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AI-Assisted Research on Westlaw Edge Canada with CoCounsel
There are nearly endless ways in which artificial intelligence (AI) can help legal professionals. From automating workflows to analyzing discovery and due diligence materials, efficiencies abound. It can be challenging to know where to start, especially when you must determine which tasks to automate and which tool to use for automation.
Why not start by simplifying a critical yet time-consuming task on a platform you trust? Legal researchers can use AI-Assisted Research on Westlaw Edge Canada with CoCounsel and find relevant answers they can rely on in less time.
Lawyers use this functionality to maximize their productivity and better serve their clients. When firms support the use of AI technology, it improves the employee experience and increases its ability to attract and retain top talent.
1. Maximize productivity in your firm
AI-Assisted Research represents the most significant change in legal research since the switch from print to online. It enables legal professionals to complete high-quality research faster and reduce time on unrealized billed hours.
The research is faster because Westlaw Edge Canada not only delivers relevant documents but also analyzes them to provide an answer to a specific question. Users can take advantage of more conversational search prompts, results delivered with context, and links to supporting material for further review. They can improve firm revenue because their bills are less likely to be written down. Clients are happier to pay for time spent drafting and creating case strategies than for time spent reading cases.
2. Better serve your clients with insight and efficiency
“Successful law firms align their practices with what their clients want,” says Zach Warren, who leads enterprise content for technology and innovation for the Thomson Reuters Institute.
Demonstrating proactive cost management is one way law firms can delight corporate legal teams. That might mean shifting to fixed fee arrangements, but it could also mean using tools that boost efficiency without compromising results. Firms can reduce the time they spend on legal research and increase their time on case strategy and drafting.
3. Attract and retain top talent
Law firm leaders continue to wrestle with the need to attract and retain the very best talent. While compensation is a critical element of a law firm's employee value proposition, it isn’t the only part — training and job duties are also elements of employee satisfaction.
AI-Assisted Research can help. For instance, when lawyers use AI to streamline the more rote or tedious tasks, they can spend more time on higher-level legal strategy and drafting. Legal professionals consistently report that the type of work they do daily affects their level of job satisfaction. Simply put, they are more likely to stay if they can do more interesting work. Employers must focus on this to remain competitive as other law firms adapt their new associate onboarding to reduce tedious work.
Some firms worry about how they will train their new associates without the many hours of document review for discovery or due diligence. Using generative AI to streamline these tasks can create more teaching moments with senior lawyers who help them evaluate the quality of AI output. These higher-quality interactions can improve satisfaction for new associates and those mentoring and teaching them.
The power of generative AI in legal research
If you feel overwhelmed by the possibilities of generative AI, take heart. The right place to start may be on your desktop already, in the form of an improved and streamlined legal research experience on Westlaw Edge Canada with CoCounsel. The AI-Assisted Research feature builds upon 150 years of expertise from the lawyer-editors of Westlaw. Unlike more general tools, it shows you exactly which documents it relies on to get the answers it provides. So, lawyers can decide for themselves whether they agree with the conclusions the tool draws.
Law firms can confidently empower their legal researchers to take advantage of the efficiency benefits of generative AI. With the help of AI-Assisted Research on Westlaw Edge Canada with CoCounsel, legal professionals can maximize productivity and delight their clients. Law firms will be able to improve the employee experience to better attract and retain top talent — that’s a win-win-win for everyone involved.
Discover the power of AI-Assisted Research with Westlaw Edge Canada with CoCounsel to maximize your productivity, better serve your clients, and attract top talent today.
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