Case study
Enhancing client service with CoCounsel
Deploying AI to accelerate legal tasks helps Scottish firm Swarbrick Law engage with clients more effectively and get ahead of the game on cases
Key results
- CoCounsel “more than pays for itself”
- Delivers time savings and cost benefits for clients
- Helps improve practice performance and optimises client experience
- Access to extensive legal resources gives reliable results
- Helps level the playing field between small and larger firms
Executive summary
Based in the Scottish Highlands, Swarbrick Law was an early adopter of CoCounsel, the AI legal assistant from Thomson Reuters, which it uses primarily for case research and document analysis and to produce summaries of legal issues. Since 2015, the firm has specialised in civil court work, dispute resolution, litigation, leases, and wills. Using artificial intelligence to accelerate these processes empowers it to enhance its service to clients. It can get ahead of the game on cases and understand clients’ specific concerns quickly, offering on-point advice right from the very first meeting. It delivers real value; CoCounsel “more than pays for itself.”
Accelerated work
Legal research and case preparation done sooner
Better preparation
More thorough and streamlined client service
Competitive edge
Small firm able to deliver big-firm capabilities
The opportunity: Empowering lawyers in their work
Duncan Swarbrick, Solicitor Advocate and Founder of Swarbrick Law, has always been clear that while clients are interested in results, not legal processes, technology is a critical enabler of effectiveness and efficiency in legal work. He saw the potential to use AI to carry out labour-intensive, time-consuming tasks — such as legal research — faster and just as accurately as a lawyer could. This would provide a head start on cases, enabling the firm to be more engaged with clients and more targeted in its advice from the outset of each matter. With AI set to grow exponentially, being at the front of developments and adapting ways of working to take advantage of AI’s capabilities would be vital for the future.
“Clients are looking for reassurance, resolutions, and the human touch. When we use technology, it's to enable us to deliver a better-quality service for clients,” says Swarbrick. “For me, using AI is not about having it do your job for you — it’s about enabling you to do your job better. That’s the key. It’s like any other technological revolution: it doesn’t replace people, but it does change how they do things.”
“The speed of some of the legal work you can carry out with CoCounsel is certainly an advantage. In getting things done more quickly, there’s a cost benefit for clients. And you can enhance the client experience because you’re better prepared and you can give them more clarity.”
Duncan Swarbrick
Solicitor Advocate and Founder, Swarbrick Law
The solution: A revolutionary, legal-specific AI tool
Swarbrick recognised that using generic, publicly available AI tools was not appropriate for legal work. As a long-standing customer of Westlaw, the online legal research solution, and Practical Law, the legal know-how solution from Thomson Reuters, using CoCounsel was the natural choice when it came to choosing an AI assistant. It has the extensive legal information sources and all the capabilities Swarbrick was looking for, and it is constantly being updated and enhanced with new features and functionality. In addition, it also provides reassurance and robust security in terms of compliance around client data and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR.)
“CoCounsel has access to all the legal resources I need. And straight away it was doing what I wanted it to do. From the beginning, every time I used it, I’d be surprised about how good it was.”
Duncan Swarbrick
Solicitor Advocate and Founder, Swarbrick Law
“Lawyers need AI models that are based in legal research and the law. Thomson Reuters has a very large database of legal precedents, so it's going to be much more reliable than trying to use something which is just searching the whole internet.”
The outcome: Technology that keeps on getting better
Swarbrick Law’s experience with CoCounsel keeps improving — both as the solution continuously advances and as his firm gets even better at using it. Processes are now much faster, which results in a more cost-effective service for clients.
“The speed of some of the legal work you can carry out with CoCounsel is certainly an advantage. In getting things done more quickly, there’s a cost benefit for clients. And you can enhance the client experience because you’re better prepared and you can give them more clarity,” Swarbrick explains.
“For a small firm like ours, it also levels the playing field with bigger firms because it means that you’ve got access to a much greater knowledge base.”
Working sharper
The firm uses CoCounsel from the moment a client is onboarded through to the conclusion of their matter. Swarbrick believes this is the best way to create more productive workflows and ensure that the desired outcomes are achieved.
For example, by asking CoCounsel to provide an analysis from the point of initial enquiry before the first meeting, Swarbrick can identify key issues and context ahead of time. The first meeting can then be spent focusing on and developing areas of relevance and addressing the client’s needs.
Similarly, after a meeting, the firm uses CoCounsel to create an easy-to-understand summary of the key points to give to clients or to create a focused advice note as a starting point. This ability is particularly valuable in difficult circumstances like a divorce, where there is much for clients to think about. This tool also creates a valuable record from a risk management perspective.
“CoCounsel is like having an infinitely patient colleague I can keep asking questions to. And you can stress test things against it and see if there’s an alternative view,” says Swarbrick. “It gives you an answer, and then you can immediately ask it another question and chase down a particular thread without delays or distractions. You can either rule something out or enquire into it further. So, you’re working quicker, but also sharper.”
He likes the fact that lawyers can either ask it a question in layman’s terms or give it prompts using legal language, referencing statutes or case law. He also appreciates being able to ask it to prepare a Word document of the answers to various prompts, which then can be downloaded to a file.
Ultimately, CoCounsel has been a sound investment.
“CoCounsel pays for itself: probably slightly more than pays for itself. In a landscape where the cost of legal services has gone up, being able to operate more efficiently and cost-effectively benefits both clients and the practice itself.”
Duncan Swarbrick
Solicitor Advocate and Founder, Swarbrick Law
There’s a financial benefit in that your firm can improve performance. And you can hit your targets more easily, and either do more chargeable work, or work fewer hours,” says Swarbrick.
“If we didn’t have CoCounsel, we’d be at a disadvantage. Incorporating tools like CoCounsel into your work is about delivery of service and being able to do your job effectively as a professional. That’s where the future is.”
At a glance
Industry
Legal Services
HQ region
Aviemore, Scotland, UK
Solutions
CoCounsel
Westlaw
Practical Law
Year founded
2015
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