Anthropic built an official Legal plugin for Claude that turns it into a junior legal team. Nine skills, all installed in about 30 seconds, all invokable with a slash command or plain language. Contract review, compliance checks, risk scoring, NDA triage, vendor checks, legal briefs, response templates, meeting briefings, and signature routing.
The plan · 9 steps
- 1/review-contract - Contract Review
- 2/compliance-check - Compliance Checker
- 3/legal-risk-assessment - Legal Risk Assessment
- 4/triage-nda - NDA Triage
- 5/vendor-check - Vendor Check
- 6/brief - Legal Brief Generator
- 7/legal-response - Legal Response Templates
- 8/meeting-briefing - Meeting Briefing
- 9/signature-request - Signature Request
This guide walks through every skill with ready-to-use prompts. Upload the PDF for the full reference, or work through the highlights below.
How to Install the Legal Plugin
Open Claude (the desktop app or claude.ai). Click Customize in the left sidebar. Go to Plugins. Search for Legal. Click Install. That is it. Plugins need a paid Claude plan, and if your Claude still shows separate Chat and Cowork modes, use Cowork. The same Plugins tab has other official plugins too, like the small business plugin and the finance plugins. All 9 skills are now available. Invoke them by typing the slash command (like /review-contract) or just by uploading a document and asking Claude to review it in plain language.
All 9 Skills at a Glance
/review-contract - Clause-by-clause contract review with redlines. /compliance-check - Scan against GDPR, CCPA, and privacy regulations. /legal-risk-assessment - Risk scoring with severity and likelihood matrix. /triage-nda - Rapid NDA pre-screening (GREEN, YELLOW, RED). /vendor-check - Check vendor agreement status across all systems. /brief - Daily legal briefs, topic research, or incident response. /legal-response - Templated responses for DSRs, holds, subpoenas. /meeting-briefing - Prepare legal meeting briefs with action tracking. /signature-request - Route documents for e-signature.
You can upload PDFs, Word docs, or paste contract text directly into the chat. Upload the actual file when you can so formatting and clause numbering are preserved.
Two things to know. The plugin's default positions are based on US law, so if you're somewhere else, tell Claude your country (or save your own standard positions in a file called legal.local.md in a folder Claude can see). And the skills that check vendors, send NDAs or route signatures work through the tools you've connected, like your email, CRM or DocuSign, so check the names and email addresses before you approve anything that goes out.
/review-contract - Contract Review
Claude reviews any contract clause by clause, flags every deviation from standard positions, and classifies risk with a GREEN, YELLOW, RED system. GREEN clauses align with the standard position. YELLOW clauses fall outside standard but within negotiable range, and Claude generates redline language, a fallback position, and a business impact note. RED clauses pose material risk and get escalated to senior or outside counsel with the specific risk and recommended action attached.
Vendor agreement:
/review-contract [upload contract]. I'm the customer. We need to finalize this by end of month. Flag anything that exposes us to uncapped liability or weak data protection.
SaaS terms of service:
Review this SaaS Terms of Service agreement. I am the customer subscribing to their platform. Focus on data ownership, termination rights, liability caps, and any auto-renewal traps.
Commercial lease:
/review-contract [upload lease]. Review this commercial lease. I am the tenant. Highlight any clauses about early termination penalties, rent escalation, maintenance obligations, and personal guarantees.
Employment agreement:
Review this employment agreement. I am the employee. Flag any non-compete clauses, IP assignment terms, clawback provisions, and anything that limits my ability to work elsewhere after leaving.
Freelancer contract:
Review this freelancer agreement. I am the contractor. Flag anything about IP ownership of my work, payment terms, kill fees, and scope creep protections.
Partnership agreement:
/review-contract [upload agreement]. I am entering a 50/50 partnership. Review this for exit provisions, dispute resolution, decision-making authority, capital contribution requirements, and what happens if one partner wants out.
/compliance-check - Compliance Checker
Describe what you are planning to do and Claude scans it against GDPR, CCPA, and every major privacy regulation. It surfaces applicable laws, flags risks, lists required approvals, and tells you exactly what to fix before you launch.
New product feature:
/compliance-check We want to add biometric authentication (face ID) to our mobile app. We have users in the US, EU, and Australia.
Marketing campaign:
/compliance-check Our marketing team wants to use customer testimonials and before/after photos in paid ads across Meta and Google. Some customers are from the EU.
Email marketing:
/compliance-check We are building an email list by offering a lead magnet. We want to send promotional emails globally. What regulations apply?
AI feature:
/compliance-check We want to train a model on customer support conversations to build an AI chatbot. Conversations include names, email addresses, and purchase history.
Data transfer:
/compliance-check We need to transfer EU customer data to our US data center for processing. What transfer mechanisms do we need?
Employee monitoring:
/compliance-check We want to implement employee screen monitoring software for our remote team. Employees are in California, New York, the UK, and Germany.
Referral program:
/compliance-check We want to launch a referral program where customers earn $25 for each new paying customer. We operate in all 50 US states and Canada.
Children's data:
/compliance-check Our app is used by teachers and students ages 10-17. We collect names, email, and usage data. We want to add analytics tracking. What are the compliance requirements?
/legal-risk-assessment - Legal Risk Assessment
Upload any legal document and Claude surfaces every hidden liability. It scores each risk on a severity-by-likelihood matrix from 1 to 25, color codes them (GREEN, YELLOW, ORANGE, RED), and tells you which clauses to negotiate before signing.
New market entry:
Assess the legal risks of expanding our SaaS product into the EU market. We currently only operate in the US. What regulatory, data privacy, and contractual risks should we prepare for?
IP risk:
Assess the IP risks of our new product feature that uses a competitor's open-source library licensed under AGPL. Our product is proprietary SaaS.
Employment risk:
Assess the legal risks of reclassifying our 15 independent contractors as full-time employees. Contractors are in California, Texas, and Florida. Some have been contractors for 3+ years.
/triage-nda - NDA Triage
Drop in any NDA and Claude classifies it instantly as GREEN (approve), YELLOW (counsel review), or RED (do not sign). It screens for hidden non-competes, missing carveouts, perpetual obligations, and 10 other criteria that determine whether an NDA is safe to sign.
Investor NDA:
/triage-nda [upload NDA]. An investor wants us to sign this NDA before due diligence. Check if the definition of confidential information is too broad and if there are any IP assignment or license traps.
Batch NDA triage:
I have 5 NDAs that came in this week from different vendors. [upload all 5] Triage each one and tell me which I can sign now and which need counsel review.
/vendor-check - Vendor Check
Type a vendor name and Claude searches across your connected systems (CLM, CRM, email, document storage, chat) to give you a complete picture of your legal relationship with that vendor. What agreements exist, what is missing, and what is about to expire.
M&A due diligence: We are acquiring a company. Run vendor checks on their top 5 vendors: [list vendors]. For each one, show what agreements exist and flag any that could be problematic post-merger.
/brief - Legal Brief Generator
Three modes. A daily brief that scans all your connected sources. A topic research brief on any legal question. An incident response brief for developing situations like data breaches or litigation threats.
Regulatory change:
/brief topic: Brief me on what the EU AI Act requires from our company right now and what's coming next. We sell an AI SaaS product to EU customers.
Litigation threat:
/brief incident A former employee has sent a demand letter alleging wrongful termination. Build a response brief with timeline, exposure, and recommended next steps.
Pipeline focus:
/brief daily Focus specifically on my contract pipeline. What is awaiting review, what is pending counterparty response, and what is about to close?
/legal-response - Legal Response Templates
NDA request:
/legal-response nda Sales team needs an NDA sent to Acme Corp for a potential enterprise deal. Send our standard mutual NDA. Contact: Jane Smith, jane@acme.com.
GDPR deletion request:
/legal-response dsr We received a deletion request from an EU customer. Draft the acknowledgment and the internal action plan.
Claude automatically detects escalation triggers like inquiries from regulators, potential litigation, or criminal liability situations. When a trigger is detected, Claude stops generating the template and flags it for human counsel review instead.
/meeting-briefing - Meeting Briefing
Prepare structured briefings for any meeting with legal relevance. Claude pulls context from your connected systems (calendar, email, documents, CRM) and builds a complete brief with talking points, open issues, and post-meeting action item tracking.
Regulatory meeting:
We have a meeting with the FTC next week. Prepare a comprehensive brief including our compliance posture, relevant correspondence, privilege considerations, and recommended talking points. I am attending as an observer.
/signature-request - Signature Request
Once a contract is finalized, route it for e-signature directly from Claude. It runs a pre-signature checklist (correct entity names, all exhibits attached, no open redlines), configures signing order, and sends the document for execution.
Batch signatures:
I have 3 finalized vendor agreements that all need signatures today. [upload all 3] Run the pre-signature checklist on each and set up signature routing for all three.
Bonus: Everyday Legal Prompts (No Skill Needed)
You do not need the legal plugin for every legal question. These work with Claude directly for common legal situations anyone might face. For more, here are 5 documents you should run through AI before signing.
Understand any document:
Explain this contract to me like I am 12 years old. What am I actually agreeing to, and what could go wrong?
Pushback email:
I received this contract from a vendor. [upload contract] Write me a professional email response pushing back on the liability cap, the auto-renewal clause, and the termination notice period. Keep the tone collaborative, not adversarial.
Dispute a claim:
I received this letter from [company/person] claiming I owe them money for [situation]. [upload letter] Help me draft a professional response that disputes the claim and explains why I do not owe this amount.
Start Using Claude for Legal Work Today
Install the Legal plugin in Claude, upload your first document, and see what Claude finds in under 60 seconds.
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