NDAs land in your inbox every week. Claude can flag the issues before your attorney spends time on them.
Non-disclosure agreements are one of the most common legal documents any business deals with — but reading every NDA carefully enough to spot one-sided clauses, missing protections or unusual definitions takes time that in-house teams and business owners rarely have. The result is often a quick read and a signature, without a proper check.
Claude can give you a faster, more structured first pass. Paste in the NDA and ask it to flag the key issues — asymmetric obligations, broad definitions of confidential information, unusual carve-outs, missing return-of-information clauses — so you go into the attorney review with a clear picture of what needs attention.
Key insight: Claude reviews the NDA text you provide — it does not know your jurisdiction's NDA standards, and its findings are a starting point for attorney review, not a substitute for it.
Risk flagging
Identify one-sided clauses, unusual definitions and missing standard protections in an NDA.
Reciprocity check
Assess whether the NDA's obligations are balanced between both parties or heavily favour one side.
Plain English summary
Translate the NDA into plain language so non-lawyers in the business can understand what they are agreeing to.
Without Claude
Read the NDA quickly under time pressure, hope nothing unusual is buried in the definitions, and send it to legal with no briefing on what to look for.
With Claude
Get a structured list of issues and questions before the attorney review — so legal time is spent on the real risks, not the initial read-through.
A structured NDA review workflow produces a clear briefing for your attorney and helps the business understand what it is agreeing to.
1
Identify your position and priorities
Before reviewing, clarify whether you are the disclosing party, the receiving party or both — and what information you most need to protect.
2
Paste the NDA and request a risk review
Ask Claude to review the NDA and flag clauses that are one-sided, unusual or missing, based on your position in the agreement.
3
Request a plain English summary
Ask Claude to summarise the key obligations in plain language so the relevant business stakeholders can understand what they are signing.
4
Brief your attorney with Claude's findings
Share Claude's flagged issues with your attorney — this focuses the legal review on the real risks and saves time on the initial read.
5
Negotiate or approve based on attorney advice
Use the attorney's assessment — not Claude's — to decide which clauses to push back on and which to accept.
Note: NDA standards vary significantly by jurisdiction — what is unusual in a UK NDA may be standard in a US one. Always tell Claude your jurisdiction and the nature of the deal, and have your attorney confirm whether flagged clauses are actually problematic in your context.
These prompts help identify risks in an NDA and produce a plain English summary, with clear limits on what Claude should conclude.
Prompt 1 — NDA risk review
Review the following NDA and flag any clauses that appear one-sided, unusual or that may be missing standard protections: [Insert NDA Text].
Context: I am the [disclosing / receiving / mutual] party. The governing law is [Jurisdiction]. The purpose of the NDA is [Insert Brief Description].
Flag issues under these headings: Definition of Confidential Information, Duration and Survival, Obligations on Each Party, Carve-outs and Exceptions, Return or Destruction of Information, and Any Other Unusual Clauses.
Crucial instruction: Flag issues based on the text provided. Do not invent clauses that are missing unless their absence is notable for a standard NDA. Do not provide legal advice on whether to sign.
Prompt 2 — Plain English NDA summary
Summarise the following NDA in plain English for a non-lawyer audience: [Insert NDA Text].
Cover: what each party must keep confidential, for how long, what is excluded from confidentiality, and what happens at the end of the agreement.
Crucial instruction: Summarise only what the NDA actually says. Do not add legal interpretations, recommend changes or suggest whether the NDA is favourable or not.
Before signing an NDA reviewed with Claude's help
Attorney reviewed: has a qualified attorney assessed the NDA and confirmed which flagged issues need to be negotiated?
Your position clear: does the NDA correctly reflect whether you are the disclosing party, receiving party or both?
Duration appropriate: is the confidentiality period reasonable for the nature of the information being protected?
Definition reviewed: is the definition of confidential information clear and appropriate — not so broad that it covers everything you do?
Business stakeholders informed: do the relevant people in the business understand what the NDA commits them to?
Important: Claude's NDA review is a preliminary screening tool, not legal advice. Never sign an NDA based solely on Claude's findings — an attorney must review the document before execution, particularly for NDAs involving sensitive IP, large commercial relationships or unusual governing law clauses.