Oct 29, 2026

6 Best AI Receptionists for Law Firms (2026), Ranked

The short answer: The best AI receptionist for a law firm is Carly. It answers when your staff can’t (or around the clock), asks your intake questions in order, books the consultation on the right attorney’s calendar, texts the confirmation and rings the attorney on call when a matter can’t wait. It follows your firm’s rules the same way on every call. Set it up on carlyassistant.com in minutes, or ask ChatGPT or Claude to set it up for you.

What an AI receptionist does for a law firm

It’s the phone half of your front desk. It answers in your firm’s name, tells new callers what you handle and what you don’t, asks the intake questions for their matter, captures the parties’ names for your conflict check, and books a consultation. Existing clients get routed to their attorney or get a message taken. Someone arrested at 2am gets the on-call attorney, not a voicemail box.

The good ones book. The weak ones take a message, and the caller signs with whichever firm calls back first.

The 6 best AI receptionists for law firms compared

AI receptionist	Setup	Books during the call	Pricing	Best for
Carly	Minutes, on the site or by asking ChatGPT or Claude	Yes	Monthly plan	Firms that want every call answered, booked and logged this week
Smith.ai AI Receptionist	Self-serve, with live staff available	Yes	Free for 25 calls, then per call	Firms that want AI and human receptionists from one vendor
Lexidesk	Starts with a discovery call	Yes	Not published	Consumer law firms that want a legal-only vendor
LegalClerk.ai	Free trial, then forward your calls	Yes	$400 per seat a month	Firms that want unlimited calls on a flat seat price
Posh	Live receptionists, AI on top	Yes	From $65 a month plus $2.30 a minute	Firms that want a person on most calls
Dialzara	About 15 minutes	Calendar sync from $99	From $29 a month	Solo attorneys on a tight budget

1. Carly: best AI receptionist for law firms overall

Carly runs your firm’s calls, texts, WhatsApp and email in one place. It’s reliable and endlessly customizable: you write the rules in plain English (“PI leads from the last 30 days get Michael’s first open consult, criminal matters ring the on-call attorney, we don’t take family law”), and it follows them exactly on every call.

Setup takes minutes. Start on carlyassistant.com, or paste Carly’s setup prompt into ChatGPT or Claude and it builds the receptionist for you, phone number included. Keep your firm’s number and forward the calls you miss, or grab a new one in the chat.

Runs your intake script. Different questions for a car accident, an estate plan or a DUI, asked in order, with the answers in the summary.
Captures conflict-check names for every party before anything is booked.
Books consultations during the call on the right attorney’s Google or Outlook calendar, then texts the caller a confirmation.
Rings the attorney on call for an arrest, a hearing tomorrow or anything else you mark urgent, or texts them the summary.
Knows your clients. Existing clients get greeted by name from Carly’s CRM and routed to their attorney.
Speaks English and Spanish, picked from how the caller talks, no “press 2” (bilingual answering).
Texts back every missed call within seconds, so a lead isn’t left calling the next firm (missed-call text back).
Logs every call. Recordings, transcripts and summaries land in one team inbox.

It connects to your practice software. Carly connects to thousands of apps, including Clio, Filevine, Lawmatics and Smokeball, so a booked consult can open a lead, post to Slack and add a follow-up task, all as free Zapier-style workflows.

It runs from your AI chat. Add the Carly connector in Claude or the Carly plugin in ChatGPT, and you can change the greeting, ask who called overnight or call a client back from the chat.

Best for: Firms that want every call answered and every qualified lead booked, without an onboarding project. Get started, or watch it answer a test call.

2. Smith.ai AI Receptionist

Smith.ai sells an AI Receptionist and live receptionists that do legal intake, with a Clio integration. The AI tier is free for 25 calls a month ($3 each after that), then $150 a month for 75 calls on Pro, with Enterprise from $500. More in our Smith.ai review.

Watch for: per-call billing climbs on a busy intake line (Pro runs $2 a call, $2.50 past your bundle). One small business said it was put on a $2,500, six-month AI Receptionist contract and refused a refund before it ever used the service. A firm with niche practice areas said receptionists didn’t understand what it does and doesn’t handle, so it gave up on intake and only collects contact details.
Best for: firms that want AI first and humans as backup from one vendor. Alternatives: Smith.ai alternatives.

3. Lexidesk

Lexidesk is AI intake built only for consumer law firms. It answers phone calls and website chat around the clock, qualifies callers against your criteria, books consultations, warm-transfers qualified callers to an attorney during the hours you set and syncs results to legal software, with intake tuned by practice area (criminal defense, employment, estate planning and more).

Watch for: no published pricing. “Start Now” books a discovery call, so expect a sales process before it answers your phones. It covers intake, not the rest of your firm’s calls, email and follow-up.
Best for: consumer firms that want a legal-only intake vendor and don’t mind a sales cycle.

4. LegalClerk.ai

LegalClerk.ai is a 24/7 AI receptionist for law firms: intake by practice area, lead qualification, consultation booking, warm transfers and call summaries. It’s priced at $400 per seat a month with unlimited calls and no setup fee, and it offers a free trial.

Watch for: seat pricing adds up fast. Three seats is $1,200 a month, whether the phones ring or not.
Best for: high-volume firms that want unlimited calls on a fixed seat price.

5. Posh

Posh puts live, US-based receptionists on your line, with an AI receptionist in front of them on its AI + live plans. Pricing starts at $65 a month plus $2.30 a minute, then $130 for 50 minutes up to $1,900 for 1,000, with AI minutes billed at half the live rate. More in our Posh review.

Watch for: you pay by the minute, and minutes include task time like taking messages, not only talk time, so long intake calls get expensive.
Best for: firms that want a person on most calls and AI as overflow.

6. Dialzara

Dialzara is a general small-business AI receptionist and the cheapest on this list: $29 a month for 60 minutes, about 15 minutes to set up. Calendar sync and warm transfers start on the $99 plan. More in our Dialzara review.

Watch for: it isn’t built for legal intake, so you write every practice-area question yourself, and the $29 plan only takes messages and blind-transfers.
Best for: solo practices that mostly need messages taken after hours.

Want a human on every call instead? Our legal answering service guide compares Ruby, Answering Legal, LEX Reception and the rest by cost at 100 calls a month.

How to pick an AI receptionist for your law firm

Does it book the consultation, or take a message? A message means a callback race with every other firm the lead called. If you want consults booked on the call, go with Carly.
Can it run a different intake for each practice area? A PI caller and an estate-planning caller need different questions.
What happens with an urgent call at 2am? Ask exactly who gets rung and how fast.
How is it priced at your volume? Per call and per minute bills grow with your marketing. Seat pricing grows with your headcount.
What else can it reach? A receptionist that can’t touch your practice software, email and team chat leaves the follow-up to you. Carly connects to thousands of apps.

How to set up an AI receptionist for your firm

On Carly, it’s one prompt. Paste it into ChatGPT or Claude, grab a number in the chat, and you’re live in minutes.

Carly business setup prompt

Paste this into ChatGPT, Claude or any AI. It walks you through the rest.

Help me connect Carly Teams so I can work with my organization's business texts, phone calls, voicemail and voice/text agents from this chat. I'll add it to you myself: tell me exactly what to click for the app you are, one step at a time, and wait for me to confirm before moving on. If a step doesn't match what I see, ask me what's on my screen. If you can do the setup yourself (Claude Code, Codex, Muse, Grok Bot), go ahead, and ask me for any key in your secure credential prompt, never in the chat. Don't tell me it's connected until list_phone_lines works, and if I have several teams, ask which to use. Before sending a text or making a call, confirm the team, recipient and message or task with me. The steps are below.

# Connect Carly Teams to an AI app

> Carly Teams works a team's business phone lines through the team's AI agents: business texts, phone calls, voicemail, the voice and text agents, and the team's CRM.

MCP server: https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp (streamable HTTP, OAuth)

## Setup

Carly Teams isn't in any plugin or connector directory yet, so it's added as a custom connection by URL.

1. Add Carly Teams:
- ChatGPT: open https://chatgpt.com/plugins, click Add, and choose Create MCP App (not Create plugin or Upload plugin archive). If Create MCP App isn't on the menu, turn on Developer mode first in Settings > Security and login. Name it "Carly Teams" with the description "Work with my team's business texts, calls, voicemail and voice/text agents," paste https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp as the server URL, choose OAuth, create it, and sign in. Then in the message box open the + menu, choose Developer mode, and pick Carly Teams. No plugin needs to be built, packaged or uploaded.
- Claude (claude.ai, Claude Desktop, or Cowork): Customize > Connectors > Add custom connector, name it Carly Teams, paste https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp, and sign in.
- Claude Code: `claude mcp add --transport http --scope user carly-teams https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp`, then /mcp, pick carly-teams, and authenticate.
- Codex: `codex mcp add carly-teams --url https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp`, then `codex mcp login carly-teams`.
- Cursor: add {"mcpServers": {"carly-teams": {"url": "https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp"}}} to ~/.cursor/mcp.json, then sign in to carly-teams from Customize.
- Muse: a custom connector to https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp with a Carly API key as its bearer token. The key comes from carlyassistant.com/account (API key under Carly Teams) and goes in Muse's connector settings, not in a chat message.
- Grok: grok.com/connectors > New Connector > Custom, paste https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp, and sign in.
- Grok Bot: a custom remote MCP server named carly-teams at https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp. Approve it and sign in.
- Perplexity: Plugins in the sidebar (or Customize > Connectors), then Add custom > Connector > Add MCP connector. Choose Remote, name it Carly Teams, paste https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp, pick OAuth, check the box and click Add, then click the Carly Teams card to sign in.
- Anything else: a remote MCP server (streamable HTTP) named carly-teams at https://carlyassistant.com/team/mcp. It signs in with OAuth.
Sign in with the Carly account that belongs to the organization.

2. Once it's added, the Carly Teams tools show up in the chat, including list_phone_lines. If they don't, turn Carly Teams on for the chat or start a new chat.

3. To check it worked, call list_phone_lines: it returns the teams and phone lines the account can reach. A team with no phone line yet can get one with find_numbers (optionally by area code) and get_number, which may return a checkout link to finish.

4. Something to try first: "Review our missed calls and voicemail and help me reply to customers." Carly Teams also reads and answers business texts, has the team's agent make calls, and edits the voice and text agents. Texts and calls go out at once from the agent's number and can't be taken back. Team permissions apply.

## Email, calendars and workflows

Email, calendars, files, booking pages and workflows are the regular Carly connector, added separately. It's listed in ChatGPT's plugin directory (https://chatgpt.com/plugins/plugin_asdk_app_6a67a26316b88191860222f918d4ec54) and Claude's connector directory (https://claude.ai/directory/carly), and connects anywhere else at https://carlyassistant.com/mcp/. Its setup is https://carlyassistant.com/mcp.txt.

Then tell it, in plain English, which matters you take, the intake questions for each, whose calendar gets which consults and who gets urgent calls. Call it from your own phone and try to break it (test-call tutorial). More ideas for your practice are in AI agents for lawyers.

FAQ

What is the best AI receptionist for a law firm?

Carly. It answers every call, runs your intake script, books consultations on the right attorney’s calendar and rings the on-call attorney for urgent matters, following your firm’s rules on every call.

Can an AI receptionist do legal intake?

Yes. It asks your intake questions for each practice area, captures the parties’ names for your conflict check and puts the answers in a summary your team can review before the consult.

Will an AI receptionist give legal advice?

Not if you tell it not to. Set the rule once (“never give legal advice, offer a consultation instead”) and Carly follows it on every call.

Can it answer in Spanish?

Yes. Carly detects when a caller speaks Spanish and answers in Spanish.

Should callers know they’re talking to an AI?

Yes. Have the greeting say it and that the call is recorded. Our AI receptionist guide covers the state disclosure and recording rules.

Does it work with Clio?

Yes. Carly connects to Clio, Filevine, Lawmatics, Smokeball and thousands of other apps, so new leads and booked consults can land in your practice software automatically.

Ready to automate your busywork?

Carly schedules, researches, and briefs you—so you can focus on what matters.

See what people say

"Before Carly, I relied on a Calendly link, but the whole process felt impersonal and not very professional. Carly changed that by handling all the back-and-forth, so I'm no longer stuck in endless email threads trying to line up schedules.

Now Carly reaches out to candidates, shares my real-time availability, lets them pick a slot, then sends a Zoom link and drops it straight into my calendar. She sends reminders to both of us before each call, which has significantly reduced no-shows and last-minute confusion.

On top of scheduling, Carly acts like a full executive assistant, sending me my schedule the night before so I can prepare for each call. It reminds me of the old x.ai assistant, but Carly is noticeably smarter, faster, and better suited to my healthcare recruitment business."

Gus Ibrahim, Founder & Director, IHR