What's a Cold-Start Interview?
Liam explains why pasting a free-form brief into a new Claude conversation misses classic gaps like jurisdiction, and how a fixed cold-start interview asking the same questions every time catches what a remembered brief leaves out.
Someone starting a brand-new legal matter asks what the brief to Claude should say. Liam corrects the framing: there is no brief to write. The real question worth asking is what the interview should be.
Every conversation starts from zero
A brand-new matter means Claude has no memory of the last one, every conversation genuinely starts from zero. The natural instinct is to just brief it: paste in everything you think matters and hope that covers it. But a brief only covers what its writer remembers to mention, and the classic gaps, jurisdiction, conflicts, retainer scope, are exactly the details people assume go without saying and therefore never write down.
The fixed questions: the cold-start interview
A cold-start interview flips the approach. Instead of trusting what a person remembers to volunteer, Claude asks the same fixed questions every time: client, matter type, jurisdiction, conflicts, scope. The value is in the fixedness, the same set of questions gets asked regardless of what the person drafting the brief happened to think of that day.
Jurisdiction as the anchor example
Jurisdiction is the anchor example, the one detail everyone assumes goes without saying, which is exactly why a free-form brief leaves it out. Ask it directly as a fixed question, and jurisdiction gets an actual answer even when nobody thought to volunteer it unprompted. The fixed question catches precisely what the free-form brief missed, not because the free-form brief was written carelessly, but because it relied on someone remembering to mention something they assumed was obvious.
One answer only covers one matter
Answering the fixed questions once only covers that specific matter. It does not mean Claude now knows anything general about a person's practice going forward. The next matter starts cold again, with the same blank slate. A brief that feels thorough in the moment is not the same as one that is actually complete, only asking the same fixed set of questions every single time guarantees the same set of facts gets captured every single time.
What fixes a cold start
A cold start is not fixed by writing a longer or more detailed brief. It is fixed by asking the same questions every time, regardless of matter. That is what a structured interview does that relying on memory, whether a person's memory or an assumption that context carries forward, cannot do.
Key takeaways
- Each new Claude conversation starts with no memory of prior matters, so nothing carries forward automatically.
- A free-form brief only covers what its writer remembers to include, and commonly omits assumed-obvious details like jurisdiction, conflicts, and retainer scope.
- A cold-start interview asks a fixed set of questions every time, client, matter type, jurisdiction, conflicts, scope, regardless of what the brief writer thought to mention.
- Jurisdiction is a clear example of a detail people assume is obvious and skip in a free-form brief, but that a direct fixed question reliably captures.
- Completing the intake once covers only that matter; the next new matter starts cold again and needs the same fixed questions run through fresh.
Who this is for
Legal professionals and anyone starting new matters or projects with Claude who wants a reliable way to avoid gaps that a memory-dependent, free-form briefing approach tends to leave open.
Chapters
Full transcript(auto-generated, with timestamps)
New client — what's the brief?
[0:00]Someone's starting a brand new legal matter asks what the brief should say to Claude. Wrong word, there's no brief to write here. The real question worth asking is what's the interview? A brand new matter and Claude has no
A brief only covers what's remembered
[0:11]Memory of your last one. Every conversation starts from zero. So, the instinct is to just brief it. Paste in everything you think matters and hope that covers it. But, a brief only covers what the writer remembers to mention in the classic gaps, jurisdiction, conflicts, retainer scope, are exactly what people assume is obvious and never write down. A cold start interview flips
Five fixed questions — the anchor
[0:31]It. Instead of trusting what you remember to say, Claude asks the same fixed questions every time, client, matter type, jurisdiction, conflicts, scope. Watch the anchor, jurisdiction. It's the one detail everyone assumes goes without saying, which is exactly why a free form brief leaves it out. Ask
Asked, not assumed
[0:47]It directly and jurisdiction gets an answer even when nobody thought to volunteer. The fixed question catches what the free brief missed. But, answering once only covers this matter. It doesn't mean Claude now knows your practice. The next matter starts cold again. And a brief that feels thorough isn't the same as complete. Only the same fixed questions asked every time guarantee the same facts every time. A cold start isn't fixed by writing more,
Carry-out
[1:10]It's fixed by asking the same questions every time. That's what an interview does that a memory can't. Your turn. Here's the prompt. Read it
Your turn
[1:17]With me. Before you start a new matter with Claude, don't just paste in a summary. Ask it to run you through a short intake, matter type, jurisdiction, conflicts, and scope, then answer each one directly. That's a cold start done right. Lay 'em in forbear. What's a cold start interview? Lay 'em
Outro
[1:33]In forbear.
