Thomson Reuters is ushering in early access to what is described as the next generation of CoCounsel Legal. This move marks a significant overhaul of the flagship legal AI assistant since the product was acquired through the company’s purchase of Casetext in 2023. During a recent LinkedIn Live event, Ragunath Ramanathan, president of legal professionals at Thomson Reuters, disclosed that the product has been entirely rebuilt.
In May, Thomson Reuters announced it had redeveloped the system using Anthropic’s Claude Agent SDK, with expectations to reach general availability in the summer. The early-access rollout starts this week, allowing U.S. customers to toggle between the updated version and the existing one, with a full launch slated for August 2026, followed by expansions in Canada, the U.K., and Australia.
The transformation from discrete “skills” and structured workflows to a more dynamic agent-like functionality marks a notable change. The next generation is designed to function more like a colleague than a conventional software program, as emphasized by Thomson Reuters’ Co-heads of Legal Products, Emily Colbert and Rawia Ashraf. Users can describe legal matters in plain language, prompting the system to generate plans, handle intricate legal issues, reference existing user precedents, and create citation-rich drafts.
The response from beta testers has been overwhelmingly positive, with some even expressing their enthusiasm in colorful language. The product’s reception has moved beyond expectations, with users starting almost every project within the new experience, citing its capabilities akin to a skilled junior lawyer.
Further developments are on the horizon, as Thomson Reuters plans to introduce additional features such as Workspaces—a dedicated environment for each matter that retains users’ documents and prior positions. The Brief Builder, an enhanced drafting tool grounded in Westlaw and Practical Law authority, and firm-specific intelligence tools are set to debut.
An emphasis on what the company terms “fiduciary-grade AI” underscores CoCounsel’s development, highlighting a commitment to accuracy, confidentiality, and accountability. According to Joel Hron, the chief technology officer, this approach integrates CoCounsel across various platforms such as Microsoft 365 and HighQ, establishing it as an “agentic operating system” for legal professionals. In line with this vision, Thomson Reuters is collaborating with notable tech companies including Google, OpenAI, and AWS to enable seamless access through APIs and interfaces.