Maintain a public attorney and team directory

The operational decision

Keep names and public roles accurate without exposing individual schedules or client assignments. An intake assistant needs a controlled set of firm facts and instructions. Old practice descriptions, informal staff comments and draft policies should not compete with the current approved script.

Prepare the workflow

Use the firm-approved public directory and assign an owner for departures, role changes and contact updates.

Example wording for approval

“The example directory lists public team roles only. Please use the firm's approved contact route for availability or questions about an existing matter.”

Worked example

A fictional attorney leaves the public team directory, but an older routing note still names them as the default contact. Update public identification and operational routing as separate controlled tasks, each with an owner. Then test a directory question and a routing attempt independently. The assistant should not explain private reasons for the departure or infer who now handles an existing person's matter. It can provide the current public team route and leave individual assignments with the firm's authorized process.

Handoff record

Record these task-specific fields: public name, role, directory source, update owner.

Acceptance check

Ask which attorney represents a named person. The assistant should not infer a relationship from directory information or reveal internal assignments.

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