Thomson Reuters today (5 August) announced the launch of CoCounsel Legal, featuring deep research and agentic guided workflows.
What’s different to Thomson Reuters’ previous CoCounsel launches is that this is being described as one unified solution, bringing together legal research, workflow automation, intelligent document search and AI-powered legal assistance. Deep Research in CoCounsel enables lawyers to plan and deliver legal research results grounded in Westlaw and Practical Law content. They can hand off full research questions to an AI that explains its process, sources its answers, and builds the argument foundation. It can generate multi-step research plans; trace its logic with transparent reasoning; and deliver citation backed reports. Head of product management for Westlaw, Mike Dahn, says: “With agentic AI, we can emulate the best practices of great researchers using the full research toolset Westlaw has to offer, tools like Key Numbers, KeyCite, Precision Research classifications, and statutes annotations.”He adds: “While others layer generic AI on top of legal content, we’ve built something fundamentally more advanced: AI agents trained, equipped, and trusted to use Westlaw’s exclusive research toolset with the curated and up-to-date content of Westlaw and Practical Law to move through complex legal research workflows with unprecedented speed and precision.”
This latest integration of advanced AI models into Thomson Reuters’ core platforms marks a major step forward, following research with over 1200 customers. Colleen Nihill, chief AI & KM officer at Am Law top 10 law firm Morgan Lewis said: “Deep Research stands out for its ability to reason through legal questions rather than simply return search results. When faced with a complex issue, it can generate a research plan, explain its logic, and deliver a structured report. This level of transparency is essential to maintaining the oversight and trust lawyers need to confidently adopt AI in practice.”
Also included in CoCounsel Legal is a growing library of guided workflows—multi-step task flows that apply agentic AI to high-friction legal work such as drafting policies or requests, leveraging Westlaw and Practical Law expertise. The workflows embed legal content, apply structured reasoning, and provide human oversight by design.
“This is where AI starts to feel less like a tool and more like a teammate,” said David Wong, chief product officer at Thomson Reuters. “Guided workflows transform how professionals’ approach complex legal work, moving beyond simple prompting to sophisticated, multi-step task execution—and that’s a huge leap forward in what legal AI can deliver.”