The example is made up. Renee Alvarez handles client intake at Harlow & Pierce Family Law, a made-up firm, and attorney Nadia Pierce and the prospective client Tasha Greene are made up too, as are every fee and policy. The practice copy of Claude needs no account, and nothing is uploaded or sent. This is our own lesson, not an official Anthropic course.
How do you set up the intake project, step by step?
The lesson has 22 steps in five short chapters:
- Create the project. Click Projects in the sidebar, then New project. Under What are you working on?, type Harlow & Pierce Intake, say what it is for, and click Create project.
- Set the instructions. Click Add next to Instructions, then Paste instructions, then Save instructions.
- Add project knowledge. Click Add next to Context, point at Upload from device, click Files, and pick Harlow Pierce fee schedule 2026.pdf. Hold Ctrl (Cmd on a Mac) and click Engagement and intake policy.pdf too. Context then says 2 files.
- Answer the email. Click the message box, Paste request with Tasha's email, read the thinking line, check the reply and click the copy button on the email box.
- Improve it. Click Harlow & Pierce Intake at the top, click Edit next to Instructions, add one rule and save.
A project is Claude's way to keep project instructions and files together for one kind of work. The Claude Projects entry explains the idea in a paragraph.
What goes in the instructions?
Who Claude is helping (Renee, the intake coordinator), the tone (calm, kind, plain, no legal jargon, no pressure, because many readers are going through a hard time) and how to sign off. Then the rules intake always follows: quote fees only from the fee schedule and say what a flat fee covers and what it doesn't; court fees are separate; before booking, run a conflict check, so ask for the full names of both spouses and nothing else about the other person; say the firm is not their lawyer until they sign an engagement agreement; and never give legal advice or predict an outcome about property, support or custody. Offer a consultation with Nadia Pierce instead.
What did the reply say?
Tasha asked what an uncontested divorce costs, whether the flat fee covers a parenting plan, and whether she will keep the house. Without being told any of it, the reply quoted the $250 consultation (credited if she hires the firm within 30 days), the $3,500 flat fee and what it covers, including one parenting plan, and said court fees are paid separately. It explained that a contested case moves to hourly rates with a $7,500 retainer. It asked for both full names for the conflict check, said the firm isn't her lawyer yet, and sent the house question to a consultation.
Try it free, step by step
A Claude Project for Your Law Firm's Intake Desk: Fees, the Conflict Check and No Legal Advice by Email. Create a Claude project for a family-law firm, give it your tone and intake rules, add your fee schedule and engagement policy as project knowledge, and answer a prospective client’s cost question… You do every step yourself in a practice copy of Claude, it checks your work as you go, and “Do it for me” finishes any step you get stuck on. Free, and nothing touches your real accounts.
Start the free lessonKey takeaways
- Instructions hold the tone and the rules; project knowledge holds the facts.
- Write "no legal advice by email" as a rule, so every chat follows it.
- Firm documents go in the project. Client files never do.
- When a reply misses something, fix the instructions, not the chat.
- Read every reply before it goes out, and have a lawyer approve the instructions.
Frequently asked questions
- Which Claude plans have projects?
Per the lesson, projects are on every plan, and the Free plan allows up to five. On Team and Enterprise plans you can share a project with the rest of the office. Check Claude's pricing page for current details.
- What files should go in the project?
Firm documents: the fee schedule, the engagement and intake policy, booking steps and attorney-approved templates. In the lesson you leave Okafor matter notes.docx alone, because a client's file doesn't belong in a project.
- Do the project instructions replace my profile instructions?
No. They work alongside your own profile instructions in Settings, but only inside this project.
- How do I see where an answer came from?
Click the thinking line above the reply. In the lesson it reads Quoting the fee schedule and checking the intake policy. Claude writes this line itself, so yours will differ.
- What should I check before sending?
The fees against the fee schedule, and anything the reply flags. In the lesson Claude notes that if Tasha later needs changes to the parenting plan after the hearing, you should check how your firm prices that.
- How do I add a rule later?
Go back to the project page, click Edit next to Instructions and add a line. The lesson adds: every email ends by asking people not to send documents or private details by email, and saying the email doesn't create an attorney-client relationship. Every new chat in the project follows it.
- What is Memory on the project page?
After a few chats, Memory fills in with what Claude learns about this work, for this project only.
- Is it safe to use Claude for intake at a law firm?
Keep client matters out of the project, use a business plan that doesn't train on your data, follow your firm's policy on AI tools and your bar's guidance, and have a lawyer review any template a project uses.
- Where can I read about common slip-ups?
See Claude project law firm intake mistakes, how to use Claude Projects and free AI training for law firm staff. The base Claude Projects lesson uses the same steps for a landscaping quote, and the law firm intake summary lesson covers another intake task.
