CASE STUDY
Serving more clients well with help from Westlaw Precision with CoCounsel
Valiant Law
With a thriving law practice in northern Idaho, Safa Riadh is seven years into his law career. He is the Coeur d’Alene lawyer — a go-getter who is not afraid to take on a new challenge and knows exactly what he needs to do to be successful. He has the drive, and he has Westlaw Precision with CoCounsel with AI-Assisted Research to help him serve more clients — more effectively and more efficiently.
The tool for everyday usage
Riadh is a long-time advocate of Westlaw. He used it in law school and has continued using it for research. But in the last four to five months, since Westlaw Precision with CoCounsel added AI-Assisted Research, he has been using this game-changing tech daily.
“The transformation from books to online research and then online research to AI-Assisted Research through Westlaw Precision with CoCounsel is unreal,” says Raidh. Prior to AI-Assisted Research, the process was time intensive. “You’re just reading a bunch of cases until you find what you’re looking for, right?” he says. Now, he’s prompting Westlaw’s AI-Assisted Research with questions he needs answers to in the moment he needs them.
He even used Westlaw Precision with CoCounsel at trial recently when a question came up that nobody could answer. AI-Assisted Research guided all parties to the understanding that the issue was ultimately up to the judge’s discretion — and the judge agreed, said Riadh.
The confidence to explore new territory
While Riadh’s specialty areas are bankruptcy, criminal, and family law, he’ll take on cases in other areas if they sound interesting or if someone really needs his help. “I have a wild side that jumps into crazy cases,” Riadh admits. That said, he couldn’t always take them. “I actually shied away from taking on matters that I just didn’t know enough about.” But he doesn’t think that way anymore.
Westlaw Precision with CoCounsel has changed the way he thinks about new cases because he can now get to a level of proficiency quickly. “Westlaw Precision with CoCounsel gives me language from the statutes or case law themselves to quickly understand what I need to understand and then apply it,” he says.
The argument for using AI-Assisted Research
Riadh is a young lawyer who is not afraid of technology. He trusts the content returned through Westlaw Precision with CoCounsel’s AI-Assisted Research. He also knows lawyers must always read the cases. “We have an ethical duty to double-check everything,” he says. “At the end of the day, even if I had an intern or an associate draft a memorandum, if I’m going to put my signature on it, it is my job to go through, check the citations, check the case law to see that it says what it says.”
While time savings bring greater efficiency to his practice, Riadh knows it’s more than that. He is already very good at what he does; Westlaw Precision with CoCounsel is a tool that makes him better. “When I can solve somebody’s problem quicker,” he says, “not only is my client happy with me, but my reputation in the community is strengthened.”
AI-Assisted Research can be incredibly effective if used correctly. Yet, some lawyers are still hesitant to dive in. Riadh’s stance is that you’re actually doing your clients a disservice if you're not using it. “We have a fiduciary duty to spend our client’s money appropriately,” says Riadh. “If I know there are tools out there to help me do my job better and more efficiently, then I should be using those tools,” he adds.
Request a free trial of Westlaw Precision with CoCounsel today to begin experiencing generative AI and more precise researching