Law Firm Case Study: 24/7 Bilingual AI Intake

Overview

The client is a three-attorney personal injury and immigration firm in Los Angeles with two paralegals and one front-desk hire who works nine to six, in English. Four in ten inquiries came in Spanish and nearly four in ten came after hours. Attorneys were answering their own phones between hearings and spending a good part of every week on calls that never became matters.

Gain Rhino replaced the voicemail and the overflow line with an AI intake that works across the phone line, the website chat and SMS. It detects the caller's language, asks the practice-specific screening questions the attorneys wrote, runs a basic conflict check against the CRM, and books a consultation with the right attorney. The attorney gets a one-page summary in the CRM before the meeting; the caller gets a confirmation in their own language.

Research

We logged 45 days of inquiries across every channel: about 310 a month. Thirty-eight percent arrived after 6 PM or on weekends and went to voicemail. Forty-one percent were in Spanish, and the firm had exactly one bilingual paralegal who was also doing case work. Attorneys estimated nine hours a week on intake calls that did not become clients.

The attorneys wrote the screening questions themselves for each practice area: incident date and injuries for personal injury, current status and deadlines for immigration. We agreed on what the AI may decide (book, decline politely with a referral list) and what it must flag to a human the same day, such as a statute of limitations that is close or a detention case. The intake never gives legal advice, states that clearly, and records consent before any recording.

Result

Every inquiry is now answered in the caller's language at any hour, screened with the attorneys' own questions, and either booked or referred out. Attorneys open a summary instead of taking the call. The bilingual paralegal is back on case work. Urgent matters reach an attorney the same hour with a flag on the summary.

By the numbers (first 90 days):

• Inquiries answered100%, up from about 60%
• Spanish-language inquiries handled without a bilingual staffer41% of all intake
• Consultations booked per monthup 38%
• Attorney hours spent on unqualified callsdown roughly 70%
• Median time from inquiry to booked consultation6 minutes, down from the next business day

Client identity withheld at their request. Figures reflect the first 90 days after launch.