How Paralegals use Claude
Paralegals use Claude to break a complex ask into pieces — surface the right questions, draft a candidate answer, then refine it before delivery.
What Claude is
Anthropic's assistant, known for long-context reasoning, careful writing, and safety-aware outputs. Strong on analysis, coding, and document-heavy work. Projects feature lets you load a brief once and iterate.
Prompts to try
3 copy-paste prompts for Paralegals using Claude:
Summarize a case or document for client communication
Documentation · Intermediate
You are assisting a paralegal. Summarize [case name / document] for client communication: what it holds in one sentence (lay terms), the key reasoning the court relied on (3 bullets), why it matters to my client's situation, and the next step we recommend. Avoid legal jargon the client wouldn't follow. Flag where my reading of the holding may be contested. Document: [paste here]
Email to opposing counsel
Client-facing · Intermediate
Draft an email a paralegal would send to opposing counsel about [issue]. Tone: professional, firm, non-adversarial unless context requires otherwise. Cover: what we're addressing, our position with one-line rationale, what we propose as next step, and a deadline. Avoid hedging language that weakens our position. Avoid prose that could be screenshotted out of context.
Discovery-document summary or doc review log
Administrative · Intermediate
Triage the documents below from a paralegal's perspective. For each, output: a 1-line summary, relevance to [issue / claim] on a 1-5 scale, any privilege concerns, key dates / parties / amounts, and whether to flag for partner review. Treat anything ambiguous as needing review. Documents: [paste batch here]
All 5 prompts for Paralegals →