For in-house legal departments, the matter request arrives by email, Slack message, phone call, or corridor conversation — and whether it becomes a properly opened, tracked, and resourced matter or remains an informal obligation in someone’s inbox depends entirely on whether there is a structured intake process. For law firms, the new client intake — including the conflict check that is a professional responsibility obligation, the engagement letter that defines scope and fees, and the AML/KYC check that is a regulatory requirement — must be completed before any substantive work begins. In both contexts, the intake process is where the quality of the matter management is determined: the right information gathered upfront, the right resources assigned, the right scope documented, and the right oversight in place from day one. This free legal case intake checklist gives in-house legal departments and law firms a structured framework for a consistent, compliant, and thorough matter intake process.
Six phases covering the full matter intake process — from request receipt and conflict check through classification, engagement terms, file opening, and matter kickoff.
The intake form is the quality control step that prevents ambiguous or incomplete instructions from entering the legal process. A legal team that accepts verbal instructions from a hallway conversation is a legal team that will have scope disputes, missed deadlines, and no record of what it was asked to do.
The conflict check is the most critical compliance step in legal matter intake. For law firms it is a professional responsibility requirement. For in-house teams it identifies situations where the company’s interests may conflict with each other or with a related party. DO NOT begin substantive work before the conflict check is complete.
This checklist is available as a free, runnable template in CheckFlow — with the conflict check gated before file opening, all intake information captured in a structured record, and a complete matter history from first request to kickoff.
Use This Template FreeA conflict of interest in legal practice arises when a lawyer’s duty to one client or party is incompatible with their duty to another — either a current client or a former client. Law firm professional rules (Model Rules of Professional Conduct in the US, SRA Code of Conduct in the UK) prohibit representing adverse parties without informed written consent, and in many cases even with consent. An incomplete conflict check is not a minor administrative failure — it can result in disqualification from a matter, disciplinary action, fee forfeiture, and malpractice liability.
For in-house legal departments, the conflict exposure is different but real: a situation where the company’s interests in one matter may be adverse to its interests in another (common in group company structures, joint ventures, and transactions involving related parties). The conflict check identifies these situations before work begins, when they can be managed — rather than after, when disclosure obligations may have been triggered.
An intake that relies on memory and informal conversation produces incomplete matters — the key fact that wasn’t captured, the deadline that wasn’t diarised, the party that wasn’t checked in the conflict system. CheckFlow’s intake checklist makes every required field a task — conflict check, scope confirmation, deadline diary, and matter file opening — that cannot be bypassed before the matter is active.
Template DesignerThe conflict check is the step most commonly skipped under time pressure — when the client is urgent, the deadline is real, and the matter seems straightforward. CheckFlow makes the conflict check a required step before the matter file opening task can begin. Substantive work cannot start on a matter that has not been through the conflict check.
Auto-AssignmentsEvery matter opened through CheckFlow has a complete intake record — who requested it, the parties, the scope, the conflict check outcome, the assigned attorney, and the key dates. When a matter produces a dispute about scope, timeline, or instructions, the record is there. When a regulatory body asks for evidence of a firm’s conflict check procedures, the documented record exists.
Audit TrailMany legal matter intakes involve contract review. CheckFlow’s Contract Review & Approval Checklist provides the structured review process that connects to legal case intake for contract-related matters. See the Contract Review & Approval Checklist →
Legal operations depends on structured processes across the full legal function. CheckFlow’s Legal Department Compliance Audit Checklist covers the annual review of the legal function including matter management processes. See the Legal Department Compliance Audit →
A legal matter intake process covers six phases: matter request receipt (structured intake through a defined channel, collecting all required context), conflict of interest check (searching all parties against the current and former matter register before any substantive work begins), matter classification and triage (matter type, priority, resource requirements, and external counsel assessment), engagement terms or scope confirmation (engagement letter and AML/KYC for law firms; documented scope confirmation for in-house), matter file opening (matter number, file creation, lead assignment, deadline diary), and matter kickoff (kickoff meeting, immediate action plan, legal hold if required, and update cadence).
A conflict of interest check is a systematic search of the firm’s or department’s matter register against all parties to a new matter — client, counterparties, related entities, and key individuals — to identify any existing or prior relationship that could create a conflict. For law firms, it is a professional responsibility obligation that must be completed before accepting instructions or beginning substantive work. Model Rule 1.7 (US) prohibits concurrent representation of clients with adverse interests without informed written consent; Model Rule 1.9 extends protection to former clients. The SRA Code of Conduct (UK) imposes equivalent obligations. Failure to conduct a proper conflict check can result in disqualification, disciplinary proceedings, fee forfeiture, and professional indemnity claims.
In the UK, law firms are subject to the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds Regulations 2017 (and subsequent amendments). Before acting for a client in specified activities (including many property transactions, company formations, and trust or company services), firms must verify the client’s identity through Customer Due Diligence (CDD), identify beneficial owners, screen for politically exposed persons (PEPs) and sanctions, and assess the source of funds. Failure to comply with AML obligations creates criminal liability for the firm and individual fee-earners. Equivalent requirements apply in most EU and many international jurisdictions. US law firms are not currently subject to comprehensive federal AML requirements for client funds, though proposed FinCEN rules may change this.
A thorough matter intake should capture: the instructing party (business unit or client name), all counterparties and related entities (required for the conflict check), a clear description of the legal issue and objective, key facts and background, all known deadlines and limitation periods, any documents or prior correspondence, the requestor’s expected timeline and desired outcome, budget authority for any external counsel, and the urgency level. For law firms, additional information includes: client identity documents, source of funds, and engagement letter execution. Incomplete intake information is the most common cause of scope disputes and missed deadlines.
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