Legal intelligence background

Case Study

Legal Research & Paralegal MCP

Focused on structured legal workflows: precedent retrieval, statute excerpt extraction, citation validation planning, clause & contract differ, and guided brief scaffolds. Iterating with a small partner cohort - capability surface kept intentionally narrow, schema-first and inspectable.

  • Multi-source research adapters (planned)
  • Citation normalization & staging
  • Clause differ + risk hints
  • Brief & argument outline templates

Tools

6

Prompts

4

Resources

15+

⚙️ Quick Navigation

Stealth: selective disclosure; schemas stable before expansion.

Positioning

Not a generic LLM chat wrapper. This surface concentrates on audit-friendly legal reasoning primitives: source-referenced retrieval, structured comparison frames, explicit argument slotting & minimally lossy clause diffs. Goal: reduce manual paralegal intake friction while preserving verifiability.

Architecture Snapshot

🧱Protocol Core

  • MCP transport
  • Tool registry
  • Template catalog
  • Resource resolver

📚Retrieval Layer

  • Source adapters
  • Ranking pipeline
  • Result normalization

🧪Analysis Layer

  • Clause differ
  • Brief outliner
  • Citation validator (planned)

🔐Governance

  • Redaction hooks
  • Access tiers
  • Audit logging

Planned Tool Catalog

Identifiers & intent only; schemas under active iteration.

🔎Research

  • search_cases
  • fetch_statute_excerpt
  • list_related_precedents

Multi-source retrieval & precedent surfacing.

📑Draft & Review

  • analyze_clause
  • diff_contract_sections
  • generate_brief_outline

Structured analysis & synthesis outputs.

Prompt Layer (Templates)

Deterministic scaffolds - no hidden network calls, pure reasoning frames.

🧪Brief Strategy

Outline core arguments + supporting precedent slots.

  • brief_strategy_frame
  • argument_issue_matrix

🧪Clause Risk

Assess clause deviations vs canonical pattern.

  • clause_risk_scan

Representative Flows

Illustrative chaining patterns (external contract only).

Precedent Scan

Query: Key negligence precedents (jurisdiction: CA)

  1. search_cases
  2. fetch_statute_excerpt
  3. argument_issue_matrix

Shape: Ranked precedent list + issue matrix

Contract Delta

Query: Compare NDA v1 to base template

  1. diff_contract_sections
  2. analyze_clause
  3. clause_risk_scan

Shape: Changed sections + risk flags

Structured Workflow Patterns

Experimental chains combining retrieval + analysis + prompt scaffolds. Deterministic sequencing; some utilities marked (planned).

Precedent Retrieval & Issue Matrix

Trigger: New matter intake or argument refinement

Inputs: issue_terms, jurisdiction, date_range?, limit?

  1. search_cases(issue_terms, jurisdiction)
  2. fetch_statute_excerpt(referenced_sections)
  3. list_related_precedents(top_case_ids)
  4. argument_issue_matrix(precedent_set)

Output: {'precedents': 'ranked[]', 'issues': 'matrix[issue -> supporting_cases]', 'citations': 'list'}

Build a structured map of issues to strongest supporting authorities.

Clause Deviation & Risk Scan

Trigger: Incoming contract draft vs canonical template

Inputs: base_template_id, draft_document_id

  1. diff_contract_sections(base_template_id, draft_document_id)
  2. analyze_clause(changed_sections)
  3. clause_risk_scan(changed_section_summaries)

Output: {'changes': 'list[section, delta]', 'risk_flags': 'list[level, rationale]', 'recommendations': 'list'}

Surface high-impact deviations early with transparent rationale.

Citation Integrity Preflight

Trigger: Before brief draft distribution

Inputs: draft_brief_id

  1. extract_citations(draft_brief_id) (planned external util)
  2. fetch_statute_excerpt(cited_sections)
  3. search_cases(citation_case_names subset)
  4. validate_citation_references(compiled_sources) (planned)

Output: {'citations': 'list[citation, status]', 'anomalies': 'list', 'coverage_ratio': 'number'}

Identify broken or ambiguous citations before partner review.

Case Timeline Synthesis

Trigger: Docket update ingestion

Inputs: docket_events

  1. normalize_docket_events(docket_events) (planned)
  2. derive_phases(event_stream)
  3. generate_brief_outline(phase_summaries)

Output: {'timeline': 'ordered[]', 'phase_summary': 'list', 'next_deadlines': 'list'}

Provide an at-a-glance procedural and strategic snapshot.

Multi-Jurisdiction Statute Comparison

Trigger: Cross-state compliance inquiry

Inputs: statute_identifier, jurisdictions[]

  1. fetch_statute_excerpt(jurisdiction A)
  2. fetch_statute_excerpt(jurisdiction B...)
  3. compare_statute_sections(excerpts) (planned)
  4. brief_strategy_frame(differences)

Output: {'differences': 'list[dimension, delta]', 'alignment_score': 'number', 'watch_points': 'list'}

Highlight material divergences impacting strategy or compliance.

Argument Brief Outline Generation

Trigger: Initial drafting after research pass

Inputs: selected_precedents[], issues[]

  1. group_precedents_by_issue(selected_precedents)
  2. argument_issue_matrix(grouped)
  3. brief_strategy_frame(issue_matrix)

Output: {'outline': 'sections[]', 'support_map': 'issue->cases', 'gaps': 'list'}

Produce a deterministic scaffold for drafting with traceable support.

Roadmap (Selective)

Focus on verifiable outputs before scale. Expansion gated by schema stability & audit tooling maturity.

🧮Citation Chain

R&D

Automated citation verification & Shepardizing hooks.

  • Parallel source fetch
  • Signal aggregation
  • Confidence scoring

🗂️Docket Normalizer

Planned

Standardize docket event taxonomy.

  • Event class mapping
  • Timeline synthesis
  • Hearing extraction

📊Argument Scoring

Exploring

Heuristic argument strength hints (transparent).

  • Factor tagging
  • Precedent density
  • Diversity weighting

Exploring structured AI augmentation for legal operations or research? Share current tooling surface & constraints - I'll outline a staged MCP integration path.

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