Updated October 26, 2026
Clio Phones Review (2026): Is It Worth It? Pricing, Pros & Cons
Clio just announced its own phone system. Here is what it does, what Clio has not said yet, and whether a firm already on RingCentral, Dialpad, Zoom Phone or Quo should move.
LIVE TRACKER
What Clio has said
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Announced October 26, 2026 at ClioCon Boston
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Built on Corvum, the legal VoIP provider Clio acquired
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Records, transcribes and summarizes calls; prepares time entries
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Free trial open to eligible firms in select US states
We’ll update this the day Clio says more. For the keynote demo and the full list of what Clio has not said, read our launch-day post.
THE SHORT VERSION
Clio Phones is a phone system Clio now sells, built on Corvum. No price or release date yet; a free trial is open in select US states.
Switching means porting numbers and retraining staff. Keeping your phone system means neither.
LegalMate already puts the AI summary, matter match and time entry from RingCentral, Dialpad, Zoom Phone and Quo calls into Clio.
What it is
What is Clio Phones?
Clio Phones is an AI-native business phone system built into Clio. Clio announced it on October 26, 2026, as part of its unified platform launch at ClioCon in Boston. Firms can set up a business number or transfer an existing one, assign lines to attorneys and staff, and route incoming calls to wherever the team is working.
When a call comes in, Clio surfaces the related contact, lead or matter. With recording turned on, Clio Phones produces an AI transcript and summary, keeps the recording and call log on the record, and prepares a time entry with the call’s date, duration and a description, attached to the right contact or matter. Clio’s pitch is that the system already knows the client when the phone rings, and remembers what was said afterwards.
Clio Phones is not a new phone network. It is built on Corvum, a cloud phone system made for law firms that had been in the Clio App Directory since 2020 and that Clio acquired. Clio’s own job posting for the product describes a team, a product and an installed base, but no pricing model or support model yet.
Clio’s own numbers make the case for a product like this. Firms it surveyed lose about three hours a week to post-call admin and 4.6 billable hours a month to calls nobody logged, and its 2024 Legal Trends Report found only 40 of every 100 secret-shopped firms picked up the phone.
October 26, 2026, at ClioCon in Boston, alongside a unified inbox, meeting recording in Clio Mobile, Documents Pro and agentic workflows across Grow, Manage and Work.
Call routing and lines for staff, recording, AI transcript and summary, call logs, and time entries prepared for review, attached to the Clio contact or matter.
Corvum, a legal VoIP provider based in Vancouver, in the Clio App Directory since 2020.
Free trial for eligible firms in select US states. Clio says wider availability will follow. No general release date.
Not published. Corvum’s last listed price was US$29.95 per user per month.
United States now. Canada not announced; Corvum served both countries.
Switch or stay
Clio Phones vs keeping your current phone system
Clio is moving from integrating with phone systems to selling one. That leaves Clio firms with two paths. The table compares them on what actually changes day to day.
Clio Phones (built on Corvum)
RingCentral, Dialpad, Zoom Phone or Quo, unchanged
Required. Corvum quoted about five business days.
None
New desk phones or apps; staff learn a new system
Unchanged
Yes, on the contact or matter
Yes, on the Clio matter with a link to the call
Yes
Automatic by caller number; you choose when a contact has several open matters
Yes, with recording on
Yes, with recording on: transcript, summary and structured notes
Prepared for review
One entry per call with duration and an AI description, ready to edit
Not described yet
Eligible firms in select US states (trial)
US and Canadian firms on Clio
Not published
Included with LegalMate; pricing on the demo call
The Clio Phones column is Clio’s description; we have not tested it. Corrections welcome: support@legalmate.co.
Decision checklist
Who should switch to Clio Phones, and who should not
Clio Phones is a fair choice for a firm with no phone system or one it was about to replace. For everyone else, the cost of switching is the real question.
Switching to Clio Phones makes sense if
Your firm has no business phone system, or a basic one you were going to replace anyway.
Your contract is ending and you were about to port numbers regardless.
You are in a state where the trial is open and you can wait for pricing before committing.
You would rather have one invoice and one support line than the best phone features.
Keep your phone system if
You are mid-contract with RingCentral, Dialpad, Zoom Phone or Quo.
Your intake person lives in Dialpad or RingCentral all day and you are not retraining them in Q4.
You run desk phones, several offices, or call queues your current system handles well.
You want the AI summary, matter match and time entry in Clio this month, not when Clio Phones reaches your state.
Before you sign anything, check
Contract end date and early-termination fees on your current phone system.
How many numbers would port, and what Clio commits to for porting time and 911 setup.
Which desk phones, headsets and call queues carry over, and which do not.
Who retrains intake staff and attorneys, and what happens to calls during the switch.
What Clio Phones will cost per user once pricing is published, against what you pay today.
Keep your phone system
How LegalMate adds the same post-call AI to the phone system you already have
LegalMate connects RingCentral, Dialpad, Zoom Phone and Quo to Clio, so the notes, the matter and the time entry show up in Clio after every call, and nobody changes how they answer the phone.
AI summary and notes
Every recorded call gets a transcript, an AI summary and structured notes on the Clio communication log, with a link back to the call in LegalMate.
Matter matching
The caller’s number is matched to the Clio contact and their open matter. When a contact has several open matters, the call goes to the latest one or the one you choose.
Time entries
One time entry per call, with the call’s duration and an AI-written description, ready to review, edit and bill.
See how each phone system connects: RingCentral, Dialpad, Zoom Phone and Quo, and what lands in Clio on the Clio integration page. Firms on Filevine are covered on the Filevine integration page.
LegalMate is a Certified Clio Partner listed in the Clio App Directory. It is not a phone system and does not answer intake calls. Support for Clio Phones itself has not been announced. Recording and transcript handling is described on the security page.
Ethics checklist
Recording client calls: the consent and ethics checklist
Any AI phone system that records, transcribes and summarizes client calls raises the same questions, whether it is Clio Phones or an add-on to your current system. This is general information, not legal advice.
Thirteen states require every party’s consent to record: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Washington. For interstate calls the strictest rule generally applies. Recognized consent methods include prior written or verbal consent, a notice at the start of the call, or a periodic tone.
NYC Bar Formal Opinion 2025-6 (December 2025) says clients must be notified, and their consent obtained, whenever an AI system records their calls, even in one-party-consent states. It recommends engagement-letter language on recording.
The same opinion says lawyers must review AI transcripts and summaries for accuracy before relying on them.
Where recordings and transcripts are stored, how long they are kept, whether they are used to train AI models, whether they are discoverable, and whether they can be deleted. If your firm’s policy is not to keep recordings, disclose it and follow it strictly.
Clio’s own guidance for its Grow AI voice agent tells firms to check their jurisdiction’s rules on disclosing AI to callers.
ABA Formal Opinion 512 (July 2024) covers competence, confidentiality, supervision and fees when lawyers use generative AI, and applies to call summaries as much as to drafting.
Two Clio products
Clio Phones vs Grow AI Voice Agent
Clio now has two phone-related AI products, and they do different jobs.
A phone system. Your staff place and answer calls in Clio, and AI documents them afterwards: transcript, summary, call log and a prepared time entry.
An AI receptionist, launched in August 2026. It answers when staff cannot, screens leads, books consultations and logs a transcript and summary to Clio Grow. US only, US$25 per converted lead with the first three free, and it is set up by forwarding calls from your existing phone system.
Even Clio’s own receptionist assumes you keep your current phone system. Clio Phones does not replace an answering service, and Grow AI does not document the calls your lawyers take.
FAQ
Questions firms are asking about Clio Phones
Sources
