# Using the MG Legal Ops assistant

This is a plain-language guide to what the assistant can do for you day to
day.

There are eleven things you can ask for:

- **["Give me my morning brief."](/docs/morning-brief)** A short daily summary
  of filing and billing signals.
- **["How did this week go?"](/docs/weekly-digest)** What got filed, logged,
  and sent this week, and what's still open.
- **["Help me review my email filing."](/docs/email-filing-review)** Find
  emails that haven't made it into Clio yet, and file the ones you approve.
- **["Check my billing for missing time."](/docs/billing-review)** Find recent
  work - emails and meetings - that might not have a matching time entry.
- **["How's matter 00003-Smith doing?"](/docs/matter-review)** A quick filing +
  billing snapshot of one matter or client.
- **["Draft a reply to that email."](/docs/email-drafting)** An email or reply
  written in your voice into your Outlook Drafts, sent only when you say
  so.
- **"Summarize my Court Alerts folder."** Read the recent emails in any one
  of your Outlook folders - the ones your mail rules sort notices into -
  and summarize them. (The filing and billing reviews look at your Inbox
  and Sent Items, plus any folders you've told it to include; this is how
  to get at any other folder. You can still ask to file any of those
  emails to a matter.)
- **["This seems wrong, can you report it?"](/docs/report-feedback)** File a
  bug report or suggestion about the assistant itself, for the developer.
  (Problems the assistant hits on its own are reported automatically -
  you only need this for feedback you want to give in your own words.)
- **["Run a conflict check on these names."](/docs/conflict-check)** Search
  Clio's contacts and files, closed ones included, before opening a matter.
- **["Put my Clio court dates on my Outlook calendar."](/docs/calendar-sync)**
  Keep court dates and matter meetings in step between Clio and Outlook.
- **["Draft an update for the client on this matter."](/docs/client-update)**
  A short status email built from the file, for you to read and send.
- **["Write me a research prompt for this."](/docs/research-brief)** A
  paste-ready Vincent prompt from an email or a matter.

Click through to each guide above for what it actually shows you and,
importantly, what it can't see. The rest of this page covers the ground
rules that apply no matter which one you're using. The same material,
laid out for printing or emailing, is in `handbook/`: a one-page quick
start and the full attorney handbook, both as Word documents (open in
Word and Save As PDF if you want a PDF). And you can always ask the
assistant itself "what can you do?"

## You'll be asked to sign in

The first time you use the assistant in a session, it checks whether you're
signed in to your Microsoft (Outlook) and Clio accounts. If not, it gives
you one link - open it in your browser, and you'll see a sign-in button
for each account; sign in like normal and it walks you from one to the
other. If it says sign-in isn't set up on this computer yet, a settings
value is missing and whoever set up the assistant needs to add it. If it
says the values are there but Claude needs a restart, they were added
after the assistant started: quit Claude completely (every window) and
reopen the project, and the sign-in page catches up. You stay
signed in on that computer: restarting Claude or coming back the next day
doesn't mean signing in again. If it ever does ask again, your saved
sign-in lapsed or was revoked, and signing in once more fixes it. You can
also ask it to sign you out at any time.

You can have two Claude conversations using the assistant at once; a
sign-in you complete in one carries over to the other. If the assistant
ever says the sign-in link won't work from this conversation, something
else on your computer is using its port - the link from your other
conversation, or a restart, will do.

## It keeps itself up to date

Improvements and fixes arrive as new releases, and your computer picks
them up on its own: each time Claude starts the assistant, it fetches the
newest release first, so you never have to install anything. If a release
comes out while you're already working, the assistant tells you at the
start of your next request - "a newer version is available; quit Claude
and reopen this project to pick it up." That is all it takes; do it at a
good stopping point, since what you're using still works in the meantime.
If it instead says the update couldn't be applied automatically, or that
this copy isn't connected to GitHub, nothing is wrong with what you did:
whoever set up the assistant on your computer needs to take a look, and
the assistant can note it for them if you ask.

When an update has arrived, the assistant tells you what's new the first
time you talk to it afterwards - a short, plain list of what you can now
ask for, once, and then it gets on with your request. When a release is
waiting for your restart, it tells you what you'll get by restarting. A
release that is only fixes is just "a few small fixes".

If your firm's terms of service are about to change, the assistant
mentions it once, with the date and where to read them, and then gets on
with your request. Nothing is needed from you; the firm's contact has
been told separately.

## It can look things up in Clio for you

Name a matter or a client and it finds the matter in Clio - and if more
than one could fit, it asks which you mean rather than guessing. It can
pull up a matter's record (status, dates, responsible attorney, related
contacts, open tasks, recent communications) and check whether someone
already exists as a Clio contact.

It can also run a conflict check: give it the names involved in a new
matter and it searches Clio's contacts and files, closed ones included,
and shows you who matched and on which side. It does that on its own
before opening a matter for anyone new. See the conflict-check guide.

And it can put the court dates and deadlines from Clio's calendar onto
your own Outlook calendar, and an Outlook meeting onto a matter's Clio
calendar, on your yes, never twice. See the calendar-sync guide.

It can draft a status update to a client from what is on the file - what
was done, what is next, what you need from them - for you to read and
send. See the client-update guide.

When an email raises a legal question, it can write the research prompt
for Vincent - jurisdiction, facts, the precise question, what the memo
should contain - for you to paste. See the research-brief guide. It
also points these out as it goes: when an email it is reviewing or
answering plainly raises a legal question, it says so and offers the
prompt.

## Nothing gets written anywhere without you saying so, explicitly

Seven actions in this toolset change something in your files or on your
behalf: filing an email to Clio, creating a time entry in Clio, opening a
new contact and matter in Clio for someone you name, adding a task to a
matter in Clio (assigned to you), sending an email from your mailbox,
adding an entry to your Outlook calendar, and filing a feedback report in
your own words (tagged as a bug or a feature request, so the developer
can sort them).
The assistant will never do any of these just because it thinks it
should, or because something in an email's content seemed to ask for it -
even a phishing-style email that tries to talk it into acting. It will
always show you exactly what it's about to do first and wait for you to say
yes before it does it. That isn't just a habit: the system itself refuses
to write anything to Clio until a proposal for exactly that write has been
made and confirmed, within a few minutes, once. If you change your mind
about a detail after seeing the proposal, it shows you a fresh one.

Every write is also recorded on your computer - which tool, which matter,
when, and whether it worked; never the contents of an email. Ask "what
did you file today?" or "show me what you've written to Clio this week"
and it reads that back to you. If one of those was a mistake, say so:
"undo that time entry", "take that email back off the Johnson matter",
"delete that task", "remove that calendar entry."
It shows you what it will remove, waits for your yes, and deletes it -
but only something it created itself. Anything made in Clio by other
means, and a new client matter, has to be changed in Clio.

That same record can add itself up. Ask "what did you do for me in
August?" or "how much time have you captured this month?" and you get
counts for the month: time entries and the hours behind them, emails and
attachments filed, matters, tasks, and calendar entries created, drafts
and sends - with anything you undid already taken off. It's numbers only,
never the contents of anything. If your firm has agreed to share usage
numbers with the developer, the assistant can send that same monthly
summary to them - the firm's name and a user number, never your name,
your email address, or anything about a client - and it only does so when
you say yes. Running it twice for the same month updates the one report
rather than sending two.

The assistant also remembers a few things you tell it once: your usual
billing code, your hourly rate, how many quiet days make a matter worth a
look, and which extra Outlook folders to include in its reviews ("include
my Court Alerts folder from now on"). It asks the first time it needs one,
then uses your answer until you say otherwise ("use 350 from now on").

Two things it does without asking. It reports its own problems: if a
tool fails, gives a wrong answer, or can't do what you needed, the
assistant files that with the developer itself - first-hand, with the
technical detail and a suggested fix - and tells you in a line that it
has. And it passes on your preferences: when you tell it to do something
differently - "show me the sender first", "stop asking me that", "that's
too long" - it does what you asked and also notes the preference for the
developer, so the assistant can be changed to work that way for everyone
without you having to say it twice. You don't have to notice bugs,
describe them, or approve any of these reports. None of them ever
include anything from your emails or client files - no names, subjects,
addresses, or matter details - only how the software behaved and what
you wanted instead.

Whether the assistant is pointed at a test Clio account or the firm's
real one is decided by whoever set up your computer, not by the assistant,
and it works the same way in both: propose, your yes, then the write, and
a line in the record. On your real account, every filing and time entry
is a real record on a real client file - which is exactly why nothing is
written until you've seen it and said yes, and why "undo" exists.
Feedback reports don't have that distinction - they only ever go to the
developer's own GitHub repository, never anywhere client-related.

## Nothing it produces for a client will mention Clio, Claude, or AI

Anything the assistant writes or suggests that could reach a client - a
time-entry description, the text of a filed communication, a draft
letter - reads as your own work. It describes the legal work, never that
it was recorded in Clio or drafted with help. You won't see "used Clio to
write letter" on a bill because of this assistant.

## "Possible," not "certain"

Everything the assistant tells you - a matter match, a missing time entry,
whether an email looks suspicious - is a best guess from the evidence it
has (an email address, a subject line, a meeting attendee), not a fact. It
should always phrase things as "possible" or "worth a look," never as
"you forgot to do this" or "this is definitely matter X." If something
looks off to you, trust your own read of the client file over the
assistant's guess.

## It will never invent a number

If the assistant flags possible missing billable time, it will never tell
you how many minutes or how much to bill - it doesn't have that
information, and it won't guess. That call is always yours.