Thomson Reuters and NetDocuments team up to boost secure legal AI
Thomson Reuters and NetDocuments have formed a new collaboration to deliver secure, integrated AI inside the document environments lawyers already use. The move brings Thomson Reuters CoCounsel Legal into NetDocuments' ndConnect interoperability program, letting shared customers combine research, drafting, and document analysis with workflow automation-without breaking governance.
What the integration actually does
- Securely share select content from NetDocuments with approved AI tools via ndConnect.
- Automatically file AI outputs back into the correct workspace or matter.
- Keep end-to-end auditability and searchability across all documents.
Announced at NetDocuments' Inspire EMEA conference in London, the partnership is built to meet firms where they work today-inside the DMS-while adding CoCounsel Legal's advanced capabilities for research, drafting, and analysis.
Why this matters for legal teams
- Reduce tool-switching by keeping AI inside your DMS workflows.
- Control data exposure with permissioned, matter-based sharing.
- Limit shadow AI risk through centralized logging and policy enforcement.
- Speed up research, clause analysis, and first-draft creation with your existing content foundation.
Dan Hauck, chief product officer at NetDocuments, put it plainly: "Legal professionals shouldn't have to choose between innovation and information security. Through ndConnect, we're creating a bridge that allows firms to use advanced AI solutions like CoCounsel Legal without losing the protection, auditability, or structure that NetDocuments provides. This is how the next generation of legal work gets done."
Rawia Ashraf, head of product, CoCounsel Transactional, Thomson Reuters, emphasized end-to-end workflow impact: "We strive to empower legal professionals around the world to work smarter, faster, and with greater confidence. CoCounsel Legal delivers agentic AI across the full legal workflow, unifying research, knowledge management and workflow automation, and through our collaboration with NetDocuments, we are enabling legal professionals to seamlessly bring our trusted, authoritative content together with their proprietary work product to serve their clients at an even higher level."
Practical use cases you can switch on now
- Research memos with source citations saved back to the matter.
- Document review and clause comparison, with outputs auto-filed to the right workspace.
- First-draft letters, summaries, and checklists based on firm templates and precedents.
- Knowledge capture from past matters to accelerate new engagements.
Security and governance, kept intact
- Admins decide which AI tools can access which content.
- All AI outputs are stored where they belong-by matter and workspace.
- Full audit trails and searchability stay in place for compliance and QA.
How to get started
- Confirm your NetDocuments environment supports ndConnect and define your AI access policies.
- Work with Thomson Reuters to enable CoCounsel Legal for a pilot group.
- Limit early use to a few high-value workflows (e.g., research memos, clause analysis).
- Measure time saved, quality improvements, and policy adherence before scaling.
Learn more
If your firm is planning an AI rollout and needs structured upskilling, explore role-based training options here: AI courses by job.
Your membership also unlocks:
