For decades, conventional wisdom was that a business plan was a necessary prerequisite to launching a law firm. Trouble was, drafting a comprehensive business plan gave lawyers an excuse to lose themselves in analysis paralysis — endless research, interviews with colleagues, and economic projections built on hypotheticals — when that time would have been better spent talking to real clients and building momentum. What’s more, when lawyers would finally emerge from their months-long planning cocoon, their predictions invariably collided with reality, sending them back to the drawing board for more prognostication.
With the advent of the move fast and break things tech era, formal business plans gave way to lighter tools like the business model canvas and pitch decks and SWOT analyses. These were easier to complete, but they still tended to be one-time exercises: useful for clarifying direction, less helpful for driving day-to-day implementation once the firm actually launched.
With AI, everything shifts. Behold the Cornerstone Prompt: a device that doesn’t just declare your firm’s reason for being — it embeds that purpose into every formation step that follows. In other words, the Cornerstone Prompt fuses design with deployment. It takes the big ideas in your head and enables you to implement them, right now, while the energy is alive and the moment is yours.
A cornerstone, as Wikipedia puts it, is the first stone set in a masonry foundation — the reference point for every stone that comes after. Get that first stone right, and the whole structure rises true. That’s what the Cornerstone Prompt does for your firm: it’s the first stone you set with intention, so everything you build from there aligns, strengthens, and stands for something unmistakably yours.
Sidenote: The Cornerstone Prompt draws inspiration from Connecticut criminal defense attorney Jay Ruane, who introduced a comprehensive “Master Prompt” system at last month’s Best Era AI Conference. Jay uses his Master Prompt to run a thriving practice. Think of the Cornerstone Prompt as the focused starter slice of that larger system — the foundation you can build on. (If you want a full-scale, firm-running prompt of your own, you can reach out to Jay directly.)
Step 1: Commit Your Vision To Paper With A Guided Interview
To develop your Cornerstone Prompt, you’ll want to start by answering the following series of questions. You can type out the responses or use AI-powered dictation tools to give a stream-of-consciousness response. Unlike with a formal business plan, grammar and precision don’t matter at this juncture. You just want to capture your ideas; AI will handle the details. Below is a condensed version of the questions:
- Purpose: Why this firm, why now? What client problem or market gap are you here to fix?
- Direction: Write your mission (what you do today and for whom) + vision (impact/reputation in 5–10 years). List your non-negotiable values.
- Clients: Who are your ideal client segments? Who is not a fit? What triggers them to hire a lawyer?
- Problems: What are their top 3–5 pains, what’s at stake, and what outcomes do they want most?
- Offer: What practice areas/matter types are in scope vs. out of scope? What states/jurisdictions now and later?
- Value/Unique Selling Proposition: What results do you deliver consistently? What’s your signature approach? Why choose you over competitors — your plain-English USP.
- Experience: How should clients feel working with you? What communication standards and boundaries define great service?
- Growth channels: How will clients find/hire you? (referrals, SEO, LinkedIn, community, ads, etc.) Map intake from first contact → signed engagement.
- Ops basics: Key activities that drive outcomes and growth. Key resources (team roles, tech, networks). Key partners/referral sources.
- Money: Revenue streams (hourly/flat/contingency/retainer/subscription/hybrid) + what services map to each. Pricing philosophy. Major costs and year-one financial goals.
- Brand + success: If your firm were a person, what 3–5 traits would it have? Desired/avoided associations. What’s your ideal caseload and culture?
- Voice: Describe or share examples of the writing style or voice consistent with your brand and mission.
Step 2: Create The Cornerstone Prompt
Once you’ve completed the interview, prompt the AI platform as follows:
You’re a law-firm strategist. Interview me (mission/vision, ideal clients, value + USP, practice scope, jurisdictions, brand voice, revenue model, BMC elements, success metrics). Convert my answers into a reusable Cornerstone Master Prompt that I can paste into future AI chats so everything I draft matches my firm’s niche, tone, and strategy.
Once the prompt is created, upload it into a platform’s preferences or knowledge base or simply attach it each time you prompt ChatGPT.
Here’s an example of how it works. I asked ChatGPT (but you can use any AI platform) to develop a Cornerstone Prompt for a Maryland estate planning firm focused on single, divorced, and widowed people. Once I had my Cornerstone Prompt, I asked Chat GPT it to generate ad copy for a webinar consistent with the Cornerstone Prompt. Without any further instruction, here’s what it came up with:
Then I asked for law firm announcements consistent with my Cornerstone Prompt and here’s what ChatGPT delivered:
I realize that these samples are a bit vanilla. But that’s because I didn’t take the time to complete the interview questions in much detail. If you do that, the output will be more robust — and more distinctly yours.
The Cornerstone Prompt offers a framework for what you want to build, and generative AI serves as the mechanism for putting it into practice. This approach slashes the amount of time between idea and implementation, allowing you to launch more quickly and before you lose your nerve. More importantly, it keeps your decisions, messaging, and systems aligned as you grow — so your firm doesn’t drift away from the practice you intended to build.
Carolyn Elefant is one of the country’s most recognized advocates for solo and small firm lawyers. She founded MyShingle.com in 2002, the longest-running blog for solo practitioners, where she has published thousands of articles, resources, and guides on starting, running, and growing independent law practices. She is the author of Solo by Choice, widely regarded as the definitive handbook for launching and sustaining a law practice, and has spoken at countless bar events and legal conferences on technology, innovation, and regulatory reform that impacts solos and smalls. Elefant also develops practical tools like the AI Teach-In to help small firms adopt AI and she consistently champions reforms to level the playing field for independent lawyers. Alongside this work, she runs the Law Offices of Carolyn Elefant, a national energy and regulatory practice that handles selective complex, high-stakes matters.
The post From Business Plan To Cornerstone Prompt: Narrowing The Gap Between Idea And Implementation When Starting A Law Firm appeared first on Above the Law.