Thomson Reuters says more than 120,000 law students across the United States will begin the new year with access to CoCounsel Legal and Deep Research from Westlaw, marking one of the largest academic rollouts of professional-grade legal AI to date.
The move expands Thomson Reuters’ footprint across legal education, where it already serves more than 200 U.S. law schools, including the majority of top-tier T14 institutions. The company says the initiative is designed to ensure students graduate with hands-on experience using the same AI tools now being adopted by law firms, courts, and government agencies.
“By learning with the same technologies used in modern legal workflows, future lawyers can build practical skills and enter the profession with greater confidence and readiness from day one,” said Pat Eveland, General Manager, Government at Thomson Reuters.
Students will have access to CoCounsel Legal’s full suite of capabilities, including Deep Research, which Thomson Reuters describes as the legal industry’s first professional-grade agentic AI research tool. The system is designed to reason through complex legal questions, plan research steps, and deliver comprehensive answers grounded in authoritative Westlaw and Practical Law content.
CoCounsel Legal also includes a growing library of guided workflows that apply agentic AI to multi-step legal tasks such as research, drafting, and document analysis—mirroring how the technology is increasingly used in practice.
Law students say the tools will help bridge the gap between academic training and real-world legal work. “Having access to tools such as Westlaw gives us early exposure to the same technology we’ll rely on in practice and helps us learn how to use it thoughtfully,” said Jacqueline Blendermann, a member of the University of Michigan Law School’s Class of 2027.
The rollout underscores a broader shift in legal education toward AI literacy and responsible adoption. As law firms accelerate AI deployment across research, drafting, and workflow management, exposure during law school is increasingly seen as essential rather than optional.
While the announcement focuses on U.S. institutions, the implications extend beyond the border. Canadian law firms are rapidly expanding firmwide AI programs, raising expectations that new graduates—regardless of jurisdiction—arrive fluent in AI-assisted legal work. By embedding professional-grade AI into legal education at scale, Thomson Reuters is helping shape how the next generation of lawyers will practice in an increasingly technology-driven legal market.