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Case Brief Coach

Guides law students to write their own case briefs, with citation and confidence checks

Source Download skill
Repository
anthropics/claude-for-legal
Stars
9,870
Licence
Apache-2.0
Files
1 file

What it does

When a law student asks for a case brief, this skill makes the agent act as a study coach rather than a summariser. It asks the student to state the holding and facts first, supplies a blank brief template in the student's preferred format, and pushes back on weak or wrong answers. If the student pastes the case text, the agent can point to the court's own wording; if only a case name is given, it flags any uncertain lines and urges checking the real case.

Great for

  • 1L law students learning how to read and brief cases
  • Students preparing for exams who want to test their understanding of holdings
  • Students who want an outline built from their own written briefs

Skip it if

  • Students who want a finished brief or case summary handed to them, since the skill is designed to refuse this except on explicit override (it hurts retention)
  • Relying on briefs made from a case name alone for court filings or exam answers, because the agent may invent or misstate holdings and citations (the skill flags these but cannot guarantee accuracy)

Try asking

  • “brief Marbury v. Madison”
  • “What's the holding in Palsgraf v. Long Island Railroad? I want to state it myself first.”
  • “Here is the text of a case I read; help me fill in my own facts, issue and holding”
  • “Drill me on the holding of Erie Railroad v. Tompkins before I check my answer”
Step-by-step guide: how to use Case Brief CoachInstall, first run, examples, tips and FAQs

Install in 3 steps

  1. 1

    Download the skill

    The ZIP contains the 1 original files, the Apache-2.0 licence and an attribution note.

    case-brief.zip
  2. 2

    Add it to your agent

    Claude Code (all projects)

    mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && unzip case-brief.zip -d ~/.claude/skills/

    Claude Code / Agent SDK (this project only)

    mkdir -p .claude/skills && unzip case-brief.zip -d .claude/skills/

    Claude apps (web/desktop): Settings → Capabilities → Skills → Upload skill, and choose the ZIP.

  3. 3

    Ask for the task

    No special command needed — the agent reads the skill's description and loads it when your request matches. Try one of the prompts above.

Get better results

  • Read the case first and state the holding in one sentence before asking for help, since drill-me mode will ask for it.
  • Paste the full case text when you can; briefs from pasted text are far more reliable than briefs from memory.
  • Verify every citation and quotation on Westlaw, CourtListener or your school's research tool before using it in an outline.

What's inside

  • SKILL.md

Redistributed unmodified from anthropics/claude-for-legal under the Apache-2.0 licence. The assessment was drafted with AI from the skill's files on 2026-10-29. Skills can instruct your agent to run code — read SKILL.md and any scripts before installing.