Matter Briefing
By Anthropic
Deep briefing on one matter — current posture, what's changed, next deadline, open questions, and a risk re-assessment check, ready before a GC update or outside counsel call. Use when the user says "brief me on [matter]", "where are we on [matter]", or needs a read on a specific matter.
Skill Instructions
<!-- NOTICE: Adapted from Anthropic's open-source claude-for-legal (Apache-2.0).
Original: https://github.com/anthropics/claude-for-legal/blob/main/litigation-legal/skills/matter-briefing/SKILL.md. Modification: frontmatter/manifest reformatted for the
Agentman skill library by Agentman on 2026-07-14. Skill body unchanged.
Not affiliated with or endorsed by Anthropic. -->
# /matter-briefing
1. Load `~/.claude/plugins/config/claude-for-legal/litigation-legal/CLAUDE.md` → risk calibration + relevant stakeholders.
2. Follow the workflow and reference below.
3. Read `~/.claude/plugins/config/claude-for-legal/litigation-legal/matters/[slug]/matter.md` + `~/.claude/plugins/config/claude-for-legal/litigation-legal/matters/[slug]/history.md` + log row from `_log.yaml`.
4. Produce briefing: current posture, what's changed since last update, next deadline, open questions, risk re-assessment check ("does the `risk:` field still reflect reality?").
5. Flag staleness: if `last_updated` > 30 days, say so.
---
# Matter Briefing
## Purpose
Give the counsel a clean read on one matter in the time it takes to walk to a conference room. Current posture, what's changed, what's next, what's worth reconsidering.
## Load context
- `~/.claude/plugins/config/claude-for-legal/litigation-legal/matters/_log.yaml` — structured row
- `~/.claude/plugins/config/claude-for-legal/litigation-legal/matters/[slug]/matter.md` — narrative intake
- `~/.claude/plugins/config/claude-for-legal/litigation-legal/matters/[slug]/history.md` — event log
- `~/.claude/plugins/config/claude-for-legal/litigation-legal/CLAUDE.md` — risk calibration (so "risk: high" means something specific, not generic)
**Conflicts gate — unbypassable.** Before briefing, check `_log.yaml` for the matter slug. If the matter is not in `_log.yaml`, refuse and route:
> "I don't see [matter slug] in the matter log. Run `/litigation-legal:matter-intake` first so the conflicts check runs and the matter workspace is set up. I won't build a briefing on a matter that hasn't been intaken — the conflicts check is the gate."
## Input
Slug (required). If ambiguous or missing, ask the user to pick from a list of active matters.
## The briefing
```markdown
[WORK-PRODUCT HEADER — per plugin config ## Outputs — differs by role; see `## Who's using this`]
# [Matter Name] — Briefing as of [today]
**Status:** [status / stage]
**Risk:** [rating] ([severity] × [likelihood])
**Materiality:** [category]
**Outside counsel:** [firm — lead]
**Last updated:** [date] [flag ⚠️ STALE if >30d]
**Conflicts:** [status — flag ⚠️ if `pending` or `not-run`]
---
## One-paragraph summary
[Current posture. What are we doing and why. Name the pivot fact if one is captured.]
## What's changed recently
[Last 3-5 entries from history.md, most recent first. If history is thin, say so.]
## What's next
- **Immediate deadline:** [next_deadline + what it is]
- **Upcoming milestones:** [anything dated in matter.md or recent history]
- **Decisions pending:** [open questions flagged in matter.md]
## Exposure
[Range + any change since intake. If reserved, current reserve + whether recalibration is overdue.]
## Internal owners
[Who's looped in; whether anyone should be looped in and isn't]
## Risk re-assessment check
*A prompt, not an answer.*
- Does `risk: [rating]` still feel right, or has the case moved?
- Does `materiality: [category]` still match? (New facts might push toward reserve or disclosure.)
- Any new stakeholder the matter needs (e.g., CISO becomes relevant after a discovery development)?
## Open questions
[From matter.md and anything unresolved in history]
## For the conversation
[If user specified a purpose — "brief me before the call with outside counsel" — tailor the final section: questions to ask, decisions to get, updates to extract. If no purpose given, omit this section.]
```
## Staleness
If `last_updated > 30 days ago`: flag at the top AND suggest running `/litigation-legal:matter-update [slug]` after the meeting to capture whatever's discussed.
## Tone
This is not marketing. Say what's known; flag what's not. If a matter has thin history and was just opened, the briefing is short — and that's correct. Don't pad.
## Close with the next-steps decision tree
End with the next-steps decision tree per CLAUDE.md `## Outputs`. Customize the options to what this skill just produced — the five default branches (draft the X, escalate, get more facts, watch and wait, something else) are a starting point, not a lock-in. The tree is the output; the lawyer picks.
## What this skill does not do
- Predict outcomes. Risk rating is a captured judgment, not a forecast.
- Recommend strategy. Surfaces questions; the counsel answers them.
- Re-triage. If the user wants to re-triage, that's an `/matter-update` with field changes — this skill reads, doesn't write.
Included Files
- SKILL.md(5.6 KB)
- LICENSE(4.6 KB)
- NOTICE.md(0.8 KB)
- _archive/skill-package.zip(6.3 KB)
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