Every call to your firm answered: new matters captured, advice left to the lawyers.
A small firm's phone carries three kinds of calls: new matters, current clients, and noise. Miss the first and the work briefs whoever picks up next; handle the second badly and a client you are still acting for starts to wonder. A dedicated VA receptionist answers on your hours, runs your intake script, and knows precisely where their job ends and the lawyer's begins.
Where the receptionist's job ends and the lawyer's begins
A generic answering service takes a name and a number. A law firm's line needs more than that on one side of a hard line, and nothing at all on the other. Your receptionist is trained to both halves before the first call lands.
Your VA receptionist owns
The front line
- Answering in your firm's name on your business hours, on your existing number
- New-enquiry intake to your script: caller details, matter type, urgency, and the other party's full name for your conflict check
- Detailed messages filed to the right fee earner, never read out to whoever rings asking after them
- Consultation bookings placed into your diary under your availability and consult rules, with confirmations and reminders
- Overflow admin between calls: inbox triage, follow-ups and rescheduling
Stays with the fee earner
The legal work
- Legal advice of any kind, including the quick question a caller is certain won't take a minute
- The conflict decision: the receptionist collects the names, the lawyer makes the call
- Fee estimates beyond whatever scripted consult fee you set
- Anything touching trust money, which stays locked to authorised people inside the practice
- Undertakings and limitation dates: anything urgent is escalated to you, not parked in a message
That split is not a limitation; it is the design. It mirrors how firms already run non-lawyer support staff: written scripts, reasonable supervision, hard escalation rules. For the wider picture of what a VA carries inside a small practice, from dictation and brief assembly to the billing cycle, see the virtual assistant for law firms guide.
What that looks like across a week in a small firm
New matters captured while you draft
When the fee earner answers their own enquiries, either the drafting stops or the phone rings out, and neither is free. Your receptionist takes that first call to your intake script, captures the parties and the matter type, and books the consultation under the rules you set, so the enquiry lands on the diary instead of in the message bank.
Current clients handled with care
A client mid-matter ringing for an update should not queue behind a cold caller. Your receptionist recognises the returning client, routes them to the person running their file or takes a proper message against the matter, and relays only what you have approved for relaying. Reassurance is fine; commentary on the file is not.
Court days and deadline weeks
When the whole firm is at a directions hearing, a mediation or a settlement, the line stays answered. Urgent calls are escalated to you straight away; everything else becomes a clean, detailed message waiting on the file when you are back, rather than a stack of missed-call notifications.
Legal virtual receptionist questions
Will the receptionist ever give callers legal advice?
No, and the script makes sure of it. A VA receptionist takes messages and books consultations; the moment a caller pushes for an opinion, a quick question or a read on their chances, the scripted response is that only a lawyer can answer that, and the details are captured for a fee earner to return the call. Anything resembling advice, an undertaking or a limitation date goes straight to you. That hard line is the same one every firm already draws for its non-lawyer front desk.
Can the receptionist handle the conflict check on new enquiries?
The first pass, yes; the decision, never. Your intake script has the receptionist collect the full names of the caller and the other parties along with the matter type, so everything you need is waiting when you run the conflict search ahead of the first appointment. Whether the firm can act is a professional judgement that stays with the practitioner. The receptionist gathers, the lawyer decides.
How is confidentiality handled with a remote receptionist?
The same way firms have always managed non-lawyer support staff, written down. Your receptionist signs a confidentiality agreement before day one, works on your number and inside your systems under role-scoped access, and keeps nothing on personal devices. On the phone, the standard is plain: matter details are never discussed with anyone except the client the firm knows, and messages go inward to the fee earner rather than back out over the line. You supervise the receptionist exactly as you would anyone sitting at your front desk.
Can they book consultations into Smokeball, LEAP or Clio?
Yes. First appointments and follow-ups go straight into the diary of the practice-management system your firm already runs, whether that is Smokeball, LEAP, Actionstep, Clio or a standalone calendar, under your availability and consult rules, with confirmations and reminders sent so booked consults are kept. Access is scoped to the permission level you choose, and trust accounting functions stay locked to authorised users inside the practice.
What does a legal virtual receptionist cost, and how quickly can we start?
A dedicated VA receptionist is $12-17/hr AUD, billed only for the hours you book, which for most small firms means part-time cover across the trading day. The AI receptionist is from $89/month plus setup and answers around the clock. Set either against a local front-desk hire at roughly $35-45/hr loaded and the arithmetic settles itself. Matching and placing a dedicated receptionist typically takes 7-10 days from the discovery call.
Book a free discovery call
The discovery call is thirty minutes with Jenn, DotVA's founder, and costs nothing. Bring a rough sense of your call volume and the enquiries you suspect are slipping past; she will give you a straight answer on whether a dedicated receptionist, the AI line or the pair fits your practice, and what it would cost.
More for law firms: virtual assistant for law firms · book a discovery call · virtual receptionist overview
Step 2 of 2
One step left: pick your time
Your details are with Jenn, but the call is not in her diary yet. Pick a time and it is locked in, about 20 seconds. Within 48 hours of the call you will have a written recap: the tasks we would delegate first, an indicative cost and a timeline.
Pick a time with Jenn now →Nothing that suits? Call (03) 9961 6076 and we will book it around you. Or leave it and Jenn will email you within one business day.
Looking for a VA job?
This form books a call with our client team.
It won't reach our hiring team, so it can't book you an interview. DotVA hires virtual assistants from the top 1% through a separate application system. If you think that's you, apply there with your resume, a short video and (if you have one) a little portfolio.
Apply at apply.dotva.com.au →Actually a business looking to hire a VA? Call (03) 9961 6076 or email [email protected] and we will sort it out.