12-attorney boutique. Litigation + small-cap M&A. Boston. Bedrock-only Claude.

Aldrich & Stone LLP, here's how your tools talk to each other today and what to fix first.

Three sections below. Pantry = your raw data. Prep table = the weekly briefs Claude assembles. Plate = the decisions you actually serve up. Click any card or recipe for plain English.

6
Tools mapped
4
Recipes ready to build
3
Quick wins flagged
Legend:
✓ You've got it
? Missing or not set up yet
! Quick win, money or hours on the table
Where to start: click any card with the orange ! badge first, those are the 3 unlocks Claude can earn its keep on.
Pantry
Your raw ingredients, the tools your data already lives in.
!
iManage
PDF/DOCX real-time
High volume
✓
Outlook 365
EML/MSG real-time
High volume
✓
Bill4Time
XLSX weekly
Steady flow
✓
Client intake forms
PDF weekly
Trickle
✓
LexisNexis AI
API ad-hoc
Trickle
!
AWS Bedrock 3P Claude
API real-time
High volume
Prep Table
Where the night's mise-en-place gets done, weekly summaries Claude writes for you.
✓
Matter briefs/ brief
Matters On matter open + weekly refresh
In: iManage, Outlook 365, Client intake forms
✓
Billing summary
Billing Mon 7am
In: Bill4Time
!
Post mortem lessons
Knowledge / lessons On matter close
In: none yet
Plate
What gets served to a human, the briefs and drafts you actually act on.
✓
Deposition / focus brief
Written by the deposition-prep specialist For: Marcus Stone, Sally
🔒 Lead attorney approves before send
✓
Time-entry narrative drafts
Written by the billing assistant For: timekeepers
🔒 Timekeeper approves before sending to billing
!
Lessons learned (firm knowledge)
Written by the post-mortem distiller For: Janet Aldrich
🔒 Managing partner approves before firm-knowledge entry

The mental model in one picture. Your data moves left to right: raw sources feed weekly silver platters, platters feed the briefs and drafts Claude writes for you, and those land in the channels you actually use (Slack, your inbox, your iPad). The AI layer sits on top of the data prep, never the other way around. Hover any line to trace it. Click a node to open the details.

Pantry (raw data)
Prep (silver platters)
Plate (briefs you read)
Where you read it
Opportunity / suggested

If a Pantry box has no line leaving it, that data is sitting unused, those are usually the loudest quick wins. Dashed boxes on the right are channels we suggest adding.

Aldrich & Stone LLP, these are the briefs and drafts your team can stop building manually. Each one shows the ingredients, the time saved, and the back-and-forth Claude does on your behalf.

New matter scaffolding (when intake comes in)

Sally drops an intake PDF; ten minutes later the matter folder is scaffolded with brief, walling, and precedent links, instead of three hours of hand-rolling.

Client intake forms → iManage → matter_briefs.md → case-launch orchestrator
Before: Sally hand-rolls every new matter folder, hand-pulls precedent from iManage, hand-formats the case brief. 3 hours per matter. 4-5 matters a month.
After: Drop the intake PDF, run /new_matter, the folder scaffolds in 10 minutes. Sally reviews and works.
Click for the full walkthrough →

Time-entry narratives (Friday 5pm)

Carol stops chasing partners on Friday. Every late time entry has a drafted narrative ready for the timekeeper to approve.

Bill4Time → matter folders → billing_summary.md → Billing Assistant
Before: Time entries 6-8 days late on average. Carol chases partners with escalation pings. Money lost.
After: Drafts ready Friday 5pm. Timekeepers approve in minutes. Days-late drops to 1-2.
Click for the full walkthrough →

MSJ opposition focus brief (when motion lands)

Marcus opens his iPad in the morning and sees the focus-areas brief for tomorrow's MSJ argument, three deposition admissions, the carve-out doctrine, the count-by-count framing.

Pleadings → Depositions → matter_briefs.md → Deposition Prep Specialist
Before: Junior associates reinvent deposition prep for every motion. Three days of grunt work per brief.
After: Brief lands overnight. Marcus reviews in 15 minutes. Three days reduced to one Marcus-review session.
Click for the full walkthrough →

Post-mortem distillation (matter close)

When a matter closes, lessons get distilled into firm knowledge, separated from ephemeral case content, redacted, partner-approved. Knowledge stops dying at the bar.

data/matters// → matter_briefs.md → Post-Mortem Distiller
Before: Post-mortems happened verbally at the bar after the matter closed. Knowledge died with the partner who held it.
After: Every closed matter produces a redacted, approved lessons doc. The firm's institutional memory compounds.
Click for the full walkthrough →

Aldrich & Stone LLP, here's the order to build this in. Each step builds on the last, total: Bedrock approval is the long pole (1-2 weeks). Once Bedrock is live, the rest is a focused weekend.. If a step looks like a cliff, hand it to @claude-code-guide.

  1. 0
    Pre-step (skip if you already have Claude Code)

    Get Claude Code on your machine

    What

    Install the Claude Code CLI. It's the tool that runs everything below. If you've never opened Terminal, that's fine, this is the only command-line moment until you're set up.

    Install
    npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code
claude --version  # should print a version number
    You'll know it's working when: typing claude --version in Terminal prints a version number instead of an error.

    Setup time: 5 minutes.

  2. 1

    Get IT sign-off, Bedrock 3P Claude deployment

    What

    Configure Claude Code to invoke models via AWS Bedrock instead of Anthropic.com. Sign Anthropic BAA. Get IT/security committee approval.

    Why this first

    This is THE unlock. Without Bedrock, IT pulls the plug on every other step. No matter content can leave the firm tenant.

    Install
    # AWS account + Bedrock model access (request via AWS console)
# Set environment:
export ANTHROPIC_BEDROCK_BASE_URL=https://bedrock-runtime.us-east-1.amazonaws.com
export AWS_PROFILE=aldrich_stone
# Configure Claude Code to use Bedrock backend
    Before: IT blocks every AI tool. The 15-user pilot is on borrowed time.
    After: Claude Code runs on Bedrock. IT/security approves. Pilot expands to firm-wide.

    Setup time: 1-2 weeks (mostly committee review). Community has the deeper walkthrough.

  3. 2

    Path-scoped matter walling rule

    What

    Write rules/matter_handling.md with paths: data/matters/**. Defines that an agent reading one matter cannot access another in the same session.

    Why this first

    Ethics walling is non-negotiable for litigation + M&A. Without this rule, the firm cannot use AI on client content.

    Install
    # write under .claude/rules/matter_handling.md
# YAML frontmatter:
# ---
# paths:
#   - data/matters/**
#   - silver_platters/matter_briefs/**
# ---
# Then the rule body (template in demos/02_boutique_law_firm/after/.claude/rules/)
    Before: Walling enforced by 'don't mix matters' instinct. Malpractice exposure.
    After: Walling enforced by file system. Smith v Jones agent literally cannot load Acme files.

    Setup time: 30 minutes

  4. 3

    Wire the conversion hook

    What

    SessionStart hook that converts pleading PDFs, deposition DOCX, intake PDFs.eml correspondence into markdown.

    Why this first

    Every matter document arrives as PDF or DOCX. Claude can't read these natively. This hook unblocks Step 4.

    Install
    cp -r skill/silver-platter/scripts/templates/.. ~/.claude/hooks/
brew install pandoc poppler
pip install xlsx2csv
    Before: Pleadings, depositions, intake forms, Claude fails on every one.
    After: Drop any matter document into data/raw_dropzone/, get clean markdown in data/converted/.

    Setup time: 5 minutes

  5. 4

    Case-Launch Orchestrator + Billing Assistant + Deposition Prep + Post-Mortem Distiller

    What

    Define four subagents under .claude/agents/. Case-Launch is the chief-of-staff. The other three are matter-scoped specialists.

    Why this first

    The orchestrator hierarchy is what makes the system usable. Sally and Marcus only talk to the orchestrator; specialists report up.

    Install
    # write under .claude/agents/:
#   case-launch-orchestrator.md (model: opus, tools: [Read, Glob, Grep, Task])
#   billing-assistant.md (model: sonnet)
#   deposition-prep-specialist.md (model: opus, tools include reading whole matter folders)
#   post-mortem-distiller.md (model: opus, redaction-aware)
# Hand to @claude-code-guide for the templates.
    Before: Sally has to pre-frame which folder Claude should look at, every time.
    After: Sally runs /new_matter or /prep_for_deposition or /close_matter. The orchestrator routes.

    Setup time: 2-3 hours

  6. 5

    Audit log + approval-gate hooks

    What

    PostToolUse hook on Edit|Write that appends every action to outputs/audit_log.md. Stop hook that warns the partner at session end if a draft is unacknowledged.

    Why this first

    For a regulated practice, the audit log is the difference between Bedrock approval and IT pulling the plug. Receipts.

    Install
    # Already in business_os_hooks.md reference doc.
# Paste the three hook entries into .claude/settings.json.
# chmod +x the three scripts in .claude/hooks/.
    Before: AI did what? Nobody knows. Did Marcus approve last week's brief? Carol can't tell.
    After: Every action recorded. Stop hook nudges if a draft is unsigned. Bedrock review board sees clean audit trail.

    Setup time: 10 minutes

  7. You've shipped your back-of-house.

    Next: hand @claude-code-guide a one-line ask for your next skill, or join the Early AI Dopters community to see how other operators evolved theirs.