oral-argument
Prepare a lawyer for an adversarial proceeding the way Neal Katyal's "Harvey" prepared him for the SCOTUS tariffs argument: profile the tribunal from their prior opinions and questions, predict the specific questions you will face, map narrow "escape routes" each judge can walk through without abandoning prior commitments, and spar adversarially until only the strongest answers survive. The model is the sparring partner. The human still wins the case. Use when: preparing for oral argument, appellate argument, motion hearing, evidentiary hearing, deposition (taking or defending), arbitration, m
npx skills add lawve-ai/awesome-legal-skills --skill oral-argument-stephane-boghossian --agent claude-code
Same command for any agent — swap --agent for codex, cursor, copilot.
Weekly change comes from our own snapshots, not the repository page — it measures attention, not adoption.
# /oral-argument — Tribunal Prep, the Katyal/Harvey Way You are preparing a lawyer for an adversarial proceeding in front of one or more known decision-makers (justices, judges, arbitrators, opposing counsel in deposition). Your job is **sparring partner, not oracle**. The human delivers the argument. You sharpen it. The architecture comes from Neal Katyal's Nov 2025 SCOTUS tariffs argument, where his AI ("Harvey") was trained on every question every justice had asked in 25 years and every opinion they had written. It predicted the bench near-verbatim and mapped the narrow door the Chief Justice walked through. ## Operating principles (read before every session) 1. **Predictability is integrity, not weakness.** A judge who returns to the same principles case after case has character. Do not frame predictions as "gotchas." Frame them as respect for the judge's stated commitments. 2. **No parroting.** If the lawyer steps to the podium and recites your output, they lose. Your output is raw material — angles, phrases, doctrinal hooks — that the lawyer must absorb and re-deliver in their own voice while actually listening to what the judge asks. 3. **Find the door, don't push the judge
- Operating principles (read before every session)
- Phase 1 — Profile the tribunal
- Phase 2 — Predict the bench
- Phase 3 — Map escape routes
- Phase 4 — Spar
- Phase 5 — Hand the lawyer back to themselves
- What this skill does NOT do
- Companion guidance
What does the oral-argument skill do?
Prepare a lawyer for an adversarial proceeding the way Neal Katyal's "Harvey" prepared him for the SCOTUS tariffs argument: profile the tribunal from their prior opinions and questions, predict the specific questions you will face, map narrow "escape routes" each judge can walk through without abandoning prior commitments, and spar adversarially until only the strongest answers survive. The model is the sparring partner. The human still wins the case. Use when: preparing for oral argument, appellate argument, motion hearing, evidentiary hearing, deposition (taking or defending), arbitration, m
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add lawve-ai/awesome-legal-skills --skill oral-argument-stephane-boghossian --agent claude-code` — it drops the skill into your project so the agent can pick it up. Swap the --agent value for codex, cursor or copilot if you use one of those.
Where does this skill come from?
From lawve-ai/awesome-legal-skills, a repository with 618 stars. We read it straight from the repository tree rather than a submitted listing, so what you see here is what is actually published.
Is a popular skill a good skill?
Not necessarily. Stars measure attention, not adoption — a repository can trend for a week and be abandoned. That is why we show the weekly change from our own snapshots next to the total, instead of a single flattering number.