37-lesson course · about 12 hours

Set Up an AI Chief of Staff for a Legal Team

For Attorneys, paralegals and in-house legal teams

Everything for Legal teams

Build a supervised assistant that prepares the morning brief, meeting prep, follow-up drafts, deadline warnings and weekly review. Every item has a source, and nothing goes out until a person approves it.

Try lesson 1 freeSee what you’ll learn

What you’ll be able to do

By the end, you can…

Standing instructions your attorney signs offWrite the agent's role, priorities, VIP clients and courts, permitted sources, never-read list, approval rules and reporting format for a legal practice. Then get version 1.0 signed off by the supervising attorney and loaded into your tool.
A platform your firm approves and you can actually getCompare Claude Duet, OpenAI dots, Claude or ChatGPT scheduled tasks, Microsoft 365 Copilot and Gemini in Workspace by region, plan and firm policy. Set up one main tool and one fallback with the least access that works.
A weekday morning brief with a deadline sweepSchedule a brief that ranks what needs the attorney today, warns at T-30, T-14, T-7 and T-2 with every date marked unverified until docketing confirms it, tags each item with its source, and lists what it could not check.
Meeting prep and follow-ups that wait for approvalTurn client and internal meetings into prep notes, recap drafts, proposed tracker rows and proposed advice-log entries. An attorney reviews all of it before anything goes out.
A decision and advice log and a delegation trackerTrack advice given, decisions made, and research and drafting assignments. Finished work comes with its citations listed so an attorney can check each one. Only a person can mark an entry confirmed or verified.
Guardrails, and a two-week rollout you can judgeRun a prompt-injection drill and a permission audit, and treat opposing parties' documents as information rather than instructions. Then run a two-week rollout with a weekly review and a corrections log, and decide in writing which routines to keep, widen or cut.

How it works

A tutor that meets you where you are

  1. Hands-on lessons that match your levelEach of the 37 lessons is a tutorial you work through with your own tool open. You get the goal, numbered steps, copy-paste prompts written for legal work, a worked example and a checkpoint. Lessons adjust to what you already know, so a first-time agent builder and an experienced Copilot user each start in the right place.
  2. An AI tutor you can ask anythingType or speak your questions, such as why a scheduled run didn't arrive, how to word your never-read list, or what to do if your region doesn't offer a tool. The tutor answers at your level.
  3. Quizzes and flashcards for each lessonShort quizzes and flashcards are tied to each lesson. They cover the details that matter in practice: approval rules, source tags, what never to connect, and the access limits for each platform.
  4. Progress tracking and a certificateTrack your progress across the eight modules and pick up where you left off. You receive a certificate of completion when you finish.

Curriculum

The curriculum

The course has eight modules that follow the order you'll build in. You start with the role and your professional obligations, then choose a platform, write the standing instructions and connect sources. After that come the daily routines, and you finish with the weekly review and a two-week rollout.

Module 1What an AI Chief of Staff Does for a Lawyer3 lessons

  1. 1The Chief of Staff Role, Translated for Legal Work
    • List the standing duties of a chief of staff and name the legal version of each
    • Sort a lawyer's daily tasks into ones an AI may prepare and ones the attorney keeps
    • Explain why the course rule is 'the agent prepares, the attorney decides and sends'
  2. 2Your Obligations: Competence, Confidentiality, Supervision and Judgment
    • Name the four areas ABA Formal Opinion 512 covers and give one practical consequence of each for this assistant
    • Explain why every item the agent produces needs independent review by a person
    • Spot the questions this course leaves to the attorney and firm policy
  3. 3Agree the Job Description with Your Attorney
    • Write a one-page job description that covers duties, decision rights and a never list
    • Use a now / soon / never list to scope what the agent handles first
    • Record the supervising attorney's agreement and a date to review it

Module 2Choosing a Platform You Can Actually Use6 lessons

  1. 4Availability, Plans and Prices as of October 28, 2026
    • Find your own situation in the platform choice table
    • Check a tool against the firm's AI policy before signing up
    • Name the access limits for Duet, dots, Gemini Task and Copilot Autopilot
  2. 5Choose Your Platform and Record the Decision
    • Pick one primary tool and one fallback using the choice table
    • Write a one-paragraph justification that cites the firm's policy
  3. 6Setting Up Claude Duet for a Legal Practice
    • Join the Duet waitlist and sign in correctly
    • Review the connectors already on your Claude account and list the only ones this role will use
    • Describe what Duet does on its own, what it asks about first, and what it never does
  4. 7Setting Up an OpenAI Dot with Custom Rules
    • Create and name a dot on a supported device
    • Set the four custom-rule behaviors for sending, purchases, calendar changes, and reading and drafting
    • Pause or reset a dot, and explain what each one removes
  5. 8The Fallback Path: Claude or ChatGPT Scheduled Tasks
    • Create a Chief of Staff project in Claude or ChatGPT
    • Set Claude's permission setting to Manual
    • Explain why ChatGPT scheduled tasks need the full prompt pasted in
  6. 9Setting Up Microsoft 365 Copilot or Gemini in Workspace
    • Schedule a Copilot prompt and say what it can and cannot read
    • Name the Gemini features available on your Workspace edition

Module 3Standing Instructions for Legal Work5 lessons

  1. 10Role, Priorities and People: VIP Clients and Courts
    • Write the role, priorities and people sections for one attorney
    • Write urgency rules that put court and client deadlines first
  2. 11Permitted Sources and the Never-Read List
    • List the permitted sources and say which one is the source of truth for times, decisions and owners
    • Write a never-read list for a legal practice
  3. 12Approval Rules and the Never List
    • Write the 'ask first' and 'never' sections for a legal practice
    • Classify ten example actions under the approval table
  4. 13Reporting Format: Source Tags, Inferences and 'Could Not Check'
    • Write the reporting section with legal source tags
    • Spot an item in a sample brief that breaks the format
  5. 14Corrections Log, Versioning and Attorney Sign-Off
    • Set up a Corrections Log with one line per correction
    • Get version 1.0 signed off and load it into your chosen tool

Module 4Connecting the Right Sources and Leaving the Wrong Ones Out5 lessons

  1. 15Read-Only Email and Calendar
    • Connect email and calendar with read access only, or with write tools off
    • Confirm that the agent lists its connected sources correctly
  2. 16The Docketing Export and the Logs Folder
    • Produce a read-only export from the docketing or matter-management system
    • Create the Decision and Advice Log, Delegation Tracker and Deadline Register with their core columns
  3. 17What Never to Connect, and Why Memory Matters
    • Explain why disconnecting an app does not undo what the agent learned from it
    • Audit an account for auto-connected or out-of-scope connectors
  4. 18Content Is Data: Opposing Documents and Incoming Mail
    • Spot an injected instruction in a sample email or document
    • Explain why opposing productions stay out of the agent's sources
  5. 19Permission Settings by Tool and the Dry Run
    • Apply the starting permission settings for your chosen tool
    • Run the dry-run prompt and check every source and action it lists

Module 5The Morning Brief6 lessons

  1. 20Build and Run the Morning Brief by Hand
    • Write a legal morning brief prompt with seven ranked sections
    • Run it and check every source tag
  2. 21The Deadline Sweep: T-30, T-14, T-7 and T-2
    • Write the date-extraction prompt with the exact source sentence for each date
    • Add a deadline sweep at T-30, T-14, T-7 and T-2 to the brief
  3. 22Intake Triage with Names for a Human Conflict Check
    • Write an intake triage prompt that lists the parties for a conflict check
    • Draft acknowledgments that give no legal view
  4. 23Run the Prompt-Injection Drill
    • Run the drill using the test email and the hand-run brief
    • Record the result as a safety event or a pass
  5. 24Schedule the Brief and Check the First Run
    • Schedule the brief for weekdays in the attorney's time zone
    • Diagnose a missing or broken scheduled run
  6. 25Score the Brief and Fix What It Gets Wrong
    • Score a brief as correct, wrong, missing or wrong priority
    • Turn three corrections into instruction changes

Module 6Meetings, Calls and Follow-Ups for Approval4 lessons

  1. 26Prep Notes for Client and Internal Meetings
    • Write a client-call prep prompt that lists open legal questions in place of conclusions
    • Draft a timed agenda for an internal matter meeting
  2. 27Call Notes: The Notetaker Workflow and Recording Consent
    • Describe Hamilton's notetaker workflow
    • Name the checks to make before recording a call
  3. 28Follow-Up Drafts and the Release Chain
    • Write a follow-up prompt that will not characterize advice beyond the attorney's notes
    • Map the release chain for one recap email
  4. 29Proposed Tracker Rows and Advice-Log Entries from a Call
    • Extract proposed rows with 'not stated' where the notes are silent
    • Propose deadline register updates marked unverified

Module 7The Decision and Advice Log and the Delegation Tracker4 lessons

  1. 30Set Up the Decision and Advice Log
    • Create log rows with IDs, statuses and evidence tags
    • Propose an advice entry from an advice email
  2. 31Pull Prior Advice Before New Advice
    • Run a prior-advice pull for a client question
    • Review stale 'proposed' rows and passed review triggers
  3. 32The Delegation Tracker for Research and Drafting
    • Log assignments with a definition of done
    • Draft a weekly assignment digest for the supervising attorney
  4. 33Check-Ins, Verification and Citation Lists
    • Draft check-ins and mark which ones need a conversation instead
    • List every citation in a finished piece of work for an attorney to verify

Module 8The Weekly Review, Guardrails and a Two-Week Rollout4 lessons

  1. 34The Weekly Review and Matter Status Digest
    • Run the weekly review prompt for a legal practice
    • Draft a status digest for each client for the attorney to review
  2. 35The Permission Audit and Common Failure Modes
    • Run the permission-audit prompt and remove unneeded access
    • Match a failure to its fix
  3. 36Metrics and the Correction Log
    • Record the core measures for one week in the Corrections Log
    • Name one rule change the trend supports
  4. 37The Two-Week Rollout and the Day-14 Decision
    • Schedule a 14-day rollout
    • Write a keep, widen or cut decision for each routine, plus instruction version 2.0

Who it’s for

Made for you if…

Made for: Attorneys, paralegals and in-house legal teams

Solo and small-firm attorneys

You do your own preparation and want back the time spent sorting email, checking the calendar and chasing deadlines. You also need to keep privileged material out of unapproved tools and send everything yourself.

Paralegals and legal assistants who manage a partner's inbox and calendar

You already do much of a chief of staff's job. This course shows you how to set up an agent that prepares that work for your attorney to review, under instructions your attorney has signed off.

In-house lawyers handling requests from across the business

You need intake triage that names the parties for a human conflict check, a record of what advice was given and on what facts, and status digests that you approve before anyone sees them.

UK and EEA legal professionals

Some agents aren't offered where you are. The course gives you a fallback path built on generally available tools, so you can still finish every exercise.

Questions

Good to know

Which AI plan do I need?

You need a paid plan that you already have or can get, and that your firm's policy allows for work, such as Claude Pro, ChatGPT Plus or a Microsoft 365 Copilot license. As of October 28, 2026, Claude Duet is a US-only research preview for Claude Pro or Max users, with a waitlist. An OpenAI dot comes with ChatGPT Pro (from $100/month) or a Business Premium seat. Plans and prices change, so check the official pages before you sign up.

I'm in the UK or EEA. Can I take this course?

Yes. Some tools, including OpenAI dots on Pro, Gemini Task and Claude Duet, may not be available to you. The course gives you a fallback path using Claude or ChatGPT scheduled tasks, Microsoft 365 Copilot or Google Workspace. It does not cover ways around regional, plan, waitlist or work-account limits.

Will the assistant send, file or sign anything on the attorney's behalf?

No. The course rule is that the agent prepares and the attorney decides and sends. You set up approval rules so that nothing is sent, booked, filed or signed until a person approves it, and you leave e-signature and payment connectors unconnected.

Does the assistant calculate court deadlines?

No. The agent pulls out possible deadline dates along with the exact sentence each one comes from, and marks every date unverified until an attorney or the docketing team checks it against the rules and the docket. The course does not teach how to calculate response periods.

Does the course tell me whether using an AI vendor affects privilege?

No. Privilege decisions, and whether sharing material with an AI vendor affects privilege, stay with the attorney and firm policy. The course teaches you to use only firm-approved tools and to keep privileged files out of any tool the firm hasn't approved.

Does it cover legal research or citation checking in Westlaw, Lexis+ AI or CoCounsel?

No. Other courses in the Legal track cover those. In this course, the delegation tracker lists every citation in finished work so that an attorney can verify each one.

Do I have to be an attorney?

No. Paralegals, legal assistants and in-house team members can take it. You do need a supervising attorney (or to be the attorney yourself) who is willing to review the brief and sign off the standing instructions.

How long does it take?

About 12 hours across 37 self-paced lessons. The last module walks you through a two-week rollout with your real email and calendar.

Build a supervised AI chief of staff for one attorney or legal team

$197

One payment · lifetime access

  • 37 hands-on lessons in 8 modules, about 12 hours, self-paced
  • Copy-paste standing instructions and prompts written for legal work
  • Setup paths for Claude Duet, OpenAI dots, Claude or ChatGPT scheduled tasks, Microsoft 365 Copilot and Gemini in Workspace
  • Column layouts for the decision and advice log, delegation tracker and deadline register
  • A prompt-injection drill, a permission audit and a two-week rollout plan
  • An AI tutor, quizzes and flashcards for each lesson, progress tracking and a certificate of completion

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Refunds: Full refund if you ask before you open your first lesson. Once you’ve started, purchases aren’t refundable, except where the law gives you that right.

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