Law Firm Receptionist job description
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Your job description
254 wordsLaw Firm Receptionist ABOUT THE ROLE [Company name] is looking for a receptionist to run the front desk of our firm. You'll answer and route calls, greet clients, take detailed messages, open and log new inquiries, run conflict checks, manage meeting rooms and the team calendar, and help keep billing moving. Much of what crosses this desk is confidential, and discretion is as important as organization. WHAT YOU'LL DO • Answer and route incoming calls • Book, reschedule and confirm appointments • Greet visitors and sign them in • Take accurate messages and pass them on • Monitor the shared inbox and reply to routine email • Maintain patient or client records • Complete new client or patient intake paperwork • Run conflict checks on new inquiries • Sort incoming mail and handle couriers • Manage meeting room bookings • Prepare invoices and chase outstanding balances • Maintain the team calendar and travel bookings WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR • High school diploma or equivalent • Reception or administrative experience in a professional services environment • Precise written communication — messages and intake notes must be accurate • Absolute discretion with confidential client information • Comfortable with calendars, document systems and billing software NICE TO HAVE • Experience in a legal or professional-services setting • Familiarity with conflict checking and new-matter intake DETAILS • Employment type: Full-time TO APPLY Send your résumé and a short note about why this role suits you to [Company name]. We read every application and reply to all of them.
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What the role involves
We're looking for a receptionist to run the front desk of our firm. You'll answer and route calls, greet clients, take detailed messages, open and log new inquiries, run conflict checks, manage meeting rooms and the team calendar, and help keep billing moving. Much of what crosses this desk is confidential, and discretion is as important as organization.
Core duties
- Answer and route incoming calls
- Book, reschedule and confirm appointments
- Greet visitors and sign them in
- Take accurate messages and pass them on
- Monitor the shared inbox and reply to routine email
- Maintain patient or client records
- Complete new client or patient intake paperwork
- Run conflict checks on new inquiries
- Sort incoming mail and handle couriers
- Manage meeting room bookings
- Prepare invoices and chase outstanding balances
- Maintain the team calendar and travel bookings
Requirements
- High school diploma or equivalent
- Reception or administrative experience in a professional services environment
- Precise written communication — messages and intake notes must be accurate
- Absolute discretion with confidential client information
- Comfortable with calendars, document systems and billing software
Nice to have
- Experience in a legal or professional-services setting
- Familiarity with conflict checking and new-matter intake
Skills to screen for
Be honest about the phone
For a firm, a missed call is frequently a missed matter — prospective clients calling about a new case rarely leave a voicemail and rarely call twice. The intake call and the busiest hour at the desk tend to be the same hour.
Worth writing into the description rather than leaving as a surprise. Candidates who are good at it will recognize the description and apply; the ones who would have quit in month two will screen themselves out, which is the cheapest screening you will ever do.
What the hire actually covers
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook puts the median receptionist wage at $38,010 a year ($18.27/hour) as of 2025, before employer payroll taxes, benefits and paid time off. Source.
For that you get 40 of the 168 hours in a week. The remaining 128 — evenings, weekends, lunch cover, sick days, holidays — are hours our firm still takes calls, and nobody is on the desk for them.
Hire the person. Just budget for the gap too, and work out what it's costing with the missed-call cost calculator.
Law Firm Receptionist FAQ
What does a law firm receptionist do?+
Answers and routes calls, greets clients, takes precise messages, logs new inquiries and runs conflict checks, manages meeting rooms and calendars, and supports billing. The intake part matters most commercially: a prospective client's first call usually lands here.
What makes legal reception different?+
Confidentiality and precision. A garbled message in most businesses is an inconvenience; in a firm it can be a missed deadline or a conflict that should have been caught. Note-taking accuracy is a genuine screening criterion.
Should reception handle new client intake?+
Many small firms have it do the first pass — capturing the matter type, the other party for the conflict check, and contact details — then hand to a lawyer. Say so in the description, because it's real responsibility and candidates should know it's there.
The other 128 hours
Hire the receptionist. Cover the rest of the week.
RingOwl answers the calls your front desk can't — after hours, at lunch, and on the second line when the first one's busy. It books appointments into your calendar, takes messages, and emails you a summary of every call.
7-day trial · 30 minutes included · No credit card.
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