![\"Smartphone](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.attorneyatwork.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Claude-AI-for-Lawyers-vs-Chat.jpg?resize=770%2C495&ssl=1\" "\\"\\"")
Table of contents<\/h2>\n\n- It Started With My Files: The CoWork Advantage<\/a><\/li>\n
- The Moment I Knew: Building Legal Courses with Claude<\/a><\/li>\n
- Then I Started Training Claude to \u2018Speak Lawyer\u2019<\/a><\/li>\n
- The Lawyers in My Community Are Noticing Too<\/a><\/li>\n
- Skills: The Turbocharged SOP<\/a><\/li>\n
- What This Means for You<\/a><\/li>\n
- One Last Thing About Claude AI for Lawyers<\/a><\/li>\n
- More From Ernie Svenson and the 80\/20 Principle<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n
I wasn\u2019t unhappy with ChatGPT.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the part that surprises people when I tell them I switched. I started using it when it first launched. Over the past few years, I\u2019ve put in serious time training it. It knew my voice, my audience, my preferences. I tried Claude when Anthropic launched it, liked what I saw, but stuck with ChatGPT.<\/p>\n
Switching felt like starting over. And I wasn\u2019t ready to do that. But then something changed my thinking entirely \u2014 and it wasn\u2019t about writing quality.<\/p>\n
It Started With My Files: The CoWork Advantage<\/h2>\n
The trigger was Claude\u2019s CoWork feature, which lets you work directly with files sitting on your own computer. No uploading. No copy-pasting. Just point Claude at a folder and work.<\/p>\n
That might sound like a small convenience. It isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
For lawyers, your work lives in documents \u2014 briefs, contracts, templates, client notes. The ability to work with those files in place, without exporting or reformatting them, changes how AI fits into your day. It stops feeling like a separate tool you have to visit and starts feeling like a colleague who has access to the same files you do.<\/p>\n
That was enough to get me experimenting more seriously.<\/p>\n
The Moment I Knew: Building Legal Courses with Claude<\/h2>\n
My real proof of concept came when I used Claude<\/a> \u2014 combining CoWork with a structured Project \u2014 to build a series of online courses about AI for lawyers in my community to help them learn Claude, ChatGPT, NotebookLM and Perplexity.<\/p>\nEach course took me about two and a half hours. Start to finish. And they were good. Claude even generated a 10-question quiz for each section of the course \u2014 and the quizzes were exceptional. That matters because going through a course isn\u2019t the same as learning it. Being tested on the material is what makes it stick.<\/p>\n
I\u2019d built courses before using other tools. The difference wasn\u2019t marginal. It was the kind of difference that makes you reassess what\u2019s possible with AI \u2014 and with Claude specifically.<\/p>\n
Now, obviously, most lawyers aren\u2019t building courses. But substitute \u201cclient onboarding assistant,\u201d \u201csettlement claims negotiating assistant,\u201d \u201cdeposition prep assistant\u201d or \u201ccontract review assistant,\u201d and the same logic applies. Complex cognitive work that used to take days can happen in hours when Claude has the right context and you\u2019ve set up the project correctly.<\/p>\n
Then I Started Training Claude to \u2018Speak Lawyer\u2019<\/h2>\n
Once I saw what was now possible, I focused on pushing it further.<\/p>\n
Training Claude \u2014 giving it your writing style, your preferences, your typical workflows \u2014 is straightforward. Claude will ask you for what it needs and internalize what it learns. My results improved instantly, and shockingly.<\/p>\n
That was my epiphany. I hadn\u2019t switched because ChatGPT failed me. I switched because I finally saw what I\u2019d been missing. Claude is much better all around, so I\u2019m sticking with it.<\/p>\n
The Lawyers in My Community Are Noticing Too<\/h2>\n
I\u2019m not the only one making this shift. In my AI Lab \u2014 a weekly workshop for solo and small firm lawyers \u2014 more and more members are either switching to Claude or reaching for it first when they need to write something. The consensus is the same: The writing is better, and the workflow fits how lawyers actually work.<\/p>\n
If you haven\u2019t started with either tool yet, my honest advice is to begin with Claude. The learning curve is gentler than it looks, and you\u2019ll build better habits from the start.<\/p>\n
Skills: The Turbocharged SOP<\/h2>\n
One of the most useful things I\u2019ve discovered in Claude is the ability to build your own custom skills \u2014 and to have Claude help you build them.<\/p>\n
Think of a skill as a turbocharged standard operating procedure. You\u2019re creating a reusable set of instructions that tells Claude exactly how to handle a specific task. The difference from a traditional SOP is that Claude helps you write it, you use it, and then Claude helps you refine it over time based on what\u2019s working.<\/p>\n
My most recent example: <\/strong>I had Claude interview me about my background, my preferences and how I work. I told it to ask me 40 questions. It did.\u00a0<\/p>\nAll I had to do was select the right answers \u2014 I didn\u2019t have to think of what to include or how to phrase anything. The result was a master skill that now sits in my top-level prompt and shapes everything Claude does for me.<\/p>\n
It was surprisingly, shockingly easy.<\/p>\n
For lawyers, the applications are obvious. Client intake. Matter management. Drafting preferences. Billing workflows. Any repeatable task you do more than twice is a candidate for a skill. And unlike a traditional SOP that sits in a binder and gets ignored, this one actually gets used \u2014 because it\u2019s built into the tool itself.<\/p>\n
What This Means for You<\/h2>\n
You don\u2019t have to abandon tools that are working. But it\u2019s worth asking whether \u201cworking\u201d is the same as \u201coptimal.\u201d<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re a solo or small firm lawyer doing serious document work, Claude\u2019s Projects and CoWork features are worth your time. Set one up around a real workflow \u2014 not a test, an actual matter or process \u2014 and see what happens.<\/p>\n
The gap between what AI can do and what most lawyers are getting from it is still significant. Closing that gap starts with the right setup.<\/p>\n
One Last Thing About Claude AI for Lawyers<\/h2>\n
The first draft of this article was written using Claude on my smartphone and took less than 20 minutes. I just dictated my thoughts using WisprFlow<\/a>, which yielded an almost finished piece in a fraction of the time it would have taken me otherwise.\u00a0<\/p>\nNo blank page agony. No struggling to create a clear structure. Just a relaxed conversation that turned into solid content.<\/p>\n
So here\u2019s the most important takeaway. Claude isn\u2019t just a tool. It\u2019s a powerful thinking partner that can help you do better work, faster and more enjoyably.<\/p>\n
More From Ernie Svenson and the 80\/20 Principle<\/h2>\n
Loom for Lawyers: Why You Should Be Creating Shareable Videos<\/a><\/p>\nTop 8 Tech Tools for Solo and Small Firm Lawyers to End the Chaos<\/a><\/p>\nAI Tools for Lawyers: Why You Shouldn\u2019t Stick to Just One<\/a><\/p>\nOur Fingers Can\u2019t Keep Up With AI<\/a><\/p>\nImage \u00a9 iStockPhoto.com. <\/p>\n
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.attorneyatwork.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/AttorneyatWork-Logo-%C2%AE-2021-1.jpg?resize=372%2C106&ssl=1\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\nSign up for Attorney at Work\u2019s daily practice tips newsletter here<\/a> and subscribe to our podcast<\/a>, Attorney at Work Today.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"f you haven’t started with a GAI tool yet, Ernie Svenson’s advice is to begin with Claude. The learning curve is gentler than it looks, and you’ll build better habits from the start. The post Why I Switched From ChatGPT to Claude (And What Finally Pushed Me Over) appeared first on Articles, Tips and Tech […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-146538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-legal_matters"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146538\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
I wasn\u2019t unhappy with ChatGPT.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the part that surprises people when I tell them I switched. I started using it when it first launched. Over the past few years, I\u2019ve put in serious time training it. It knew my voice, my audience, my preferences. I tried Claude when Anthropic launched it, liked what I saw, but stuck with ChatGPT.<\/p>\n
Switching felt like starting over. And I wasn\u2019t ready to do that. But then something changed my thinking entirely \u2014 and it wasn\u2019t about writing quality.<\/p>\n
It Started With My Files: The CoWork Advantage<\/h2>\n
The trigger was Claude\u2019s CoWork feature, which lets you work directly with files sitting on your own computer. No uploading. No copy-pasting. Just point Claude at a folder and work.<\/p>\n
That might sound like a small convenience. It isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
For lawyers, your work lives in documents \u2014 briefs, contracts, templates, client notes. The ability to work with those files in place, without exporting or reformatting them, changes how AI fits into your day. It stops feeling like a separate tool you have to visit and starts feeling like a colleague who has access to the same files you do.<\/p>\n
That was enough to get me experimenting more seriously.<\/p>\n
The Moment I Knew: Building Legal Courses with Claude<\/h2>\n
My real proof of concept came when I used Claude<\/a> \u2014 combining CoWork with a structured Project \u2014 to build a series of online courses about AI for lawyers in my community to help them learn Claude, ChatGPT, NotebookLM and Perplexity.<\/p>\n Each course took me about two and a half hours. Start to finish. And they were good. Claude even generated a 10-question quiz for each section of the course \u2014 and the quizzes were exceptional. That matters because going through a course isn\u2019t the same as learning it. Being tested on the material is what makes it stick.<\/p>\n I\u2019d built courses before using other tools. The difference wasn\u2019t marginal. It was the kind of difference that makes you reassess what\u2019s possible with AI \u2014 and with Claude specifically.<\/p>\n Now, obviously, most lawyers aren\u2019t building courses. But substitute \u201cclient onboarding assistant,\u201d \u201csettlement claims negotiating assistant,\u201d \u201cdeposition prep assistant\u201d or \u201ccontract review assistant,\u201d and the same logic applies. Complex cognitive work that used to take days can happen in hours when Claude has the right context and you\u2019ve set up the project correctly.<\/p>\n Once I saw what was now possible, I focused on pushing it further.<\/p>\n Training Claude \u2014 giving it your writing style, your preferences, your typical workflows \u2014 is straightforward. Claude will ask you for what it needs and internalize what it learns. My results improved instantly, and shockingly.<\/p>\n That was my epiphany. I hadn\u2019t switched because ChatGPT failed me. I switched because I finally saw what I\u2019d been missing. Claude is much better all around, so I\u2019m sticking with it.<\/p>\n I\u2019m not the only one making this shift. In my AI Lab \u2014 a weekly workshop for solo and small firm lawyers \u2014 more and more members are either switching to Claude or reaching for it first when they need to write something. The consensus is the same: The writing is better, and the workflow fits how lawyers actually work.<\/p>\n If you haven\u2019t started with either tool yet, my honest advice is to begin with Claude. The learning curve is gentler than it looks, and you\u2019ll build better habits from the start.<\/p>\n One of the most useful things I\u2019ve discovered in Claude is the ability to build your own custom skills \u2014 and to have Claude help you build them.<\/p>\n Think of a skill as a turbocharged standard operating procedure. You\u2019re creating a reusable set of instructions that tells Claude exactly how to handle a specific task. The difference from a traditional SOP is that Claude helps you write it, you use it, and then Claude helps you refine it over time based on what\u2019s working.<\/p>\n My most recent example: <\/strong>I had Claude interview me about my background, my preferences and how I work. I told it to ask me 40 questions. It did.\u00a0<\/p>\n All I had to do was select the right answers \u2014 I didn\u2019t have to think of what to include or how to phrase anything. The result was a master skill that now sits in my top-level prompt and shapes everything Claude does for me.<\/p>\n It was surprisingly, shockingly easy.<\/p>\n For lawyers, the applications are obvious. Client intake. Matter management. Drafting preferences. Billing workflows. Any repeatable task you do more than twice is a candidate for a skill. And unlike a traditional SOP that sits in a binder and gets ignored, this one actually gets used \u2014 because it\u2019s built into the tool itself.<\/p>\n You don\u2019t have to abandon tools that are working. But it\u2019s worth asking whether \u201cworking\u201d is the same as \u201coptimal.\u201d<\/p>\n If you\u2019re a solo or small firm lawyer doing serious document work, Claude\u2019s Projects and CoWork features are worth your time. Set one up around a real workflow \u2014 not a test, an actual matter or process \u2014 and see what happens.<\/p>\n The gap between what AI can do and what most lawyers are getting from it is still significant. Closing that gap starts with the right setup.<\/p>\n The first draft of this article was written using Claude on my smartphone and took less than 20 minutes. I just dictated my thoughts using WisprFlow<\/a>, which yielded an almost finished piece in a fraction of the time it would have taken me otherwise.\u00a0<\/p>\n No blank page agony. No struggling to create a clear structure. Just a relaxed conversation that turned into solid content.<\/p>\n So here\u2019s the most important takeaway. Claude isn\u2019t just a tool. It\u2019s a powerful thinking partner that can help you do better work, faster and more enjoyably.<\/p>\n Loom for Lawyers: Why You Should Be Creating Shareable Videos<\/a><\/p>\n Top 8 Tech Tools for Solo and Small Firm Lawyers to End the Chaos<\/a><\/p>\n AI Tools for Lawyers: Why You Shouldn\u2019t Stick to Just One<\/a><\/p>\n Our Fingers Can\u2019t Keep Up With AI<\/a><\/p>\n Image \u00a9 iStockPhoto.com. <\/p>\n Sign up for Attorney at Work\u2019s daily practice tips newsletter here<\/a> and subscribe to our podcast<\/a>, Attorney at Work Today.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" f you haven’t started with a GAI tool yet, Ernie Svenson’s advice is to begin with Claude. The learning curve is gentler than it looks, and you’ll build better habits from the start. The post Why I Switched From ChatGPT to Claude (And What Finally Pushed Me Over) appeared first on Articles, Tips and Tech […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-146538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-legal_matters"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146538\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Then I Started Training Claude to \u2018Speak Lawyer\u2019<\/h2>\n
The Lawyers in My Community Are Noticing Too<\/h2>\n
Skills: The Turbocharged SOP<\/h2>\n
What This Means for You<\/h2>\n
One Last Thing About Claude AI for Lawyers<\/h2>\n
More From Ernie Svenson and the 80\/20 Principle<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/figure>\n