Name: CoCounsel review: Thomson Reuters' AI legal assistant
Item: CoCounsel (Thomson Reuters)
Author: The Small Firm Stack

What it does: CoCounsel is Thomson Reuters' AI assistant for legal research, drafting, and document review. It draws on Westlaw, Practical Law, and your own documents, and works inside Microsoft Word, Outlook, and Teams (CoCounsel Legal product page, checked Oct 19, 2026).

Who it fits: Firms that already use or are thinking about Westlaw or Practical Law. Thomson Reuters sells small firm bundles such as "Westlaw Advantage with CoCounsel Essentials" and "Practical Law Dynamic Tool Set with CoCounsel Essentials" (CoCounsel Legal product page, checked Oct 19, 2026).

Price

Not published as a fixed number. The CoCounsel Essentials pricing page shows a price only after you answer questions in an online form. It says online prices are for new customers only and that two and three year terms get a discount (CoCounsel Essentials plans and pricing, checked Oct 19, 2026). We did not use prices from third party sites.

Where your client data goes

Data Trail card

Question	What Thomson Reuters says	Source
Where is data stored and processed?	Hosting is in the US, and interactions with OpenAI GPT and Google Gemini are processed in the US. Region based hosting is available in the UK, Australia, and Canada.	CoCounsel FAQ, checked Oct 19, 2026
Is it used to train AI?	"Your user content and prompts are not used to train or improve CoCounsel and associated products or LLMs." OpenAI and Google are "contractually prohibited from using any customer data to train their models."	CoCounsel FAQ, checked Oct 19, 2026
Do AI providers keep it?	All calls to AI providers use "zero-retention API calls." Where applicable, third party abuse monitoring is turned off so there is no human access.	CoCounsel FAQ, checked Oct 19, 2026
How long is it kept?	Set per organization with a Thomson Reuters client manager. Users can delete their content and prompts at any time.	CoCounsel FAQ, checked Oct 19, 2026
Who else touches it?	Named AI partners include OpenAI and Google. AI requests are sent under the name "Thomson Reuters," not your firm's name.	CoCounsel FAQ, checked Oct 19, 2026
SOC 2 or other audit	"SOC 2 and ISO 42001 certified."	CoCounsel Legal product page, checked Oct 19, 2026
Encryption	TLS 1.2 in transit, AES 256 at rest.	CoCounsel FAQ, checked Oct 19, 2026
Export and leave, BAA	Not published on the pages we read. Ask vendor.	Checked Oct 19, 2026

Integrations

Microsoft Word, Outlook, and Teams, plus Westlaw and Practical Law (CoCounsel Legal product page, checked Oct 19, 2026). Thomson Reuters also says it connects to document management system partners (CoCounsel FAQ page, checked Oct 19, 2026). Smokeball has brought Westlaw Deep Research into its Archie AI (Smokeball pricing, checked Oct 19, 2026).

Setup effort and hidden costs

You need to fill out a form or talk to sales to see your price (CoCounsel Essentials plans and pricing, checked Oct 19, 2026).
Lower prices are tied to multi year terms (CoCounsel Essentials plans and pricing, checked Oct 19, 2026).

Contract traps

Discounts come with two or three year commitments. Ask what renewal pricing looks like and whether you can leave early (CoCounsel Essentials plans and pricing, checked Oct 19, 2026).
Online pricing is for new customers only, so existing Thomson Reuters customers may get different terms (CoCounsel Essentials plans and pricing, checked Oct 19, 2026).

Questions to ask Thomson Reuters

What is the one year price, and how much more is it than the multi year price?
What retention setting will my account have by default?
Where does "where applicable" apply to abuse monitoring? Is it off for my account?
How do I export my work if I leave?

Strengths

Detailed, specific answers on training, retention, encryption, and data location (CoCounsel FAQ, checked Oct 19, 2026).
Zero retention with its AI providers (CoCounsel FAQ, checked Oct 19, 2026).
Grounded in Westlaw and Practical Law content (CoCounsel Legal product page, checked Oct 19, 2026).

Limits

No simple public price (CoCounsel Essentials plans and pricing, checked Oct 19, 2026).
Best value is tied to multi year terms (CoCounsel Essentials plans and pricing, checked Oct 19, 2026).

Our take

This is our opinion, based on the sourced facts above. CoCounsel's data answers are among the clearest we read. If you already pay for Westlaw, it is worth a demo. Before signing a multi year deal, ask for the one year price side by side so you know what the discount really costs you in flexibility.

Last checked: Oct 19, 2026. Published by the team behind The Small Firm Stack, who also build phone and intake systems for law firms. See our About page for the full disclosure. We never list, rank, or review ourselves. No vendor paid for this page and it has no affiliate links. Not legal advice. Vendors can send corrections through our About page.