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The New Matter Conflict Screening Checklist
Four stages that take a prospective client call from the first hello to a dated screening record you would be comfortable showing a judge.
This is the checklist we would want taped inside a solo attorney's desk drawer. It assumes no intake staff, no conflicts analyst, and no time between the call ending and the next thing on your calendar. Every item is something one lawyer can do in the moment, and each one exists because skipping it is how small firms end up filing a motion to withdraw.
Work it in order. The first stage happens while the caller is talking, because names you do not capture then are names you will never search. The second is the search itself. The third is the decision and the rule you decided under, and the fourth is the record, which is the only part of this that will still exist in two years when someone asks what you knew and when you knew it.
Stage one: capture every name while the caller is talking
Stage two: run the search before the call gets cold
Stage three: decide, and name the rule you decided under
Stage four: leave a record a bar investigator could read
How to use it
Use the first stage as a phone script rather than a review document. Read the prompts in order while the caller is talking and write in the margins, because the names you miss in those eight minutes are the ones that will never make it into any search you run afterward. If a caller is talking faster than you can write, ask them to slow down and spell the entity name. Nobody has ever objected.
The later stages are for the twenty minutes after the call. Run the search, write the rule number, make the decision, and save the record before you pick up the next thing. Solo practice is a series of interruptions, and any step you postpone to the end of the day is a step that competes with a filing deadline. Firms that get screening right are almost always the ones that finish it while the call is still fresh.
Send me the editable copy
Send me the editable copy by email so I can adapt the wording to my own practice areas and intake sheet.
Questions about this document
Is this checklist specific to one state?
It follows the ABA Model Rules numbering, which most states track closely. Your own jurisdiction may differ on screening under Rule 1.10 and on the exact consent requirements, so check your state rules and any recent ethics opinions before relying on the analysis.
How long should stage one take on a real call?
Around two to three minutes for a straightforward matter and longer for anything with entities in it. It feels slow the first few times and then it becomes the natural opening of your intake conversation. Prospective clients generally read it as thoroughness rather than delay.
What if I find a conflict after I have already taken the matter?
Stop work on the affected part, look at whether the conflict is consentable under Rule 1.7(b), and consider whether disclosure itself would breach confidentiality owed to the other client. Many state bars run a free ethics hotline for exactly this call. Document what you found and when you found it.
When the checklist becomes the intake form
Working these four stages by hand is real practice and it does protect you. Stage four is where small firms lose it, because the dated record gets pushed to the end of a day that already has a filing deadline in it. A demo shows the same capture, search, rule analysis, and record happening as one form while the caller is still on the phone. Bring the checklist and hold us to every line.