What is an AI voice receptionist for attorneys?

An AI voice receptionist for attorneys is a system that answers your phone calls 24/7, conducts a professional intake conversation with callers, and emails you a full summary — including the caller's name, number, email, practice area, and preferred callback time — within 60 seconds. Presently is built specifically for solo and small law firms.

How much does Presently cost?

Presently is $8,150 per year for standard access. Founding firms who join during our early access period pay $4,000 per year — a rate that is locked in for life. There are no per-call fees, no overage charges, and no long-term contracts beyond the annual subscription.

Does Presently integrate with Clio or other legal practice management software?

Presently delivers intake summaries by email immediately after each call. Integration with Clio, MyCase, and other practice management platforms is on the product roadmap. Founding firms will be the first to access native integrations when they launch.

Can Presently answer calls in Spanish?

Yes. Presently conducts intake conversations in both English and Spanish. If a caller begins speaking Spanish, Presently automatically continues the conversation in Spanish and delivers the intake summary to you in English.

How quickly do I receive the intake summary after a call?

You receive a full intake summary by email within 60 seconds of the call ending. The summary includes the caller's full name, best callback number, email address, practice area, preferred callback time, urgency level, and any additional notes the caller shared.

What practice areas does Presently support?

Presently is trained to handle intake for estate planning, personal injury, employment law, family law and divorce, criminal defense, and general matters. For each practice area, Presently asks the right follow-up questions — for example, asking personal injury callers about treatment status and insurance contact.

How does call forwarding work with Presently?

You forward calls to your Presently number using your existing carrier's call forwarding feature — typically by dialing a short code on your phone. No hardware or app is required. Setup takes under five minutes and can be activated or deactivated instantly.

Is Presently compliant with call recording laws?

Yes. Presently discloses at the start of every call that the call will be recorded and transcribed for intake purposes, and identifies itself as an AI assistant. This disclosure satisfies federal one-party consent requirements and is designed to meet two-party consent requirements in states like California, Florida, and Washington.

Can Presently handle multiple calls at the same time?

Yes. Presently handles simultaneous calls — every caller reaches a live AI immediately regardless of how many calls come in at once. There is no queue, no hold music, and no missed calls due to the line being busy.

What happens after Presently takes a message?

As soon as the call ends, you receive an email with the full intake summary. The summary flags urgent matters and high-priority leads so you can triage quickly. You call the client back directly — Presently handles the intake so you can focus on the follow-up that wins the case.

Google's Own LSA Docs Say Missed Calls Hurt Ad Placement — 26% of Law Firms Never Respond

Google's LSA help docs name missed calls as a ranking signal. 26% of law firms never respond to leads. AI intake closes both gaps at once.

Google's official Local Services Ads help documentation explicitly states that missed calls may negatively affect a firm's responsiveness score — and responsiveness is a named ranking factor for ad placement. Separately, Hennessey Digital's 2025 Lead Form Response Time Study of 1,333 U.S. law firms across 150,000 data points found that 26% of firms never respond to online leads at all. For a solo attorney running LSA, those two facts combine into a structural problem: every unanswered call costs the lead and suppresses ad placement for the next billing period.

Google Uses Responsiveness to Rank LSA Ads — Not Just Bid

Most attorneys think LSA placement is a pure auction. It is not. Google's LSA help page (support.google.com/localservices, answer ID 7527305) lists responsiveness — including answer rate on calls — as an explicit factor alongside reviews, proximity, and bid. The documentation warns that "missed calls may negatively affect your responsiveness" score.

That means a solo attorney who answers every call can outrank a larger firm paying the same bid but routing calls to voicemail. The playing field is not flat. It tilts toward whoever picks up.

26% of Firms Never Respond — That Is the Floor You Are Competing Against

Hennessey Digital's 2025 study is the largest law firm response-time dataset published: 1,333 firms, 150,000 data points. Its headline finding is stark — 26% of law firms never respond to online leads at all (Hennessey Digital Lead Form Response Time Study, 2025). The median response time across all firms was 13 minutes.

For context, Clio's 2024 Legal Trends Report found that only 40% of firms answer a live prospective-client call, down from 56% in 2019. The non-responder floor is not a niche problem. It is the modal behavior of the legal industry.

A solo running always-on AI intake sits permanently above that floor by definition. The 26% who never respond lose both the lead and LSA ranking credit for it. The 34% who answer inconsistently lose ranking credit on the calls they miss. Consistency is the variable LSA rewards — and it is the one variable an AI intake system controls completely.

The Structural Advantage for Solos

A BigLaw firm running LSA does not answer its own phones. Calls route to a receptionist pool, then to intake staff, then to a callback queue. Each handoff is a point of failure. A solo with Presently routes every call — business hours, evenings, weekends — through a single AI layer that answers immediately, qualifies the caller, and logs the contact.

That consistency registers in LSA's responsiveness score. The solo is not outspending the large firm. The solo is out-answering it.

This matters most for PI and criminal defense, where the LSA auction is most competitive and case values are highest. A DUI call at 11pm that goes to voicemail at a mid-size firm is a booked case at a solo running Presently. The same call that would have cost $649 or more in paid-search lead cost — per First Page Sage's benchmark for the legal vertical, the highest of any industry — gets answered at no incremental cost.

What "Always-On" Actually Means for LSA Rank

Google does not publish its exact responsiveness algorithm. What its documentation does say is that it tracks missed calls and that those misses affect placement. The practical implication: answer rate over time is a cumulative signal. A firm that misses 30% of calls consistently builds a suppressed placement baseline. A firm that answers 95%+ consistently builds the opposite.

Presently answers calls 24 hours a day at a flat rate — Core at $799/month or $8,150/year billed annually with a $499 setup fee. The math against a $649 lead cost is straightforward: one additional case that LSA placement delivers because the firm answered consistently can cover months of the subscription.

FAQ

Does Google officially confirm that missed calls hurt LSA ranking? Yes. Google's Local Services Ads help documentation (answer ID 7527305) explicitly names responsiveness — including missed calls — as a ranking factor. The page states that missed calls "may negatively affect your responsiveness" score, which is one of the signals Google uses to determine ad placement.

How many law firms never respond to leads? Hennessey Digital's 2025 Lead Form Response Time Study of 1,333 law firms across 150,000 data points found that 26% of firms never respond to online leads at all. Clio's 2024 Legal Trends Report, using a separate secret shopper methodology of 500 U.S. firms, found only 40% answer a live prospective-client call.

Can a solo attorney outrank a larger firm on LSA? Yes — because LSA rank is not determined by bid alone. Responsiveness is a named signal. A solo attorney who answers every call consistently can carry a higher responsiveness score than a larger firm routing calls to voicemail, even if both firms bid identically.

What does Presently cost compared to a human receptionist? Presently's Core plan is $799/month or $8,150/year (billed annually) plus a $499 setup fee. A law firm receptionist averages $37,131/year in base pay (ZipRecruiter, June 2026), covers roughly 40 of the week's 168 hours, and answers zero calls after 5pm. Presently covers all 168.

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