Legal research has always been one of the most demanding parts of legal work. Deep Research in the next generation of CoCounsel Legal changes the equation.
Highlights
- Deep Research in CoCounsel Legal transforms legal research from manual synthesis to autonomous execution.
- The system accesses Westlaw content curated by 1,500+ attorney-editors and validated by AI specialists.
- CoCounsel Legal delivers end-to-end legal work from research to drafting in a single workflow.
For decades, legal research was entirely dependent on individual expertise and available information. Attorneys spent hours in databases, tracking down cases one by one, synthesizing results across disconnected sources, and building arguments from the ground up. An attorney’s ability to surface the right authority depended on knowing where to look, how to construct a search, and how to evaluate what came back.
Even with access to powerful databases like Westlaw, the synthesis was manual. For firms with tight deadlines and lean teams, inconsistent research was a risk.
Early AI tools helped attorneys search faster, narrowing results and flagging relevant cases. Yet attorneys still guided every step, evaluated every result, and assembled every conclusion. The tools improved the work, but the workload didn’t fundamentally change.
Deep Research in CoCounsel Legal marks a genuine break from that pattern. The shift it represents goes well beyond speed.
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From search to execution
Grounded in the content legal work demands
The foundation for end-to-end legal work
Legal AI that works the way attorneys do
From search to execution
When an attorney submits a legal question to Deep Research, the system doesn’t return a list of results and wait. It builds a multi-step plan tailored to that specific inquiry, determines which content types and tools are most relevant, and runs iterative searches across authoritative sources while constructing a synthesis of what it finds.
The system shows its work throughout. Deep Research surfaces its sources, explains its reasoning, and raises clarifying questions when the inquiry calls for them. Attorneys can review what the system is doing at any point, helping them know where the research is at. The end result is a comprehensive report, with the ability to verify each assertion quickly, keeping professional judgment in the loop without requiring attorneys to conduct hours of research themselves.
The distinction matters. An AI assistant waits to be pointed in the right direction. Deep Research takes the direction and handles what comes next.
Grounded in the content legal work demands
The quality of AI output starts with what the system runs on. Deep Research accesses Westlaw content supported by more than 1,500 full-time attorney-editors who continually curate, validate, and organize legal materials. Its agentic architecture and advanced reasoning models are designed and validated by more than 1,000 AI specialists who are also legal experts.
The result is a system that approaches each question as a legal problem, not a search problem. It distinguishes between persuasive and binding authority, surfaces Practical Law guidance at the right moment, and produces results grounded in trusted content. Every source is visible. Every citation is verifiable.
The foundation for end-to-end legal work
Deep Research delivers real value as a standalone capability. Its larger significance lies in what it powers next.
In the next generation of CoCounsel Legal, Deep Research serves as the foundation for complete legal work. From a single prompt in plain language, the system plans, executes, and delivers research, analysis, drafting, and document review without separate tools or manual handoffs between steps.
Attorneys stay in control of the outcome at every stage. They can review the plan and validate the conclusions before anything leaves their desk. The system handles the work. The attorney decides what to do with it.
CoCounsel Legal also integrates with Microsoft 365 and leading document management systems, so the workflow fits within the tools attorneys already use to deliver defensible work.
Legal AI that works the way attorneys do
The legal profession rewards precision and sound judgment. The next generation of CoCounsel Legal is built to deliver both. Deep Research established what it looks like when AI takes on real legal reasoning, building a plan, running the research, synthesizing the results, and producing something an attorney can actually use.
CoCounsel Legal carries that further. The system approaches matters the way skilled attorneys would, with a simple prompt and no additional steps required. From the first keyword searching to a fully agentic, end-to-end workflow, that progression represents exactly where legal AI is headed — and where CoCounsel Legal already is.
The next generation of CoCounsel Legal is scheduled to launch later this year. Learn more about how we’re building the future of legal AI.
