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Client intake and CRM software for law firms compared by firm size: what each tool does, what it costs and how it hands off to documents.
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Client intake and customer relationship management (CRM) software collects a prospective client's information, tracks the lead until the client signs and hands the matter to the firm's other systems. The right tool depends on firm size. Solo and small firms usually need intake forms that feed documents, mid-sized and high-volume firms need a CRM with follow-up, and large firms need intake tied to conflicts checking.
Last updated November 10, 2026. We checked every product detail on each vendor's own website and help center between November 3 and November 10, 2026. Gavel makes Gavel Workflows.
Client intake software replaces the phone notes, paper forms and email back-and-forth a firm uses to learn about a new matter. The client or a staff member fills in an online form, the answers land in one record, and the firm runs a conflicts check and decides whether to take the case.
A legal CRM covers the stretch before that. It captures inquiries from the website, phone and ads, moves each lead through stages such as contacted, consultation booked and hired, sends reminders and follow-up messages, and reports which marketing sources produce clients. Practice management software, such as Clio Manage or MyCase, takes over once the client is hired and runs the matter, the calendar and billing.
Some tools do one of these jobs and connect to the others. Others, like MyCase and Smokeball, put intake inside the practice management system, and a third group, including Gavel Workflows, turns the intake answers into the documents the matter needs.
The ten tools below cover the three ways firms buy intake: built into practice management, as a standalone CRM, or as document automation with intake at the front. The table shows who each tool fits, the firm size we suggest it for, its price and how to try it.
| Tool | Best for | Suggested firm size | Type | Price | Free trial |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gavel Workflows | Intake that ends in finished documents | Solo, small and mid-sized | Document automation with client intake and a client portal | From $83 per month | 7 days, no credit card |
| Clio Grow | Firms on Clio Manage | Solo to mid-sized | Legal CRM inside Clio's suite | Included in Clio's Elite plan; add-on for Core and Signature. Clio plans start at $49 per user per month. Grow AI billed per hired matter | 7-day Clio trial, no credit card |
| MyCase | Firms that want intake, cases and billing in one system | Solo and small | Practice management with intake forms and a CRM | Pro: $100 per user per month billed yearly, $120 billed monthly | 10 days, no credit card |
| Smokeball | Small firms that want intake forms to fill the matter | Small | Practice management with intake | Not published. Intake included in Prosper+, add-on for Boost and Grow | None listed; demo |
| Lawmatics | Growing firms that want a marketing CRM | Small to mid-sized (3-user minimum) | Standalone legal CRM | Not published; quoted after a demo | First month free offered through a demo |
| Law Ruler | High-volume phone intake, especially personal injury and mass tort | Mid-sized and large intake teams | Legal CRM with a built-in softphone | Not published; one-time onboarding fee on Pro and Premium; billed monthly on an annual term | No free version; demo |
| Lead Docket | Lead tracking with AI case summaries, especially on Filevine | Mid-sized | Lead management from Filevine | Not published; custom quote | Demo |
| CasePeer | Plaintiff personal injury firms | Small to mid-sized | Personal injury case management with intake | Pro, which adds client intake management: $130 per user per month (Basic $90, Advanced $160) | Demo |
| Litify | High-volume intake inside an all-in-one platform | Mid-sized and large | Legal platform on Salesforce infrastructure | Not published | Demo |
| Intapp Intake | New business intake, risk approval and conflicts | Large | Business acceptance and onboarding | Not published | Demo |
A solo or small firm should start with the system it already runs. If that system has no intake, or the intake stops at a form, add a tool that turns the client's answers into the documents the firm sends next. A full marketing CRM is usually more than a small firm needs.
Gavel Workflows is no-code legal document automation with client intake built in. Clients answer a questionnaire that carries the firm's name, logo and colors, on a computer or phone. Conditional logic shows each client only the questions that apply, and clients can save their progress and come back later. The answers collect in Gavel's Data Manager and fill the firm's Word and PDF templates, so one questionnaire produces the engagement letter, fee agreement and first drafts.
Each client gets a login to a portal where they complete intake and review documents, and the Pro plan embeds intake on the firm's website and adds Stripe payments and Docusign. The Clio Manage integration is included from the Lite plan, Zapier from Standard. A paralegal at one firm reports that client intake that took more than an hour now takes 15 to 20 minutes, and the immigration firm Sisu Legal collects about 95% of its client intake data through its Gavel workflows. Gavel Workflows has no lead pipeline or marketing campaigns, so firms that need those pair it with a CRM or their practice management system. Price: from $83 per month, with a 7-day free trial and no credit card.
Clio Grow is Clio's legal CRM. Inquiries from connected channels land in a Lead Inbox, prospects move through a Matter Pipeline, and online booking can collect payment before a consultation. Grow sends documents for e-signature, runs multi-step email campaigns and reports which referral sources bring in revenue, and hired matters move into Clio Manage. Clio will build custom intake forms for the firm. Grow AI, launched in August 2026, answers new leads by phone, email and website chat around the clock and is billed per hired matter; the phone agent covers the United States for now. Grow is included in Clio's Elite plan and is an add-on for Core and Signature, and Clio's plans start at $49 per user per month. For more options, see Clio Grow alternatives.
MyCase Pro includes client intake forms and a legal CRM inside MyCase practice management. Forms use conditional logic, leads move through a built-in pipeline, follow-ups go out automatically, and conversion is tracked by practice area and marketing channel. A submitted intake form can generate case documents and task lists. Pro costs $100 per user per month billed yearly or $120 billed monthly, and Advanced, which adds advanced document automation, costs $130 or $150. MyCase offers a 10-day free trial with no credit card.
Smokeball's lead intake forms embed on the firm's website and send inquiries into Smokeball as they arrive, and matter intake forms fill the matter's fields. Firms send forms through the client portal, a web link or email, and Smokeball says its AI builds a form in minutes. Leads convert into matters with one click. Intake is included in the Prosper+ plan and is an add-on for Boost and Grow. Smokeball doesn't publish prices.
Mid-sized firms and firms that sign many clients a month need a CRM that follows up with every lead and shows where clients come from. Personal injury and mass tort firms that sign most clients by phone need calling, texting and case screening inside the intake tool.
Lawmatics describes itself as an AI-powered legal CRM. It combines a custom form builder, appointment booking, document automation, file requests and e-signature with pipeline management, conflict checking, drip email campaigns and source reporting. Its Merlin Qualify feature scores new leads against the firm's criteria. Lawmatics connects to Clio, MyCase, Filevine, Smokeball and PracticePanther, and it announced SOC 2 Type 2 and HIPAA compliance in March 2025. The client portal and email marketing come with the Premium and Enterprise plans. Prices are quoted after a demo, with a 3-user minimum on Essential and Premium and 5 on Enterprise.
Law Ruler sells a legal CRM with intake and marketing automation, built for firms whose intake teams work the phones. It includes a built-in softphone, text and video messaging, email, text and voice campaigns, a custom intake form builder, e-signature and document automation for Word, PDF and Excel. Its site lists personal injury, mass tort, criminal defense, consumer protection, business, Social Security disability, immigration and employment law. An Export to Clio button creates a Clio Manage matter from an intake record. Every plan is quoted, Pro and Premium carry a one-time onboarding fee, Enterprise has a 10-user minimum, and subscriptions are billed monthly on an annual term.
Lead Docket, owned by Filevine since 2020, captures leads from website forms, call tracking numbers and answering services and guides staff through custom intake scripts. LeadsAI summarizes each case's key facts, and the product predicts the likelihood of case success. It follows up on referral fees, collects retainers and consultation fees through payment links and reports revenue by marketing source. Signed cases open as Filevine projects, and Lead Docket also integrates directly with Clio, CasePeer, PracticePanther, Needles and Trialworks. Pricing is a custom quote.
CasePeer, owned by 8am, is case management built exclusively for plaintiff-side personal injury firms. The Pro plan adds client intake management and unlimited two-way texting, and Advanced adds an Intake Investigator Portal and case grades. Basic costs $90, Pro $130 and Advanced $160 per user per month, with no long-term contract or setup fee.
Litify is a legal platform that runs on Salesforce, AWS and Anthropic infrastructure, according to its site, and takes a case "from first call to qualified case on a single platform." It serves personal injury, insurance defense and immigration firms and corporate legal departments, and its site says it works across more than 15 practice areas. It includes AI-powered document generation. Litify doesn't publish prices.
Large firms treat intake as new business acceptance: a request to open a matter goes through conflicts checking, risk review and approval before the engagement letter goes out. The software they use connects intake to conflicts checking, risk review and the approval chain.
Intapp Intake captures onboarding data, assesses risk and routes approvals by risk, policy and jurisdiction. It prepopulates requests from email, keeps monitoring conflicts, anti-money laundering (AML) and independence obligations after onboarding, and generates engagement letters from approved intake data. It integrates with Intapp Conflicts, Terms and Walls, and Intapp's site lists Latham & Watkins, Clifford Chance and DLA Piper among its customers. Pricing is quoted after a demo. Large firms with high-volume litigation intake can also look at Litify, covered above.
A firm needs a CRM when it has more leads than staff can follow up with by hand, or when it spends on marketing and needs to know which channels produce clients. A firm that gets most clients by referral and signs a handful a month needs good intake forms and a fast path to the engagement letter.
Automating intake means the client enters their information once and the firm's systems reuse it for the conflicts check, the engagement letter and the matter. These six steps work for most small and mid-sized firms.
For a worked example, see how to build a legal intake app that generates documents.
Most intake tools stop at a signed engagement or a new matter in practice management. The documents the matter needs next, such as an estate plan, an immigration petition or a set of formation documents, still have to be drafted. Firms close that gap with document automation that reads the intake answers.
Gavel Workflows fills every template in a set from one questionnaire. MyCase Advanced and Law Ruler include document automation, Lawmatics automates documents inside its CRM, and Clio sells Clio Draft for questionnaire-based document sets alongside Clio Manage. For a full comparison, see the best document automation software, Clio Draft vs. Gavel Workflows and MyCase vs. Gavel Workflows.
Four of the ten tools publish prices, and the rest quote after a demo. Per-user pricing adds up quickly for intake teams, so count the people who will use the tool before comparing.
We picked the tools that appear most often in published comparisons of law firm intake and CRM software, added Intapp Intake for large firms, and grouped them by the firm size each suits best. The firm-size groupings are our recommendation. Every product detail comes from the vendor's own website or help center, checked between November 3 and November 10, 2026: Clio Grow, Clio pricing, MyCase pricing, Lawmatics pricing, Law Ruler pricing, Lead Docket features, Smokeball intake, CasePeer pricing, Litify and Intapp Intake. Gavel makes Gavel Workflows, and its details come from gavel.io/legal-intake-software and gavel.io/pricing. Prices change, so confirm them with each vendor before you buy.
It depends on firm size and what happens after intake. Solo and small firms whose intake should end in an engagement letter and first drafts can use Gavel Workflows, from $83 per month. Firms already on Clio, MyCase or Smokeball can use the intake built into those systems, high-volume personal injury firms can look at Law Ruler, Lead Docket, CasePeer or Litify, and large firms can use Intapp Intake for new business intake and conflicts.
Intake software collects a prospective client's information through forms or questionnaires and passes it to the firm. A legal customer relationship management (CRM) system also tracks every lead through a pipeline, sends follow-up emails and texts, and reports which marketing sources produce signed clients. Lawmatics, Clio Grow and Law Ruler are CRMs with intake built in.
Large firms run new business intake through systems that tie intake to conflicts checking and risk approval. Intapp Intake, used by firms including Latham & Watkins, Clifford Chance and DLA Piper according to Intapp's site, routes approvals by risk, policy and jurisdiction, monitors conflicts after onboarding and generates engagement letters from approved intake data. High-volume litigation firms also use Litify, a legal platform that runs on Salesforce infrastructure.
Published prices on vendor websites in November 2026: Gavel Workflows from $83 per month, MyCase Pro at $100 per user per month billed yearly, CasePeer Pro at $130 per user per month and Clio plans from $49 per user per month, with Clio Grow included in Elite or added to Core and Signature. Lawmatics, Law Ruler, Lead Docket, Smokeball, Litify and Intapp quote prices after a demo.
Yes. Gavel Workflows fills Word and PDF templates from the client's intake answers and produces the whole document set, and Intapp Intake generates engagement letters from approved intake data. Lawmatics and Law Ruler include document automation, and MyCase Advanced adds advanced document automation.
Related: Gavel's legal client intake software, Clio Grow alternatives, the best Clio integrations and the best document automation software. Try Gavel Workflows free for 7 days, with no credit card.
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