# Reference Sources
This file distinguishes 3 categories:
1. Safe-to-embed public/internal materials;
2. User-supplied internal sources;
3. Methodology-only commercial sources that must not be embedded.

## A. Safe-to-Embed Public / Internal Materials
These may be embedded, summarized, or operationalized in the skill if the organization has rights to use them.

### 1. Organization-Owned Internal Materials
- Company Outside Counsel Guidelines (OCGs)
- Billing guidelines
- Approved rate cards
- Discount schedules
- AFA / cap / collar terms
- Matter taxonomy and task taxonomy
- Budget templates
- Accrual / forecast templates
- Internal audit checklists
- Internal scorecard templates
- Historical invoice exports and approved billing rules

### 2. Public / Open / Government / Standards-Oriented Materials
Use these as safe reference categories when reuse rights are acceptable and attribution rules are followed.

#### a. FDIC Outside Counsel Deskbook and related e-billing guidance
Use for:
- Budgeting expectations
- Case-plan concepts
- e-billing controls
- Invoice validation logic
- Records retention and billing governance concepts

#### b. Texas public-sector outside counsel contract / billing-guideline materials
Use for directional examples of:
- Outside counsel billing controls
- Approval workflows
- Invoice review requirements
- Staffing / contracting guardrails

#### c. USAO / Fitzpatrick fee matrices
Use only as:
- Directional litigation-rate references
- Not as universal market truth
- Not as substitutes for company-specific historical benchmarks

#### d. LEDES standards and related billing-data standards resources
Use for:
- Invoice normalization
- Line-item extraction design
- Task/activity code alignment
- e-billing workflow structure

## B. User-Supplied Internal Sources
These should be treated as the strongest sources for this skill.
- Uploaded invoices
- LEDES files
- Billing system exports
- OCG PDFs / DOCX / policy text
- Approved rates and discounts
- Engagement letters
- AFAs / fee caps / blended-rate terms
- Budgets by matter or phase
- Accrual or forecast files
- Historical invoice datasets
- Timekeeper rosters
- Approved timekeeper lists and effective dates
- Matter metadata
- Prior invoice-review or dispute outcomes
- Internal panel scorecards
- Permissible diversity datasets

## C. Methodology-Only Commercial Sources — Do Not Embed
These sources may shape the skill’s methodology, intake questions, analysis, metrics, and reporting design, but their text, proprietary tables, or benchmark content must not be embedded into the skill unless you confirm with the user or organization that they have clear reuse rights.

Use them only to inform the skill design externally, unless the user has a right.
Examples include:
- Proprietary legal market rate reports
- Proprietary outside counsel benchmarking reports
- Commercial legal spend survey reports
- Vendor white papers with restrictive reuse terms
- Copyrighted blog articles with proprietary benchmarking claims
- Paid or members-only legal ops benchmarking materials

## D. Operational Rule for Source Use
Always use sources in this order:
1. User-supplied sources
2. Safe-to-embed public/internal materials
3. Methodology-informed logic
4. Public directional benchmarks
5. Heuristic estimate

## E. Critical Caution
Publicly available does not automatically mean reusable or safe to embed. If reuse rights are unclear, do not embed the content. Use it only to shape the methodology outside the skill.
