Curated prompts, workflows, and frameworks for lawyers building with Claude AI.
Built by Donna Scaffidi — The Legal AI Architect | Head of AI & Legal Innovation at Ruli AI
Most lawyers know AI is transforming legal work. Fewer know how to architect it.
This toolkit bridges that gap. It's not about prompting tricks — it's about building systems that make your legal team faster, more consistent, and more strategic.
Whether you're a GC exploring AI for the first time, a legal ops leader implementing tools, or a solo practitioner looking to 10x your output — this repo gives you the building blocks.
Battle-tested prompts for real legal workflows — contract review, legal research, drafting, and legal ops. These aren't generic templates. They're structured for how lawyers actually think and work.
Strategic frameworks for AI adoption, including the Legal AI Maturity Model, a Build vs. Buy Decision Framework, and a guide to prompt architecture that goes beyond basic instructions.
End-to-end workflow guides for common legal AI use cases — from setting up regulatory monitoring to architecting your team's knowledge base.
Curated tools, reading, and community links for legal professionals building with AI.
Companion materials from live presentations, starting with the IHC "Beyond Claude for Legal" session (April 2026).
- Anthropic's Legal Plugins for Claude — Official Claude skills for legal work (I maintain a fork here)
- LPM Skills for Claude — Legal project management skills
- Ruli AI — Purpose-built Legal AI platform for in-house teams
- The Legal AI Architect Course (Maven) — course on building legal AI systems (pending CLE-approval)
Prompting is not the skill. Architecture is.
The difference between a lawyer who "uses AI" and one who architects legal AI systems:
| Using AI | Architecting AI |
|---|---|
| Asks one-off questions | Builds reusable prompt systems |
| Copy-pastes outputs | Creates workflows with quality gates |
| Treats AI as a search engine | Treats AI as a team member with defined roles |
| Gets inconsistent results | Gets reliable, auditable outputs |
| Works harder | Works systemically |
This toolkit is for architects.
New to Claude for legal work?
- Start with the Prompt Architecture Guide
- Pick a workflow from Workflows that matches your current pain point
- Grab the relevant prompts from Prompts and customize for your practice
Already using AI?
- Check the Legal AI Maturity Model to assess where you are
- Explore the Frameworks for strategic planning
- Contribute your own prompts and workflows (see CONTRIBUTING.md)
Donna Scaffidi is The Legal AI Architect. She is currently the Head of AI & Legal Innovation at Ruli AI, where she bridges the gap between what legal teams need and what AI can deliver. A former practicing attorney turned innovation leader, she designs education programs, builds community, and ensures that real legal workflows — not hypothetical demos — drive product development.
She hosts the Legal AI Architecture Lab - weekly office hours for legal professionals exploring AI.
Connect:
This is a living toolkit. If you have prompts, workflows, or frameworks that have worked for your legal team, I'd love to include them. See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.
MIT — use freely, attribute kindly.
"Better RAG is not the moat. Memory is." — Donna Scaffidi, The Legal AI Architect