AI intake that answers 24/7
An inbound AI intake agent asks your qualifying questions, books consultations and live-transfers urgent matters. It identifies itself as automated, never gives legal advice and hands off to a person on request.
Law Firms
Law Firm Marketing That Answers Every Potential Client, Day or Night
Prospective clients call the next firm when nobody picks up. The Buttered System answers new inquiries around the clock, replies the moment a lead arrives and follows up with prospects who opted in until they book a consultation.
- Built with attorney advertising rules in mind
- Follow-up only for prospects who contacted you first
- You approve every word
- Lead-to-consultation rate
- Consultation-to-retained rate
- Cost per signed case by channel
Quick answer
How does Buttered Business help law firms?
Buttered Business helps law firms, especially personal injury practices, turn more inquiries into consultations. We build law firm websites and SEO, manage search and Local Services Ads, answer calls 24/7 with an AI intake agent that never gives legal advice, and follow up automatically with prospects who contacted the firm first and consented.
Who this is for
Built for Law Firms
Managing and founding partners of 1- to 15-attorney firms, especially personal injury practices handling auto, trucking, premises and wrongful death cases. Your intake director or office manager lives in the case management system and is measured on signed cases each week. You’ve been burned by agencies that reported clicks and calls instead of retained clients, and every ad you run has to clear your state bar’s advertising rules.
Made for: Law firms
We Know How Intake Really Works
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Your best leads often call after 5 p.m. or on a weekend, when the office is closed.
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An answering service takes a message. It doesn’t book a consultation.
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Your intake team is talented, but results depend on who picked up the phone that day.
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Your reports show calls and clicks, not which channels produce retained clients.
Where Intake Breaks Down
Most firms don’t lose prospective clients in the courtroom. They lose them on the phone.
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We pay a fortune per lead, and half never get a fast callback.
Every inquiry that waits for a callback is an inquiry calling the next firm on the results page.
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After 5 p.m., our answering service just takes messages.
Evenings and weekends are when many injured people finally have time to call. A message slip doesn’t book a consultation.
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I can’t tell which channel produces signed cases.
You see calls and form fills, but not cost per signed case by source, so budget decisions turn into guesses.
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Our intake team is great, but there’s no system.
Without scripts, follow-up rules and reminders, consultations depend on memory and luck.
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Agencies sell us traffic. I need retained clients.
Rankings and clicks don’t pay the bills. Consultations that turn into signed cases do.
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I don’t know if we show up when people ask AI for a lawyer.
More people now ask ChatGPT and Google’s AI answers who to call. If those tools don’t know your firm, you aren’t part of the conversation.
Every one of these has a practical fix. Here is what we build.
See what we build for Law FirmsMarketing and Intake Built for Law Firms
Every piece is designed to turn inquiries into consultations, inside your advertising rules.
Follow-up for every inbound inquiry
Prospects who contacted you get an immediate text and email, a reminder before their consultation and educational follow-up until they book or opt out. Sequences run only for inbound, consented prospects.
Practice-area and city pages that rank
Answer-first practice-area pages, city pages and FAQ hubs, with attorney and organization structured data so Google and AI assistants can understand and cite your firm.
Search and Local Services Ads managed for signed cases
Google Ads and Local Services Ads tracked to consultations and cost per signed case, with invalid Local Services Ads leads disputed.
A website built for trust and intake
Fast, mobile-first pages with clear next steps, the disclaimers your jurisdiction requires and intake forms that capture consent correctly.
One pipeline for every lead
Every inquiry lands in one CRM pipeline with its source attached, so you finally see cost per signed case by channel.
Genuine review requests
Every client gets the same review request at the right case milestone, with no gating and no incentives tied to positive reviews. Your state’s testimonial rules still apply.
Use one service or the whole system. Every piece works on its own.
See every serviceThe Buttered System for Law Firms
Five steps from first search to retained client, run only for prospects who contacted you first.
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Step 1
Attract
Get found by people who need a lawyer: answer-first practice-area and city pages, Google Business Profile, AI search visibility, search ads, Local Services Ads and referral-partner materials that follow your state’s rules.
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Step 2
Capture
Answer every inquiry: a 24/7 AI intake agent that asks your qualifying questions, a website chat assistant that hands off to your team and intake forms with separate, optional consent boxes.
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Step 3
Follow up
Reach back out while the prospect is still deciding: an immediate text and email to inbound inquiries, a second call attempt and educational emails with general information, not legal advice. Consented, inbound prospects only.
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Step 4
Convert
Make the consultation easy to book and keep: online scheduling, reminders, a document checklist and an attorney video introduction made with the attorney’s written consent.
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Step 5
Retain
Stay top of mind after the case: milestone updates, genuine review requests and referral thank-yous that stay within your bar’s rules.
The Numbers That Matter to Law Firms
Clicks and likes don’t pay the bills. Once you’re a client, reports focus on calls, leads, appointments and sales, and these are the KPIs your scoreboard is built around.
- Your numbers, not vanity metrics
- Results broken out by lead source
- Plain-English reports you can act on
- Speed to first response on new inquiries
- Answer rate during business hours and after hours
- Lead-to-consultation rate
- Consultation-to-retained rate
- Cost per signed case by channel
- Fee revenue per marketing dollar
- Intake abandonment rate
- Local Services Ads lead-dispute rate
- Review count, recency and rating
- AI search visibility: brand mentions across a fixed set of prompts, tracked monthly
Illustrative layout. Your scoreboard shows your own numbers, never anyone else’s.
The Intake Gap
Every number links to its source.
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40%
of law firms answered a prospective client’s phone call in Clio’s 2024 secret-shopper study
Source: Clio Legal Trends Report 2024, via 2Civility (opens in a new tab)
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28%
missed-call rate for legal businesses in CallRail’s small-business benchmark
Source: CallRail via Business Wire, January 2025 (opens in a new tab)
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$130
approximate average cost per lead for legal search ads in 2026, among the highest of any industry
Source: WordStream by LocaliQ Search Advertising Benchmarks, 2026 (opens in a new tab)
Independent industry research, not Buttered Business client results. Tap a source to read it.
Put a Number on Missed Calls
See what unanswered calls and slow follow-up may cost your firm. Your result shows right away, no email required.
Free calculator
Missed Call Revenue Calculator
Every call you miss might be a customer calling someone else. Move the sliders and your yearly estimate updates as you go. No email needed to see it.
+50 Butter Points
Your call numbers
Revenue at risk each year
$62,244
That's about 23 potential clients a month who call and don't reach you.
72% Your answer rate
Your phones are in decent shape. The next leak is usually follow-up speed. Try the Speed-to-Lead Calculator.
That adds up. An AI voice agent or a missed-call text-back could recover a meaningful share of it.
This is likely one of your biggest leaks, and it's worth fixing first.
Gauge marker: CallRail 2025, where legal businesses missed 28% of calls, so 72% were answered.
Your full breakdown
Revenue at risk each year$62,244
Your Number Is Ready. Want the Plan to Get It Back?
Your free full report breaks the loss down by week and month, shows what an AI receptionist could recover at your numbers, compares it with the ad spend needed to replace those leads, and includes three ready-to-use missed-call text-back scripts.
- Weekly and monthly breakdown
- AI-answered recovery scenario
- Ad spend needed to replace lost leads
- Three missed-call text-back scripts
+200 Butter Points when you unlock
Your full breakdown opens right here. No spam, and we never sell your information. We ask for your mobile so we can follow up about your report. We’ll only text you if you check the text-message box.
Unlocked
Your full breakdown
Your breakdown
- Per week
- —
- Per month
- —
- Per year
- $62,244
Where the calls go each week:
If an AI voice agent answered every call
—a year you could win back
Assumes an AI agent picks up 100% of calls, day and night, and books at the share you set compared with your team.
What replacing those leads with ads would cost
— a year in search ads to replace about — missed leads
After-hours calls
—a year of that comes from after-hours calls
Check your call log for calls after closing time, then set the slider.
The next 12 months
Left alone, about $62,244 slips away over the next year. At your AI setting, about — of it could come back.
3 missed-call text-back scripts
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During business hours
Hi, this is [Name] at [Business]. Sorry we missed your call! What can we help with? Reply here, or call us back at [number].
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When the team is busy
Thanks for calling [Business]. We're with a customer right now. Want a call back in the next 15 minutes, or would you rather book a time here: [booking link]?
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After hours
Hi from [Business]! We're closed for the night, but your call matters. Reply with what you need and we'll text you first thing in the morning.
Send these only to people who just called you, and keep them about their request. Make sure your texting provider handles opt-outs (Reply STOP).
5 ways to stop losing calls
Start with #1: in your numbers, unanswered calls are the biggest lever.
Start with #4: ask every qualified caller to book a consultation before the call ends.
Start with #2: a fast text-back raises the share of missed callers you win back.
- Answer live during business hours, and roll unanswered calls to a backup instead of voicemail.
- Turn on missed-call text-back so every missed caller hears from you right away.
- Cover nights and weekends with an AI voice agent or answering service that can book appointments.
- Ask every caller to book. In Invoca's 2026 benchmark, 55% of home-service businesses never asked.
- Review missed calls every week by hour and source, and staff the busiest times.
Answer every call, even at 2 a.m.
An AI voice agent and missed-call text-back pick up when your team can't, so the next caller talks to you instead of a competitor.
How we calculated this: see the formula, a worked example and every source
Estimates for planning only; based on cited industry benchmarks. This is an estimate based on the numbers you entered. It's not a guarantee of results.
More free tools for law firms
Browse every free toolLead Value & Customer Lifetime Value Calculator
Find what each lead and each customer is really worth, and the most you can afford to pay to win one. Formulas shown.
Ad Budget Calculator
Work backward from the customers you want to the leads, clicks and monthly Google Ads budget you need, using industry benchmarks.
Built With Attorney Advertising Rules in Mind
Your firm approves every word. Here’s what we watch for.
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ABA Model Rule 7.1
Communications about a lawyer’s services can’t be false or misleading, and each state adopts its own version. Copy avoids promises about case outcomes, and your firm approves every word.
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Solicitation (Rule 7.3)
Live person-to-person solicitation of people who haven’t contacted the firm is restricted. The ABA treats texts and emails as written communications, but Pennsylvania (effective November 14, 2024) treats text messages as live contact. Our follow-up sequences run only for prospects who contacted your firm first and consented.
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Filing and labels
Florida requires filing most ads with The Florida Bar at least 20 days before first use (websites are exempt from filing, not from the rules). Texas requires many ads, including a website’s homepage, to be filed with the State Bar’s Advertising Review Committee. New York requires an “Attorney Advertising” label on many ads and the disclaimer “Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome” with past results or testimonials.
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AI intake
ABA Formal Opinion 512 (July 2024) applies the duties of competence, confidentiality and supervision to generative AI. The intake assistant identifies itself as automated, never gives legal advice and hands off to a person.
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Calls and texts
AI-generated voices count as artificial voices under the TCPA (FCC declaratory ruling, February 2024), so outbound AI calls need prior consent and telemarketing calls need written consent. Forms use separate, unchecked, optional consent boxes, and opt-outs are honored right away.
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Reviews and testimonials
The FTC’s Rule on Consumer Reviews and Testimonials (effective October 21, 2024) bans fake reviews and incentives for positive ones, and many states restrict lawyer testimonials or require disclaimers. We request only genuine reviews and never gate them.
This is general information, not legal advice. Your firm and its ethics counsel review and approve every ad, page and message.
Read the full guide Hide the full guide
Law Firm Marketing, in Plain Terms
Law firm marketing brings prospective clients to your firm and turns their first call or form into a booked consultation, within your bar’s advertising rules. For personal injury and other consumer practices, the deciding moment is usually intake: who answers, how fast and whether anyone follows up.
Buttered Business builds the whole path. We create practice-area pages and SEO that help people find you, manage search and Local Services Ads, answer calls 24/7 with an AI intake agent and follow up automatically with prospects who contacted you first and consented. Your firm and its ethics counsel approve every word before it runs.
| What it is | Marketing, AI intake and follow-up for law firms |
|---|---|
| Built for | Personal injury and other consumer-facing practices that run on inbound calls and forms |
| What’s included | Practice-area pages, SEO, search and Local Services Ads, an AI intake agent, follow-up, reviews and reporting |
| Follow-up | The Buttered System, for inbound, consented prospects only |
| Pricing | A custom quote in writing after your free audit |
| First step | A free audit of your firm’s website |
Where Firms Lose Prospective Clients
In Clio’s 2024 secret-shopper study, only 40% of law firms answered a prospective client’s call. CallRail’s 2025 small-business benchmark put the missed-call rate for legal businesses at 28%. Meanwhile, legal search ads cost about $130 per lead in 2026, among the highest of any industry (WordStream by LocaliQ).
Put those together and the problem is plain. You pay a premium for every inquiry, then a meaningful share never reach a person. Someone who was just hurt in a crash doesn’t leave a message and wait until Monday. They call the next firm on the list.
Speed matters even when you do respond. In research published in Harvard Business Review, companies that contacted a web lead within an hour were nearly 7 times as likely to qualify it as companies that waited even one hour longer. That study covered many industries, not just law, but the lesson carries over to intake.
How The Buttered System Works for Law Firms
The Buttered System is our five-step growth engine: attract, capture, follow up, convert and retain. For law firms, every step runs inside your advertising rules and your intake policies.
Intake that never closes
An inbound AI intake agent answers when your team can’t, including evenings and weekends. It asks the qualifying questions you choose, such as incident date, injuries, treatment and prior representation. It books consultations and live-transfers urgent matters. It identifies itself as an automated assistant, never gives legal advice and hands the caller to a person on request.
Follow-up only for people who reached out
Prospects who contacted you get an immediate text and email confirming next steps, a reminder before the consultation and educational emails with general information, not advice. Sequences run only for inbound prospects who consented, with quiet hours and instant opt-out handling.
Cost per signed case, by channel
Every lead lands in one pipeline with its source attached. You see which channels produce consultations and retained clients, not just calls, so the budget follows results instead of guesses.
Found in search and AI answers
Answer-first practice-area and city pages, consistent business listings, attorney and organization structured data and genuine reviews make your firm easier for Google and AI assistants to understand and cite. BrightLocal’s 2026 survey found 45% of consumers use AI tools like ChatGPT for local business recommendations, up from 6% a year earlier.
Reviews and referrals, within the rules
Clients get the same review request at the right case milestone, with no gating and no incentives tied to positive reviews. Referral-partner materials and law-office print follow your state’s rules on referrals and testimonials.
Ethics-First Marketing
ABA Model Rule 7.1 bars false or misleading communications about a lawyer’s services, and state versions add their own requirements. Some states require filing ads with the bar, labels such as “Attorney Advertising” or specific disclaimers on past results. Pennsylvania now treats text messages as live person-to-person contact for solicitation purposes, which is one reason our sequences only follow up with people who contacted your firm first.
We write with these rules in mind, flag anything that needs review and never make promises about case outcomes. We aren’t lawyers, though, and this isn’t legal advice. Your firm and its ethics counsel approve every ad, page and message.
Who This Is For, and Who It Isn’t
It’s a strong fit for firms that spend real money on search, Local Services Ads or TV, miss calls after hours, or can’t tie marketing spend to retained clients. It isn’t for firms that want cold outreach to accident victims or copy that promises results. We don’t do either.
Where to Start
Request your free website audit to see how your site scores on SEO, speed, mobile experience, lead capture and AI search readiness, with a prioritized fix list. Then open the Missed Call Revenue Calculator, which can start from legal’s 28% missed-call benchmark, and the Lead Value Calculator to set what an inquiry is worth to your firm. Use the numbers with us or without us.
Keep reading: Law Firm Marketing: Turning Website Visitors Into Signed Cases With AI Intake, on our Marketing Wisdom blog.
Sources
Every statistic and rule on this page links to where it came from.
- Clio Legal Trends Report 2024, summarized by 2Civility (opens in a new tab)
- CallRail small-business benchmark, Business Wire (January 2025) (opens in a new tab)
- WordStream by LocaliQ, Search Advertising Benchmarks (2026) (opens in a new tab)
- Harvard Business Review, “The Short Life of Online Sales Leads” (2011) (opens in a new tab)
- BrightLocal, Local Consumer Review Survey (2026) (opens in a new tab)
- ABA Model Rule 7.1 (opens in a new tab)
- Marshall Dennehey, Pennsylvania rule on text-message solicitation (2024) (opens in a new tab)
- The Florida Bar, advertising filing requirements (opens in a new tab)
- Texas Center for Legal Ethics, filing law firm advertisements (opens in a new tab)
- NYSBA Ethics Opinion 848 (opens in a new tab)
- Wilson Sonsini, FCC rules AI-generated voices are artificial under the TCPA (2024) (opens in a new tab)
Don’t Take Our Word for It. Take Theirs.
Business owners from different industries describe working with Ken Henderson, in their own words.
For all your marketing needs, Sublime Digital Marketing and Ken Henderson to the rescue!
Everyone quoted here worked with founder Ken Henderson when his agency was called Sublime Digital Marketing Group. Same founder, new name. Quotes are excerpts, exactly as given. Results vary by business.
Results From Our Founder’s Client Work
Running totals from founder Ken Henderson’s client work, as reported by Ken.
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6.5K+
Leads generated
Source: Owner-reported
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99+
Businesses served
Source: Owner-reported
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$5.5M+
Revenue generated for clients
Source: Owner-reported
Owner-reported totals, not independent research. Your results will depend on your market, your offer and how fast you follow up.
Questions Law Firms Ask Us
Have a question we didn’t cover?
Ask a real person. You’ll get a straight answer about your situation, with no pressure.
How fast should a law firm respond to a new inquiry?
As fast as you can, around the clock. Research published in Harvard Business Review found companies that contacted web leads within an hour were nearly 7 times as likely to qualify them as those that waited even an hour longer. In Clio’s 2024 secret-shopper study, only 40% of law firms answered the phone. The Buttered System replies to inbound inquiries the moment they arrive.
Is it ethical for a law firm to use AI chatbots or AI voice agents for intake?
Generally yes, with lawyer supervision. ABA Formal Opinion 512 covers competence, confidentiality and supervision when lawyers use generative AI. The assistant must not give legal advice, should identify itself as automated and must hand off to a person. Outbound AI voice calls need prior consent under the TCPA. Check your state bar’s guidance too.
Can our firm text prospective clients?
Yes, when the prospect contacted you first and consented. The ABA Model Rules treat texts as written communications rather than live solicitation, but Pennsylvania now treats texts as live person-to-person contact. Use logged consent, quiet hours and instant STOP handling, and confirm your own state’s rule.
What’s a good cost per lead for law firm Google Ads?
WordStream by LocaliQ’s 2026 benchmarks put legal search ads at about $130 per lead, among the highest of any industry, and personal injury often runs higher. The number that matters more is cost per signed case by channel, which our Lead Value Calculator and reporting help you track.
Are Google Local Services Ads worth it for personal injury lawyers?
Often, yes. You pay per lead, the ads carry Google’s screening badge, and responsiveness and reviews influence ranking, so answering fast pays twice. Dispute invalid leads and track Local Services Ads cost per signed case separately from search.
How do law firms show up in ChatGPT and Google’s AI answers?
Make your firm easy for AI to understand and cite. Keep your name, address, phone and practice areas consistent everywhere, publish clear answer-first pages, add attorney and organization structured data and earn recent reviews. BrightLocal’s 2026 survey found 45% of consumers use AI tools for local business recommendations.
Will you write ads that comply with our state’s rules?
We write with ABA Model Rule 7.1 and your state’s advertising rules in mind, avoid outcome promises and flag anything that may need a disclaimer, label or bar filing. We aren’t lawyers, so your firm and its ethics counsel review and approve every ad, page and message before it runs.
What does it cost?
It depends on your practice areas, your markets and which steps of The Buttered System you need. You’ll get exact pricing in writing after your free audit, before you commit to anything.
More Industries We Serve
Same system, different rules and numbers. See how it adapts.
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Nonprofits
Keep more first-time donors with mobile-friendly giving, Google Ad Grants help, automated thank-yous and print that does more with less staff time.
Political Campaigns
Reach voters with campaign websites, digital ads, consent-based texting, yard signs and EDDM mailers, with disclaimer boxes built into every piece.
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Turn more inquiries into enrolled families with school websites, local SEO, admissions ads and automated follow-up from inquiry to tour to application.
Answer Every Inquiry. Book More Consultations.
Request your free law firm marketing audit. You’ll see how your site performs, how you show up on Google and in AI search, and the first fixes to make. Use it with us or without us.
Free. No obligation. You keep the report.
P.S. Call your own intake line at 7 p.m. tonight. Whatever happens next is exactly what a prospective client experiences. If you don’t love it, we can help you fix it.