How to maximize productivity with AI-Assisted Research on Westlaw Precision

A 2023 report from the Thomson Reuters Institute uncovered a curious paradox: Fully 82% of legal professionals believe that generative AI can be used in legal work. However, only 51% believed that it should be used in legal work.  

Why the difference? Many legal professionals see the potential of generative AI to help them be more efficient and productive. But they aren’t sure if they can trust the available tools to deliver accurate legal research. 

How can the legal researchers on your team take advantage of the efficiencies AI promises, while also protecting accuracy? After all, it isn’t very productive to have to redo work if an unproven technology steers you wrong. 

The answer may already be available to the legal researchers in your organization. AI-Assisted Research on Westlaw Precision offers relevant answers to your legal questions delivered quickly and with links to trusted Westlaw authority. Using it can increase researchers’ productivity and create opportunities to increase firm revenue. 

Jump to:

Complete high-quality research faster

Increase firm revenue

Complete high-quality research faster 

AI-Assisted Research on Westlaw Precision represents the biggest change in legal research since the switch from books to online. It enables legal professionals to jumpstart their research and reduce time on unrealized billed hours. 

Legal researchers are used to running searches that deliver a long list of cases, statutes, regulations, secondary sources, and court documents. They spend a lot of time going through the documents one at a time to find the relevant data to craft an answer to complicated questions like “Does a False Claims Act claim for retaliation include retaliation by the employer for the employee’s conduct after termination?” This research and analysis can take hours. 

With AI-Assisted Research, legal professionals can make better-informed decisions and complete the remainder of their research more efficiently.  

More conversational search prompts

Rather than trying to think like a computer, researchers craft their queries like they were talking to a colleague. 

Results delivered with context

Sophisticated AI searches Westlaw’s trusted database and returns an overview with detailed insights from your top results.  

Supporting material for you to review

Along with an answer to the question, the researcher gets language from the supporting authority and a list of documents the system used to generate the response. With that information, researchers can validate the response to ensure they agree with it. 

Early users of AI-Assisted Research on Westlaw Precision are happy with the way the system performs.  

 

“The ability to type a question, get an answer, and have all the supporting resources right underneath that answer so you can ensure it is supported by case law within Westlaw is very important. And I think it’s proven to be a very effective and accurate way to get answers to complex legal questions.” 

 – Andrew Bedigian, Counsel at Larson LLP

Increase firm revenue 

Lawyers want to spend time lawyering – that is, applying their knowledge and wisdom to help a client. Reading through dozens of cases to find the right answer is often not their favorite part of their job. 

What’s more, the time lawyers spend reviewing case law is often written down on the final invoice. For matters where the firm is billing by the hour, that cuts down on productivity and utilization rates. And then there are the matters billed at a flat rate. In those matters, the legal team has every incentive to reduce the amount of time they spend reviewing research material.  

Using a productivity tool like AI-Assisted Research on Westlaw Precision frees legal researchers up to deliver excellent legal work on even more matters. They can spend their time meeting with clients, discussing legal strategy, and crafting documents, rather than trying to find the documents they need to get started. That in turn allows the firm to generate more revenue. 

Researchers can use this feature confidently, knowing it is built on more than 150 years of expertise. Further, user data is kept secure and confidential within Westlaw. Customer information is not used to train the model, nor is it stored or in any way owned by a third party. 

Benefits beyond legal research  

AI-Assisted Research on Westlaw Precision helps legal professionals get a faster start to their research. People who have tried it have found it helps them get to trusted answers faster and that it boosts their productivity. Over time, that added productivity can lead to higher-quality research and revenue opportunities for the firm. 

Request your free trial today Learn how you can get a jump start on your research with faster answers to legal questions thanks to AI-Assisted Research, now available on Westlaw Precision.   Request free trial