One unique opportunity our summer associate class had was to be the first to have access to CoCounsel, Westlaw’s legal specific AI tool. During our final week, we had the opportunity to share with the Associate Committee some of our experiences using the tool so that they could better leverage it within their practice groups. Below is some advice we have gathered during our time utilizing these powerful tools:
- Know What to Use and When to Use It
Certain AI tools, such as Chat GPT and Gemini, rely on users’ inputs to improve their models. Therefore, nonpublic client information cannot be entered in them. Further, they are prone to hallucinations that can create disastrous results for attorneys.
These tools can still be used for non-legal work. For example, several summer associates used tools like these in drafting and revising their blog posts, but their use should be limited to tasks like these.
Legal specific AI tools, such as those available in Westlaw and Bloomberg, do not suffer from the same risks of privacy and hallucinations. Therefore, you are free to upload sensitive information to them without the risk it will be shared elsewhere. However, it is important to double check the output you receive and not rely on it entirely.
There are also certain instances where assigning attorneys will prefer you do not use AI on an assignment. The summer associate portal had a box where this preference could be dictated. However, if an attorney checked that AI was not permissible to use on an assignment, it might be worth discussing it further with them if you think of a way that it may improve your work product or efficiency. Separately, it is also worth discussing what AI means to them. They may not want you relying on work product drafts from CoCounsel, but be perfectly okay with you starting your legal research process by asking it to pull cases for you.
- Know How to Use It
When used improperly, AI tools can be—quite frankly—a waste of time. You could end up spending more time correcting its mistakes or being lead down a rabbit hole to nowhere. The firm offers many opportunities for you to learn how to use CoCounsel efficiently and to get support on using it for your specific assignments.
CoCounsel is likely to be useful no matter what practice area you are in, but it may be worth asking the library about other platforms that could be useful to your specific assignments or practice group of interest.
Finally, and most importantly, be sure to disclose whenever you use it—even if you have already received permission to use it on a specific assignment. The use of generative AI should always be disclosed, but it is also best to err on the side of disclosure when using other AI tools (such as Westlaw and Bloomberg’s AI research tools) even if you are not directly incorporating the output into your work product.
- Use It
If you haven’t used a tool like CoCounsel before or are simply used to doing something without it, it is harder to see the value proposition of using AI in your workflow. It may take you longer to spend the time learning how to properly use AI, leveraging its strength and supplementing its weaknesses. But by putting in the initial time to overcome the learning curve, you unlock serious potential to do work better and more efficiently.
As the role of AI in the legal industry continues to grow, it will ultimately make your work product so much more competitive if you become a proficient user of tools like CoCounsel—benefiting the client, the firm, and yourself!