Workflow Options: From Prompts to Presets

Every lawyer who has ever stared at a blank prompt box knows the feeling. AI promised to change how legal work gets done — but a single chatbox isn't a workflow. The legal AI world is splitting in two: enterprise ecosystems building choreographed plugin infrastructure, and vertical tools purpose-built for specific practice areas. The real question isn't which AI is smartest. It's which platform removes the most friction for your practice.

In this episode:

• Why the AI world is moving from one-off prompting to persistent, repeatable workflow environments
• What connectors, APIs, MCPs, plugins, and skills actually mean — and how they differ from each other
• What Claude for Legal launched: 22 connectors, 12 plugins, and MCP architecture designed for enterprise legal environments
• Why Claude for Legal is largely out of reach for solo and small firm lawyers — and why that's not necessarily a problem
• What StrongSuit is, how its divorce and family law workflow presets work, and what "blank prompt box anxiety" means for practicing lawyers
• How Markdown (.md) workflow files work, why they're portable across frontier AI tools, and how Ron built his own

We also discuss:

• Why Consumer Claude Pro is not three-legged stool compliant for confidential client data
• The M&A demo Anthropic ran at their Claude for Legal launch — and what it signals about their actual target market
• How enterprise platforms like Harvey, Copilot, and Gemini fit into the ecosystem track
• Vertical specialty tools beyond StrongSuit: Litmus.ai, Glade.ai for bankruptcy
• The "blank page anxiety" finding from the big law associates episode and how presets address it

Key Takeaway

The AI tool that wins your practice isn't the one with the most connectors or the highest benchmark scores. It's the one that eliminates the friction between where you are and where the finished work product needs to be. Presets and persistent workflows do that in a way raw prompting never could.

If you're a Simpsons lawyer — aware of AI, dabbling, maybe running isolated prompts — this episode is your map. You don't have to build enterprise infrastructure. You need to identify one workflow bottleneck in your practice and find the tool that addresses it specifically. For family law lawyers, StrongSuit may already exist. For others, a Markdown workflow file built with your AI may be closer than you think.

Mentioned in This Episode

• Claude for Legal — Anthropic's official announcement (22+ connectors, 12 plugins, MCP architecture)
  StrongSuit — divorce and family law AI workflow platform
  Model Context Protocol (MCP) — official documentation
  Harvey
  iManage
  NetDocuments
  Thomson Reuters Co-Counsel
  Westlaw
  Free Law Project
  DocuSign
  Litmas.ai
  Glade.ai
  Gemini
  Microsoft Copilot
  Ivory Mind
  ChatGPT / OpenAI GPTs
  Google Gems

Prior podcast episodes:

Episode 007: Folder Mania — AI Comes to You
Field Note: I Wanna Hold Your Hand — Learning AI from AI
How BigLaw Associates Are Actually Using AI in Legal Drafting 

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