Experts Behind the Tech Inside CoCounsel Legal: The human intelligence behind AI innovation
AI can draft a brief in minutes. That time savings is real. The risk is shipping a draft that cites cases that don't exist or misses a clause your client depends on. Courts have already issued sanctions for fake citations, which is why reliability has to be the first requirement, not the last polish source.
CoCounsel Legal is built for lawyers who can't gamble on "sounds right." The goal: verified outputs grounded in trusted sources, with clear paths to check the work.
Product leaders prioritize trust and accuracy over speed
Two leaders drive that standard. Matthew Heagerty, Vice President of Product for CoCounsel Skills, has shaped the product from its first release to a system fit for firm-wide deployment. Tyler Alexander, Director of AI Reliability, owns the bar for quality - every output should map back to reality, not a guess.
Their shared principle is simple: legal decisions affect life, liberty, and property. Consumer AI can be useful, but if you don't know where advice comes from, you can't use it in a filing.
AI has moved from "nice-to-have" to "must-have"
Firms that adopt GenAI are outpacing those that don't. The hours freed from first drafts and research add up fast. Clients notice - and many now expect their counsel to use AI to keep costs down and speed up standard tasks.
The remaining barrier is trust. That's where a professional-grade system matters.
Why professional-grade AI is different
CoCounsel Legal layers accuracy and security. Outputs are checked by legal professionals and anchored in the substance of Practical Law and Westlaw. That foundation matters when your work product might be scrutinized in court.
As Heagerty puts it, this isn't a general chatbot. It has to meet the standards lawyers live by.
Transparency that earns trust
Verification is built in. CoCounsel shows the source for each point - a Practical Law or Westlaw citation, or a link to your internal document. You can inspect the trail, not just the conclusion.
Tone is intentional. The system answers with an objective voice and flags uncertainty instead of bluffing. When you need a specific tone - persuasive, oppositional, or neutral - you can set it for the task at hand.
Balancing innovation with reliability
The team moves fast, but not at the cost of accuracy. New models and features go through a measured review with applied scientists and the attorney editors behind Thomson Reuters products. The bar is clear: suitable for legal use, not just a clever demo.
If that means shipping a week later to ensure reliability, that's the trade worth making.
Agentic AI: autonomous, but under your control
Agentic systems are the next step. Think of an AI that can make bounded decisions with minimal instruction, within rules you set. It understands where your line of questioning is going and takes initiative to move the matter forward.
Even then, explainability is non-negotiable. You should see what the system looked at, the steps it took, and why it chose a path. That aligns with emerging risk frameworks that emphasize transparency and accountability source.
Built to work the way lawyers work
CoCounsel is getting more intuitive. Purpose-built workflows guide you to outputs that used to require expert prompting. The prompt library continues to evolve so you don't have to wrestle with syntax - you focus on the matter.
Training is personalized. If you're in real estate, you'll see real estate examples. If you're in litigation, you'll get deposition prep, motion practice, and discovery tasks that mirror your day-to-day.
A quick checklist to evaluate any legal AI
- Sources surfaced for every claim (citations and links you can click).
- Outputs grounded in vetted legal databases and your documents, not the open web alone.
- Clear uncertainty handling: the system asks for more facts instead of guessing.
- Audit trails for prompts, versions, and changes to support review.
- Role-based permissions and data handling suited for client confidentiality.
- Flexible tones for drafting (objective, persuasive, oppositional) when appropriate.
- Human-in-the-loop review options before anything is filed or sent to a client.
The year ahead
Barriers are coming down. Prompting will matter less because the system will do more of the orchestration for you. Expect faster iteration, new agentic capabilities, and bigger gains on routine work - all with stricter verification behind the scenes.
What won't change: reliability is the line. That's how you protect clients and your license.
Next step
See how CoCounsel Legal pairs human verification with trusted legal content and practical workflows. If you're formalizing AI skills across your team, explore role-based training options here: AI courses by job.
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