From first inquiry to open matter.
Initio runs the seven stages between the moment someone fills out your firm's contact form and the moment a signed client has a funded retainer and an open matter.
How Initio works
What happens at each stage.
Scroll to see how each stage works for the firm and for the client.
Leads · 13 total · 3 awaiting decision
A new lead from your contact form lands at the top of the queue, tagged New Lead.
However they reach you.
Phone calls, referrals, walk-ins — add them manually and let Initio take it from there. Most of your leads probably don't come from a contact form. Initio handles the others without making you do the rest by hand.
When you add a lead manually, you tag the source, pick the practice area and case type, and tell Initio what should happen next.
- Send booking link emailClient gets an auto-reply email with a link to schedule a consultation.
- Send intake form emailSkip scheduling — deliver the intake form right away.
- Just create the recordNo automation — you'll handle next steps manually.
Initio runs intake. That's the whole job.
The product starts when someone fills out your contact form and ends when the matter is open and funded. Practice management — the actual work of the case — starts where Initio ends.
- Lead capture and auto-reply
- Manual lead entry with source attribution
- Consultation booking
- Practice-area-specific intake forms
- AI analysis of intake responses
- Conflict name screen against your clients, prospects, and the other parties named on their intakes — plus any list you import
- Multi-attorney lead routing
- Engagement letter generation
- Engagement letter signing
- Retainer payment
- Matter creation
- Client welcome email
Practice management
Time tracking, billing, calendaring once a matter is open, task management, document drafting beyond the engagement letter — Initio doesn't do these. Clio, MyCase, PracticePanther, or any PMS you already use covers this layer.
Case work itself
Initio doesn't draft pleadings, build estate plans, or negotiate settlements. It hands you a funded matter and steps back.
Marketing
Initio captures leads from your site but doesn't generate them. SEO, ads, referral networks — that's still on you.
Lead analytics
No conversion dashboards, no source attribution beyond the manual-entry tag. Initio logs what happened; it doesn't analyze why.
We picked the tools so you don't have to.
Scheduling, e-signature, trust-account payments, document storage, email delivery — Initio runs the right system for each job. You don't evaluate vendors, manage integrations, or wire anything together.
Open-source scheduling platformConsultation schedulingA booking link on your inquiry auto-reply. Clients pick a time; it lands on your calendar.
Legal-industry payment processorIOLTA-compliant paymentsA payment link in the same engagement email. Funds route to your trust account.
Transactional email serviceEmail deliverySent under your firm's name. Replies go straight to you.Consultation schedulingIOLTA-compliant paymentsEmail deliverySome things we didn't fit above.
Will the firm's emails actually sound like the firm?+
Initio sends inquiry replies under your firm's name, signed by your attorney, with your phone number, and replies route back to your inbox — not ours. Today the body is generated from a prompt aimed at a warm, professional, plain-English tone, grounded in what they wrote — the kind of reply you'd expect from a small firm that takes intake seriously.
Per-firm voice tuning is on our roadmap; the priority and timeline depend on what we hear from firms after launch.
What happens if Initio mis-reads an inquiry?+
On your Initio inquiry form, the prospect picks their own practice area and matter type from the list your firm offers — so there is nothing for us to read wrong. If you keep your own website form and it doesn't send a matter type, Initio suggests one from what the prospect wrote and marks it provisional in your dashboard; the client confirms it themselves before their intake form opens.
Every lead lands in your dashboard for you to accept or decline before it becomes a client; nothing auto-progresses to consultation, intake, or engagement without an attorney in the loop.
How long does onboarding take?+
A few minutes from the moment you sign up. You enter your firm details, complete checkout, and Initio provisions the back end automatically — Confido for trust-account payments, Cal.com for consultations, your inquiry webhooks, document templates, and your welcome email.
The one thing we can't do for you is complete your Confido firm application, which goes through their KYC underwriting review. Per Confido, that typically takes 2–3 business days; firms without underwriting issues that sign quickly can sometimes be onboarded in under 24 hours.
Do I have to collect client payments through Initio?+
No. Collecting client payments through Initio — via Confido, our trust-account payment processor — is optional. If your firm already handles payments a different way, the firm owner can turn payment collection off — during signup or later in settings — and Initio won't ask you to set up a Confido account.
Everything else works the same: inquiries, consultations, intake, and a firm-branded engagement letter your client signs online. The only difference is that no payment link rides along with that letter — you collect payment your own way, and the matter opens once the letter is signed.
Who in my firm uses this?+
Initio is built for solo and small firms. The owner sets up the firm and invites attorneys; each attorney gets a seat and works leads from the same dashboard — accepting inquiries, running consultations, and converting matters. Roles are simple (owner, member, admin) and every attorney has the tools they need without a separate "intake coordinator" license.
If you're a solo attorney, leads route straight to you; if you have a few attorneys, you can assign or reassign leads inside the firm.
Do I need to change my website or contact form?+
No redesign required. Initio hosts an inquiry form for your firm and gives you one link to it — share it anywhere, or paste two lines into a page on your site and the same form appears there.
Prefer to keep the contact form you already have? Every firm also gets one webhook URL, and you (or your web person) point that form at it — Gravity Forms, WPForms, Zapier, custom builds, all work. The form keeps its current look; the only change is where the submission goes. We're flexible about how form fields are named, so most setups work without renaming anything.
Does Initio work for my practice area?+
Yes. Initio works whether you practice Estate Planning, Family Law, or something else — and whether your firm covers one area or several.
Estate Planning and Family Law have the most detailed intake today; tell us what you practice when you sign up, and it's what we build next. Personal Injury is coming soon.
Which states does Initio support?+
At launch, Initio serves law firms in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. We're expanding out from the Pacific Northwest.
If your firm is elsewhere, you can join the waitlist during signup and we'll let you know when we reach your state.