Law Firms Keep New Clients When Every Engagement Letter Gets Signed
A new client decides how they feel about your firm in the first week, and the Client Onboarding Agent makes that week the same for every client. The AgentWorks Client Onboarding Agent sends the engagement package when a matter opens, tracks the signature, sets up client portal access, delivers the firm's welcome sequence and confirms how the client wants to be reached. Your paralegals stop chasing paperwork and start serving the client.
What it takes off your plate
Ask a managing partner how onboarding works and the honest answer is that it depends on who is in the office. One attorney's paralegal sends the engagement letter the same afternoon with a warm welcome note. Another's gets to it after a filing deadline passes. The letter goes out as a PDF attachment, the client means to sign it, and it sits in their inbox while the firm starts work without a signed engagement on file.
Portal access is set up by hand, when someone remembers. The client does not know whether to call, email or text, and nobody asked. So they call the front desk to ask what happens next, and a paralegal stops drafting to answer. The firm's first impression becomes whatever the busiest person on the team had time to send.
What the Client Onboarding Agent does, step by step
It starts with the communication that makes or breaks the first week.
- Sends the engagement package. When a matter opens, the Client Onboarding Agent emails the client the engagement letter for e-signature with a short welcome from the responsible attorney and what to expect next.
- Chases the signature. If the letter is not signed, it sends a friendly reminder, then a text if the client prefers it, and alerts the responsible attorney only if the letter is still unsigned after the firm's set window.
- Answers "what happens next." When the client replies with a question about fees, the retainer or the next step, it answers from the engagement terms and hands anything that calls for legal advice to the attorney.
- Confirms communication preferences. It asks how the client wants to be contacted, when they can be reached, and who else may receive updates, and records the answers.
Then the records work:
- Tracks signature status. It watches DocuSign for the signed letter, files it to the matter and marks the engagement complete.
- Sets up portal access. It opens the client's portal account and sends login instructions once the engagement is signed.
- Runs the welcome sequence. Over the following days it sends the firm's standard welcome messages: who is on the team, how billing works through LawPay, how to share documents securely.
- Updates the matter. Each step marks the onboarding checklist in Clio, so the matter shows exactly where the client stands.
If you want to see what happens before the matter opens, our post on eliminating client intake friction covers intake and conflict checks.
Where the work is recorded
Everything the Client Onboarding Agent sends and receives is logged on the client and the matter: the engagement email, each reminder, the client's replies, the signed letter, the portal invitation and the preferences they gave. The signed engagement is filed with the matter documents, and the onboarding checklist shows each step completed with the date.
When a paralegal opens the matter the next morning, they see whether the letter is signed, whether the client has logged into the portal, and that this client prefers texts after five. No one has to ask around the office. Whoever picks up the client's next call knows exactly where things stand.
What your people do instead
Your paralegals and attorneys spend the first week doing what the client actually hired them for: the initial strategy meeting, gathering the facts that matter, returning the call from a nervous client with a real answer. The front desk stops fielding "did you get my paperwork" calls because the client already knows.
Every client gets the same professional welcome regardless of who is in the office, and the attorney starts work with a signed engagement on file. For how the firm catches inquiries before they become matters, see how law firms streamline client intakes.
One next step
If your engagement letters still wait on whoever has time, start with the free Legal Industry Assessment. It shows which workflow an agent should take first in your firm. You can see the Client Onboarding Agent and every other legal agent AgentWorks runs on the Legal industry page.
See where the Client Onboarding Agent would start in your legal business.
I'm Victoria, the Legal ambassador here. The free Industry Assessment reads your website and asks how calls, follow-ups and records happen today, then shows the first workflow worth handing to an agent like this one — and what your team gets back. Leave your email and I'll send the link.
Victoria replies from legal@agentworksstudio.com. One email with the link — no list, no drip, unless you ask for the weekly letter. Or go straight there →