Thomson Reuters Launches CoCounsel Drafting for Transactional Documents, with Litigation Docs Coming Later this Year

In an additional enlargement of the CoCounsel AI authorized assistant it acquired final 12 months by its buy of Casetext, Thomson Reuters as we speak unveiled CoCounsel Drafting, a doc drafting device that works inside Microsoft Phrase and that leverages each the generative AI capabilities of CoCounsel and the sensible content material of Sensible Legislation.

Launching as we speak within the U.S. and with rollouts within the U.Ok. and Canada coming later this 12 months, CoCounsel Drafting can be utilized by authorized professionals to create and overview contracts and different transactional paperwork. Later this 12 months, it can increase to permit for the drafting of litigation paperwork comparable to pleadings and discovery requests.

For contract drafting and overview, the product helps customers discover one of the best place to begin for drafting a doc — comparable to a template or prior instance —  or one of the best clauses for revising a doc. Customers can discover paperwork and clauses from their very own collections of paperwork, from Contract Specific templates,  from Sensible Legislation customary paperwork, and from SEC paperwork.

For reviewing paperwork, it contains redlining and deviation evaluation utilizing Sensible Legislation contract playbooks. Later this 12 months, it can permit companies to carry out deviation evaluation in opposition to their very own uploaded playbooks.

It may also be used to enhance clause wording and find one of the best phrases.

Leverages CoCounsel and Sensible Legislation inside Phrase

In a current demonstration, Rawia Ashraf, the vp of product administration at Thomson Reuters who’s chargeable for main the CoCounsel/Casetext integration, mentioned that CoCounsel Drafting is a sophisticated AI-powered drafting answer poised to remodel the best way authorized professionals draft and overview paperwork.

CoCounsel Drafting is built-in instantly inside Microsoft Phrase and will be downloaded from the Microsoft’s app retailer, which implies that it operates inside an setting that’s acquainted to authorized professionals, Ashraf mentioned. It’s absolutely built-in with CoCounsel, and has its generative AI authorized assistant all through, and it additionally integrates tightly with Sensible Legislation content material to supply a complete drafting and reviewing expertise.

As a result of CoCounsel Drafting is grounded in Sensible Legislation content material, Ashraf mentioned, its recommendations and modifications are primarily based on trusted authorized requirements. As famous, the product is presently targeted on transactional content material, with litigation options coming later within the 12 months. These litigation updates will proceed to attract on Sensible Legislation content material, but in addition incorporate Westlaw content material.

Key Options and Functionalities

Ashraf mentioned that CoCounsel Drafting is designed to observe the lifecycle of a authorized doc, offering instruments for locating, drafting, refining, reviewing, and finalizing paperwork. Among the many key options she demonstrated:

Utilizing a Sensible Legislation playbook inside CoCounsel.

Doc and clause finder. CoCounsel Drafting permits customers to seek for and retrieve related paperwork and clauses from Sensible Legislation, SEC agreements, and inner agency paperwork. It permits customers to seek out acceptable beginning factors for his or her paperwork both by pure language queries or guided modals. For a agency’s personal paperwork, the product presently permits them to go looking inside SharePoint, however inside just a few weeks, it can add connections to iManage Cloud, iManage on-premises, and NetDocuments, with different doc administration methods and OneDrive coming later, Ashraf mentioned.
Generative AI capabilities. The product makes use of generative AI to draft new clauses or modify current ones. Customers can immediate the AI to create clauses tailor-made to particular necessities, comparable to making a clause extra pro-buyer.
Playbook comparability and deviation evaluation. The product permits customers to check a doc in opposition to a playbook to detect deviations. It presently makes use of solely Sensible Legislation playbooks, however by September, it can help customized playbooks uploaded by companies, permitting for alignment with their very own most popular language and requirements. The product highlights deviations and suggests redlines to deliver the doc consistent with the playbook.
Finalization and proofing. CoCounsel Drafting contains capabilities for proofing paperwork and for figuring out errors comparable to misaligned definitions or incorrect cross-references.

Utilizing CoCounsel Drafting to proof a doc.

I requested Ashraf in regards to the potential to make use of CoCounsel Drafting to merge language from totally different sources, comparable to a counterparty doc and an inner template, to create a possible compromise model. Whereas this characteristic will not be presently out there, she mentioned, the device’s negotiation capabilities and fallback provisions might help the consumer find middle-ground options.

Future Developments

As famous, future plans for CoCounsel Drafting embody the addition of litigation options, integrating with Westlaw for authorized analysis and leveraging customers’ personal doc repositories of briefs and different litigation paperwork. It should allow customers to create paperwork comparable to the primary draft of a grievance or discovery requests, Rawia mentioned.

“Attorneys can typically spend a major quantity of their time drafting authorized paperwork and reviewing contracts, and primarily based on suggestions in our beta testing, CoCounsel Drafting considerably reduces the period of time spent drafting,” Jake Heller, head of product for CoCounsel and the previous founder and CEO of Casetext, mentioned in an announcement.

“With CoCounsel’s new drafting capabilities, prospects get the advantage of less complicated, extra environment friendly processes that improve productiveness, streamline drafting, and save big quantities of time, all with out compromising high quality. Bringing CoCounsel’s know-how to drafting will sort out issues no different answer can.”