You already text new inquiries. This walkthrough adds the two pieces around that text: an instant booking link, so people pick a consult time themselves, and an AI-drafted follow-up after the consult that you approve. One military-family custody inquiry goes from your form to a booked consult, a contact record, a follow-up email and a social post. Costs come from Albuquerque wage data and published prices.
Start the walkthrough ↓ Run your own numbers
Demo only. “Kayla Brennan” is a made-up client, and every detail about her is fictitious. Nothing here is connected to your systems.
of law firms in Clio’s 2024 secret-shopper study never replied to a prospective client’s email.[2]
of people looking for a lawyer expect a reply within 24 hours.[3]
potential clients, on average, at firms that use online intake tools, according to Clio.[2]
Your contact form already asks people to agree to texts “related to your inquiry, follow-ups, and review requests,” and promises that “a member of our team will be in touch shortly.” You’re ahead of most firms. The gap this closes is the time between that first text and a consult on the calendar, plus the recap after the consult.
Click a step or use Next. Each step shows what happens today, what the automated version does, and which tools do it.
By submitting, you agree to receive text messages from The Mulcahy Law Firm at the number provided, including those related to your inquiry, follow-ups, and review requests, via automated technology. (Your form’s existing notice.)
Today: the form comes in, your existing text goes out, and then someone still has to reach the person, find a time that works and put it on the calendar.
Automated: your current text keeps going out exactly as it does now. In the same minute, Kayla also gets an email (and the text can carry the same link) with your Calendly booking page, so she picks a consult time herself, tonight if she wants. Your team gets a one-line summary: military family, PCS orders, custody/time-sharing.
Plain words: Zapier is a “when this happens, do that” connector between apps you already use.
Today: phone or text back and forth to find a time, then type the details into a calendar and a contact list.
Automated: Kayla books from the link, the consult lands on your calendar, and a contact record is created with the matter type and a short summary pulled from her message. The booking confirmation and reminders come from Calendly.
CRM means contact list with a history of every touch. If you’d rather stay inside legal software, Clio Grow does the same job inside Clio.
Today: remembering who still needs a callback, then checking whether they ever got on the calendar.
Automated: when someone books, nothing else is needed. When someone doesn’t, a callback task appears the next morning. Calendly connects to Zapier with “new event scheduled” triggers.[9]
Hi Kayla,
Thank you for meeting with me today. Here’s a quick recap of what we discussed and what comes next:
1) You’ll send me a copy of the PCS orders and your current schedule, 2) we’ll outline long-distance time-sharing options that fit your daughter’s school year, 3) we’ll look at whether mediation makes sense for you both, and 4) we’ll set a follow-up to decide next steps.
As a military family you have a lot moving at once. We’ll keep this as simple as we can.
Just reply here or call 505-595-1430 with any questions.
Rebecca Mulcahy, The Mulcahy Law Firm
Today: write the recap from scratch after each consult, or skip it on busy days.
Automated: after the Calendly appointment ends, a draft lands in your email drafts folder, written from your notes in your voice. Nothing sends until you read it and click send. Your existing review-request text can follow once the matter wraps up.
Today: think of a topic, write it, make a graphic and post it by hand on each channel.
Automated: once a week, common questions from inquiries (never names or details) become a draft post in your voice. You approve it, and it’s scheduled to Facebook and LinkedIn.
Client details never go into a post. The AI only sees anonymized topics.
From a look at mulcahylawnm.com on Nov 2, 2026. We’d confirm all of this with you on a call, including which texting tool you use today.
✅ Works with your existing website form and texting; no rebuild needed.
Cost = minutes per step × hourly cost × how often it happens. The defaults are 10 inquiries a week (an assumption; change it in the calculator) and $28.96/hr, the May 2025 mean wage for paralegals and legal assistants in the Albuquerque metro area.[1] We add an overhead estimate on top of the wage (default 20% for benefits, payroll taxes, office and software; change it in the calculator), so the default hourly cost is $28.96 + 20% ($5.79) = $34.75/hr. Minutes per step are estimates.
| Step | How often | Today (min) | Automated (min) | Today $/wk | Automated $/wk | Saved $/yr | Tools |
|---|
| New tool subscription | Plan | $/month | $/year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zapier | Professional, 750 tasks/mo, billed annually | $19.99 | $239.88 | [4] |
| Calendly | Standard, 1 seat, billed yearly (needed for the Zapier connection) | $10.00 | $120.00 | [12] |
| HubSpot CRM | Free (2 users, 1,000 contacts) | $0.00 | $0.00 | [6] |
| Meta Business Suite | Free | $0.00 | $0.00 | [7] |
| Buffer | Free (LinkedIn; up to 3 channels, 10 queued posts each) | $0.00 | $0.00 | [8] |
| Your current texting tool | Already in use, no change | $0.00 | $0.00 | [10] |
| Total new subscriptions | $29.99 | $359.88 |
One-time setup by our team is separate and quoted as a fixed price after the discovery call. Task volume check: about 7 Zapier tasks per inquiry (including the dashboard log) × 43 inquiries/mo ≈ 300 tasks, plus about 10 for the Monday summary, well inside the 750-task plan (estimate).
If Rebecca handles intake herself, choose the lawyer rate. The hours saved are hours she can spend on paid work.
Every time the workflow runs, it adds a row to a log (a Google Sheet). This dashboard reads that log, so it is always up to date without anyone filling it in. The numbers below are example data built from the calculator inputs above (inquiries, posts, hourly cost, overhead and tools), with normal week-to-week ups and downs. Pick how long since go-live to see the totals at that point.
Tap a bar to see that week, including ROI as of that week.
Net gain = dollars saved − tool cost − one-time setup, counted from go-live. Setup here is an example figure; your fixed price is quoted after the call.
We’d start with one or two of these steps, likely the instant Calendly booking link alongside your current texts, plus the AI-drafted follow-up, and measure the difference.
Reply to set up a time, or just give me a call Email john@sunnyskiesconsulting.com Call (505) 720-1380
Built by John Mierzwa, founder of Ingenuity Software Labs. Its team built client sites, custom web apps and CRMs for local companies, including the Duran & McDonald law-firm site (newmexicoaccidentfirm.com). Today John designs and runs a team of about 14 AI agents that handle work like this every day.
Offered through Sunny Skies Consulting, a woman-owned Albuquerque company owned by Lisa Adkins (sunnyskiesconsulting.com).
Estimates: minutes per step (today and automated), inquiries per week, social posts per week and the Zapier task count are estimates or assumptions for illustration. We can start right away; if desired, a 1–2 week baseline replaces them with your real numbers so you can compare before/after costs and ROI. Dollar figures use the wage plus the overhead percentage set in the calculator (default 20%, an estimate). Overhead varies by firm, so we confirm it with you.