Build a Custom Voice AI for Legal Intake and Scheduling
The top voice AI providers for legal firms are API platforms like Twilio and Vonage. These services provide the core telephony, but a custom system is needed for legal-specific intake and scheduling logic.
We built an intake system for a 7-attorney family law practice that was losing 20% of inbound calls to voicemail. The new system went live in 3 weeks. It now handles 95% of intake calls, qualifies leads with 5 key questions, and books qualified consultations directly into attorney calendars.
The complexity depends on your case management system (CMS) and scheduling rules. A firm using Clio with simple calendar blocking is a direct build. A firm integrating with a custom-built SQL database and multi-attorney availability logic requires more discovery.
What Problem Does This Solve?
Most firms try to solve intake with virtual receptionists or basic phone tracking software. Services like Smith.ai use human agents, which creates a bottleneck and introduces high variable costs. A receptionist can only handle one call at a time and per-minute fees for a firm handling 300 calls a month can exceed $1,000.
A personal injury firm we worked with saw this failure firsthand. After a TV ad ran, their call volume surged from 10 to 40 calls per hour. Their receptionist service was overwhelmed, callers were put on hold, and 15 potential high-value cases were lost to voicemail in a single evening. Human-gated systems cannot handle spikes in demand.
Other tools like CallRail are designed for marketing attribution, not interactive intake. They can record calls and provide transcripts, but they cannot ask follow-up questions, check a lawyer's calendar availability via API, or create a new matter in your CMS. This leaves your staff with hours of manual work listening to voicemails and transcribing details, a process that takes 6-8 minutes per potential client.
How Does It Work?
We begin by mapping your firm's exact intake script and scheduling logic into a state machine. We use Twilio's Programmable Voice API to receive all incoming calls. The entire system is deployed as a series of AWS Lambda functions connected by an API Gateway, which keeps infrastructure costs under $50/month even at a volume of 10,000 calls.
For the conversational component, we pipe the audio stream to AWS Transcribe for real-time speech-to-text. The transcription is then sent to the Claude 3 Sonnet API. A carefully engineered prompt guides the model to ask your specific qualifying questions, extract key entities like name and case type, and summarize the caller's issue. The full round-trip latency from when a caller finishes speaking to when the AI responds is under 800ms, creating a natural conversational flow.
Once the required information is collected, the system takes action. We write a Python service using httpx for asynchronous API calls to your case management software, whether it is Clio, MyCase, or a custom internal tool. This creates a new contact and matter, preventing duplicate data entry. For scheduling, the system connects directly to Google Calendar or Microsoft 365 APIs to find and book an available slot on the correct attorney's calendar. The entire intake and scheduling process is completed in 90 seconds.
After every call, a complete transcript and structured summary are posted to a dedicated Slack channel and logged in a Supabase database. We implement structlog for detailed logging of every function execution and API call. If the AI fails to understand a caller after two attempts, the call is automatically forwarded to your office line with the conversation context, ensuring a failure rate of under 2% and no lost leads.
What Are the Key Benefits?
Live in 3 Weeks, Not 3 Quarters
Go from discovery to a live production system in 15 business days. Your firm starts qualifying and scheduling clients automatically, not after a lengthy implementation.
Pay Once for a Permanent Asset
A single fixed-price build with no per-call or per-seat fees. Your only ongoing cost is direct AWS and Twilio usage, typically under $100/month.
Your Code, Your Cloud, Your Control
You receive the full Python source code in your firm's GitHub repository. The system runs in your own AWS account, giving you full control and no vendor lock-in.
Fails Gracefully, Alerts Instantly
If the AI cannot handle a request, the call is seamlessly transferred to a human operator. You get a Slack notification with the transcript for immediate analysis.
Connects Directly to Your CMS
Native API integrations with Clio, MyCase, and PracticePanther. New client matters are created automatically, eliminating manual data entry between systems.
What Does the Process Look Like?
Logic Mapping (Week 1)
You provide your exact intake questionnaire and calendar rules. We get read-only API access to your CMS and calendar to map all integration points.
Core System Build (Week 2)
We build the voice agent using Python, the Claude API, and Twilio. You receive a private phone number to test the agent's conversational flow and provide feedback.
Integration & Deployment (Week 3)
We connect the agent to your live CMS and calendar APIs. The system is deployed to your AWS account, and your firm's main phone number is ported over.
Monitoring & Handoff (Weeks 4-6)
We monitor 100% of live calls for two weeks to tune AI prompts and handle edge cases. You receive a technical runbook and full ownership of the system.
Frequently Asked Questions
- How is the project cost determined?
- Cost is based on two factors: the number of unique questions in your intake script and the complexity of your scheduling logic. A linear script with round-robin scheduling is a standard 3-week build. A branching script with multi-attorney, location-based availability rules may take 4 weeks. We provide a fixed-price quote after the discovery call.
- What happens if a caller has a strong accent or there is background noise?
- The system is designed to handle this. If AWS Transcribe returns a low-confidence transcription, the AI will ask the caller to repeat themselves. If confidence is still low after a second attempt, the call is automatically routed to your front desk. The audio recording and failed transcript are logged for review, which helps us tune the model.
- How is this different than a service like Law-ruler?
- Law-ruler is a full CRM that includes some phone automation features as part of a larger platform. They are not customizable to your specific workflow. Syntora builds a dedicated, purpose-built AI agent that executes your exact intake process and integrates with your existing CMS. We build the missing piece, not replace your entire software stack.
- How do you handle client confidentiality and privileged information?
- The entire system runs within your own dedicated AWS account, not on a shared, multi-tenant platform. All data, including call recordings and transcripts, is encrypted at rest and in transit. We can sign a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) for HIPAA compliance if necessary. Your data never leaves an environment you control.
- What if we need to change our intake questions after launch?
- The intake questions are stored in a simple configuration file, not hard-coded into the Python logic. The runbook we deliver includes instructions on how to edit this file to change, add, or remove questions. For more complex logic changes, we offer a flat monthly maintenance plan or can scope a new fixed-price engagement.
- Do we need an engineer on staff to maintain this system?
- No. The system is built on serverless infrastructure (AWS Lambda), which requires no server management from you. It is designed to run without intervention. The optional maintenance plan covers any issues, and the handoff documentation covers common troubleshooting steps. You only need a developer if you decide you want to extend the core code yourself.
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