Litigators share how CoCounsel saves time, strengthens strategy, and benefits their clients

CoCounsel has quickly become popular with thousands of lawyers nationwide since its March launch. Litigators are taking advantage of CoCounsel’s many skills, for initial case assessments and pleadings through trial and appeal. 

Dodging rabbit holes with Legal Research Memo

Myles Taylor, a partner in the Sacramento-based Parker Taylor Law Group, says he has three tabs open on his browser every day: “My Outlook, my timekeeping software, and CoCounsel.” 

Taylor’s practice includes business law, litigation, and general counsel services for companies in industries such as software, biotech, real estate, and professional services. This breadth of work means he encounters a range of issues—real property, contracts, and employment law, to name a few—as well as unfamiliar areas of law. 

To tackle these issues, he turns to the CoCounsel Legal Research Memo skill. His first step when preparing a motion or complaint is to enter the legal issue or cause of action with some of the facts of the case to get a memo. “It’s just like giving a law clerk or junior associate a research assignment—but CoCounsel spits out the information you need in minutes,” he explained. 

Taylor, who primarily practices in California, recently worked with a colleague on a business tort case involving questions of personal jurisdiction in Nevada. With Legal Research Memo, he was able to quickly get up to speed on the nitty-gritty of the state’s procedural rules. And he was able to access Nevada law without additional charges. 

“CoCounsel gives me comfort as I step into a new area of law or approach an issue I haven’t worked on in a year or two,” he said. “It’s really useful to get a jumping-off point for any topic—it’s like talking to someone who has deep knowledge of a subject, who is able to direct me to what is important and on-point, so I can avoid rabbit holes and get right to the information and relevant cases I need.” 

At The Drake Law Firm in Golden, Colorado, owner Marie Drake focuses primarily on family law and divorce matters, with a smaller portion of her practice devoted to real estate issues. Like Taylor, Drake and her firm rely primarily on Legal Research Memo. 

“It helps us more efficiently draft pleadings and prepare for hearings and settlement negotiations,” said Drake. “We’ve also recently used CoCounsel to draft testimony questions in a common law marriage trial.” She believes it benefits the firm and its clients by saving hours of time on research and writing.

Review Documents: The workhorse skill for dep prep, brief drafting, and trial strategy

While Taylor and Drake use Legal Research Memo the most in their practices, Joshua Milon, a partner in the California employment law firm Milon Pluas LLP, relies on it to research more obscure issues, such as exemptions. Milon, who is a 16-year litigator, instead favors the Review Documents skill. 

“The ability to synthesize data has saved me a ton of time,” Milon said. “CoCounsel saves me five to eight hours on reviewing documents per deposition, depending on the volume of documents.” 

He recently uploaded 2,000 discovery documents and entered various questions, such as whether the defendant showed hostility toward his client and was involved in his client’s termination. CoCounsel produced a report giving him a high-level view of the case, with an index referencing specific documents for a more granular look at the evidence. “It helps me marshal evidence and know all the facts of a case before heading into a deposition or trial,” he said. 

“It doesn’t replace me as an attorney, it just gives me a huge head start by fast-forwarding me to the best parts to look at in the discovery. I still review the sources CoCounsel cites to understand the context. I trust CoCounsel’s output, but tone and context is particularly important in employment matters,” Milon explained. 

Milon also uses Review Documents for trial strategy. “CoCounsel looks at the documents objectively, and I can ask it, from the perspective of the defense, what are they going to argue, which helps me strategize my counter-argument,” he said. “It’s amazing trial prep for me, because I gain an understanding of the negative aspects of my case and how my adversary is going to defend his case, how they may spin the evidence in their favor.”

He also finds Review Documents useful for drafting mediation briefs and oppositions. Milon and his team were recently preparing an opposition to a motion for summary judgment, which required the review of 28 deposition transcripts. Milon ran the transcripts through Review Documents and gave the report to his associates.

He described CoCounsel as getting his team 80% of the way there. “The associates had a combined index for all the depositions directing them to specific pages talking about harassment, workplace investigations, and other relevant facts,” he said. “Then, the humans take over.”

Litigators weigh in: Will AI replace attorneys and paralegals?

Milon doesn’t think AI is a replacement for associates or paralegals.

“I look at it as a tool, not an end-all. It’s a tool that allows me to do other things, that pushes me forward,” Milon reasoned. “And just like having an associate who writes up a brief, you’re going to want to review it before you submit it,” he continued. 

Taylor, whose firm has eight attorneys and three paralegals, agrees. He thinks AI modifies the role of attorneys and paralegals for the better. 

“It’s saving me time on things I don’t want to be spending time on, those tasks that are more time-consuming and my least favorite to work on, like research or dealing with masses of documents. Now I get a research memo, verify the cases, and continue the project.” 

He also believes clients will benefit significantly. 

“When an associate takes eight hours to do something that shouldn’t have taken that long, the firm will have cut some of that time, but will still bill an appropriate portion of it to the client. Someone with CoCounsel can now accomplish the task in less time, which could save the firm from having to cut as much and give the client a lower overall bill. That’s where the role will change.”

Taylor added: “I don’t think AI will replace lawyers, but I do believe it’s true that lawyers who use AI will replace lawyers who don’t.”  

By tapping into CoCounsel, litigators are gaining a competitive edge in many different areas. In our next post about how attorneys are putting CoCounsel to work for them, we’ll explore how transactional lawyers are using it in their practice.