Claude for small law firms: confidentiality, consent and the first skills

What ABA Formal Opinion 512 asks

• Risk check for any tool: before client information goes into any AI tool, evaluate who outside and inside the firm could see it; the opinion says this depends on the client, the matter, the task and the tool.
• Competence: have a reasonable understanding of the tool's capabilities and limitations, and keep it current as tools change.
• Confidentiality: because many self-learning tools could reveal what goes in, get the client's informed consent before putting information about the representation into one.
• Real consent: a general clause in an engagement letter isn't sufficient.
• Terms: read and understand the tool's terms of use and privacy policy, or rely on someone who has.
• Supervision and fees: managing lawyers set firm measures for lawyers and staff, and a lawyer billing by the hour bills only the time actually spent, including time reviewing the tool's draft.

From ABA Formal Opinion 512, 29 July 2024, read 5 November 2026, 23:32 JST, from the Wayback Machine's copy. State bars have issued their own opinions; follow yours. Not legal advice.

A worked example: a five-lawyer firm

Illustration: a made-up business. A five-lawyer business firm wants to use Claude for contract work. The managing partner:

1. Reads Anthropic's commercial terms and privacy articles, records the risk check for Claude Team under ABA 512, moves the firm to Team, and switches off Rate chats.
2. Decides with the partners which matters need a client's informed consent before any client document goes in, and writes a plain-language explanation for those clients.
3. Writes the NDA first-pass and contract-summary skills from the firm's own playbook, with no client names, and puts them in the firm's pod so the two contract paralegals use the same method.

AI Skill Pod is this site's product. You can start on Free at $0, with no card, for up to 3 people and 10 skills; after the 14-day trial, your team stays on Free unless you buy Team ($5 per seat a month from 3 seats) or Business.

The first skills for a firm

1. NDA first pass: each clause green, yellow or red, quoted, with the change to ask for.
2. Contract summary: parties, term, renewal, termination, liability and the dates that matter.
3. DPA checklist: roles, subprocessors, breach notice, transfers, deletion and audits.
4. Meeting minutes: decisions, owners and dates, and what stays out of the notes.

Next step: write the first skill

The firm's own playbook is the best source for a skill. How to make your first Claude skill from a doc you have walks through one.

Questions

Can lawyers use Claude with client information?

That's for you to decide under your state's rules, not this page. ABA Formal Opinion 512 asks you first to evaluate, for any AI tool, who inside and outside the firm could see client information, and to get the client's informed consent before using a self-learning tool, where a boilerplate engagement-letter clause isn't enough. Anthropic says Claude Team and Enterprise aren't trained on your chats by default, one fact for that evaluation.

What does ABA Formal Opinion 512 require?

Issued on 29 July 2024, it says lawyers using generative AI must consider their duties of competence, confidentiality, communication, supervision and reasonable fees; read and understand the tool's terms of use and privacy policy; and get informed consent before putting client information into a self-learning tool.

What Claude skills should a small law firm set up first?

Methods that hold no client data: an NDA first pass, a contract summary, a DPA checklist and meeting minutes. Each marks what a lawyer must review, and none replaces that review.