An inquiry becomes a client through the power of attorney.

Inquiries rarely arrive through one channel. A web form, a phone call, a referral from a colleague or former client, a message on a chat app and a walk-in can all reach the same Turkish firm in the same week. The first rule of process design is that every inquiry, whatever its channel, lands in the same record with the same fields. A preliminary conversation held without a record means a skipped conflict check and a missed data protection notice.

In HukukBis, an intake record keeps the applicant's name, email, phone and subject, the source of the inquiry (web form, phone, referral), its status, the assigned lawyer and any custom form data the firm has defined. The fields are deliberately few: at first contact you capture who is asking, about what and through whom, not the merits. A short classification in the subject field (employment, eviction, divorce, commercial receivable) is enough; the detail goes into the file after the conflict search and the decision to accept.

Do not skip the urgency question. An applicant may not mention in the first call that the time limit on a served judgment is about to expire; you only learn it if you ask. If there is a deadline, calculate the last day first with the legal deadline calculator and bring the first meeting forward. Meetings are booked in the calendar module by choosing the lawyer, the applicant, the meeting type (in office, online, phone) and an available slot.

Minimum fields to ask when opening a record

• The applicant's name or company name; for a company, the authorized person separately.
• Contact details: phone and email.
• Subject: a one or two sentence classification, not the story.
• Source: web form, phone or referral; for a referral, who sent them.
• Names of the other side and related persons; if unknown, note that in the record instead of leaving it blank.
• Urgency: any approaching deadline, hearing or enforcement step.

Once the record exists, the first task is a short look at whether the inquiry fits the firm's practice areas, capacity and fee expectations. This filter is not a decision to decline; its aim is to spend the lawyer's time on inquiries that can actually be evaluated. An assistant or office manager can run this stage, but does not make the decision to accept or decline.

The filter produces three outcomes. First, the inquiry fits and goes to a lawyer. Second, it is clearly outside what the firm does (for example, a specialty the firm never handles); the lawyer still makes the call, because the duty to tell the applicant without delay rests with the lawyer. Third, information is missing: the identity, the other side or the subject is unclear.

Keep the gap visible in the record and ask the applicant for everything in one message. Requesting missing items piece by piece tires the applicant and leaves the record vague. State a reasonable response time; when it passes, close the inquiry and write the closing note in the record. A conflict search needs at least the applicant's name and the other side's name, so without them the search cannot run and the meeting should not proceed.

Gaps to ask about in a single message

• The other side's name or company name and any other related persons.
• Documents in hand: contract, formal notice, service record, judgment.
• Whether another lawyer has already been consulted or a file is already pending.
• Any approaching deadline or hearing date.

In firms with several lawyers the most common loss is the inquiry that belongs to nobody. The form is filled in, the email reaches everyone, and everyone assumes someone else is on it. Assignment is a separate step for that reason: the managing lawyer or practice lead assigns the inquiry to a lawyer and the record moves to Assigned. The assigned lawyer books the meeting, starts the conflict search and owns the decision.

Keep the assignment rule in writing. Whether you distribute by practice area, by rotation or by whoever brought the referral, the rule should be known to everyone and applied consistently. Set a waiting limit for unassigned inquiries; for example, list every unassigned inquiry to the manager at the end of each business day.

Who may see the inquiry is also decided here. Even before they are a client, an applicant must be protected, because what they tell the firm falls within the lawyer's duty of confidentiality. With roles and permissions an assistant can open the record while detailed notes remain visible only to the assigned lawyer and the manager. For role design in more depth, see the guide on role and permission management in a law firm.

The most important check before acceptance is the conflict search. The Attorneyship Law requires a lawyer to refuse an engagement if they have already acted for, or given an opinion to, an opposing party in the same matter. That obligation covers not just the lawyer but also their partners and the lawyers working with them. The search therefore has to run across the whole firm; a check that depends on individual lawyers remembering stops working as the firm grows.

The names to search are not only the applicant's. Search the applicant, the other side, the other side's shareholders or managers, related companies, persons who may be close to the applicant and every other party named in the matter. Because spellings vary, also search by ID or tax number where you have it. In HukukBis, the conflict of interest check searches clients, cases and earlier inquiries across the office by name or ID number, and the result is stored with the user who ran it and a timestamp.

Keep the record even when the search comes back clean. If a conflict allegation ever arises, proof of when the check ran, who ran it and which names were searched is the firm's best defense. If the result contains a match, the decision does not stay with the assistant; the assigned lawyer reviews the match and, if needed, consults the partners. For search methods, partial matches and worked scenarios, see the conflict check guide; this section only shows where the check sits in the intake flow.

Names that go into the search

• The applicant and the company or institution they represent.
• The other side, its shareholders and its managers.
• Other parties in the matter: guarantor, tenant, insurer, joint venture partner.
• Anyone who has already touched the file, such as a previous lawyer or an expert.
• ID or tax numbers for each, where known.

A lawyer may decline an engagement without giving a reason, but must tell the person who offered it without delay. In practice the two sentences of the law create two separate rules: you do not have to write a reason, yet staying silent is not a way of declining. Until the applicant learns that the matter will not be taken, they cannot protect their own time limits and rights.

In some cases declining is not a choice but an obligation. The law requires refusal where you consider the offer improper or unjust, or come to that view later (a); where you have already acted for or advised an opposing party in the same matter (b); where you previously served in that matter as a judge, arbitrator, prosecutor, expert or civil servant (c); where you would have to argue that a deed or contract you drafted yourself is void (d); and where the matter does not fit the professional solidarity and order requirements set by the Union of Turkish Bar Associations (f). If one of these applies, whether to write the reason is your call, but you cannot take the matter.

A decline letter should be short, courteous and focused on the outcome. Do not give a view on the merits; otherwise you may unintentionally have given an opinion and later be barred from working for the other side. On time limits, give only a general reminder: the applicant may be subject to a deadline and should approach another lawyer quickly. If you send the letter by email, record the sending date; the moment you will want to prove that notice was timely is the moment a dispute arises.

What a decline letter contains

• The date the inquiry was received and a short name for the matter.
• A statement that the firm cannot take the matter; the reason is optional.
• A suggestion to approach another lawyer promptly so no right or deadline is lost.
• No assessment or opinion on the merits of the matter.
• The sending date entered in the intake record.

After the decision to accept, two documents are prepared: the fee agreement and the power of attorney. The law allows the attorney agreement to be drawn up freely, but agreements that are not in writing are proven under the general rules. An oral agreement is therefore not void, but in a dispute the burden of proving the fee and the scope of the work becomes heavier. The practical conclusion is clear: put the agreement in writing and describe the scope precisely.

The fee is the consideration for legal assistance. It can be set as a fixed amount, as a time-based fee or as a percentage of the value of the case. If a percentage is used there is a ceiling: it cannot exceed twenty-five percent of the value of the claim or of what is awarded. In addition, an attorney's fee below the minimum attorney fee tariff cannot be agreed, so the figure in the agreement must not fall under the tariff. Re-check the current tariff each year and update your template.

The scope matters as much as the fee. State which case or stage is covered (for example, first instance only, with appeal separate), who pays the expenses (court fees, service costs, expert fees, travel) and when, and how the agreement ends. Billing and collection continue in billing; for firms that bill by time, the time tracking and billing guide describes that flow separately.

The power of attorney is a separate document from the fee agreement and gives the lawyer authority to act in the client's name. Its form and scope vary with the type of matter, and acts that require special authority must be stated in it specifically. Confirm the form and scope you will use against current procedural legislation and your bar association's practice. Attach the executed document to the file in document management under the Power of Attorney category.

Fee agreement and power of attorney checklist

• The parties, identity and tax details; for a company, the authorized representative and proof of authority.
• Description and scope of the matter; which stages are and are not included.
• Type and amount of the fee; if a percentage, checked against the twenty-five percent ceiling and the tariff floor.
• Who bears the expenses, the advance arrangement and payment dates.
• How any success fee works on settlement or withdrawal of the claim.
• Termination and resignation terms.
• Scope of the power of attorney and acts that need special authority.
• The date of signature and a copy signed by both sides.

Once the agreement and the power of attorney are signed, the applicant is a client. In the system this is a deliberate act: the intake record is converted to a client card with identity verification. The inquiry history, the result of the conflict search and the meeting notes attach to the new card, and the record moves to Converted. Retyping the same information wastes effort and breaks the trail of the conflict check.

Identity verification is the core of this step. For an individual, compare the name, surname and number on the identity document with the record; for a legal entity, obtain the documents showing the trade name, tax number and authority to sign. The information on the inquiry form is the applicant's own statement; the information on the client card must be verified. Name spellings, changed surnames and inquiries made through an agent are the most common sources of error.

After conversion the client card is the common point for every file and every communication in the firm. Later inquiries from the same client attach to that card without a new one being opened. People whose matters were declined are not converted; their records stay in history with the decline and its date, and become the first place the conflict search looks if the same person returns.

From the client card you open the first file. In the case management module the file is created with the court and docket details, the parties, the responsible lawyer and the type of matter; for advisory work or contract drafting, a file is opened on the same logic. The moment the file opens is the moment the work starts in practice, and deadline tracking should attach to the file from that point.

Set up three things in the first file straight away. First, upload the opening documents: the agreement, the power of attorney and the identity documents. Second, enter every known deadline and hearing in the file and the calendar; you can compute them with the legal deadline calculator, which accounts for weekends and public holidays. Third, assign the first tasks: court fees, advances and drafting are defined as tasks linked to the file.

If the matter runs through UYAP, the Turkish national judicial network, the file is also matched at this point through the UYAP integration; case and hearing information is matched with the HukukBis file, and e-notification records, with their delivery dates, appear in the file.

A person who fills in your intake form is a data subject sharing personal data with you, and the firm is the controller of that data. The law requires the controller to inform the data subject, at the time the data is obtained, of the controller's identity, the purpose of processing, to whom and why the data may be transferred, how it is collected and on what legal ground, and of the data subject's rights. The intake form is the natural place for this notice: it should be visible before the form is submitted. For an inquiry received by phone, the same information is given orally and the fact that it was given is recorded.

The notice and the ground for processing are different things. The notice is always given; processing does not have to rest on explicit consent alone. The other grounds listed in the law include processing directly related to the formation or performance of a contract, necessity for establishing, exercising or protecting a right, and legitimate interest. Decide with the firm's data protection lead or legal adviser which ground applies to your inquiry and preliminary meeting processes; for the wider compliance framework, see the law firm KVKK compliance guide.

Data security is the controller's duty to take technical and administrative measures. At the inquiry stage that means entering only the necessary fields, limiting access to detailed notes to the assigned lawyer and the manager, keeping documents off informal channels such as personal email and chat groups, and tracking access through activity logs. Do not collect special categories of data, such as health or criminal records, on the intake form without need; take them after acceptance, inside the file. For the product side of these measures, see the security page.

Professional secrecy also starts at the inquiry stage. The law forbids a lawyer to disclose what was entrusted to them or what they learned through their duties, and the rule is not made conditional on the matter later being accepted. Do not share the content of a declined inquiry with another applicant, colleagues or on social media. The firm also needs a retention period for declined inquiries: data is kept for as long as the purpose of processing requires; your firm should set that period in a written policy and delete or anonymize the data when it expires.

Daily record-keeping rules

• The notice is visible on the intake form before submission.
• For phone inquiries, the oral notice is noted in the record.
• Only the assigned lawyer and the manager can access detailed notes.
• A declined inquiry is kept with its decline date and notice date.
• Expired inquiry records are deleted or anonymized under the policy.