When Central Office has a client with requirements that correspond to your expertise, a member of the Growth and Development Team will contact you to offer you conduct of the matter. Sometimes this will be an existing client with new instructions and sometimes it will be the start of a completely new client engagement.
If the opportunity looks promising, then, before starting work, you will need to provide a clear and realistic costs estimate to the client, decide whether Costs on Account will be required, and send out an Engagement Letter. Costs on Account are always recommended for Central Office clients.
If the opportunity looks promising, but where you personally do not wish to take it on, then you should refer the client on to a colleague (cc'ing the member of the Growth and Development Team who passed you the work) or simply send it back to the relevant member of the Growth and Development Team who passed it to you. Promising opportunities should be dealt with without delay. On occasion, it might be necessary to reallocate work referred to you if you do not respond quickly.
For completeness, where the opportunity does not look promising for the firm, then you should let the client know (with a blind copy to the member of the Growth and Development Team who passed you the work) that we cannot help. You may find it useful to refer the client to the Law Society, which can suggest another firm.