The Legal Intake Experts

Answering Legal Podcast Network

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Welcome to The Legal Intake Experts podcast, hosted by Nick Werker and Tony Prieto! For years, Nick and Tony have been part of Answering Legal, helping growing law firms make sure they never miss an opportunity to connect with new leads. Now, they're pulling back the curtain to share their top strategies for strengthening your intake process and converting more callers into clients. Tune in!

Sep 23 · Video

Your Law Firm Needs an Emergency Go Bag — Here's What's In It

Welcome to Episode 22 of The Legal Intake Experts podcast! For more than a decade, Answering Legal has helped growing law firms ensure they never miss a chance to connect with new leads. Now, we're pulling back the curtain to share our best strategies for strengthening your intake process and turning more callers into clients. This one gets recorded at half volume, because host Nick Werker has a six-week-old asleep down the hall. What starts as a new-dad check-in turns into the most practical conversation we've had about preparing a law firm for the things you can't put on a calendar. Co-host Tony Prieto makes the case that the time to build your team, your tools and your workflows is before you need them — and Nick admits he didn't pack his hospital go bag until the morning his wife went into labor. From there, our experts get into what an "emergency preparedness go bag" looks like for a law firm: an answering service you actually know how to reconfigure, intake staff you've trained and reviewed real calls with, and marketing and intake systems that talk to each other instead of pointing fingers. Nick also delivers a call-out to firm owners who treat marketing and intake as somebody else's problem, and explains why the single most common reason a firm cancels its answering service is a disconnect nobody bothered to chase down. Plus: whether you can steal a baby (you cannot), where a six-week-old lands on the dog development scale, and whether driving a Ferrari in reverse really rolls back the odometer. Chapters: 0:00 Cold Open: The Announcer Bit 0:22 Welcome to The Legal Intake Experts 1:32 Why Nick Is Whispering: There's a Newborn in the House 2:06 It Is Actually Very Hard to Steal a Baby 2:32 Six Weeks of New-Dad Life 3:12 The Dog-to-Baby Development Scale 3:42 Life Events Happen — Build the Team First 5:00 Infertility, IVF, and Why Nick Is Saying It Out Loud 7:19 You Can't Always Plan the Timing 8:50 The Go Bag Nick Didn't Pack 10:15 Ripple Effects: Remote Tools and Workflows 12:12 Being In the Office Is No Excuse for Bad Workflows 17:02 "Handle Everything Life Throws At You" 17:22 You Can't Close Up Shop, So Restructure Instead 18:44 Training Your Staff to Handle Intake 21:31 Intake Should Not Be Your Job 24:58 Nick's Call-Out: Lawyers Who Abdicate Responsibility 29:17 There Is No Set-It-and-Forget-It Tool 31:53 Why Firms Actually Cancel: The Disconnect 36:48 Breakfast Nooks and Active Participation 38:49 Ferris Bueller and the Odometer 39:59 Sponsor and Sign-Off Topics Covered: -Building the plan before you know you need the plan — babies, deaths in the family and everything else you can't schedule -Flipping your answering service workflows before you take time off, and training intake staff by flagging and reviewing real calls -Why intake shouldn't be the lawyer's job, but the buck still stops with the lawyer -The abdication problem: "the leads suck" with no feedback loop between agency, intake and case outcomes -Reverse-engineering a drop in signed cases, and the unforwarded phone number behind most cancellations People & Resources Mentioned: -Christopher Earley — Earley Law Group, host of The Earley Show -Ron Latz — LegalFenix -State Bar of Arizona practice management hotline -Slack -Google Ads, Meta and SEO -Ferris Bueller's Day Off The Legal Intake Experts is a part of the Answering Legal Podcast Network. Learn more about the show here: https://tinyurl.com/yk9x2p58 Want to connect with our experts? Reach out to Nick Werker via email at nick@answeringlegal.com Reach out to Tony Prieto via email at tprieto@answeringlegal.com Interested in learning more about Answering Legal? Book an appointment to speak with us here: https://tinyurl.com/watz5s8h You can also give us a call at 631-502-5070.
Sep 17 · Video

An Inside Look At Our Biggest Mistakes And What Law Firms Can Learn From Them

Welcome to Episode 21 of The Legal Intake Experts podcast! For more than a decade, Answering Legal has helped growing law firms ensure they never miss a chance to connect with new leads. Now, we’re pulling back the curtain to share our best strategies for strengthening your intake process and turning more callers into clients. In this one, things really go off the rails, as host Nick Werker has taken over full control of the show. With producer Joe metaphorically duct taped to his chair and co-host Tony Prieto also held hostage, Nick spends the episode confessing some of Answering Legal's past failures. Nick first takes us inside a pair of call-forwarding mishaps that could have been avoided through better education and communication from his team. Our experts then turn their attention to mistakes involving law firms’ online listings and discuss nightmare scenarios like Google marking your practice as closed, competitors suggesting damaging edits to your profile or your firm’s location coming up as a Chipotle. This episode features one mistake after another, with plenty of valuable lessons about what not to do at your practice. Chapters: 1:01 Nick Usurps the Episode (and Takes Producer Joe Hostage) 2:14 New Segment: Mistakes 5:53 Mistake #1: Call Forwarding and the Missed LSA Calls 8:08 Why Separate Tracking Lines Are Worth Setting Up 10:26 Should You Forward Your Cell Phone, Too? 13:40 Mistake #2: A Bad Review, a New Phone Provider, and a Surprise IVR 16:51 Taking Ownership Instead of Blaming the Client 19:14 Mistake #3: Where Law Firm Marketing and Intake Overlap 21:57 Google “Suggest an Edit” and the Lawyer Whose Office Was a Chipotle 24:29 Intake Lessons That Apply to Any Business 25:41 Freeing Producer Joe / Outro Topics Covered: -Setting up separate lines for LSAs, Google Ads, Spanish-language billboards, and other sources so messages arrive pre-labeled -Conditional call forwarding on a personal cell phone (and why your clients will love it) -Taking ownership of a bad review instead of pushing blame onto the client -Auditing your local presence, listings, and tracking numbers People & Resources Mentioned: -Gyi Tsakalakis and Conrad Saam — Lunch Hour Legal Marketing -Near Media -Christopher Earley — Earley Law Group -Delisi Friday — First Call Friday -Darren Shaw — Whitespark -Michael Cooney — WhatConverts -CallRail -Google Local Services Ads (LSAs) and Google Business Profiles The Legal Intake Experts is a part of the Answering Legal Podcast Network. Learn more about the show here: https://tinyurl.com/yk9x2p58 Want to connect with our experts? Reach out to Nick Werker via email at nick@answeringlegal.com Reach out to Tony Prieto via email at tprieto@answeringlegal.com Interested in learning more about Answering Legal? Book an appointment to speak with us here: https://tinyurl.com/watz5s8h You can also give us a call at 631-502-5070. This podcast is produced and edited by Joe Galotti. You can reach Joe via email at joe@answeringlegal.com
Jul 27

Jared Correia Talks Broken Workflows, Bad Business Decisions & AI-Enhanced Intake Systems

Welcome to Episode 20 of The Legal Intake Experts podcast! For more than a decade, Answering Legal has helped growing law firms ensure they never miss a chance to connect with new leads. Now, we’re pulling back the curtain to share our best strategies for strengthening your intake process and turning more callers into clients. Huge news! The Legal Intake Experts is now officially part of the Legal Broadcasting Company family, and to celebrate, we welcome LBC Co-Founder Jared Correia as a guest host. As with any podcast featuring Jared, this conversation goes off the rails in a hurry, as the host share memories of watching Optimus Prime's demise, the Rugrats Chanukah special and the TV show "Revolution" (which may or may not have been terrible, depending on which expert you ask). Eventually, the crew gets back on track, and discusses the intake and workflow mistakes that quietly cost law firms money, the problems that come from marketing without a CRM in place and the flawed processes attorneys use to select new tech solutions. This one is half intake masterclass, half doomsday scenario planning, and fully worth your time. Guest Info: Jared Correia — Legal industry consultant (Red Cave Legal Consulting), podcaster, and co-founder of the Legal Broadcasting Company. Learn more about the Legal Broadcasting Company here: https://legalbroadcastingcompany.com/ The Legal Intake Experts is a part of the Answering Legal Podcast Network. Learn more about the show here: https://tinyurl.com/4yjrbs36 Want to connect with our experts? Reach out to Nick Werker via email at nick@answeringlegal.com Reach out to Tony Prieto via email at tprieto@answeringlegal.com Interested in learning more about Answering Legal? Book an appointment to speak with us here: https://tinyurl.com/mrce83z You can also give us a call at 631-502-5070. This podcast is produced and edited by Joe Galotti. You can reach Joe via email at joe@answeringlegal.com
Jul 13

It's Time To Declare Independence From Your Law Firm's Phone

Welcome to Episode 19 of The Legal Intake Experts podcast! For more than a decade, Answering Legal has helped growing law firms ensure they never miss a chance to connect with new leads. Now, we’re pulling back the curtain to share our best strategies for strengthening your intake process and turning more callers into clients. Summer is in full swing, and hosts Nick Werker and Tony Prieto kick things off with an extended (and extremely competitive) debate about hot dog eating contests before turning to the real theme of the episode: freedom. Even though we live in "the land of the free," plenty of law firm owners feel trapped by their own intake process — every ringing phone is a tradeoff, every caller is high stakes, and it never seems to end. Our experts walk through how solo and small firms can build systems — from a well-scripted voicemail greeting, to a properly customized answering service, to a clearly defined Ideal Client Profile (ICP) — that shift the burden of intake off the attorney and onto a trained team. Topics Covered: -Why batching videos is a smart content strategy for lawyers -Feeling "trapped" by golden handcuffs as a law firm owner -Writing a professional, honest voicemail greeting when you're a solo practitioner -Choosing and customizing an answering service to match your firm's niche -Defining and training your team on your Ideal Client Profile (ICP) -Giving positive and constructive feedback to an intake team -Leadership as a cultural habit: intercepting problems instead of forwarding them -Why the "scrappy underdog" mindset holds growing firms back -Delegating ownership so the business isn't dependent on the owner People & Resources Mentioned: Chris Earley — host of The Earley Show (Answering Legal podcast network) Delisi Friday— founder of First Call Friday The Legal Intake Experts is a part of the Answering Legal Podcast Network. Learn more about the show here: https://tinyurl.com/3vhfuubk Want to connect with our experts? Reach out to Nick Werker via email at nick@answeringlegal.com Reach out to Tony Prieto via email at tprieto@answeringlegal.com Interested in learning more about Answering Legal? Book an appointment to speak with us here: https://tinyurl.com/ybn4am3b You can also give us a call at 631-502-5070. This podcast is produced and edited by Joe Galotti. You can reach Joe via email at joe@answeringlegal.com
Jun 29

Delisi Friday On What Law Firms Should Do After Getting A Referral

Welcome to Episode 18 of The Legal Intake Experts podcast! For more than a decade, Answering Legal has helped growing law firms ensure they never miss a chance to connect with new leads. Now, we’re pulling back the curtain to share our best strategies for strengthening your intake process and turning more callers into clients. In this episode, Nick Werker and Tony Prieto are joined by a very special guest co-host: Delisi Friday, founder of First Call Friday. Together they cover the most common intake mistakes around referrals, who should be responsible for thanking referral sources, how to build intake workflows that handle referrals automatically and why the intake process for a referred lead isn't as different from a cold lead as you might think. Also in this episode we celebrate Delisi's birthday and get a surprising thought from Tony about Hannibal Lecter. Guest Info: Delisi Friday — Founder, First Call Friday Delisi's website: https://www.firstcallfriday.com/ Free resources from Delisi: https://www.firstcallfriday.com/resources Topics Covered: -The #1 mistake law firms make when a referred lead calls in -Who in the firm should be thanking referral sources — and when -Why referred clients still Google you before they call -How to train your intake team to warm transfer rejected cases -The economics of referral vs. ad-based lead generation -Using tech (CRMs, Salesforce, Litify) to automate referral follow-through -Jay Ruane's book Analog Marketing in a Digital World and systematizing relationships -The tribal lawyer exception — and why your intake team needs a referral partner list People & Resources Mentioned: Pocket Docket — Delisi's online community for law firm referral marketing Jay Ruane — Author, Analog Marketing in a Digital World Ben Glass — Founder, Great Legal Marketing; Managing Attorney, Ben Glass Law The Legal Intake Experts is a part of the Answering Legal Podcast Network. Learn more about the show here: https://tinyurl.com/yvyntmc8 Want to connect with our experts? Reach out to Nick Werker via email at nick@answeringlegal.com Reach out to Tony Prieto via email at tprieto@answeringlegal.com Interested in learning more about Answering Legal? Book an appointment to speak with us here: https://tinyurl.com/y26pvyv2 You can also give us a call at 631-502-5070. This podcast is produced and edited by Joe Galotti. You can reach Joe via email at joe@answeringlegal.com
Jun 11

Is Your Intake Ready When It Matters Most?

Welcome to Episode 17 of The Legal Intake Experts podcast! For more than a decade, Answering Legal has helped growing law firms ensure they never miss a chance to connect with new leads. Now, we’re pulling back the curtain to share our best strategies for strengthening your intake process and turning more callers into clients. In this episode, hosts Nick Werker and Tony Prieto dig into one of the most overlooked aspects of law firm intake: time sensitivity. If your practice handles arrests, car accidents, DUIs, family emergencies, or anything that demands an immediate response, this episode is required listening. Chapters: 0:00 Intro & Tony's Sick Voice 2:25 Today's Topic: Time-Sensitive Cases 3:02 Are You Always Early or Always Late? 6:35 Why Availability Is Everything for Law Firms 7:00 The $10 Million 2 AM Call Story 9:06 Your Duty to Be Available 11:04 The Lawyer's Version of the ER 13:44 How Intake Must Evolve with Modern Search 16:05 CRM, Auto-Replies & Morning Lead Routines 17:34 Should You Call or Email Web Form Leads? 20:06 Building the Right Intake Team 21:26 Roleplay an Intake Call (Future Episode Idea) 23:09 How Answering Legal Handles Urgent After-Hours Calls 26:00 The Plan: Answering Legal as Your First Step 28:14 The Parable of Talents and Your Law Practice 29:03 Sponsor Plug & Outro Topics Covered: -Why the phone call remains the most urgent form of client communication — even in 2026 -The $10 million 2 AM call story: a real Answering Legal customer who captured a massive case because he signed up for the service hours before the call came in -The "duty to advertise" mindset — and why availability is part of that same duty -How different legal emergencies (DUI arrests, car accidents, divorce triggers) happen at specific times, and how to prepare your intake accordingly -Why intake isn't just about what you say — it's about knowing the process and communicating it clearly to callers -The web form vs. phone call communication preference debate -How to arm an answering service like Answering Legal with the right information so they become a powerful first step in your intake chain The Legal Intake Experts is a part of the Answering Legal Podcast Network. Learn more about the show here: https://tinyurl.com/m8hhttb5 Want to connect with our experts? Reach out to Nick Werker via email at nick@answeringlegal.com Reach out to Tony Prieto via email at tprieto@answeringlegal.com Interested in learning more about Answering Legal? Book an appointment to speak with us here: https://tinyurl.com/28tu77n8 You can also give us a call at 631-502-5070. This podcast is produced and edited by Joe Galotti. You can reach Joe via email at joe@answeringlegal.com
May 26

Stop Spending More On Marketing Until You Watch This – Featuring Ron Latz

Welcome to Episode 16 of The Legal Intake Experts podcast! For more than a decade, Answering Legal has helped growing law firms ensure they never miss a chance to connect with new leads. Now, we’re pulling back the curtain to share our best strategies for strengthening your intake process and turning more callers into clients. After being called out by our experts in a recent episode, Ron Latz (Founder of LegalFenix) joins the show to set the record straight. Ron, Nick Werker and Tony Prieto break down how call tracking and intake audits can reveal missed opportunities, why law firms should focus on what happens after the phone rings and how better systems can help firms maximize the value of leads that are already being generated. They also explore common agency transparency issues and expose some of the ways "bad actors" in the marketing space take advantage of law firms. About our guest: Ron Latz is the Founder of LegalFenix, a marketing advisory firm redefining how law firms approach growth. With more than 15 years in the legal marketing industry, Ron has guided countless firms through the complexities of modern marketing with clarity and candor. Known for his vendor-neutral stance and results-driven approach, he helps law firms align strategy with execution, optimize budgets, and rebuild trust in their marketing partnerships. Whether he’s decoding agency jargon, demystifying performance reports, or designing a blueprint for sustainable growth, Ron’s mission is to give law firms the clarity and confidence they need to win. Learn more about Ron's company here: https://legalfenix.com/ Connect with Ron on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ronlatz/ The Legal Intake Experts is a part of the Answering Legal Podcast Network. Learn more about the show here: https://tinyurl.com/5x95643m Want to connect with our experts? Reach out to Nick Werker via email at nick@answeringlegal.com Reach out to Tony Prieto via email at tprieto@answeringlegal.com Interested in learning more about Answering Legal? Book an appointment to speak with us here: https://tinyurl.com/372kwmr4 You can also give us a call at 631-502-5070. This podcast is produced and edited by Joe Galotti. You can reach Joe via email at joe@answeringlegal.com
May 5

How to Audit Your Law Firm's Intake Process (Without Lying to Yourself)

Welcome back to The Legal Intake Experts podcast! For more than a decade, Answering Legal has helped growing law firms ensure they never miss a chance to connect with new leads. Now, we’re pulling back the curtain to share our best strategies for strengthening your intake process and turning more callers into clients. In Episode 15, Nick Werker and Tony Prieto dive into what it really takes to evaluate your law firm’s intake performance and stop letting good cases slip through the cracks. They break down the numbers that actually matter, from missed calls to conversion rates, and show how even small breakdowns can cost you real opportunities. Along the way, they share how to review your intake conversations, spot exactly where things are going wrong and make the adjustments that turn more prospects into signed clients. The Legal Intake Experts is a part of the Answering Legal Podcast Network. Learn more about the show here: https://tinyurl.com/hfs4s645 Want to connect with our experts? Reach out to Nick Werker via email at nick@answeringlegal.com Reach out to Tony Prieto via email at tprieto@answeringlegal.com Interested in learning more about Answering Legal? Book an appointment to speak with us here: https://tinyurl.com/44mnrds8 You can also give us a call at 631-502-5070. This podcast is produced and edited by Joe Galotti. You can reach Joe via email at joe@answeringlegal.com.

Welcome to The Legal Intake Experts podcast, hosted by Nick Werker and Tony Prieto! For years, Nick and Tony have been part of Answering Legal, helping growing law firms make sure they never miss an opportunity to connect with new leads. Now, they're pulling back the curtain to share their top strategies for strengthening your intake process and converting more callers into clients. Tune in!

Creator

Answering Legal Podcast Network
Years Active

2025 - 2026
Episodes

22
Rating

Explicit
Copyright

© 2026 The Legal Intake Experts
Show Website

The Legal Intake Experts