Founded in 1992, Bochetto & Lentz, P.C. is a boutique trial firm specializing in civil and white-collar criminal litigation. With offices in Philadelphia and New Jersey, its team of 13 lawyers handles matters ranging from pre-suit investigations to complex commercial litigation across a broad spectrum of practice areas. The firm is known for its creative strategies and commitment to treating each case individually, never relying on a boilerplate format.
Partner David Heim and Associate Kiersty DeGroote exemplify this thoughtful, tailored approach. While their dedication often demands significant time and effort, generative AI (GenAI) tools from Thomson Reuters have transformed the way they work. Solutions like Westlaw Precision with CoCounsel, CoCounsel Drafting, and other tools in the Thomson Reuters CoCounsel suite help the firm work faster and smarter, delivering stronger results for clients and greater peace of mind.
Early adopters of GenAI
Partners in the firm recognized early on the possibilities of GenAI in the legal field and tasked its younger lawyers to evaluate different tools in the market. Among those reviewed, CoCounsel stood out. Partners found it to be the most effective and easiest to use. Whether summarizing depositions, performing legal research, or drafting legal documents, “it was pretty clear to us that CoCounsel was the emergent product that everybody was going to be using, so we quickly got on board,” Heim says.
“All firms would benefit from generative AI,” adds DeGroote, “but especially a small trial-focused, legal-reading-and-writing-heavy firm like ours. You want to be in a position where you’re saving yourself time.” In her mind, choosing CoCounsel was a no-brainer. “We knew that Westlaw had the database we needed. We knew it had the cases we needed. We knew there were tools already useful to us. So, when CoCounsel merged with Westlaw, it just made perfect sense to continue to use those products together.”
Value in an integrated tool set
The firm actively leverages the suite of CoCounsel products to support legal research, drafting, and help streamline essential legal tasks. The integration between these tools has been key to increased efficiency.
Recently, when Heim was working on a nuisance case, he needed to make sense of a dense, 50-page scientific white paper. His ability to understand the content was critical for drafting key documents like a cease-and-desist letter and a statement of facts. Using CoCounsel’s summarization feature, he generated a clear, two-page summary with footnotes linking back to the original text. This allowed him to verify the content’s accuracy. From there, he used the CoCounsel drafting skills to create a letter based on the summary — completing what would have taken him half a day in under an hour. “The ability to move between tools in the same ecosystem and trust the workflow made the entire process seamless and efficient,” he adds.
The CoCounsel integrated drafting capability further transforms legal workflows by providing fast, structured starting points. Heim highlights its flexibility by saying, “I have used it for drafting discovery for agreements like non-disclosure or protective orders.” The tool delivers solid first drafts quickly — “90% where you need to be,” he adds — allowing him to focus on refinement rather than starting from scratch.
The CoCounsel integration with Microsoft Word makes drafting even more seamless by allowing lawyers to work within a single environment. “Particularly if you’re drafting a brief, you can ask it to draft something you may be using in your brief and also ask CoCounsel to find cases in Westlaw Precision that say X, Y, and Z,” Heim explains. With everything contained within the Word document, he says, “it’s a lot more seamless and you waste less time.”
Reliable, near-perfect accuracy
Another plus is the level of accuracy. What sets Thomson Reuters GenAI apart is its ability to interpret the law with nuance and context — something DeGroote says feels far more human than other tools she’s used. “Other AI tools are very literal. If you don’t use the exact phrase, you probably won’t find what you’re looking for,” she explains. “But with CoCounsel, it understands what I mean, even if I don’t ask the question perfectly.”
DeGroote emphasizes that no legal tool — AI or human — is 100% accurate all the time, especially in a field as complex and nuanced as law. “The law has hundreds of years of syntax and wordplay behind it. It’s not fair to expect AI to get it right every time — lawyers and judges don’t either.” What matters is that the AI gives you a strong, relevant starting point and helps you move in the right direction. “It’s like reviewing opposing counsel’s brief. You still have to verify what’s cited — but that doesn’t mean it’s wrong. It’s part of the process.”
Massive time savings
Generative AI offers significant time savings in legal research by giving attorneys a fast, reliable starting point. For DeGroote, it consistently saves at least 30 to 45 minutes at the outset of a new case, which is time that would otherwise be spent digging through treatises or manually locating relevant case law. Using AI-Assisted Research in Westlaw Precision, she can ask a specific legal question and quickly receive several on-point cases, giving her an invaluable head start. As DeGroote puts it, “time is literally money in this industry,” and getting moving quickly is often the hardest part, especially when working in unfamiliar areas of law.
Heim sees the same kind of time savings. Whether a case is simple or complex, it inevitably involves a mountain of documents — emails, text messages, medical records, contracts. “Even the simplest cases involve all those things, and what CoCounsel allows you to do is immediately get a sense of what that information is.” By uploading large volumes of materials and prompting the AI to, for example, generate a timeline or extract key facts, Heim and his team can go from data overload to actionable insight in seconds. What used to be a daunting, time-intensive process is now nearly instantaneous, freeing attorneys to focus more on strategy and less on sorting through files.
Less stress, more peace of mind
The GenAI capabilities in CoCounsel for drafting, legal research, and document review are reducing stress for the team by cutting through complexity. For DeGroote, who often drafts detailed, high-stakes motions, the mental strain comes from chasing down sub-issues and potential counter arguments. Westlaw Precision helps her quickly surface relevant cases and answers — even partial ones — that give her direction and confidence. Instead of going down endless research rabbit holes, she can move forward with clarity, reducing the anxiety that comes from not knowing if she’s missed something.
Heim feels a similar relief thanks to CoCounsel. Whether it’s summarizing thousands of pages of depositions or highlighting key data from medical records, CoCounsel keeps him ahead of the workload. He’s more productive and, as a result, less stressed. “When I put my pen down on a Friday, I feel like I can enjoy the weekend. That’s critical for quality of life.”
A smarter ally, not a replacement
Both DeGroote and Heim agree; lawyers shouldn’t see GenAI as a threat — it’s not here to replace them, but to enhance what they do best. As DeGroote puts it, the idea that AI will take over the legal profession just isn’t realistic. Everything generated by AI still requires human oversight, judgment, and creativity. A tool like Westlaw Precision can surface relevant cases, but it’s still up to the lawyer to interpret that information, apply it to the facts, and build a compelling argument. GenAI can help spark new ideas or uncover angles an attorney might not have considered — but it’s the lawyer who shapes the strategy, tells the story, and ultimately makes the call.
Heim echoes that view, especially from a productivity standpoint. While some lawyers worry that AI might reduce billable hours or the need for staff, he sees it differently. “It makes lawyers more efficient. It allows us to accomplish way more in a day than we could without it.” With a growing number of client matters constantly competing for attention, CoCounsel helps Heim stay on top of his caseload — and better serve his clients. Tasks that used to slow him down, like reviewing documents or creating timelines, are now done in seconds. The result isn’t fewer lawyers — it’s more responsive service, happier clients, and a legal team that can do more without burning out. AI won’t replace lawyers — it empowers them.
