Why Agentic Integrations Are a Home Run for Lawyers
In the legal field, agentic AI is having a breakout season. It’s due in large part to two technical advancements coming together: first, more capable “reasoning” models that can plan multi-step actions that aren’t just a probabilistic question/answer. Second, the ability of models to make use of tools, especially via the Model Context Protocol (MCP), an open standard created by Anthropic that enables a wide variety of tools and models to interoperate. When talking about MCP, I often describe it as doing for AI what USB did to (mostly) standardize the prior mess of different cables and plugs. Together, these two advancements bring to lawyers the game-changing benefits of the agentic architecture of Claude Cowork, woven into the way these professionals already work.
This week I am leading the cheering section for Everlaw, which is collaborating with Anthropic through an MCP integration, creating a massive unlock of additional value for our customers.
Our MCP integration is launching as part of Claude for the legal industry, Anthropics’s initiative to connect AI legal tools and ecosystems, with practice-area plugins and partner-contributed skills, while advancing access to justice.
Here’s the unlock: Claude can now access Everlaw case data through the MCP integration, allowing users to safely apply the power of Claude AI within a precisely sanctioned workspace. For example, an associate drafting a brief for an energy antitrust case can do some quick evidentiary research by opening a Claude window and describing a desired outcome: “Visualize the volume of documents containing the words ‘set prices,’ grouped by year.” Claude will then:
develop a plan to answer this question, including asking follow-up questions if the request isn’t sufficiently clear, breaking down the outcome into subtasks and parallel workstreams, and identifying what information it will need to proceed;
ensure that it has access to the tools required to gather the information and present the findings, and gather technical documentation on how to use Everlaw,
invoke a set of Everlaw requests via MCP to run searches and access documents in Everlaw;
operate with full transparency when working and presenting its output, perhaps in a bar chart designed by Claude. The associate can see Claude’s reasoning at each step and course-correct or iterate further––“Show me the data in a pie chart instead.”
Behind the scenes, Everlaw strictly enforces access to the documents through its existing robust security controls. A user accessing Everlaw materials via Claude has no more permissions or access than they would when using the Everlaw web application. Crucially, Everlaw remains the system of record for case materials and review.
The result? Instead of the associate having to run several searches for different terms and date ranges in Everlaw, exporting the data into Excel, and creating multiple types of charts, Claude does it all, in less than a minute.
For lawyers, this is a home run. Law firms are already building customized, complex processes on platforms such as Claude, and they now are able to access industry-standard partners like Everlaw for “system of record” case information. This is the first step of many to building truly agentic legal workflows.
For Everlaw, the Claude MCP integration advances our broader vision for agentic legal work, allowing customers to connect Everlaw to broader AI workflows without the risks of leaky exports, fragmented systems, or losing the permissions and governance they rely on. Any winning team needs players who can play well with others, and today we’re making sure that Everlaw does exactly that.
Read Everlaw’s announcement with Anthropic here.
Learn more about Claude for the legal industry here.
