Deployment blueprint
Twenty-two lawyers across litigation, family, real estate and corporate practice groups, each partner paired with an assistant, and an intake desk that has to screen new callers without creating a conflict. This blueprint shows how 3CTel designs it.
For a law firm, 3CTel routes callers by practice group, pairs each partner with an assistant on a shared line, and uses an AI intake agent to collect a prospective client's name, matter type and opposing party before handing the file to staff for a conflict check. Court-day schedules route a lawyer's calls to the assistant. Recording rules for privileged calls are set with the firm and applied per line.
Deployment blueprint: a representative, anonymized scenario compiled from how 3CTel implements this kind of organization. No client is named and no result figures are stated; every parameter is a configuration choice we design with you.
A firm of this size takes three kinds of calls: existing clients who want their lawyer or the assistant who actually knows where the file is, prospective clients who need to be screened before anyone gives them a minute of advice, and the constant traffic of courts, opposing counsel, registries and process servers. Litigators are in court on unpredictable days. Real estate closings cluster at month-end. Family law calls are often distressed and sometimes urgent.
Prospective clients cannot be taken on until a conflict check has been run against the firm's database of clients and adverse parties. Intake staff are trained to collect the right details without hearing more than they should. The firm wants that discipline preserved if an AI answers first.
Communications with clients may be privileged. The firm's policy on recording is that lawyer lines are not recorded, the intake desk may be, and accounting calls are not. It wants those rules applied by line, not by individual choice, and documented.
Callers hear a short greeting and choose a practice group, a person by name, or 'I am a new client'. Known callers matched to a matter in the practice-management system skip the menu and ring the responsible lawyer's paired line.
Conceptual illustration of the 3CTel interface — not a screenshot
| When | Then |
|---|---|
| Caller ID matches an open matter | Skip menu; ring responsible lawyer and assistant; whisper with client and matter |
| Practice group chosen | Group ring order: assistant pool, then lawyers on duty, then group voicemail |
| Dial by name | Paired lawyer and assistant line; voicemail with transcript to both |
| New client, in hours | Intake queue; AI intake when wait exceeds threshold |
| New client, after hours | AI intake; distressed or urgent family-law callers offered the on-call lawyer |
| Lawyer in court-day mode | Calls ring the assistant only; lawyer receives a transcript, not a ring |
| Accounting | Accounting ring group; no recording on this path |
Decide who answers, in what order, and what happens when they cannot.
Learn more: Call routingA recorded greeting that answers the main number and lets callers pick a destination or dial an extension.
Learn more: Auto attendantPartner extensions, assistant coverage and call records for firms that bill their time.
Learn more: Professional ServicesConceptual illustration of the 3CTel interface — not a screenshot
Collects the caller's name, contact details, the type of matter, the name of the other party or parties, any deadline the caller mentions and how they heard of the firm. Explains that a person will confirm whether the firm can act. Produces an intake record and transcript for the intake clerk.
Takes messages for existing clients and delivers them to the lawyer and assistant with a transcript. A caller who says the matter is urgent is offered the on-call lawyer.
Books consultations only after the conflict check is cleared and the intake clerk marks the file as open to booking; the AI reads that flag from the practice-management system.
Answers, understands and books — in English and French.
Learn more: AI ReceptionistAnswers, books, takes messages and hands off to a person, in English or French.
Learn more: AI receptionistA plan for every call that arrives after closing, on a weekend or on a holiday.
Learn more: After-hours callsEach lawyer's direct line rings the lawyer and their assistant together on desk phones and apps, and voicemail goes to both. Assistants can answer for several lawyers, and the whisper tells them which line rang. Lawyers who share an assistant are grouped so the assistant sees one queue rather than four ringing phones.
Court-day routing is driven by the lawyer's calendar where the practice-management system exposes it, or by a status the lawyer sets from the mobile app. In court-day mode the lawyer's phone does not ring; the assistant answers, and the lawyer receives transcripts. Outbound calls from the mobile app show the firm's number.
Conceptual illustration of the 3CTel interface — not a screenshot
Intake runs as a small Contact Centre queue with two clerks and a supervisor. New callers reach a clerk first when one is free; the AI answers when the wait passes a threshold. Every intake, whether by clerk or AI, produces the same record for the conflict check. A callback is offered when a clerk needs to complete the check before answering the caller's question about next steps.
Conceptual illustration of the 3CTel interface — not a screenshot
The practice-management system is the source of matters, responsible lawyers and calendars. The phone system reads it by API to match callers to matters and to detect court days, and writes call logs and intake records back. Document management receives fax filings and voicemail transcripts through an automation platform. The scope and interfaces are agreed in planning and confirmed before activation; nothing is described as native.
When recording helps, how callers and staff are informed, and how access and retention are set.
Learn more: Call recordingWhat the phone service processes, who can see it, and how retention and deletion are handled.
Learn more: Privacy of call dataWhy the registered address matters, how it is confirmed at setup, and how to keep it current.
Learn more: 9-1-1 on VoIPWhat happens to calls during an internet or power outage, and how failover is planned with you.
Learn more: Service continuityMap practice groups, lawyer and assistant pairs, the on-call rota and the recording policy. Agree in writing what the intake AI collects and what it must not say.
Confirm matter lookup, calendar reads and record writes on test matters before any live call.
Configure menus, paired lines, intake queue and AI prompts on temporary numbers; the managing partner and intake supervisor run sample calls.
Port both office numbers and the fax line on an agreed date outside month-end closings, with forwarding until the port completes.
The firm receives dashboards for answer time by practice group, intake queue waits and AI intakes versus clerk intakes, time from intake to conflict-check completion, court-day calls handled by assistants, after-hours escalations to the on-call lawyer, and recording coverage against the firm's policy. These are instruments, not results claimed in advance.
No. It collects the names and matter details a person needs and stops there. An intake clerk runs the conflict check in the firm's own system and decides whether the firm can act. Only after the clerk clears the file can the AI book a consultation. 3CTel configures that hand-off as a rule rather than a suggestion.
Court-day mode is set from the lawyer's calendar or a one-tap status in the mobile app. The lawyer's line then rings only the assistant, who sees a whisper naming the caller and matter, and the lawyer receives voicemail transcripts. Outbound calls the lawyer makes from the courthouse still show the firm's number.
Not in this design. Lawyer lines are excluded from recording as a matter of firm policy, and the exclusion is applied to the line group rather than left to individual settings. The intake queue is recorded with an announcement. Retention for those recordings is set with the firm.
Conceptual illustration of the 3CTel interface — not a screenshot
Partner extensions, assistant coverage and call records for firms that bill their time.
Learn more: Professional ServicesAnswers, understands and books — in English and French.
Learn more: AI ReceptionistReliable calling with routing your team will actually use.
Learn more: Business PhoneFax by email and web — without keeping a dedicated phone line alive.
Learn more: Online FaxDecide who answers, in what order, and what happens when they cannot.
Learn more: Call routingWhen recording helps, how callers and staff are informed, and how access and retention are set.
Learn more: Call recordingYes. The fax number is ported to online fax and filings arrive as documents in the practice group's inbox, with outbound faxes sent from the desktop app and a delivery log kept.
Yes. An assistant is paired with as many lawyers as the firm decides. The whisper announces which lawyer's line rang and the caller's name where known, so the assistant answers correctly.
Name, contact details, matter type, the other party's name, any deadline mentioned and how they found the firm. It does not ask for a detailed account of the facts and does not give advice.
Yes. Recording is configured per line group, so a change in policy is applied to the group and documented, without touching individual phones.
A 3CTel specialist maps practice groups, lawyer and assistant pairs, court-day rules and your recording policy, then builds and tests the design on temporary numbers before porting.
