Client intake for business and corporate law.

The first question in a business matter is who the client is, and the person calling often does not know. A shareholder who wants to sue their partners is not the company; a director who signed a personal guarantee is not the corporation that borrowed. The intake cannot settle that, but it can capture every name so the lawyer can. The matters themselves are documents: a shareholder agreement, a contract, a lease, an offer to buy the business, a demand letter with a date on it. The intake asks for each by name, records whether it is signed and by whom, and takes the dates as written.

• What the person needs: to set up a company, to paper an agreement, to respond to a dispute, to buy or sell a business, or to deal with a contract.
• The business's legal name and structure as the person understands it, and where it is registered.
• Who owns what: partners or shareholders and their shares, as the person states them.
• The person's own role: owner, director, officer, employee, or more than one.
• The document at issue, by name, whether it is signed, and by whom.
• The other party: a partner, a shareholder, a customer, a supplier, a landlord, a buyer, and the people behind it.
• Any letter received, who sent it, and the response date printed on it.
• The amounts in dispute, as the person states them, recorded as fact.
• Whether the company has its own lawyer or accountant already involved.
• What the person wants to happen.

• The company itself, by legal name.
• Every partner, shareholder and director the person can name.
• The counterparty to the contract, and its principals and parent company.
• The lawyer who sent any letter, and any lawyer who has acted for the company before.
• The buyer or seller of the business, and their advisors.
• A lender or guarantor, where a loan is involved.

A demand letter with a response date, a notice period running under a contract, a closing on a purchase or sale, a shareholder meeting called on short notice, or a partner moving money or clients. The intake records the dates as written and flags the matter to the lawyer. It never says whether a notice is valid, whether a date has passed, or whether the person should respond.

• It never says whether a contract or an agreement is enforceable.
• It never values a business, a share or a claim.
• It never advises on whether to sign, respond, or attend a meeting.
• It never says whether a notice period, a response date or a limitation period has passed.
• It never decides who the client is. It captures the names; the lawyer decides.

The machine takes the statement. The lawyer takes the case.