Claude for legal work: a practical guide

What Claude is good at in legal work

• Reading long agreements and summarising structure, obligations and dates.
• Drafting and redrafting clauses, letters and notes in a consistent register.
• Comparing two versions of a document and explaining the differences.
• Following detailed instructions, such as a review checklist or house style.

Where Claude needs care

Claude is a general model. Without sources in front of it, it answers from training data that stops at a date and is not tied to a particular version of the law. It can state rules confidently, mix jurisdictions or produce a plausible citation that does not exist. The fix is the same as for any model: give it the text, ask it to cite, and check every authority yourself. See how to check AI legal citations.

Confidentiality depends on the plan and settings you use. Read Anthropic’s current terms for your account before sharing client material.

Grounding Claude in the law

1. Give it the textPaste or attach the provision or document rather than asking from memory.
2. Set jurisdiction and dateSay which law applies and the date that matters.
3. Ask for pinpoint referencesAsk it to cite the section or clause for every point, and to say when it is unsure.
4. Check the sourcesOpen each reference at the official publisher before relying on it.

Claude inside Consilena

Consilena runs models from several families, including Claude, GPT and Gemini. You choose the models for a question; when several answer, Consilena shows where they agree and where they differ. Agents search the legal sources Consilena holds, record every step in the work trace, and cite the provision behind each claim with its status and date. Agreement between models is not proof, so the citations are there for you to open.

Connecting Claude to Consilena

Consilena offers a remote MCP server, so Claude can use Consilena’s tools from your own Claude account: ask a legal question, list your matters, read a document’s text, start a review or search the law. You sign in to Consilena and approve the access Claude asks for; usage is billed in your Consilena credits, as in the web app.

1. Open connectorsIn Claude, go to Settings, then Connectors, and choose Add custom connector.
2. Add the URLEnter https://consilena.com/mcp.
3. Sign in and approveSign in to Consilena and approve the scopes you want Claude to have.

Scopes, tools and set-up for other clients are on the MCP page.