For a small immigration firm, intake runs from the first inquiry to a signed engagement agreement, and it is where a consultation becomes a retained client or a lost lead. Replying quickly, collecting facts before the call, and ending each consultation with a written fee quote and next step give a prospective client fewer reasons to look elsewhere, and none of it requires cutting an ethical corner.
The intake guide covers the whole process; this piece is for the solo or small-firm attorney who handles intake personally. It quotes the ABA Model Rules, which the ABA calls "models for the ethics rules of most jurisdictions." Your state's version governs your license, and states can differ on fees, trust accounting, and advertising, so check your state bar's rules at each step.
Why does speed to first response matter?
An immigration inquiry can arrive with a date attached, such as a hearing notice or a Request for Evidence. A person holding one who reaches voicemail can call the next firm, or turn to someone who is not authorized to help, the notario problem the intake guide describes.
Speed is one factor among several. In the consumer survey behind Clio's 2025 Legal Trends Report, which polled 1,000 U.S. adults, experience and reputation remained two of the top considerations clients look for in a lawyer, and client reviews, free consultations, and clear and concise information also ranked highly. The report says these considerations "now outweigh responsiveness, which was an even greater priority for clients previously."
So the first reply has two jobs: arrive within a target you can keep, such as one business day, and explain what happens next. Include a booking link, the questionnaire, the consultation's cost, and a question about any notice with a hearing date or deadline. Until the conflict check clears, ask only for names, the type of matter, and any hearing date or deadline.
What should a pre-consultation questionnaire collect?
A questionnaire answered before the meeting lets the attorney spend the consultation on analysis. Ask the preferred language at booking so the form arrives in it, and build it in four parts:
| Part | What to ask | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Conflict check | Full names of the person and everyone else involved, such as a petitioner, spouse, or employer | Clears conflicts before you hear the story |
| 2. Basic facts | The matter in the person's words, status and expiration dates, any court case or deadline, earlier filings, and anyone who helped before | Lets the attorney prepare and spot urgency |
| 3. Documents | Copies of notices, receipts, earlier applications, IDs, and court papers, to upload or bring | Dates get checked against the paper |
| 4. Language | Preferred spoken and written language, and any interpreter need | The interpreter is booked ahead |
Send part 1 by itself and release the rest after the check clears. The screener questions make a good base for part 2, and the language access article covers building a multilingual intake flow.
Put a short notice at the top. Comment 2 to Rule 1.18 says a consultation is likely to have occurred when a lawyer, in person or through advertising in any medium, "specifically requests or invites the submission of information about a potential representation without clear and reasonably understandable warnings and cautionary statements that limit the lawyer's obligations, and a person provides information in response." Draft the notice against your state's version of the rule, and say plainly that sending the form does not make the person a client.
Free or paid consultations?
Some immigration firms offer free consultations and others charge. Each model trades something:
| Model | Suits a firm that | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Wants a low barrier to the first meeting | More bookings for matters you do not handle |
| Paid | Needs the attorney's time to pay for itself | Trust-account rules for fees paid at booking |
| Paid, credited toward the fee if the person hires you | Wants a filter that costs new clients nothing | Say in writing how long the credit lasts |
| Free screening call, then a paid consultation | Gets many inquiries outside its practice | Keep the free call to routing, as the screening article explains |
Whichever you choose, say in writing what the consultation covers and that work on the case starts only with a signed engagement agreement. Rule 7.1 bars "a false or misleading communication about the lawyer or the lawyer's services," so describe a free consultation accurately, including its length and who conducts it. A fee paid at booking is a fee paid in advance, and Rule 1.15(c) says "a lawyer shall deposit into a client trust account legal fees and expenses that have been paid in advance, to be withdrawn by the lawyer only as fees are earned or expenses incurred." States can differ on both points, so check yours before you publish a policy.
How do you run a consultation that ends with a clear next step?
Send a short agenda with the booking confirmation, so the person knows the meeting ends with a fee quote and a date to decide by. Then:
- Prepare. Read the questionnaire and documents, check every date on every notice, and list your questions, including the intake guide's red flags such as criminal history and prior removal.
- Set the frame. Confirm the interpreter, the meeting's length and scope, and that the person is not a client yet.
- Fill the gaps. Ask the red-flag questions directly, one at a time, and note each answer as given.
- Give the assessment. Explain the options, what each requires, and what you cannot say without more documents.
- Quote the fee. Cover the scope, the exclusions, the fee basis, and what happens if a Request for Evidence arrives.
- Put the next step in writing. The same day, send a summary in the person's language: the quote, the documents still needed, how long the quote stays open, any deadline the attorney noticed, and that work starts only when the engagement agreement is signed.
What belongs in the engagement agreement?
Rule 1.5(b) says "the scope of the representation and the basis or rate of the fee and expenses for which the client will be responsible shall be communicated to the client, preferably in writing, before or within a reasonable time after commencing the representation, except when the lawyer will charge a regularly represented client on the same basis or rate." Your state may require a signed written agreement in some cases. Cover at least:
- Scope. Rule 1.2(c) lets a lawyer "limit the scope of the representation if the limitation is reasonable under the circumstances and the client gives informed consent." Name the forms and steps included and where the work ends.
- Fee basis and exclusions. Flat, hourly, or by phase; when each part is earned; and the price of work outside the scope, such as a Request for Evidence response, an appeal, or immigration court. Comment 1 to Rule 1.5, amended in August 2026, says: "Modifications sought by a lawyer that change the basic nature of a fee arrangement or significantly increase the lawyer's compensation, absent an unanticipated change in circumstances, are less likely to be reasonable." So price foreseeable extra work at the start.
- Advance payments. Fees and expenses paid ahead, including money for USCIS filing fees, go into trust under Rule 1.15(c), and Comment 4 to Rule 1.5 says a lawyer who requires advance payment "is obliged to return any unearned portion." Check how your state treats advance and flat fees.
- Form G-28. USCIS says "an attorney or accredited representative must submit Form G-28, Notice of Entry of Appearance as Attorney or Accredited Representative, to establish eligibility to represent a client in an immigration matter before USCIS." Have the client sign it with the agreement: USCIS calls a missing signature the most common mistake, and if the form is not properly completed, it "will process the benefit request as if you did not submit Form G-28."
Why send a non-engagement letter?
Send one whenever a consultation does not end in a signed agreement: you decline, the person turns down the quote, or the person stops answering. Scope paragraph 17 of the Model Rules says most of the duties flowing from the client-lawyer relationship "attach only after the client has requested the lawyer to render legal services and the lawyer has agreed to do so," while some, such as confidentiality, "attach when the lawyer agrees to consider whether a client-lawyer relationship shall be established." A person who paid for a consultation may assume the firm agreed and let a deadline pass waiting to hear back. The letter records that no agreement was made.
Two things continue after it. Rule 1.18 still protects what the person told you (see the intake guide's confidentiality section), so keep the name in your conflict records. And Comment 9 to Rule 1.18 points to Rule 1.15 for "a lawyer's duties when a prospective client entrusts valuables or papers to the lawyer's care," so arrange to return any originals.
The intake guide's handoff stage covers the basics: say the person is not represented, and name any deadline you spotted. Also explain how to collect documents, and write in the person's language. If the person went quiet, send the letter when the quote expires.
How do you follow up without crossing ethical lines?
Following up after a consultation is ordinary service: one or two reminders about the quote, the documents still needed, and when the quote expires, then the non-engagement letter. The comments to Rule 7.1 name two traps:
- False urgency. Comment 2 says a truthful statement is also misleading "if presented in a way that creates a substantial likelihood that a reasonable person would believe the lawyer's communication requires that person to take further action when, in fact, no action is required." Mention a deadline only when it is real.
- Implied outcomes. Under Comment 3, a communication that truthfully reports a lawyer's achievements for clients or former clients may be misleading if presented so as to lead a reasonable person to form "an unjustified expectation that the same results could be obtained for other clients in similar matters without reference to the specific factual and legal circumstances of each client's case." Never promise an approval.
Rule 7.3 governs solicitation, and Comment 1 says a communication "in response to a request for information" is not a solicitation. Whether a follow-up counts depends on the facts and your state's rule, so stay inside the rule's limits:
- Write rather than call. Paragraph (b) restricts soliciting by "live person-to-person contact" when a significant motive is pecuniary gain, and Comment 2 says such contact does not include "chat rooms, text messages or other written communications that recipients may easily disregard."
- Stop at no, and never press. Paragraph (c) bars soliciting someone who "has made known to the lawyer a desire not to be solicited by the lawyer," and any solicitation involving "coercion, duress or harassment." Comment 6 calls live, person-to-person contact with individuals "who may be especially vulnerable to coercion or duress," including "those whose first language is not English," "ordinarily not appropriate."
States adopt their own versions of these rules and may add requirements, so check yours before you automate follow-up.
What should you measure?
| Metric | How to count it |
|---|---|
| Consultation-to-retainer rate | Signed agreements divided by consultations held, counted 30 days after each consultation |
| Time to first response | First contact to first substantive reply |
| No-show rate | Missed consultations divided by consultations booked |
Break each one down by referral source, free or paid consultation, and language. Count the retainer rate two ways: across all consultations, and across those where you offered representation. The first shows whether your marketing brings matters you take; the second shows how well the quote and follow-up work. Record why each person did not hire you. The intake guide's measurement section adds numbers for the screening and intake steps.
Where Parasource fits
Parasource lets a firm build its own intake questionnaires, including a screening form whose answers carry forward into a fuller intake. Clients can complete intake in 11 languages, and it captures facts without giving advice. From their answers, it flags issues such as criminal history, extended travel, and prior removal, with citations to the governing law, for an attorney to review, and it hands the structured record off to Clio.
Sources
- ABA: About the Model Rules of Professional Conduct
- Clio: 2025 Legal Trends Report (PDF)
- ABA Model Rule 1.18: Duties to Prospective Client
- ABA Model Rule 1.18: Comment
- ABA Model Rule 7.1: Communications Concerning a Lawyer's Services
- ABA Model Rule 1.15: Safekeeping Property
- ABA Model Rule 1.5: Fees
- ABA Model Rule 1.2: Scope of Representation and Allocation of Authority Between Client and Lawyer
- ABA Model Rule 1.5: Comment
- ABA Resolution 101B: Amendments to Comments 1 and 7 to Model Rule 1.5, adopted August 2026 (PDF)
- USCIS: G-28, Notice of Entry of Appearance as Attorney or Accredited Representative
- ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct: Preamble and Scope
- ABA Model Rule 7.1: Comment
- ABA Model Rule 7.3: Solicitation of Clients
- ABA Model Rule 7.3: Comment