02The conflict-check handoff stays a human step
Before a firm takes anyone on, a lawyer decides whether it can act. In the Romanian lawyer's Code (approved by UNBR Decision 268 of 17 June 2017, in the version we read, so check the current text with your bar), art. 12(1) bars a lawyer from assisting a client whose interests are or could be in conflict with those of other clients or of the lawyer. Art. 12(2) bars pleading against a party who consulted the lawyer beforehand on concrete litigious aspects of the case, and art. 12(7) extends the bars to the other lawyers in the practice. A CRM cannot judge any of that. It can hold the names of the parties as the enquirer gave them, in one field the whole firm can search, show a status of awaiting conflict check, and record who cleared it and when. The rule that nothing moves past that status until a named lawyer clears it is the firm's to set, not the software's.
- Party names in one fixed field the whole firm can search
- A status of awaiting conflict check, cleared by a named lawyer
- Who cleared it and on what date, noted on the record
- Declined enquiries stay findable for as long as the firm and its data protection adviser decide, because art. 12(2) and (7) can reach someone who only consulted a colleague
03Follow-ups and who owns each enquiry
The failure a CRM prevents is quiet: an enquiry that arrived on Friday evening, was seen by three people and answered by none. The fix is dull and it works. Every open record has one owner, a person with a name rather than the team, and a date for the next step. Each morning that person opens a list of what is due. If the record says a hearing or a deadline is close, the firm's own rule sends it to a lawyer the same day. An automatic reply can confirm that the message arrived and say when a person will answer, but a lawyer should word it: it gives no advice and promises nothing about taking the case. Our post on follow-up messages covers the tone.
- A named owner on every record, reassigned when that person is away
- A date for the next step on every open record, and a daily list of what is due
- A deadline or hearing noted on the record goes to a person the same day
- An automatic receipt worded by a lawyer: no advice, no promise to take the case
04Client data: what a CRM holds and what it must not
Everything in the CRM is confidential from the first record. Art. 11(2) of the Code puts the names of clients inside professional secrecy, and art. 11(5) says the duty begins with preliminary electronic communications, before any contract. On the data side, GDPR Art. 5(1)(c) asks for data limited to what is necessary, 5(1)(e) asks that it not be kept in identifiable form longer than necessary, and 5(1)(f) asks for appropriate security. Art. 32 asks for technical and organisational measures suited to the risk. In practice: store what intake needs, keep case facts and copies of documents or ID out of notes fields, give each person access only to what their role needs, and remove it the day someone leaves. Art. 11(8) makes the lawyer responsible for staff and collaborators respecting the secret, so ask your bar how that applies to a software vendor, and where the data is hosted. How long you keep a declined enquiry is a decision for your lawyer or data protection adviser.
- Store what intake needs and nothing more
- No case facts and no copies of identity documents in notes fields
- Access by role, removed the day someone leaves
- The vendor, the hosting location and the retention period: decided by the firm, its bar and its data protection adviser
05A CRM is not case-management software
A CRM covers the stretch from first contact to the decision to take the case or not. Once the firm engages a client, the work lives in other software: the matter file, documents, time records, invoices, court dates and limitation periods. That is case or practice management software, and a CRM is not a substitute for it. A date field in a CRM is not a deadline system, and a missed procedural date is a different class of problem from a missed call-back. PROOF48's AUTOMATE plan, at 2,997 EUR a month, includes booking automation with a CRM, website chat, DM and email auto-responders, and everything in GROWTH, such as ad management and 30 AI blog posts a month. It does not cover WhatsApp or phone, so anything that arrives there is logged by a person. Our plans page lists the CRM only as 'Booking automation + CRM'. Ask for its exact fields before you assume owner, status, next-step date or a party-names field.
- CRM: from enquiry to decision. Case-management software: the matter, documents, time, invoices and court dates
- Court and limitation deadlines belong in the firm's deadline system, not in a CRM date field
- AUTOMATE: booking automation with a CRM, inside a 2,997 EUR a month bundle
- Covered: website chat, DM, email, booking. Not covered: WhatsApp and phone, which a person logs
06Where PROOF48 is the wrong choice for a law firm
None of our eight published builds is for a law firm, and we have not built a CRM for one. AUTOMATE is the wrong purchase for a small firm with a handful of enquiries a week: a spreadsheet with owner, status and next-date columns, or a shared inbox with a rule that every message is assigned the same day, costs nothing. It is also wrong if most enquiries arrive by phone or WhatsApp, because the CRM would never see them unless someone types them in. We do not decide what your bar allows you to say to prospective clients, so a lawyer must approve every automatic reply. A CRM built around your own conflict-check fields and role-based access is a custom web app, from 5,000 EUR, scoped with you first; larger builds can need a deposit, see /terms. If you have no website yet, the site comes first: up to about five pages, 500 to 2,500 EUR, built in 48 hours and paid for after the preview.
- No law firm among our eight published builds
- A handful of enquiries a week: a spreadsheet or an assigned shared inbox costs nothing
- Enquiries by phone and WhatsApp sit outside AUTOMATE
- A CRM with your own conflict-check fields and role-based access: a custom web app, from 5,000 EUR
Not a law firm: one record from the first request to payment
None of our eight written-up builds is a law firm. The closest pattern is ATP Spedition, where we built one job model that covers courier, moving and freight and carries a job from booking through quote, dispatch and delivery to invoice and payment in one system, with a public booking page in front of it. The lesson that transfers is one record, followed from the first request to the end, instead of the same enquiry living in three places. We have no law-firm results to quote, and we do not publish figures for ATP, because there is no traffic or volume number to give.
See the build: ATP SpeditionQuestions, answered
Can a CRM run our conflict check?
No. Whether the firm can act is the lawyer's decision under the Code (art. 12). A CRM can hold the party names, show the status and record who cleared the check and when.
Is a CRM the same as case-management software?
No. A CRM follows an enquiry until the firm decides. Case-management software runs the matter after that: file, documents, time, invoices and court dates. Court deadlines should not live only in a CRM date field.
Does using a CRM make my firm GDPR compliant?
No. A tool holds the data and the obligations stay with the firm (Art. 5 and Art. 32). Your lawyer or data protection adviser confirms what applies, including how long you keep the data.
Can the CRM log our phone calls and WhatsApp messages?
Not as part of AUTOMATE, which covers website chat, DM, email, booking and CRM. A person logs whatever arrives by phone or WhatsApp.
Where PROOF48 fits
A shared inbox keeps messages. A CRM can keep one record per enquiry, with an owner, a status and a next step, and gives the firm a clean place to hand a name to a lawyer for the conflict check. It does not run the check, store the case file or track court deadlines, and the lawyer's judgment stays where it was. PROOF48's AUTOMATE plan, at 2,997 EUR a month, includes a CRM with chat and booking, not WhatsApp or phone, and its exact fields are not specified on our plans page, so ask before you rely on them. We say plainly when a spreadsheet is enough.
Cosmin Tiu · Founder, PROOF48
Cosmin has worked in online marketing and software development since 2018, and has built with AI every day since January 2023. He still writes code from scratch daily, in Python, React, Rust and C#. PROOF48 ships business websites in 48 hours and invoices afterwards, so every opinion on this blog was paid for in real builds, not in theory.