Develop a personalized Claude workflow to draft, analyze, summarize, and manage legal work more efficiently while maintaining attorney review and professional responsibility.
Overview
Syllabus
Module 1: Getting Started with Claude AI
- Explain how Claude works in plain language and identify the model tiers, plans, and interface
- Understand the context window, how Claude processes information, and when to start new conversations
- Practice your first Claude conversation using a legal-specific prompt
- Identify what Claude does well, what it doesn’t, and when human judgment is essential
Module 2: Prompting Fundamentals
- Apply the five-part prompt framework: context, task, format, constraints, and examples
- Write effective prompts across five use cases: writing, summarization, analysis, research, and creative problem-solving
- Recognize and fix common prompting mistakes that produce vague or unusable output
- Practice prompting with legal scenarios: drafting a contract clause, summarizing a court opinion, and writing a client status update
Module 3: Working with Files & Documents
- Upload and analyze images, PDFs, spreadsheets, and documents directly in Claude
- Use Claude to extract, compare, and summarize information from uploaded files
- Work with legal-specific file types: contracts, court opinions, pleadings, discovery documents, and compliance reports
- Complete a hands-on document analysis exercise using provided legal sample files
Module 4: Projects & Knowledge Bases
- Explain how Projects use custom instructions and knowledge bases to organize ongoing work
- Write effective Project instructions that encode your role, audience, format preferences, and rules
- Upload reference documents and understand how RAG retrieves relevant content
- Create a legal Project for a transaction or litigation matter using provided sample contracts, case summaries, and templates
Module 5: Artifacts, Styles, Memory & Usage Management
- Create reusable deliverables with Artifacts and edit them directly or through conversation
- Build custom Styles that match your professional communication voice
- Configure Memory to retain key context about you and your work across conversations
- Apply usage management techniques to extend your plan value
Module 6: Introduction to Claude Cowork
- Explain what Cowork is and how it differs from the claude.ai chat interface
- Read, write, and manage files from your desktop environment
- Configure guardrails, file permissions, and network settings for safe use
- Understand prompt injection risks and how to protect against them
Module 7: Advanced Prompting & AI Tool Selection
- Use role-based prompting, chain-of-thought reasoning, and multi-step workflows
- Apply Extended Thinking, web search, and the You Ask Me technique for complex tasks
- Compare Claude with ChatGPT, Copilot, and Gemini to choose the right tool for each task
- Practice advanced prompting with legal scenarios: identifying risks in a contract, building a legal research memorandum step by step, and preparing deposition questions from witness statements
Module 8: Context System, Connectors & Integrations
- Build foundational context files and set Global Instructions that apply to every Cowork session
- Connect Claude to Slack, Google Drive, Gmail, and other workplace tools
- Use Claude natively in Excel and PowerPoint with the Office add-ins
- Configure your context system and connections for legal workflows, including document comparison in Excel and case presentations in PowerPoint
Module 9: AI for Legal — Core Workflows
- Use Claude to draft, review, and redline contracts with clause-level analysis and risk identification
- Summarize case law, statutes, and regulatory guidance into structured research memoranda
- Prepare brief outlines, motion drafts, and argument frameworks from case materials
- Extract key terms, dates, obligations, and parties from large document sets for review and analysis
- Complete a hands-on lab producing a multi-document legal work product package
Module 10: Capstone — Build Your Legal Claude System
- Audit your legal tasks and identify the highest-value opportunities for Claude assistance
- Configure a personalized legal Claude system: Projects, context files, Styles, and connected tools
- Run a complete end-to-end matter preparation workflow: contract review summary, research memo, client communication, and matter status brief
- Create a Week 1 action plan for applying what you’ve learned to your legal practice
Taught by
Reid Johnson and David Sellers