About
Prompts, guides and safe-setup advice on AI for solicitors in England and Wales.
What This Site Is
Counsel Directory explains how to use AI tools in legal work and shows prompts you can copy. It is free to read and use. It does not give legal advice and it does not advise on any matter.
1. Written for England and Wales
Every prompt is written for the law of England and Wales. Professional conduct is described against the SRA Standards and Regulations and Law Society guidance. The site does not cover Scotland, Northern Ireland or any other jurisdiction.
2. Run by One Person
Rory Collins runs Counsel Directory and offers prompt testing to law firms as a consultancy service. The site shows the method in public. It carries no sponsorship, no paid listings and no paid membership, and AI vendors do not pay to appear on it.
3. No Claim Without a Result You Can See
A prompt is called tested only when its page shows the test results. No prompt in this library has published test results yet. When one has, its page will show them.
What Is Here
Methodology
Longer pieces on how to test a prompt, check what it produces and improve it.
Guides
Short techniques for working with AI, such as checking a citation or stopping a model from guessing.
Prompts
Reusable instructions for one legal task, with placeholders where the matter details go. The library covers corporate and M&A work.
Consulting
Prompt testing for law firms.
Tools
AI products a lawyer might use, with pricing, features and security notes.
Prompt builder
How the prompt builder works: what it asks, what it writes and how it is kept safe. The builder itself is switched off on this site.
Setup Guides
The privacy settings to change in an AI tool before you use it for legal work, and what never to paste into it.
Quiz
A short questionnaire that suggests which AI tool to try first.
Common Mistakes with AI in Legal Work
Pasting client information into a consumer tool. A consumer plan may use what you type to train its model, and you have a duty to keep the affairs of clients confidential. Read the setup guide for the tool before you use it, and use placeholders for names.
Not checking what the AI produces. AI tools invent cases and citations, and lawyers have been criticised in court for relying on them. Check every citation against the source.
Copying a generic prompt. A prompt that was not written for legal work, or was written for another jurisdiction, can give an answer that is wrong here. Use a prompt written for the task and for England and Wales, and still check the output.
Treating AI as a substitute for judgment. AI supplements professional judgment. It never replaces it.
Not reading the terms of the tool. The terms say how long your data is kept and whether it is used for training. Read the vendor's terms. The setup guides say where to look.
Buying an expensive tool before trying a cheaper one. Try a general-purpose assistant on work that is not confidential before your firm commits to a platform.
How the Site Works
1. Tool Facts Go Out of Date
Pricing, data residency and training policies change. Check the vendor's own page before you buy or rely on a setting.
2. Confidentiality Ratings
A prompt's rating says how much client information it needs: safe, sensitive or privileged. The rating tells you where the prompt may be run.
3. Corrections
If something on the site is wrong or out of date, email hello@counsel.directory and it will be corrected.
Who Should Use This
The site is written for solicitors and trainees in England and Wales, in private practice and in-house.
Trainees and Junior Lawyers
- • Prompts written for the task in front of you
- • Guides on checking what an AI tool produces
- • Setup guides that need no IT department
Partners and Senior Lawyers
- • A method for testing the prompts your firm relies on
- • Tool notes that vendors have not paid for
- • Material you can use to train your team
Sole Practitioners and Small Firms
- • Free and low-cost tools, with no firm-wide contract
- • Simple setup guides
- • Short techniques you can use today
In-House Lawyers
Prompts are marked for private practice, in-house or both, and the setup guides cover the tools a company is likely to have bought already.
Where to Start
Set up your AI tool safely first. Then pick a prompt, run it on work that is not confidential, and check what comes back.
Principles
Confidentiality First
Prompts are rated by how much client information they need, and every setup guide says what never to paste into the tool.
Independent
The site takes no money from AI vendors. It carries no sponsorship and no paid listings.
Honest About Testing
No prompt is called tested unless its page shows the results.