How a corporate law firm cut first-pass contract review from hours to minutes

The client: A full-service corporate law firm with offices in Bangalore and Mumbai and around 60 lawyers. Name withheld for confidentiality.

The situation

Junior associates spent evenings on work that mattered but rarely needed their full training: first-pass contract reviews, due diligence summaries, intake forms and time-sheet narratives.

The partners were clear about two things. Client confidentiality could not be compromised, and no AI would give legal advice — lawyers had to stay responsible for every word that left the firm.

Before and after

• First-pass contract review

  BeforeAn associate reads the full contract and marks it up against memory and old precedents

  AfterClaude compares it to the firm’s playbook and suggests redlines; the associate decides

• Due diligence

  BeforeA team works through the data room for one to two weeks

  AfterAn issues list with page references in days; lawyers verify and add judgement

• New matter intake

  BeforeRe-typing details from emails into forms; manual conflict searches

  AfterIntake form pre-filled and a conflict check run; a partner approves

• Time entries

  BeforeNarratives written from memory at the end of the week

  AfterDraft narratives each evening from calendar and email activity

What we built

1. A contract reviewer inside Word

   Associates open a contract and ask for a first pass. Claude checks every clause against the firm’s playbook, explains deviations in plain language and suggests redlines the lawyer can accept, edit or reject.

2. A due diligence summariser

   Claude works through a data room and produces an issues list — change of control, assignment, termination, liabilities — with the document and page for each point, so lawyers can verify quickly.

3. Smarter matter intake

   New instructions arriving by email are turned into a completed intake form, and Claude searches the firm’s client list for possible conflicts for a partner to confirm.

4. Time narratives that write themselves

   Each evening, lawyers receive draft time entries based on their meetings and emails, ready to correct and submit.

The Claude tools we used — in plain English

• Claude for Microsoft 365

  Claude working inside Word, Outlook and Excel, so reviews and drafts happen in familiar documents.

  How we used it here: Contract review and drafting happen in Word; intake starts in Outlook.

• Skills

  Your company’s own know-how — playbooks, checklists, house style — written down once so Claude follows it every time.

  How we used it here: The firm’s clause playbook, fallback positions and house style, written once and followed every time.

• Connectors (MCP)

  Secure links that let Claude read from and write to the tools you already use — your CRM, email, calendar, file storage — with only the access you allow.

  How we used it here: Secure links to the document management system and client list, limited to approved matters.

• Self-hosted environments

  Running Claude’s work on infrastructure you control, so sensitive files stay inside your own systems.

  How we used it here: Sensitive document processing runs on infrastructure the firm controls.

• Claude in Chrome

  Claude working in a web browser to look things up on public websites and fill in routine online forms, with a person watching.

  How we used it here: Looks up public company registry details during intake, with a person watching.

• Claude Code (desktop app)

  The workbench our engineers use to have Claude build and test software with them. It is why we can ship a custom app in weeks rather than months.

  How we used it here: Our engineers used it to build and test the due diligence tool against past, closed matters.

• Claude API

  The engine behind the custom applications we build for you: your own branded app, with Claude doing the thinking in the background.

  How we used it here: Runs the due diligence summariser as the firm’s own internal application.

Where it runs

The due diligence application, its database and all documents and outputs are hosted in India, in a cloud account owned by the firm. Access follows the firm’s matter-level permissions and every action is logged for audit.

The results

• First-pass review of a standard NDA fell from about 75 minutes to 12.
• A 600-document data room was summarised in two and a half days rather than nine.
• 95% of lawyers now submit time entries the same day, up from roughly 60%.
• Every AI-prepared output is reviewed and approved by a lawyer before use.