Claude Law Student Plugin
Run Anthropic's law-student plugin: 13 skills built for 1L through bar prep. Socratic drilling, case briefing, outline building, IRAC grading, flashcards, bar prep, exam forecasting. Learning mode — not answer mode. LS credential.
Anthropic shipped a law student plugin on May 12, 2026 — and it deliberately refuses to write your essays
The law-student plugin covers 1L through bar prep workflows: case briefing, outline building, Socratic drilling, cold-call prep, IRAC essay grading, flashcards, bar prep questions, study planning, exam forecasting, and legal writing feedback. Built around a clear philosophy: learning mode, not answer mode.
The plugin reads your seed materials: your classes (course names, casebooks), bar jurisdiction (UBE / NextGen / state-specific), learning style (drill-me vs explain-to-me), and past materials (outlines, graded essays, old exams). From these, it captures: your weak subjects, your professor’s emphasis patterns, your bar-prep priorities, and your study habits. Subsequent skills apply this calibration automatically — bar-prep-questions targets your weak subjects; exam-forecast predicts your professor’s likely exam topics; flashcards review your hardest cards more often.
This course walks the 13 skills: cold-start-interview, socratic-drill, case-brief, outline-builder, bar-prep-questions, flashcards, study-plan, session, irac-practice, cold-call-prep, legal-writing, exam-forecast, customize. You’ll learn the learning-mode philosophy (pedagogical refusal in several skills), drill-me vs explain-to-me trade-offs, the Leitner-style flashcard system, UBE vs NextGen vs state-specific bar prep, IRAC grading without rewrites, and the academic-integrity boundaries that drive the plugin’s design choices.
You’ll come out with a CLAUDE.md profile at ~/.claude/plugins/config/claude-for-legal/law-student/CLAUDE.md, a sample bar prep study session, and a credential (LS-XXXXXX) documenting the work. The plugin costs nothing beyond your Claude Pro subscription. The operating discipline this course teaches is the difference between using AI to bypass learning and using AI to deepen learning.
What You'll Learn
- Set up the law-student plugin with cold-start (classes + bar jurisdiction + learning style + materials)
- Use `socratic-drill` and `cold-call-prep` for learning-mode drilling
- Operate `case-brief` and `outline-builder` for scaffolded study
- Run `irac-practice` and `legal-writing` for never-rewrites feedback
- Build a study plan with `study-plan`, `flashcards`, and `exam-forecast`
After This Course, You Can
What You'll Build
Course Syllabus
Prerequisites
- Law student (1L through bar prep) OR adult learner interested in legal pedagogy
- Claude Cowork or Claude Code installed; ability to install plugins from the Anthropic marketplace
Who Is This For?
- 1L through 3L law students
- Bar prep candidates (UBE, NextGen UBE, state-specific)
- Recent graduates studying for the bar
- Career-change students entering law school
- Adult learners interested in legal pedagogy
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does the plugin refuse to write essays or briefs for me?
Pedagogical refusal. Several skills (socratic-drill, irac-practice, legal-writing, cold-call-prep, case-brief in drill-me mode) are deliberately built NOT to give you the answer. The point is learning by doing. If you want an answer or a draft, use a different tool. This plugin is for the struggle — the pushback when you're sloppy, the questions when you can't answer them, the structural feedback that doesn't smooth over your weak analysis. Schools that prohibit AI ghostwriting have less concern with structural feedback because feedback doesn't ghostwrite.
How does the plugin handle academic integrity?
Check your school's honor code + your professor's syllabus policy on AI tools. Plugin clearly marks: which skills are 'learning mode' (don't give answers; safer for graded work) and which are content-generating (case-brief in explain-to-me mode; flashcards; bar-prep-questions; exam-forecast). For graded work: stick with learning-mode skills unless your professor explicitly allows broader AI use. The plugin's design assumption is that schools differentiate: unassisted-looking practice drilling is typically permitted; ghostwriting graded work is typically prohibited.
Bar prep jurisdictions — UBE vs NextGen vs state-specific. How does the plugin handle each?
cold-start captures your bar jurisdiction. The skill (bar-prep-questions specifically) generates questions in the format your bar uses. UBE: standardized across 30+ jurisdictions; NextGen UBE: new exam structure rolling out; state-specific: NY, CA, etc. have unique formats. Plugin flags when a question is UBE-vs-state-specific so you understand the source.
How does drill-me vs explain-to-me work?
Set during cold-start; can switch per session. Drill-me: skills push back without explaining (you must figure it out). Explain-to-me: skills push back AND explain (you learn by hearing rationale). Most students benefit from explain-to-me mode initially; switch to drill-me as you advance. The mode affects socratic-drill, case-brief (per mode), cold-call-prep.
How does this work with other Claude for Legal plugins?
law-student is for the student experience. After law school, transition to practice-area plugins: ip-legal (clearance, C&D, AIA), employment-legal (termination review, hiring), commercial-legal (vendor MSAs, NDAs), privacy-legal (DPAs, DSARs), product-legal (launch review), etc. The student plugin teaches you the analytical skills; practice plugins apply them to real client work.
