Matter Briefing
Gives a lawyer a concise current-state briefing on one legal matter from its saved files.
- Repository
- anthropics/claude-for-legal
- Stars
- 9,870
- Licence
- Apache-2.0
- Files
- 1 file
What it does
When a legal team member asks for a briefing on a specific matter, the agent reads that matter's saved notes, history, and log entry, then writes a short summary covering current posture, recent changes, the next deadline, open questions, and a prompt to check whether the risk rating still fits. It flags the briefing as stale if the matter was last updated more than 30 days ago, and it refuses to brief any matter that has not gone through the intake and conflicts check. It only reads files and does not change them.
Great for
- In-house lawyers preparing for a GC update or a call with outside counsel
- Legal ops staff who want a quick read on a matter they did not handle directly
- Teams already using the claude-for-legal litigation plugin with matter files set up
Skip it if
- Anyone without the claude-for-legal litigation-legal matter folders, since the skill has nothing to read and will refuse or fail; it does not work on arbitrary documents
- Predicting case outcomes or deciding strategy, which the skill explicitly does not do; it only raises questions for the lawyer
- Relying on it as a substitute for checking the source files, because the briefing is only as current as the notes saved in the matter folder
Try asking
- “Brief me on the Acme v. Beta matter before my call with outside counsel”
- “Where are we on the vendor-indemnity dispute?”
- “Give me a briefing on the Smith employment matter and flag anything stale”
Install in 3 steps
- 1
Download the skill
The ZIP contains the 1 original files, the Apache-2.0 licence and an attribution note.
matter-briefing.zip - 2
Add it to your agent
Claude Code (all projects)
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && unzip matter-briefing.zip -d ~/.claude/skills/Claude Code / Agent SDK (this project only)
mkdir -p .claude/skills && unzip matter-briefing.zip -d .claude/skills/Claude apps (web/desktop): Settings → Capabilities → Skills → Upload skill, and choose the ZIP.
- 3
Ask for the task
No special command needed — the agent reads the skill's description and loads it when your request matches. Try one of the prompts above.
Get better results
- Run matter-update after a meeting so the next briefing reflects what was discussed and does not get flagged as stale
- Name the purpose in your request (for example, before an outside counsel call) so the briefing adds a tailored questions section
- Keep matter.md and history.md current, since the briefing can only report what those files contain
What's inside
- SKILL.md
Redistributed unmodified from anthropics/claude-for-legal under the Apache-2.0 licence. The assessment was drafted with AI from the skill's files on 2026-10-29. Skills can instruct your agent to run code — read SKILL.md and any scripts before installing.