VoIP for law firms: practical examples and costs

A law firm's phone: what it really needs

Take a typical firm: two lawyers, a trainee and a legal secretary, in a city with a court. Calls come in three kinds: clients asking for news about their case, prospective clients looking for a first appointment, and colleagues and court registries. The needs are few and very clear.

• Not missing calls when the secretary is on the phone and the lawyers are out.
• Telling urgent from routine: notice of a hearing brought forward cannot wait until tomorrow, a request for a quote can.
• Always presenting the firm's number, even when a lawyer calls from their mobile.
• Respecting confidentiality: sensitive matters are discussed on the phone.

VoIP covers all four with simple tools: a virtual number that rings wherever you decide, step-by-step routing, voicemail that arrives by email and an app on the mobile. If you want a broader picture covering all professions, see the page on VoIP for professional firms.

A number in the city of the court

For a firm the local area code signals presence: a client in Bologna trusts a 051 number more than an unfamiliar one, just as a client in Lyon or Munich would trust their own city's code. With virtual numbers in 232 Italian cities and more than 90 countries you can have the number of the city where you practise, even if the firm moves or opens a second office in another city of the same district.

To activate an Italian geographic number you need the documents the provider requires: for an individual, an identity document and proof of address in the district; for a company, the legal representative's identity document, a registered office in the district and a company registry extract (the Italian «visura camerale»). Verification costs €5.00 one-off and the outcome usually arrives in 1-3 working days.

If the firm already has a long-standing number with another provider, there is no need to change it straight away. You can use it as caller ID after verifying it, or have the platform manage it as an «external number»: the differences are explained in the guide on caller ID.

The lawyer is in court: ring, then voicemail

The most frequent case is also the simplest. The call comes in, rings the secretary and the lawyers for a few seconds, and if nobody answers it goes to voicemail. In the number's routing it looks like this:

You write the greeting yourself, up to 500 characters, and a synthetic voice reads it; if you prefer, you attach a WAV file you recorded yourself. An example:

Bianchi Law. We are in court or with a client at the moment.
Please leave your name, number and the reason for your call:
we will call you back today. For urgent matters, say «urgent».

The message the client leaves arrives by email, and you can also play it on the portal's Voicemail page. Voicemail is included in the price. All the details (maximum length, hang-up after 3 seconds of silence, where the files go) are in the guide on VoIP voicemail.

The AI secretary that takes requests

When the firm's secretary is on holiday or on the phone with another client, a classic voicemail collects messages that are often incomplete. The AI secretary goes one step further: it answers with an artificial voice, follows the instructions you write and collects the caller's name, contact details, reason and urgency.

While the AI secretary is working, the caller waits with music. You receive a notice (an SMS, which is charged, or a notification in the app on Android) with a card: summary, transcribed conversation and two buttons, «Accept» and «Refuse». If you accept, the call moves to the next step, for example your mobile; if you refuse or do not reply in time, the secretary reads the set phrase and hangs up.

An example of instructions in the «What it must ask or say» field:

You are the receptionist of Bianchi Law. Ask for first name and
surname, a phone number, whether they are already a client of the
firm and briefly the reason for the call. Ask whether there is a
deadline or a hearing in the next few days. Do not give legal advice
and do not comment on the case: explain that the lawyer will call back.

Two precautions to keep in mind. First: the AI secretary can misunderstand or make mistakes, so reread the card before deciding. Second: ask it to collect only the bare minimum needed to call back, not the details of the matter, which are better heard from the client in a confidential conversation. How it works step by step is in the guide to the AI phone secretary.

A complete routing for the firm

Putting the pieces together, a realistic flow for a firm of four people is this:

1. «Ring SIP accounts»: secretary and lawyers, «All together», 20 seconds.
2. «AI secretary»: takes requests, with «Maximum caller wait» at 120 seconds.
3. «Ring SIP accounts»: the mobile of the lawyer on duty, with the app, if you pressed «Accept».
4. «Voicemail»: for callers who cannot reach anyone even there.

You can add a «Send an SMS» step to alert a mobile about every call, with a text such as Call for the firm from {CALLER}: it costs €0.05 per SMS and the flow carries on without stopping. The nine available modules, and how to combine them in up to 20 steps, are described in the guide on call routing modules; the difference between simultaneous and sequential ringing is in the one on simultaneous or sequential ringing.

The mobile with the app, and the firm's number

For a lawyer the mobile is the real office: in court, in the car, between one hearing and the next. With the Vohippo app for iPhone and Android the mobile becomes an extension of the firm, using the same SIP account as in the office.

• Inbound: when the account rings, the app is woken by a push notification, even if it was not open.
• Outbound: the lawyer calls a client from the mobile and the client sees the firm's number, not the personal one. You just set a fixed caller ID on the account.
• In the office: the same account can also be registered on the desk phone, up to 5 devices per account.

The webphone in the browser uses the same account too: useful for the trainee who works from home a few days a week. To connect a desk phone, see the guide to VoIP phones.

From a confidentiality point of view, the app has a concrete advantage: the lawyer's personal number does not circulate among clients, and when a lawyer leaves the firm, the firm's number stays with the firm.

Confidentiality and recording: with caution

In the legal profession, professional secrecy and the confidentiality of communications with the client are central to everything. Recording a law firm's calls is therefore a choice to make with great caution, and in many cases simply not to make.

If there is a reason (for example documenting instructions given over the phone), the platform lets you do it in a targeted way: recording is switched on number by number for inbound calls and account by account for outbound calls, it costs €0.02 per answered call, and the WAV files are played from the call report. But first you need the right answers on legal basis, privacy notice and retention, which you will find in the guide on the rules for recording calls. Assess the case with your privacy adviser and against your bar association's rules of professional conduct.

Two useful measures even if you do not record:

• Protect accounts with strong passwords or access by IP address: the VoIP security guide explains how.
• Set a daily spending limit and block destinations the firm never calls: if the credentials fall into the wrong hands, the damage stays small.

A second office, the trainee at home, the colleague in another city

Many firms work across several offices or have associates who are not always in the office. With VoIP the office is no longer tied to the line: each person has their own SIP account, and all that matters is that the phone, app or webphone is connected to the internet.

• A second office: you buy a second number with that city's area code and give it its own routing, with that office's extensions. Calls between the two offices using short extensions stay free.
• The trainee working from home: uses the webphone in the browser or the app, with the same account as in the office. They call clients with the firm's number and answer calls as if they were at their desk.
• The lawyer handling cases out of town: the mobile with the app keeps receiving the firm's calls wherever they are.

If you are organising several offices, you will find more examples on the page on VoIP for multiple sites and remote teams.

What it costs for a firm of 3-5 people

The fixed costs are few and predictable. Here are the items, with prices from the rates, excluding VAT.

For the four-person firm with a single number paid annually, the number costs about €9.15 a month. On top of that there are only the outbound calls, charged per second, and the pay-per-use features you choose to use. Credit is prepaid: you top up by card, PayPal or bank transfer, and when it is running low you get an alert by email and WhatsApp.

The same tools, with different needs, are applied to accountants and payroll consultants, who have to cope with deadline peaks, and to car repair shops, where calls are answered with busy hands.

Frequently asked questions