{"id":"legalops-outside-counsel-guidelines-card","audience":"legal","category":"legal-compliance","track":"legal","level":"intermediate","technique":"audience","title":"Make a billing-guidelines cheat card for a new paralegal","free":false,"task":"Write a cheat card for Tomas, a new paralegal, from the outside-counsel guidelines. Plain text, under 110 words, five lines with these labels in order: Rates:, Travel:, Staffing:, Invoices:, Approvals:. Each line under 20 words. Use the amended figures where the amendment changed something. End with the line: Ask the GC's office about anything not covered here.","materialLabel":"Guidelines and amendment (attached to your prompt automatically)","material":"Outside Counsel Guidelines (2025 edition)\n1. Rates. Partner rates are capped at $425 per hour, associates at $290, paralegals at $140.\n2. Travel. Local travel time is not billed. Non-local travel time is billed at 50% of the hourly rate.\n3. Staffing. No more than three timekeepers (lawyers or paralegals) may bill on a matter in a month without approval.\n4. Invoices. Send monthly, within 30 days of month end, one invoice per matter, with each task on its own line.\n5. Approvals. Any single expense over $2,500, and any expert, needs written approval from the General Counsel's office before it is incurred.\n\nAmendment effective Oct 1, 2026: Partner cap rises to $450 and associate cap to $300. Paralegal cap and everything else is unchanged.\n\nA partner at one firm once told us \"we always bill for local travel, it's customary.\" That is not the guideline.","rules":[{"type":"maxWords","max":125},{"type":"plainText"}],"mistakes":[{"title":"Old rate caps","why":"The AI uses $425 and $290.","fix":"Say: \"Use the amended figures from Oct 1, 2026.\"","checks":["r1"]},{"title":"Details dropped","why":"The AI skips the thresholds.","fix":"Say: \"Include each number: 3 timekeepers, 30 days, $2,500.\"","checks":["r2"]},{"title":"Labels and ending","why":"The AI writes paragraphs or its own closing.","fix":"Say: \"Five labeled lines, then the exact closing line.\"","checks":["r0"]},{"title":"Trusting the AI to count words","why":"AI is bad at counting. Ask for a total word limit and it often lands over it.","fix":"Cap each part instead, for example: \"each line under 15 words.\"","checks":["maxWords"]},{"title":"Markdown","why":"The AI bolds words or adds headings.","fix":"Say: \"Plain text, no bold, no headings.\"","checks":["plainText"]}],"promptHints":[{"label":"Five labels","patterns":["rates:","travel:","staffing:","invoices:","approvals:"]},{"label":"Use amendment","patterns":["amend"]},{"label":"Reader named","patterns":["tomas","paralegal"]},{"label":"Exact ending","patterns":["ask the gc's office"]},{"label":"Line limit","patterns":["under \\d+ words"]}],"hint":"Name the reader, the five labels and the amended figures.","mission":"Give a new paralegal a quick billing guidelines card.","musts":["Five fixed labels","Use amended figures","Exact closing line"],"rubricLabels":["Uses exactly the labels Rates:, Travel:, Staffing:, Invoices:, Approvals: in order, each line under 20 words, and ends with the line \"Ask the GC's office about anything not covered here.\"","Rates uses the amended caps (partner $450, associate $300, paralegal $140), Travel says local is not billed and non-local is 50%, Staffing says three timekeepers a month without approval","Invoices says monthly within 30 days of month end, one per matter, one task per line; Approvals says expenses over $2,500 and any expert need written GC office approval beforehand; local travel is not described as billable"]}