Clio Work Skills are reusable instruction sets that tell Vincent how your firm performs specific legal tasks. For example, you can create and use skills dedicated to common work like drafting demand letters, building case timelines, conducting due diligence, and preparing for depositions. By saving your firm's preferences, terminology, and standard structures into a skill, you get more consistent results without needing to provide the same prompts and context to Vincent each time you start a conversation.
Note: Pre-built skills in the Skills Library are ready to use immediately. No setup is required to start working with skills.
Browse the Skills Library
The Skills Library is where you browse, add, edit, and create skills. You can access it from the Vincent home page in Clio Work and is organized into three areas: General, Skills, and Skills Library.
- In Clio Work, click Vincent in the left navigation panel.
- On the Vincent home page, in the top right, click Customize.
- Use the subtabs to navigate between General, Skills, and Skills Library.
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General: Set firm-wide context and details that applies to every Vincent conversation and/or personal context and details. Fields and variables include your Preferred Name, the Practice Areas, Default Jurisdiction(s), whether to use Agentic mode, and instructions. You can use the instructions describe how Vincent should approach your responses, such as preferred tone, citation style, or formatting standards.
Note: If a personal instruction conflicts with an instruction for the organization, the personal instruction will take precedence. - Skills: View and manage the skills currently available to Vincent in your firm. This includes any skills you have added from the Skills Library and any custom skills you have created. You can edit, rename, or remove a skill from this section.
- Skills Library: Browse pre-built skills organized by category, including Practice Management, Litigation, Transactional, and Drafting. Each skill in the library includes a brief description and an Install button to make it available to Vincent.
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Add skills from the Skills Library
Adding a skill from the Skills Library makes it immediately available to Vincent for use in conversations.
- In Clio Work, click Vincent in the left navigation panel.
- On the Vincent home page, in the top right, click Customize.
- Select the Skills Library subtab.
- Browse the available skills.
- Locate the skill you want to add and click Install.
When you the Skills subtab, the skill now appears in your active skills list where you can then edit the skill to better reflect your firm's specific preferences and processes.
Delete skills from the Skills Library
You can delete any skills you added to your Skills Library (either newly created skills or skills added from the Skills Library) if they are no longer useful. Maintaining an organized Skills Library ensures that Vincent only uses skills that are currently relevant to your firm's needs.
Edit skills
Skills are written in a structured format that Vincent reads each time the skill is activated. You can edit a skill to refine its description, adjust its capabilities, or tailor it to your firm's specific practice areas, jurisdictions, or workflows.
- In Clio Work, click Vincent in the left navigation panel.
- On the Vincent home page, in the top right, click Customize.
- Select Skills from the left navigation panel.
- Select the skill you want to edit from the list.
- Update the skill content in the editor. You can modify sections such as the description, conditions about when to use the skills, and any other instructions.
- Optional: Select Add condition to specify when the skill should be activated.
- Optional: Select Add sub-skill or Add asset to extend the skill with related instructions or reference materials.
- Optional: Update who the skill should be visible to by clicking the dropdown next to the skill name. You can choose between Inactive, Published・Just me, Published・Organization.
- Select Save to apply your changes.
Create custom skills
If a pre-built skill does not match your firm's needs, you can create your own custom skill. There are two ways to do this: write the skill directly, or ask Vincent to help you build it.
Create new skills
This option gives you full control over the skill's structure and instructions.
- In Clio Work, click Vincent in the left navigation panel.
- On the Vincent home page, in the top right, click Customize.
- Select the Skills subtab.
- Select the + icon.
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In the New Skill modal, enter a Name and brief Description.
Tip: Choose a name that clearly identifies the task the skill performs to make it easy to find and use for specific scenarios. Add a description that makes it easy for others at the firm to understand what the skill does. - Click Create.
- Use the editor to write the skill's full instructions, including capabilities, conditions about when to use the skills, who the skill should be visible to, and any required formatting or output standards.
- Select Save.
Build skills with Vincent
If you prefer guided support, you can ask Vincent to help you build a skill. Vincent will ask a series of questions about the skill's purpose, jurisdiction, expected inputs, and expected outputs, and then generate the skill for you.
- From the Vincent home page, type a request describing the skill you want to build.
- For example: Help me write a skill for drafting a demand letter.
- Answer Vincent's follow-up questions.
- Wait for Vincent to generate the skill and any related assets. Once complete, the skill will be available in your Skills Library.
- Optional: Open the skill in the Skills Library to review and edit it.
See what a skill can do in your practice
A skill saves a pattern you'd otherwise rebuild every time: the inputs you always provide, the structure you always expect back, and the firm preferences Vincent should apply whenever a request matches. You change the matter, and the structure holds. The examples below show what that looks like across two kinds of practice, each built on a Clio Work workflow you already use.
To build any of these, open the Skills Library and create a custom skill, or describe the pattern to Vincent using a prompt like the ones shown.
Litigation
| Workflow + skill | What it saves | Example build prompt |
|---|---|---|
Build an Argument |
Your jurisdiction, your standard argument shape, the authority you trust, and the format your partners expect. | Help me build a skill for building arguments in [employment discrimination / personal injury / commercial litigation] cases under [your state] law. |
Analyze a complaint, deposition, or pleading |
The reading pattern you apply to every filing: the same elements flagged, the same questions asked, the same intake-memo structure. | Help me build a skill for reviewing complaints in [your practice area] the way I already do, flagging claims, defenses, and the questions I ask at intake. |
Draft a motion |
Your standard motion format, your preferred citation style, and the signature block your firm uses in that court. | Help me build a skill for drafting motions to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6) in [your court], following [your firm's] format. |
Review a discovery production (Vincent Tables) |
The column structure for a recurring production type, with your standing rules for flagging. | Help me build a skill for reviewing medical records in PI matters, extracting date of treatment, provider, diagnosis, treatment, and billed amount. |
Draft a client update |
The audience type, level of legal detail, standard sections, and your firm's voice for a recurring update. | Help me build a skill for drafting a client update after a motion ruling, in plain language, covering what happened, what it means, and what's next. |
Transactional
| Workflow + skill | What it saves | Example build prompt |
|---|---|---|
|
Summarize Documents Agreement review |
The clauses you always check and your standard positions on each, so missing or non-standard terms surface in the first pass. | Help me build a skill for reviewing [commercial lease / vendor / SaaS] agreements against our standard clause checklist. |
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Vincent Tables Diligence extraction |
The column structure for a diligence review, applied across every contract in the data room. | Help me build a skill for diligence review that pulls parties, effective date, term, renewal, assignment and change-of-control, and governing law from each agreement. |
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Compare Documents Version review |
The points you check between drafts, so changed terms surface without re-reading the full document. | Help me build a skill for comparing two versions of a purchase agreement, flagging changes to price, indemnities, and closing conditions. |
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Drafting in Legal Pad Standard agreement |
Your firm's template, preferred language, and formatting for a recurring document type. | Help me build a skill for drafting NDAs following our firm's standard form and signature block. |
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Drafting in Legal Pad Deal update |
The audience, detail level, and sections for a milestone update to the client. | Help me build a skill for a client update at each deal milestone. LOI signed, diligence complete, closing, in plain language. |
Use skills in a conversation
Once a skill is added to your Skills Library, Vincent can activate it automatically when a prompt, question, or instruction matches up with the skill's purpose. For example, if you type a request like Draft a demand letter for a client who slipped on an unmarked wet floor at a New York store and you previously created a skill for such a purpose, Vincent will use the skill to generate the letter.
You can also manually select a skill before starting a conversation.
- Prior to starting your conversation or a prompt, click the + for the prompt text box.
- Select Skills.
- Select the relevant skill.
Tip: Type / in the prompt text box to open a list of available skills. Select a skill to add before starting your conversation with Vincent.
You can then continue your conversation with Vincent, knowing that you have indicated that Vincent should use the skill when providing you with a response.