Most of what makes intake painful (chasing documents, deciphering a client's finances, reconstructing a custody timeline) is work your client could do before the first meeting, if they had somewhere to do it. The CoreParent attorney workspace is that somewhere. Here's how it actually works, start to finish.
Getting set up
You apply as a family-law professional with your practice details. We review every application by hand, which keeps the directory trustworthy, and once you're approved you get a welcome email and your workspace unlocks. The dashboard is deliberately simple: two tabs, Clients and Activity. Clients is your roster; Activity is a single time-ordered stream of everything happening across your cases (the same feed that drives the notification bell).
Three ways a client connects to you
A working relationship in CoreParent is a two-sided link, and it can start from either side:
- You invite them. Send an invite to your client's email from your dashboard. They get a link, sign in, and the connection is live.
- They invite you. A parent already using CoreParent can invite their attorney, even if you've never heard of us. You land on a personalized page and sign up; you're connected to them from the first minute.
- Your recruit link. Every approved professional gets a personal link (your own front door). Hand it to a prospective client and "get set up before your consult" becomes their to-do, not yours.
However the link starts, the first thing your client sees is a plain-language consent screen that spells out exactly what is and isn't shared. Which brings us to the most important part.
Everything is off by default
This is the design principle the whole workspace is built on: your client shares nothing until they choose to. Direct messaging turns on when you connect. Everything else is off until the client flips that specific toggle: expenses, journal and incident logs, calendar, child-support calculations, individual parenting plans. They share exactly what they decide to, category by category, and they can withdraw any of it at any time. You always see precisely what they've shared and nothing they haven't. For your client, that control is why they trust the tool. For you, it's a clean, defensible consent trail.
The client workshop: where you see your case
Open any connected client and you get their workshop view. At the top is the intake packet: a completion percentage, how many required documents are in, and an inline list of exactly what's still missing. Below that are category tiles: expenses, journal/incidents, calendar, child support, messages. Each tile shows a count and a one-line preview if the client has shared it, or a one-tap Request button if they haven't. Requesting prompts the client for that category (with sensible anti-spam limits), so "could you share your expenses?" is one click, not a phone call.
The intake packet becomes your brief
The intake packet, which we call a Prep Pack, is a guided homework flow your client fills out: custody pattern, the kids, finances, prior orders, safety notes, and their target outcomes, plus document uploads (tax returns, the current order, pay stubs). It's marked ready once the essentials are in.
When it's ready, you open the brief: a clean, read-only summary assembled for you. Stat cards up top (custody split, number of kids, average monthly shared expenses, and any safety flags). Then the sections in the order that matters in family law: the children, the custody pattern as a 28-day color strip, safety notes promoted to the top, homework highlights, documents and prior orders, and expenses. A consent audit log sits in the sidebar so you can see exactly what the client authorized and when. The moment you open a brief, your client is notified that you're reviewing their intake, so there are no surprises on either side.
Requesting a document, and what happens to it
Ask your client for something in the message thread ("can you send last year's tax return?") and CoreParent reads their vault, finds the best match, and presents it to them with a one-tap Send. Two details matter here:
- Shared files are immutable exhibits. When a client sends a document, the system takes a snapshot copy at that moment. If they later edit or delete the original, your copy is untouched. What you received is what they sent, permanently.
- Parenting plans arrive as fresh, court-ready PDFs, rendered on send in the language the plan was written in, not a stale attachment.
Your client can also share proactively (a receipt, an ID card, a document) straight from the thread whenever they want. Every share is dated, and a read receipt is set the first time you open it.
Consults and video
To schedule, either side offers a few time slots and the other picks one. Connect your Zoom account once, and booking a consult automatically creates the Zoom meeting on your account and drops a "Consult with [you]" event onto your client's calendar, with join links on both sides, each time rendered in the right person's time zone. If you prefer your own scheduler, drop in a booking URL (Calendly, Cal.com, Clio, and the like) and CoreParent uses that instead.
Your calendar
The workspace calendar pulls three things into one month/week/day view: your booked consults, any calendar events your clients have shared, and court deadlines across every client. Each client is color-coded, so a glance tells you whose deadline is coming up. From any event you can join the Zoom, add meeting notes, or jump straight into that client.
Built for privilege and the rules
A few things we were careful about, because you have to be:
- Private notes stay private. Your case notes on a client are yours alone, append-only by design, so there's a clean, tamper-resistant record.
- Video stays privileged. The Zoom integration includes a checklist reminding you to keep recording, AI companions, and transcription off for privileged conversations.
- No cold outreach. CoreParent never lets an attorney contact a parent who hasn't reached out first. The directory changes how you're found, never who you can solicit. That's deliberate, to stay clear of the solicitation rules.
And to be clear about what the workspace is: it's a tool that helps your clients arrive organized and share on the record. It is not a law firm, it doesn't give legal advice, and it never stands between you and your client.
What it costs
The professional workspace is free during our beta: no credit card, no per-client fees. Reclaiming the hours intake quietly eats shouldn't cost you anything to try.
Curious? See the workspace for attorneys →