CoCounsel Core. Given the problems that ChatGPT and other GenAI generic products have had with legal research; prime among them being a tendency to make up citations that don’t exist, it would seem that the King of Legal Research, Thomson/West would be a perfect candidate to interweave GenAI into a database with only real citations. Thomson touts this fact in selling the CoCounsel product, and emphasizes that it contains guard rails in the code so that fake citations are a thing of the past. But, given that a competent researcher will always locate, brief, and print any citation a legal research product cites, and confirm its relevance before submitting a work product, the question becomes whether it is necessary. CoCounsel starts at $250 a month per seat, with slight reductions available for long term contracts. But, that is a steep price to pay for work product that can be duplicated by a $20 a month Chat GPT Plus subscription, together with review and analysis and vetting by a legal professional. As a solo, and semi retired, $250 a month is way too much for me, and I suspect many solos and small firm lawyers would find it to be a bridge too far. Plus, I have become pretty good at using the free resources, and I would never submit a case to a court that I hadn’t printed and briefed. In fact, Elon Musk has released Grok3, which I think I might like better than ChatGPT, and it is free. Thomson also claims that it will keep confidential client information better than the generic Gen AI products, which may be true. But, I have generally only used pleadings and other legal documents that are already in the public filings, and it is an easy thing to eliminate client specific identifiers. For me, saving $250 a month and applying my brain to Gen AI results is worth it. In fact, I suspect that lawyers might gain a false sense of security when they are paying a lot of money for a research product. Will any of my readers be subscribing to CoCounsel?
