LEGAL USE CASE

Solicitors and Client Service

A solicitor's day is spent away from the desk the phone system thinks they sit at: in court, with clients, between offices, working from home the night before a hearing. The calls do not stop — a listing changes, a client panics, counsel needs an answer.

So the calls move to the personal mobile, and the firm's boundaries move with them. This use case sets out what changes when the practice's line sits on the phone the solicitor already carries.

At-a-Glance

Sector: Legal services
Setting: Solicitors' practices, in court and out of it
Teams: Fee earners, paralegals, support staff
Deployment: Business line on staff-owned handsets
Platform: The firm's existing UC platform

Solution Highlights

Every client call shows the firm's number
Out-of-office cover is a routing rule
Calls on the record beside the matter file
The solicitor's own number stays private

The Challenge

A client who has a solicitor's personal number uses it — evenings, weekends, years after the matter closed. The boundary between the professional and the person erodes one saved contact at a time, and the firm has no way of drawing it back.

The firm's problem is larger than etiquette. Client calls on personal phones sit outside file notes, outside supervision and outside any record the practice can produce. When what was said on a call becomes the issue — and in law it does — the firm is relying on memory for evidence.

The Solution

Each fee earner carries a business line on their own handset, delivered by eSIM. Calls and texts to clients carry the firm's identity from wherever the work is happening — a court corridor, a client's boardroom, the kitchen table.

The line is an extension of the practice's phone system, so the firm's disciplines follow it. A solicitor in a hearing routes calls to their secretary or a colleague on the matter; an urgent client reaches a person, not a week of voicemail. Nothing needs an app; it is the phone's own dialler.

And the calls are on the record. A conversation that changes instructions or gives advice is retrievable through the platform, sitting alongside the matter file rather than lost to a personal handset.

What Changes

The first change is the boundary. Clients hold the firm's number; the solicitor's own phone goes quiet at the weekend, and a departure does not leave clients ringing a private mobile.

The second is responsiveness the firm controls. Court days and leave become routing rules, so the client is answered by the practice rather than gambling on one person's availability.

The third is the record. What was said by phone stops being the one part of the file the firm cannot produce.

Key Changes

Clients ring the firm, wherever the solicitor is
Court days covered by routing, not luck
Phone advice retrievable beside the file
Personal numbers out of client hands

Assessment

Nine questions about your own practice. The ones you can't answer are the ones worth looking into.

How it works today

What number does a client see when a fee earner returns their call?
What happens to that client's calls during a two-week trial?
How many clients hold a current or former solicitor's personal number?

What it is costing

How many client calls a week happen outside the firm's systems?
How much unbilled phone time never reaches a file note?
What could you produce if a call's content were disputed?

What would change

Which department would you pilot on first?
Which matters would benefit from retrievable call records?
What would out-of-hours routing look like for your practice?

Law is practised by phone more than any file records, and the profession has drifted into doing it on numbers the firm neither owns nor sees. Putting the practice's line on the phones solicitors already carry restores the boundary, the cover and the record in one move.

The retrievable call is the part that earns its keep the first time instructions are disputed.

Looking Ahead

Count the personal numbers clients holdPilot one departmentSet court-day routingExtend to paralegals

Learn More

Visit tango-networks.com or contact your local Tango Extend partner
for a personalised demonstration.

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Version 1.0 · August 2026