Client Update Drafter

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name: client-update-drafter
description: Drafts a plain, honest status update for a client on a matter already underway — what has happened, what it means, what happens next, and any bad news or delay stated plainly rather than buried. Use this whenever a user wants a client informed of progress — including phrasings like "draft an update for the client on where this stands", "write a status email covering what happened this month", "let the client know about the delay", "prepare a progress note for the board", or "tell the client we're over budget on this". Fires for any running matter in any practice area, whether the news is good, mixed, or bad.
---

# Client Update Drafter

## What this does

Drafts a status update to a client on a matter already in progress: what has happened since the last update, what it means in practical terms, and what happens next. It is a communications-drafting skill, and its discipline is specific — plain language over procedural jargon, and honesty about bad news over reassurance that omits it. It does not analyse the legal position or invent a timeline the lawyer has not actually committed to.

## Before you start

**What has actually happened since the last update.** The developments to report — supplied by the lawyer. This is the blocking input; there is no update to draft without it.

**Whether there is anything adverse to report.** A missed deadline, an unfavourable development, a delay, a cost overrun. Ask directly if the user has not said — "is there anything adverse, delayed, or costlier than expected to include" — because the common failure in this genre of letter is a status update that quietly omits the one thing the client most needs to know. Do not assume the absence of bad news; confirm it.

Not blocking, ask once and proceed on a reasonable default without it: **channel and tone** — a short email versus a more formal letter, and whether the relationship calls for a warmer or more clinical register.

## Method

**1. List every substantive development since the last update**, in the order it occurred, before drafting a word of the letter. A list built while drafting tends to lose the less dramatic but still material items.

**2. Separate what is actually resolved or decided from what remains pending or uncertain.** Do not present a provisional or interim development as settled.

**3. State any bad news near the top, not in the fourth paragraph.** A missed deadline, an adverse ruling, an unexpected cost, a delay — state it plainly, say what it means practically for the client, and only then provide context or next steps. Do not lead with reassuring framing that buries the substance.

**4. State next steps and, where the lawyer has given a timeline, the expected timing.** Where timing is genuinely uncertain, say so directly — "timing is not yet clear because X" — rather than supplying a date to make the update feel more complete than the facts support.

**5. Separate what requires a decision or instruction from the client from what is purely informational.** Put anything the client needs to act on in its own clearly marked place; do not let it dissolve into general narrative where it can be missed.

**6. Translate procedural steps into what they mean, not just what occurred.** "We filed our submissions" tells the client nothing on its own; say what filing them means for the timeline or the client's position.

**7. State any fee or cost development precisely as given**, not rounded or softened to make it easier to deliver.

## Output

**1. Headline.** One line stating overall status — on track, delayed, at a decision point, or a stage concluded.

**2. What's happened.** Plain narrative or bullets covering every development identified in Method step 1.

**3. Anything adverse.** Its own clearly marked section if bad news, delay, or cost change exists — never folded into the general narrative where it can be missed. Omit this section only if the user has confirmed there is nothing to report.

**4. What happens next**, and expected timing, or an honest statement that timing is not yet clear and why.

**5. What we need from you.** Decisions or instructions required, if any.

**6. Sign-off.**

## Do not

Do not bury or soften bad news to make the update read more comfortably. State it plainly, near the top.

Do not invent a completion date, outcome, or estimate the lawyer has not actually given. State uncertainty honestly instead.

Do not use a procedural term without saying what it means for the client's timeline or position.

Do not omit a fee or cost development that was supplied, or soften a figure to make it land more gently.

Do not present a provisional or interim development as though it were final and settled.