TopCounsel

Overview

TopCounsel by The L Suite connects Claude to The L Suite's peer-vetted outside counsel recommendations, giving users the ability to search, shortlist, and compare outside counsel recommendations from inside any Claude surface — Claude.ai, Claude Desktop, Claude Code, or Cowork.

Unlike generic legal directories, every recommendation is grounded in firsthand feedback from in-house lawyers. You get the collective judgment of thousands of Chief Legal Officers, General Counsels, in-house counsel, and legal ops leaders without leaving your AI workflow.

Who this is for: 

• In-house counsel and legal ops professionals.

What you can do with it:

• Query the L Suite’s community-sourced counsel database by practice area, matter type, company stage, geography, and more

• Surface peer-backed recommendations tailored to your situation and need

• Shortlist attorneys and firms for a specific matter, with context on popularity, fit, and cost profile

• Summarize in-house counsel feedback on a specific attorney or firm

Example prompts

Once you enable the TopCounsel by The L Suite MCP connector, you can ask Claude for counsel recommendations and feedback:

• "Recommend 5 outside counsel for overflow commercial contracting work for a B2B fintech company."
• "Which outside counsel is recommended for pre-dispute counseling on SaaS risk allocation issues?"

• "Shortlist outside counsel for an international trade investigation, with strong business judgment and lean staffing."

• "Summarize peer feedback on {{Firm Name}} for privacy and data protection work."

• "Who do Series B–D companies typically use for employment counsel in California?"

Setup

Prerequisites

In order to use the TopCounsel MCP, you will need:

1. An active LinkedIn account, used for authentication.

2. A Claude account on Pro, Max, Team, or Enterprise (MCP connectors require a paid plan).

3. About 2 minutes.

Step 1 — Add the connector in Claude

1. Open Claude at claude.ai (or Claude Desktop).

2. Go to Settings → Connectors → Add connector.

   1. For Claude Team / Enterprise, the flow is Organization → Settings → Connectors → Add connector. This may be restricted to admins in your team’s workspace.

3. Paste the TopCounsel MCP URL: https://api.techgc.co/api/mcp/topcounsel

4. Click Connect.

Step 2 — Authenticate with LinkedIn

1. You'll be asked to sign in with LinkedIn.

2. Sign in with the email address associated with your LinkedIn account.

3. You'll be redirected back to Claude. The connector status should show Connected.

Step 3 — Verify the connection

Start a new Claude conversation and ask a sample question, such as: "Using TopCounsel, list 3 firms recommended by TechGC peers for open source licensing questions."

If Claude responds with firm names and peer context, you're set. If not, see Troubleshooting.

Available tools

Troubleshooting

"Connector failed to connect"

• Confirm the MCP URL was pasted exactly, with no trailing spaces.

• Confirm you're on a Claude plan that supports custom connectors (Pro, Max, Team, Enterprise).

• Try disconnecting and reconnecting from Customize → Connectors.

"No results" for queries that should return matches

• Explicitly ask Claude to use the TopCounsel MCP in generating a response.

• Make the matter description more specific (practice area + company stage + matter type works best).

• If results still appear incorrect, use the feedback flow described below — our team reviews every report.

Claude doesn't call the TopCounsel tool even when relevant

• Explicitly invoke it: "Using ‘TopCounsel, …"

• Verify the connector is toggled on for the current conversation (look for the connector chip in the composer). You can also check that it invokes a specific MCP when processing the response.

FAQs