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Attorney review and engagement

Reviewing flagged intakes, accepting or declining, engagements with a defined scope, and requests that fall outside it.

For: OwnerAttorney

On this page

An intake that raised a flag waits for an attorney. An engagement records what the firm agreed to do, for whom, and on what terms. Both are attorney work in LegalBook.

Review an intake

Intakes waiting for you appear in Intake reviews in the Attorney workspace and on your attorney home.

  1. Open the intake. The left side shows the review packet and the full answers, including attorney-only flags.
  2. Acknowledge each flag.
  3. Choose Proceed, Return for more info, Decline or Refer.
  4. A note is required unless you proceed. Declining or referring needs a reason.
  5. Optionally record it as an attorney decision on the record.

By default the firm expects a decision within one business day, and the review joins the attorney's service-level clock.

When the firm owner counts as the attorney

A firm owner is treated as the attorney for intake decisions while the firm setting firm owner is attorney is on (the default). Turn it off if your owner is not a lawyer.

Engagements

An engagement records the people represented, the matter types, the scope items, the fee structure, the conflict check it relies on and the linked documents (engagement letter, fee agreement, scope amendments). Find them in Engagements in the Firm workspace.

An engagement moves through draft, offered, signed and active, and can be declined, expired, terminated or withdrawn.

The actions available depend on your role and the engagement's state: Edit, Offer, Approve for offer, Record signature, Activate, Decline, Revise, Amend scope and Terminate / Withdraw.

The firm's safe defaults:

  • An offer needs a fresh cleared or waived conflict search.
  • An attorney sends or pre-approves the offer, and an engagement letter must be linked first.
  • Offers expire after 30 days by default (a firm setting).
  • The engagement becomes active when it is signed, and a matter opens from it when the firm has turned that on.
  • Scope changes after signing need an amendment.
  • Terminating or withdrawing is an attorney's act and needs evidence that the client was notified.

Clients can sign in the client portal, or the firm records a paper signature with Record signature. Not available yet: collecting the signature through an outside e-signature service. See Translation and signatures.

Out-of-scope requests

When a client asks for work outside the engagement's scope, staff log an out-of-scope request. It appears in Out-of-scope requests in the Firm workspace, and attorneys also see it in Escalations. Declining or referring it is an attorney's decision by default. Resolving it may lead to a scope amendment.