Small Law Firms Turn Weeks of Document Review into Minutes
Quick Summary
Plaintiff-side firm Laffey, Bucci, D'Andrea, Reich & Ryan uses AI in Westlaw and CoCounsel to research cases, summarize document sets and build case timelines. The firm reports research time down 80% and timeline work that took weeks now done in under seven minutes.
The Use Case
The firm represents abuse survivors, and those cases generate enormous document volumes. Research and review consumed the hours attorneys wanted to spend with clients. Attorneys now run research questions through Westlaw's AI-assisted research, upload case documents to CoCounsel, get a summary of each document and a timeline built from them, and check the output against the source material before relying on it. At Bochetto & Lentz, a second Philadelphia firm in the same write-up, analyzing a 50-page scientific report and drafting the response letter went from half a day to under an hour.
Real Example
- A paralegal uploads 400 pages of records and correspondence for a new matter
- CoCounsel summarizes each document and extracts dates and parties
- It builds a chronological timeline across the whole set, about seven minutes of processing
- The attorney runs the key legal question through Westlaw's AI research
- The attorney reads the timeline against the underlying documents and corrects one date
- The saved days go into client meetings and case strategy
Why It Matters
- Legal research time down 80%
- Document summaries and timelines in under seven minutes, which the firm says saves weeks
- A 50-page report analysis and response letter went from half a day to under an hour at a second firm