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Research roadmap for a legal issue — statutes to check, case law areas to investigate, regulatory frameworks, Westlaw search terms. Leads and frameworks, NOT authoritative citations; students verify and develop everything. Use when a student asks where to start researching, wants a research roadmap for an issue, or needs gaps identified in existing research.
Copy the install command and let the AI configure it · recommended for beginners
Please install the "research-start" skill from askskill: 1. Download https://raw.githubusercontent.com/anthropics/claude-for-legal/main/legal-clinic/skills/research-start/SKILL.md 2. Save it as ~/.claude/skills/research-start/SKILL.md 3. Reload skills and tell me it's ready
~/.claude/plugins/config/claude-for-legal/legal-clinic/CLAUDE.md → jurisdiction, practice area./legal-clinic:research-start "habitability defense to nonpayment eviction in [State]"
Legal research is essential to clinical education. But the initial phase — figuring out what to research, finding the right statute, understanding the framework — is often the most time-consuming and least educational part. Students spend hours finding the starting point before they can do the actual research.
This skill produces the starting point: statutes to check, case law areas to investigate, search terms for Westlaw and CourtListener. None of it is verified. None of it is authoritative. All of it is a lead for the student to run down.
This is a pedagogical safeguard, not just an ethical one. Students still learn to research. They just start from a better place.
~/.claude/plugins/config/claude-for-legal/legal-clinic/CLAUDE.md → jurisdiction (state), practice areas.
Before building the roadmap, read the clinic's own seed documents. The supervising attorney uploaded them at cold-start (handbook, filing guides, local court rules, intake forms, example case files, prior memos) — they are pre-vetted, jurisdiction-specific, and will beat any Westlaw query on the first 20 minutes of a student's research.
~/.claude/plugins/config/claude-for-legal/legal-clinic/CLAUDE.md → ## Seed documents. Identify any item whose purpose or filename matches the research area (e.g., "Alameda UD filing guide" for a UD habitability question; a redacted sample case file in the same practice area; a prior memo on the same issue).LIMITED DATA flag set in ## Seed documents, add a one-line note: "Clinic has fewer than 10 seed docs; your professor's precedent bank is thin — lean harder on primary sources and flag what's missing for your supervisor."The roadmap still covers statutes, case law areas, secondary sources, and search terms — seed docs are the first lead, not a replacement for the rest. But surface them above everything else so the student starts where their supervisor's precedent starts.
What's the research question? Be specific. Not "eviction defenses" — "habitability defense to nonpayment eviction in [State], specifically whether a broken heater qualifies and whether the tenant had to give written notice."
If the question is too broad, narrow it with the student: "That's three research questions. Let's take them one at a time. Which first?"
Statutory starting points: List statutes likely relevant. State explicitly these are likely, not confirmed.
Likely relevant statutes (UNVERIFIED — confirm currency and applicability):
- [State] Landlord-Tenant Act, likely at [State Code Title X] — look for "warranty of habitability" or "repair and deduct"
- Local housing code for [City/County] — may define specific conditions (heat, water) as required
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Review and approve (or reject) pending playbook update proposals from the playbook-monitor agent and apply approved changes to the practice profile. Use when the playbook-monitor agent has surfaced proposals, when the user says "review playbook proposals", "what playbook updates are pending", or wants to step through deviation-driven playbook changes.
Reference: review of SaaS subscription agreements with attention to the terms that matter most in subscription deals — auto-renewal mechanics, price escalation, data portability, uptime SLAs, and subprocessor rights. Loaded by /commercial-legal:review when a SaaS or subscription agreement is detected.
Drafts board or committee meeting minutes in your house format. Auto-detects upcoming board and committee meetings from your calendar, asks for the agenda and any slides or pre-read materials, and produces a complete draft in the format learned from your seed minutes. Also handles written consents in lieu of meetings. Trigger: "board minutes", "draft minutes", "upcoming board meeting", "committee minutes", "written consent", or calendar detection of an upcoming board or committee event.
Aggregate diligence findings into a deal team briefing at the right altitude for the audience — exec summary for leadership, working summary for the team. Use when user says "brief the deal team", "what's the state of diligence", "summarize findings for [audience]", "deal update", or on the briefing cadence.
Entity compliance tracker — initialize, report upcoming deadlines, update status, run health audit, export to CSV. Maintains a compliance-tracker.yaml built from the entity table, calculates filing deadlines by entity and jurisdiction, and surfaces what's due in the next 30/60/90 days. Use when user says "entity compliance", "filing deadlines", "annual reports due", "entity tracker", "what filings are due", "entity health", or "good standing".
Trace how a contract has changed across its base agreement and all amendments — either a summary of all changes over time, or a provision trace for a specific clause. Use when the user says "what changed in this contract over time", "show me the amendment history", "where's the latest [clause]", "how has [provision] evolved", or uploads multiple versions of an agreement.