An AI agent for intake and chasing in Clio
A fee earner or secretary still retypes each enquiry into a new Clio contact, drafts the engagement letter from a precedent and chases evidence and unpaid bills by email. An AI agent can take on that work, and a solicitor approves it.
Enquiries, contacts and matters in Clio Manage, your precedent, and each matter's evidence and bills.
New contacts and matters prepared for a solicitor, the conflict search results, draft client care letters, and replies logged against the matter.
What Clio is and who runs it
Clio is software that law firms use to run their practices, made by Clio. Its main product is Clio Manage, where matters, contacts and billing are kept. Clio says more than 150,000 legal professionals use it.
In a small firm it is run by the solicitors themselves with a legal secretary or paralegal. In a larger one the practice manager looks after users and permissions, and the accounts team works in its billing.
Intake and chasing an AI agent can do in Clio
Enquiries turned into contacts and matters
A matter's client in Clio Manage is a contact. The agent takes the enquiry's details, checks whether the person or company is already a contact, and prepares the new contact and matter for a solicitor, who decides whether the firm acts.
Parties listed for the conflict search
The agent lists every party named in the enquiry and searches your Clio contacts and matters for each one, then shows the solicitor what it found. Whether there is a conflict is the solicitor's judgement, never the agent's.
Engagement letters drafted from precedent
From the matter and contact in Clio Manage and your precedent, the agent drafts the client care letter and marks anything it could not fill. The terms, the fee estimate and the decision to send are the solicitor's.
Evidence and unpaid bills chased
The agent chases the client for ID and source-of-funds evidence and reminds them of unpaid bills on your schedule, logging each reply against the matter. It does not touch client account, and a query on a bill goes to the fee earner.
Roles that work in Clio
Matter intake and engagement letters
Prepares the contact and matter from each enquiry and drafts the client care letter for a solicitor.
Client onboarding and KYC
Asks for ID and source-of-funds evidence, chases what is missing and files it against the matter.
Diary and scheduling
Books client meetings against fee earners' calendars. Court and limitation dates stay the fee earner's.
Invoice and payment chasing
Reminds clients of unpaid bills and hands any query or payment plan to a person.
How the connection is set up
Clio publishes an API for Clio Manage, reached through OAuth. Clio's documentation describes private apps, built for one firm's account, which each user authorises. An app selects the permissions it needs, as read or read and write. The route your firm uses is agreed with you first.
Clio limits access twice: by the app's permissions and by the role of the user who authorised it, so billing data stays closed to a user without billing access. Clio's developer documentation says apps are not available on its EasyStart tier.
Questions owners ask
Can it see more than the person who authorised it?
No. Clio's documentation says an app is limited both by the permissions it was given and by the Clio role of the user who authorised it. Where that user's role does not let them view bills, for example, the app is refused them too. So who authorises it matters, and is agreed with you.
We are on Clio's EasyStart plan. Will it work for us?
Not on EasyStart. Clio's developer documentation says apps and integrations, including private apps built for one firm, are not available on the EasyStart pricing tier. Which plan you hold is one of the first things checked with you.
Does the agent decide whether there is a conflict?
No. The Agent Resource, an AI worker run like your staff, lists the parties and shows the solicitor each Clio contact and matter that might match. Whether there is a conflict, and whether the firm can act, is the solicitor's decision, and the agent drafts nothing for the client until it is made.
Who approves the connection to our Clio account?
Someone with the authority to do so in your firm, usually the practice manager or a director. Clio shows the app's name and description on its approval page, and its documentation provides for a user deauthorising an app from within Clio.