice management system for how you work and what you practise, then check that your phone files into it, so each call leaves a note on the matter without anyone retyping it. Our guide to file notes for phone calls covers what belongs on the matter and how long to keep it.
If calls are transcribed or recorded, callers must be told at the start, and the guide to recording client calls sets out what the announcement has to say in each state. It is also worth setting one rule on day one that you never break: payment instructions are never changed on the strength of a call or an email. The Victorian Legal Services Board advises checking any change with the client directly, and settlement fraud now reaches firms by phone as well as email.
- One business number per lawyer. A real Australian number that can be ported, so you keep it if you change provider. Not your personal mobile.
- The number in every place a client will look. Your website, your Google Business Profile, your law society listing, your letterhead and your email signature, all the same number.
- A plan for calls you cannot take. Voicemail, a diverted line, a human answering service or an automated one. Decide before the first court day, not after.
- Written intake questions. The caller's name and callback number, the other party's full name for the conflict check, the matter in their words, any close date, what they want next, and how they found you.
- A practice management system the phone files into. So every call leaves a note on the matter without anyone retyping it.
- A transcription or recording announcement. If calls are transcribed or recorded, callers are told at the start of every call.
- A rule for payment details. Payment instructions are never changed on the strength of a call or an email, and are confirmed with the client on a number already on file.
- A business number for texting clients. So texts are on the business line, and on the file, not on your personal phone.
How EzyBiz LEX covers the phone side
EzyBiz LEX was built for a practice at exactly this stage. Each lawyer gets an Australian business number in an app on the phone they already carry, and an automated answering service picks up in the firm's name when they cannot, takes the intake and books a call back. Every call and text is written up as a file note and filed to Smokeball or SharePoint, with Clio filing in development. It costs A$79.99 a month per lawyer with GST included, with no contract and nothing charged per call, and setup is a two-minute phone call. Our page for sole practitioners walks through a day with it.
Questions new firm owners ask about phones
Only if you have a reason to. A 1300 number looks established, but it is an inbound number that rings through to another line, it carries a monthly rental and usually call charges, and it adds a step between the client and you. Most new practices do well with one ordinary Australian number per lawyer that can be ported between providers, so it never has to change.
You can, but you will want to stop within a year. Clients will ring and text it at all hours, it ends up on letterhead and directories that are hard to change later, and there is no record of the call on the file. A separate business number on the same phone avoids all three.
Rarely. Most new practices are one lawyer, and a receptionist is a salary before there is revenue to pay it. What you do need from day one is a plan for the calls you cannot take, because a new client who reaches voicemail has other firms to ring.
Choose the one that suits how you work and what you practise, then check that your phone files into it. The phone is where much of the matter's history starts, and a system the phone cannot file into leaves you writing call notes by hand.
Yes, in every state, as long as the caller is told at the start. Our guide to recording client calls in Australia sets out what the announcement has to say and what the Privacy Act adds.
Primary sources and further reading
Every section reference and figure in this guide traces to one of these. They are listed so you can check the guide rather than take its word for it.
- Practice management course guidelines for Victoria, Victorian Legal Services Board and Commissioner, on the course an applicant for a principal practising certificate must complete
- Unincorporated legal practices and the Uniform Law, Victorian Legal Services Board and Commissioner, on notifying the Board before starting to practise
- Incorporated legal practices and the Uniform Law, Victorian Legal Services Board and Commissioner
- Professional indemnity insurance, Victorian Legal Services Board and Commissioner, on the approved PII policy needed before practising in Victoria
- Cybercrime a growing threat to lawyers and clients, Victorian Legal Services Board and Commissioner, on checking payment instructions directly with the client
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