For Paralegal / Legal Assistants ·
What you'll accomplish
By the end of this guide, you'll use Claude Pro (which can process up to 200,000 words at once) to summarize complete deposition transcripts in minutes instead of hours. A 150-page transcript that used to take half a day now produces a clean, organized summary in about 15 minutes of your time.
What you'll need
Go to claude.ai and click "Upgrade to Pro." Complete payment setup. Once on Pro, you'll have access to Claude's 200,000-token context window — enough to process a 400+ page transcript in a single conversation.
What you should see: Your account shows "Pro" status; when you start a new conversation, the model selector shows Claude claude-sonnet-4-6 or Opus (both have the full context window on Pro).
Your transcript needs to be in text format (not a scanned image). If you have a Word or text file from the court reporter, you're ready. For PDF transcripts: open in Adobe Acrobat → click "Export PDF" → choose "Microsoft Word" or "Text." This converts the PDF to searchable text.
Troubleshooting: If the PDF is a scanned image (common with older transcripts), use Acrobat's "Recognize Text" (OCR) feature first: Tools → Scan & OCR → Recognize Text.
Go to claude.ai → Start new conversation. Click the paperclip (attachment) icon to upload your file, or copy and paste the transcript text directly into the message box. For very long transcripts (150+ pages), uploading the file is more reliable than pasting.
What you should see: Claude acknowledges receipt of the document and is ready to process it.
After uploading, type your summarization request. Use the structured prompt below.
What you should see: Claude begins processing (may take 30–60 seconds for very long transcripts) and then produces a structured summary.
Read through the summary and verify key points against your recollection of the case. Then ask follow-up questions to dig into specific topics: "What did the witness say about the contract signing date?" or "Were there any contradictions in the testimony about [specific event]?"
For a witness favorable to your client:
Summarize this deposition focusing on: (1) testimony supporting our damages claim, (2) testimony establishing liability, (3) any admissions by the witness. Flag important quotes with page references.
For an expert witness deposition:
Summarize this expert deposition. Sections: (1) expert's qualifications and background, (2) methodology used, (3) opinions reached and their basis, (4) concessions made on cross, (5) weaknesses in the expert's position we can exploit.
For a corporate representative deposition:
Summarize this 30(b)(6) corporate deposition. Focus on: (1) what the company knew and when, (2) what policies and procedures existed, (3) any deviations from policy, (4) key admissions that establish corporate knowledge or fault.