How to Use CoCounsel in 2026: Step-by-Step Guide
CoCounsel is Thomson Reuters' AI legal assistant built on GPT-4, providing document review, contract analysis, legal research, and deposition preparation. Used by top law firms and legal teams to perform complex legal tasks in minutes rather than hours.
CoCounsel is Thomson Reuters' flagship AI legal product — built on GPT-4 and deeply integrated with Westlaw (the industry's leading legal research database) and the firm's decades of legal content. Thomson Reuters acquired Casetext (the original CoCounsel developer) in 2023 for $650 million.
Document Review
CoCounsel reads and analyzes large document sets at speed no human team can match. For discovery (civil litigation requiring review of thousands of documents), CoCounsel can review and classify an entire document population in hours. Lawyers specify what they're looking for (specific issues, dates, parties, communications), and CoCounsel identifies relevant documents and summarizes findings.
Contract Analysis
Upload any contract and ask CoCounsel specific questions: "What are the indemnification obligations?" "Does this agreement have a change of control clause? What does it require?" "Are there any unusual termination rights?" CoCounsel reads the contract and answers with page references and direct quotes.
Legal Research with Westlaw Integration
CoCounsel integrates with Westlaw to perform comprehensive legal research — not just finding relevant cases but summarizing holdings, synthesizing positions across multiple authorities, and identifying split circuits or evolving precedent. Research that takes a junior associate hours takes CoCounsel minutes.
Deposition Preparation
Upload a deposition transcript and witness documents, and ask CoCounsel to identify key testimony, inconsistencies with documents, and areas for follow-up questions. It generates deposition outlines based on the factual record.
Timeline of Events
Feed CoCounsel a document set and ask it to construct a timeline of events — it extracts dates, parties, and actions from across thousands of documents to build a chronological narrative.
Pricing
CoCounsel is included with Westlaw Precision subscriptions and available as an add-on. Westlaw Precision starts at approximately $500-800/month for small firms. Enterprise pricing for large law firms is custom.
What You'll Need
- A CoCounsel account (starting from $500/mo)
- A modern web browser or the CoCounsel app
- Payment method for paid features
Getting Started
Create Your Account
Visit https://legal.thomsonreuters.com/en/products/cocounsel and sign up for a subscription account. You'll need an email address to register.
Start Your First Conversation
Once logged in, you'll see the main chat interface. Type a question or task in the input box and press Enter. CoCounsel supports document-review, contract-analysis, legal-research, deposition-prep, timeline-construction, westlaw-integration — start with a simple text prompt to get familiar.
Pro Tips
- Be specific: The more context you provide, the better the response. Instead of "write an email," try "write a professional follow-up email to a client who hasn't responded in two weeks."
- Iterate: If you don't get what you need, ask for clarification or refinement: "Make it shorter" or "Use a more formal tone."
- Use examples: Show CoCounsel what format you want by including an example in your prompt.
- Save useful conversations: Most platforms let you name and revisit conversations — organize by project or topic.
Common Use Cases
Legal
AI assistants providing legal information, document drafting, and regulatory guidance.
Browse Legal chatbots →Research & Analysis
Chatbots that help with data analysis, literature review, and in-depth research tasks.
Browse Research & Analysis chatbots →Troubleshooting
- Responses seem generic or unhelpful
- Add more context to your prompt. Specify the audience, tone, length, and format you need. Try starting over with a clearer description of your goal.
- The tool isn't responding or is slow
- AI chatbots can experience high traffic. Refresh the page and try again. Check the service's status page if issues persist.
- Output is too long or too short
- Explicitly specify the length: "in 100 words," "as a brief summary," or "in detail with examples."
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Frequently Asked Questions
- Is CoCounsel free to use?
- CoCounsel requires a paid subscription, starting from $500/mo.
- Do I need an account to use CoCounsel?
- Yes, you need to create an account to use CoCounsel.
- What can I use CoCounsel for?
- CoCounsel is Thomson Reuters' AI legal assistant built on GPT-4, providing document review, contract analysis, legal research, and deposition preparation. Used by top law firms and legal teams to perform complex legal tasks in minutes rather than hours.
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