On March 15, leading global law firm and long-time Casetext customer DLA Piper announced it will implement CoCounsel, our first-of-its-kind AI legal assistant, in their practice. CoCounsel is built on GPT-4, the most advanced large language model from OpenAI and the first AI to pass the bar exam.
DLA Piper, which ranks third in the Am Law 200 and Global 200, currently advises many of the world’s most prominent companies and governments on the legal and compliance risks of creating and deploying AI systems. The firm received early access to CoCounsel and has been using it since September 2022.
Bennett Borden, Chief Data Scientist of the firm’s Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics Practice, commented on the benefits of CoCounsel. “With CoCounsel, our attorneys will be able to enhance their services and create more agile and focused workflows by leveraging advanced purpose-built, AI technologies,” said Borden.
“Casetext’s CoCounsel is changing how the law is practiced by automating critical, time-intensive tasks and freeing our lawyers to focus on the most impactful aspects of practice,” said Frank Ryan, DLA Piper’s Americas Chair. “No firm wants to be the last one to implement this game-changing technology.
The firm’s use of CoCounsel is indicative of the strength of the product—it amplifies the capabilities of lawyers by increasing their efficiency and enhancing the quality of their work product. Other law firms already using CoCounsel in beta include Am Law 100 firms Sheppard Mullin, Ogeltree Deakins, and O’Melveny.
With increasing adoption among law firms, CoCounsel is poised to transform the practice of law. Because the tool has the potential to save up to 60% of attorneys’ time, users will have significantly more hours for more complex, strategic work, accelerating and deepening their skills and freeing them to serve more clients.
Impact on the business of law is likely to be more gradual, but just as profound. While decreasing the time it takes to complete work could reduce the number of billable hours, it could also mean increased rates for enhanced work quality and more specialized expertise. It’s a win-win: Attorneys can become more agile and have greater freedom to focus on work they enjoy more, while clients—potentially quite a few more of them—benefit from higher-quality representation and faster turnaround times.
Read the full announcement from DLA Piper here.
