Legal and Compliance Playbook

Why this matters

Legal and compliance teams are often a bottleneck — not because of the complexity of individual tasks, but because of volume. Contract reviews, policy summaries, regulatory Q&As, and plain-English translations of legal text all take time that a skilled lawyer should not need to spend on the first pass.

Claude does not replace legal judgement. It handles the heavy lifting on the first draft and the initial scan, so qualified people can focus their time on the decisions that actually require their expertise.

Important: Every output from this playbook is a draft for human review. Claude's outputs are not legal advice. They reduce the time a qualified person needs to spend, not substitute for that person.

Legal Project system prompt template

You are a legal document assistant for [Company Name].

Your role is to help the legal and compliance team work faster,
not to provide legal advice.

You assist with:
- Summarising contracts and flagging clauses for qualified review
- Drafting first-pass documents for lawyer sign-off
- Comparing document versions
- Translating legal language into plain English for business stakeholders

Always:
- Label every output: DRAFT — Requires Legal Review
- Flag unusual, missing, or potentially risky clauses explicitly
- Note when specialist legal advice is needed
- Default to UK law unless told otherwise

Never:
- Give a definitive legal opinion
- State that a contract is fine or should be signed
- Speculate about case outcomes or regulatory decisions

Contract summary for business stakeholders

Summarise this [contract type] for a business stakeholder who is not a lawyer.

Include:
1. What each party is agreeing to in plain English
2. Duration and renewal terms
3. Key financial terms
4. 3-5 clauses needing attention before signing — flag anything non-standard
5. One-sentence recommended next step

Format: short paragraphs, no legal jargon. Max 400 words.
Label as: DRAFT — Requires Legal Review.

[paste contract text]

Risk flag scan

Review this [contract type] from our perspective as [customer/supplier].

Flag any problematic clauses. Specifically look for:
- Unilateral rights to change price or terms
- Data ownership, portability, and deletion rights
- Liability caps below our contract value
- Auto-renewal terms and notice windows
- IP assignment or work-for-hire provisions
- Termination rights that heavily favour the other party
- Jurisdiction creating enforcement risk

Format as a table:
Clause | Risk Level (High/Medium/Low) | Issue | Suggested position

Label as: DRAFT — Requires Legal Review.

[paste contract]

Plain-English clause translation

Translate this clause into plain English for a non-lawyer executive.

Explain:
1. What we are agreeing to
2. What scenarios would trigger this clause
3. What the practical and financial exposure looks like
4. Whether this is standard or unusual

Max 200 words. No legal jargon.

[paste clause]

Example — indemnification clause:

Translate this indemnification clause into plain English for a CEO
who needs to approve the contract. Explain what we are agreeing to
protect the other party from, what triggers it, and the worst-case
financial exposure.

[paste clause]

Policy first drafts

Draft a first-pass [policy name] for [Company Name].

Context: [X] employees, UK jurisdiction, GDPR applies, [sector].

Include: Purpose, Scope, [key sections], Exception handling,
Review schedule.

Write for a non-legal internal audience. Plain English.
Mark as: DRAFT — Requires Legal Review before adoption.
Approx [X] words.

Example — Data Retention Policy:

Draft a first-pass Data Retention Policy for a UK-based SaaS company
with 200 employees. GDPR applies. We handle customer personal data.

Include: Purpose, Scope, Retention periods by data type (employee
records, customer data, financial records, communications, system logs),
Deletion procedures, Exceptions, Review schedule.

Plain English. Approx 500 words. DRAFT — Requires Legal Review.

Comparing two contract versions

Compare Version A (our draft) and Version B (their redline).

Provide:
1. Summary of material changes (not formatting changes)
2. For each material change: what they changed it to, and whether
   it favours them, us, or is neutral
3. Changes to push back on, in priority order

--- VERSION A ---
[paste]

--- VERSION B ---
[paste]

Regulatory Q&A for business teams

A colleague asked: "[their question about a regulation]"

Draft a plain-English answer that:
- Explains the general regulatory position
- Notes their specific situation may vary and they should
  consult the legal/compliance team
- Is under 200 words, no legal jargon

Label as: Not legal advice — for general awareness only.

What Claude cannot do for legal teams

Claude has no access to live case law databases, real-time regulatory updates, or jurisdiction-specific precedent outside its training data. It cannot:

• Advise on live litigation or disputes
• Provide regulatory guidance requiring current knowledge (FCA, ICO enforcement positions)
• Determine whether a specific action is lawful
• Replace qualified legal counsel on any matter with real consequences

The value is in volume reduction — turning a 45-minute contract scan into a 10-minute review of Claude's flagged items — not in removing the qualified human from the loop.

See also: M63 (Data, Privacy and Security) for data handling rules when pasting contract text into Claude.