CASE STUDY
Meet CoCounsel, Lex Ensemble’s ‘permanent paralegal’
Santanu Ghosh is the Founder & Managing Partner of Lex Ensemble. Santanu specialises in international arbitration and has been practicing for the last 25 years, with the last eight years in DIFC and ADGM.
Lex Ensemble is involved in various legal consultancy services, including advisory, Funds, drafting shareholder agreements, other commercial cross border agreements and commercial litigation.
Why professional-grade AI?
Santanu is the primary decision maker for his law firm, and recently adopted CoCounsel as part of the firm's strategy to improve client service through innovation.
I understand the importance of leading firm like mine needing to have a professional-grade AI legal solution. CoCounsel is our firm’s permanent paralegal. It is fast, efficient, and I know I can count on Thomson Reuters’ continuing to invest in CoCounsel
Workload management for lawyers
The perennial challenge of managing time on legal-related work led Santanu to seek out a professional-grade AI legal solution for his firm.
"Time management is crucial, as we have back-to-back cases requiring documentation and drafting. I have noticed many mistakes when juniors use general-use AI tools. This led me to seek a more reliable solution. Specifically, I was looking for an AI assistant that could handle the complexities of legal work without the errors I have seen with general-use AI tools. For instance, there was a case where a client provided judgements generated by ChatGPT, but those judgments did not exist, which was a significant issue,” said Santanu.
Trusted brand
The decision to purchase CoCounsel was strategic. Santanu did not want his firm to be a technology laggard and selected a product and brand he trusted.
“I chose CoCounsel immediately after the demo. I had used Westlaw and Practical Law before, so there was an element of trust with the Thomson Reuters brand. The integration of CoCounsel with these tools made the decision easier. The familiarity with Thomson Reuters' products and their reliability played a significant role in my decision. I knew that their tools would provide the accuracy and efficiency needed for my practice,” explained Santanu.
Chronology skill clarifies documents quickly
CoCounsel helps Santanu manage his workload by handling tasks like listing events and dates from documents quickly. This allows him to focus on more critical aspects of legal work.
For example, in a recent arbitration case with hundreds of pages of documents, CoCounsel quickly listed key events and dates, giving Santanu context on the matter before he went through the full document. He said the “efficiency is invaluable” in managing his workload.
CoCounsel provides “extremely fast results”
Santanu is more responsive to his clients with CoCounsel on side. “Clients often expect quick updates and responses, and CoCounsel helps me meet these expectations by speeding up the initial review and communication process.”
It provides extremely fast results helping us to focus on the legal deliverables post the preparation effectively. No human would be able to achieve what it does, in the time it takes to do it
Creates room for more cases
In addition to workload management, CoCounsel helps to reduce drudge work. Once rolled out to the firm, Santanu anticipates CoCounsel will unlock client service opportunities.
“CoCounsel can handle routine updates and assist with administrative tasks. In turn, it helps to free up time for more complex legal work. In time, I expect CoCounsel will allow the firm to take on more cases without compromising on quality,” said Santanu.
However, AI cannot replace thorough legal work
Santanu sees CoCounsel as a pillar of future growth, helping attract more clients and improving service quality. However, he does warn that it is essential to balance AI's capabilities with the expertise of lawyers.
“AI can provide the data and initial analysis, but the final delivery and interpretation must come from experienced lawyers. This balance ensures that we maintain high standards of legal service while leveraging the efficiency of AI,” Santanu stressed.
CoCounsel removes risk of “unofficial” AI in firms
Whilst general-use AI tools are useful, Santanu is concerned about lawyers using them in the workplace unofficially, and without verifying the accuracy.
“It is crucial to ensure that AI-generated content conforms to legal requirements. There have been instances in the profession where juniors used AI for drafting, but the substance was lost despite the grammatical accuracy. This highlights the need for proper oversight and training in using general-use AI tools effectively,” explained Santanu.
Lex Ensemble’s decision to roll out a trusted, professional-grade AI rules out any possible use of unofficial AI at the firm. CoCounsel allows us to drive AI innovation in a safe manner.
Plugging in to the Thomson Reuters ecosystem
Santanu is looking forward to discovering more features as he uses CoCounsel. The potential for AI to integrate with other systems and handle more complex tasks is exciting.
“As I continue to use CoCounsel, I expect to find new ways it can benefit my practice and enhance our service delivery. It is difficult to predict how AI will transform itself in the future but certainly we can look forward to speedier resolution of assignments for clients.”
