Compliance: what it will and will not say
The reason a managing partner says yes is not speed. It is that the
assistant cannot create exposure. The refusal set is written down,
approved by the firm, and testable.
Hard refusals
- Interpreting a will, trust, deed, beneficiary designation or court
filing.
- Predicting outcome, timeline or cost of a matter.
- Any comment on capacity, undue influence or the merits of a family
dispute.
- Fees, retainer amounts or engagement terms the firm has not
approved in writing.
- Anything that could be read as forming an attorney-client
relationship.
Escalation
When a caller pushes past the line, the assistant states plainly that
an attorney must answer it, captures the facts, and routes the thread to
a named person on the firm's team with the transcript attached.
Supervision (Rule 5.3)
The assistant is a non-lawyer assistant operating from a written
script the firm controls. Every exchange lands verbatim in the matter
record, so supervision is a read rather than an audit.
Unauthorized practice of law
Responses are drawn from a pre-approved set; the assistant does not
generate novel legal statements at run time, and it does not apply law
to facts.