Matter Intake Scoping

What this skill does

Matter scoping across the full pre-execution arc — organise client data into a structured brief, capture the agreed baseline, or reconstruct scope mid-flight. Use when making sense of client information before a proposal, scoping a new matter, running a kickoff, defining scope, mapping stakeholders, or inheriting a matter mid-flight.

• Legal Project Management
• Matter Intake
• Scoping

Where it runs, and how to install it

Agent Skills are a format, not a product feature: a folder with a SKILL.md and whatever files it needs. Nothing inside one is model-specific.

Claude

Drop the skill folder into ~/.claude/skills/, or upload it in Settings → Capabilities. Claude loads it when the description matches what you asked for.

Claude Code

Same folder, per-project instead: .claude/skills/ inside the repository, so the skill travels with the work rather than with the machine.

Any agent that reads SKILL.md

A skill is a folder with a SKILL.md and whatever files it needs. Nothing in the format is model-specific, so a runtime that reads the file reads the skill.

More from Scott Margetts

• Billing Cycle ManagerOperational billing execution for legal matters. Monthly bill prep and billing instructions, LC invoice review and disbursement treatment, client billing query responses, cashflow modelling, and leverage and burn analysis (staffing mix, predicted total cost, margin trajectory).
• Budget and Fee ManagerBuild, monitor, and adjust fee budgets across the full matter lifecycle. At matter setup: translate scope into a phase-based fee estimate with contingency and AFA structure. In flight: run WIP reviews that explain variance, not just report it. When scope changes are confirmed: model the financial impact.
• Collaboration Platform AdvisorCollaboration platform configuration methodology for legal matter sites. Site architecture, workflow identification, dashboard design, data quality governance, and user adoption for SharePoint, Teams, and equivalent platforms. Outputs are platform-agnostic enough to brief IT or build simple automations.
• Continuous Improvement EngineCapture, structure, and recycle lessons from active and closed legal matters. Three modes: in-flight capture (triggered by scope changes, risk events, status updates), mid-matter review (phase gates or quarterly), and matter close retrospective. Lessons are formatted for immediate reuse, not filed and forgotten.
• Document Approval TrackerApproval cascade definition and tracking for multi-stakeholder document workflows. Internal review sequences, client approval workflows, regulatory review, overdue chasing with escalation logic, version control coordination, and cross-jurisdiction document dependencies.
• Engagement Terms Billing GuidelinesDrafts, reviews, and maintains outside counsel guidelines (OCGs) — the operational document that sets expectations for how external law firms bill, staff, communicate, and deliver legal services. OCGs are the single lowest-cost, highest-impact intervention available to an in-house legal ops function. 60% of in-house teams don't have them. Of the 40% that do, 87% barely enforce them. This skill encodes the methodology for building OCGs calibrated to the team's maturity level and producing the internal business case to get them adopted.

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