Three matters that find your firm
after hours, and what we do with them.
Counsel is not a generic intake script. We hire phrasing and clauses to your practice areas. The night clerk knows the difference between a DUI hold and a DUI hearing, and writes it that way.
DUI & criminal hold
Booking calls, holds, and family members shopping a public defender at 2 a.m. We capture the hold location, the booking number, and the next hearing. We do not promise outcomes. We do not quote fees.
Family-law emergency
Custody disputes, restraining-order calls, the spouse-locked-out call. We stay calm, we keep the script, and we route to your on-call partner only when the matter is genuinely an emergency.
Estate & probate
The 11 p.m. call after a parent passes. The Tuesday-morning call after a long week. Compassionate, lawyer-formal intake, conflict checked against your matters before the line ends.
A real night, parsed for the morning.
This is the page that hits the partner's desk at 7 a.m. No avatar. No "AI summary, please review." A docket, in lawyer English, with the recording linked.
Estate, Mrs. Eleanor Reyes
Husband passed Sunday after long illness. Trust executed 2019, current per family report. Conflict check clear. Consult booked Tue 10:00. No fees discussed.
DUI, brother of detainee
Detained at SFPD Bryant Station 21:50. BAC unknown, prior unknown. Arraignment Wed 9:00. Conflict check clear. Returned call to firm on-call line per protocol, partner accepted.
Family, custody refusal at exchange
No safety issue. Petitioner self-regulated by call end. Existing matter; conflict flagged (firm represented respondent in 2024 dispute). Routed to partner per conflict rule. Did not book consult.
Three recordings, three transcripts, three matter sheets.
One conflict flag for partner review. Two consults on the calendar. Coffee suggested. The whole night reads in four minutes.
The clerk leaves you a draft retainer.
You read it. You sign it. You bill.
Engagement Letter, Draft
It reads like a clerk wrote it. Because that is the job. Not "AI-generated summary." A draft retainer in your house style, in your formatting, with the conflict check stamped at the top.
You decide whether to engage. You sign or you don't. The clerk did the part you would never do at midnight on a Sunday.
What your firm looks like at the hour we are working.
An oak-paneled office with one lamp on. A courthouse at dusk. A desk with the trust file still open. The room you walk into Monday morning, already half-prepared.
Questions a partner would ask.
Is this an unauthorized practice of law?
No. The clerk takes intake. The clerk does not give legal advice, quote fees, or form an attorney-client relationship. The partner forms the engagement upon return. Counsel's protocol is reviewed by outside ethics counsel and conforms to ABA Model Rule 5.3 and the equivalent state-bar provisions in your jurisdiction.
How does the conflict check work?
We sync nightly with your matter list (Clio, MyCase, PracticePanther, or a CSV). Names and entities are checked against opposing parties before consult is booked. Flagged matters never get booked. They go to your on-call partner with the conflict noted in red.
Can the clerk speak in my house style?
Yes. We onboard with a style sheet: greeting, formality level, cadence, and the firm's own retainer template. The clerk learns your voice in one calibration call, then locks. The morning brief reads as if your paralegal wrote it.
Recordings and confidentiality?
Calls are recorded with notice. Recordings are encrypted at rest and retained 30 days by default, deletable on partner request. SOC 2 Type II in force. We do not use call content to train models. Period.