r/Lawyertalk
“My firm has Lexis Protege AI which I use mostly for AI-assisted legal research and simple motion drafting, but I feel that I'm probably missing out on its full potential.”
in “Lexis Peotege”
NeutralResearchSays: works at a law firm
Home › Compare › Lexis+ AI vs Westlaw AI vs CoCounsel
Lexis+ AI vs Westlaw AI vs CoCounsel: what lawyers say.
Pair by pair, on this record
- Westlaw AI ahead of Lexis+ AI: the two 90% bands do not overlap.
- CoCounsel ahead of Lexis+ AI: the two 90% bands do not overlap.
- Westlaw AI and CoCounsel: the two 90% bands overlap, so net sentiment cannot tell them apart.
294 voices on Lexis+ AI, 268 voices on Westlaw AI and 411 on CoCounsel, all public posts by lawyers and people who work with them, since 2023. This is how they describe using each tool, not a test of the tools. One page for the three, instead of three two-way pages: the pairs are linked below.
Side by side
Rates and bands, not raw totals.
| Lexis+ AI | Westlaw AI | CoCounsel | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Voices on record | 294 | 268 | 411 |
| Like · mixed · dislike | 94 · 46 · 136 | 106 · 59 · 91 | 152 · 84 · 142 |
| Net like minus dislike, % of voices | −14 90% band −23 to −6 | +6 90% band −3 to +14 | +2 90% band −4 to +9 |
| Confidence | Medium | Medium | High |
| Per 100 voices: like · dislike · name hallucinations | 32 · 46 · 11 | 40 · 34 · 12 | 37 · 35 · 7 |
| Latest voice |
By task
What they were doing when they posted.
| Task | Lexis+ AI | Westlaw AI | CoCounsel |
|---|---|---|---|
| Legal research | 184 voices · net −10 | 210 voices · net +13 | 168 voices · net +17 |
| Drafting | 18 voices · net −11 | 3 voices, too few for a net | 35 voices · net +3 |
| Contract review | 0 voices | 0 voices | 6 voices · net −17 |
| Citation checking | 17 voices · net −47 | 11 voices · net −45 | 7 voices · net +14 |
| Discovery | 1 voice, too few for a net | 1 voice, too few for a net | 18 voices · net 0 |
| Summarization | 10 voices · net −40 | 11 voices · net −9 | 33 voices · net −30 |
| General use | 61 voices · net −10 | 31 voices · net −29 | 135 voices · net −3 |
Net here is plain like minus dislike as a share of that task’s voices, with no band: a task needs 5+ voices on a side to show one. Tasks with fewer on every side are left out. A voice has one task, set by our classifier.
In their own words
Each quote is a verbatim span of a counted voice, with its date and a link to the original.
On Lexis+ AI · verbatim
Hacker News
“It didn't feel drastically different from using ChatGPT with the ability to search the web [...]”
in “AI outperforms law professors in Stanford Law study” · 9 voices
MixedResearchUnverified voice
8 more voices in this thread
- Hacker News · Jun 3, 2026CriticizesLLM-drafted motions look good and usually pass unnoticed but are ethically dubious and hard for a human to catch, and reviewers grow lazier as the models improve. (summary, not a quote)open
- Hacker News · Jun 3, 2026MixedAI often outperforms knowledge workers, but only with the right questions and correction, and unchecked errors could be catastrophic in high-risk fields like legal work. (summary, not a quote)open
- Hacker News · Jun 3, 2026Lexis+ AIValues
“This is where AI offerings from Thomson or Lexis could shine, especially in jurisdictions where case law is not freely available online.”
open - Hacker News · Jun 3, 2026MixedAI chatbots can save some work, but their knowledge cutoff means they miss recent case law, so professionals relying on them risk personal liability and may have to redo the work. (summary, not a quote)open
- Hacker News · Jun 3, 2026
ChatGPTMixed“They are unbelievable at finding niche cases you would never have found on your own.”
open - Hacker News · Jun 3, 2026GeminiNeutral
“NotebookLM was considered slightly better than 2.5 Pro by the evaluators.”
open - Hacker News · Jun 3, 2026NeutralUses a coding agent to do initial legal research and drafting, pulls the full text of cited laws, then has Gemini look for issues and criticize the draft. (summary, not a quote)open
- Hacker News · Jun 3, 2026GeminiCriticizesAsked Gemini about personal conflicts; found it too conservative and shallow, so handles serious matters himself, using AI only for templated text. (summary, not a quote)open
On Westlaw AI · verbatim
r/biglaw
“I use co counsel for litigation and i find it is much more accurate for litigation research than claude, chatgpt, or gemini.”
in “Harvey / Legora are awful.” · 38 voices
ValuesAccuracyUnverified voice
37 more voices in this thread
- r/biglaw · Oct 19, 2026CriticizesLegal SaaS platforms like Harvey and Legora are just wrappers around LLMs, and the author's firm built its own in-house platform and sees their valuations as unjustified. (summary, not a quote)open
- r/biglaw · Oct 18, 2026
HarveyValues“Boomer here, but I think Harvey is incredible.”
open - r/biglaw · Oct 18, 2026HarveyValues
“When you know what you are doing and what you want, Harvey is great IMO.”
open - r/biglaw · Oct 17, 2026CoCounselNeutral
“CoCounsel allows you to build workflows and combine with other sources too, though.”
open - r/biglaw · Oct 17, 2026HarveyValues
“The US caselaw search is better because you can combine it with other sources so you can have it look through a set of litigation documents and run caselaw research to help figure out their significance at the same time.”
open - r/biglaw · Oct 17, 2026ClaudeValues
“To be very clear, in my experience having these systems finely tuned to your individual work vs the level of tuning you can get out of harvey/cocounsel/co-pilot can represent 2-3x productivity increases.”
open - r/biglaw · Oct 17, 2026HarveyValues
“Harvey vault is amazing for working with discovery productions.”
open - r/biglaw · Oct 16, 2026HarveyNeutral
“Harvey also has a US Caselaw database where whichever model you pick will directly search for cases in the database.”
open - r/biglaw · Oct 16, 2026CriticizesSays lawyers will not use raw coding or chat tools and need a wrapper around the model to make it usable. (summary, not a quote)open
- r/biglaw · Oct 16, 2026HarveyNeutral
“Harvey can be used with Astra 6 or Fable, your firm just has to agree to API pricing.”
open - r/biglaw · Oct 16, 2026HarveyNeutral
“Harvey uses the Chat GPT and Claude models and you can actually pick which model.”
open - r/biglaw · Oct 16, 2026ChatGPTValues
“What pisses me off is that our clients ARE using Claude and ChatGPT themselves and we’re stuck using these inferior models.”
open - r/biglaw · Oct 16, 2026HarveyNeutral
“Alls I know is that I can’t keep track of all the platforms so I stick to my mans Harvey even though the other mans might be better.”
open - r/biglaw · Oct 16, 2026HarveyNeutral
“You do realize that Harvey was literally just an interface to access Claude since day 1.”
open - r/biglaw · Oct 15, 2026HarveyCriticizes
“Harvey and Legora are inferior products, by magnitudes, and any firm that exclusively relies on these tools is falling behind in productivity and associate satisfaction.”
open - r/biglaw · Oct 15, 2026ClaudeValues
“If you are using Fable and you give it enough project data, it can function like your associate on that case who has a mastery of facts and super fast turnaround.”
open - r/biglaw · Oct 15, 2026HarveyCriticizes
“Harvey sucks because it's just an API built on top of open-source AI models, which are way behind the models currently available through openAI or Claude.”
open - r/biglaw · Oct 15, 2026HarveyCriticizesYounger lawyers who grew up with general AI tools would be disadvantaged by using Harvey, while older lawyers can be forgiven for adopting it. (summary, not a quote)open
- r/biglaw · Oct 15, 2026HarveyCriticizes
“This is basically a fine tuned version of the Kimi K3 model which they claim is better but is clearly worse”
open - r/biglaw · Oct 15, 2026HarveyNeutral
“Harvey does have its own propriety model. And yes, if you select a specific model, only the output is generated by that model, not all of the intervening tasks.”
open - r/biglaw · Oct 15, 2026HarveyNeutral
“There is no “Harvey” model. Harvey just picks one of the models based on your prompt.”
open - r/biglaw · Oct 15, 2026HarveyMixed
“I like to think of Harvey as an energetic junior, does their best, a fine starting point, but doesn’t produce a product I’d be willing to send a client without a deeeep review”
open - r/biglaw · Oct 15, 2026HarveyValues
“Harvey's been killing it for me on the transaction side with the rote drafting and title work.”
open - r/biglaw · Oct 15, 2026CoCounselValues
“I’ve been really impressed and don’t see how a tool could be much better”
open - r/biglaw · Oct 15, 2026CoCounselValues
“I’ve been really impressed and don’t see how a tool could be much better”
open - r/biglaw · Oct 15, 2026HarveyValues
“I use Harvey daily and think it’s a fantastic product (as long as you use it to supplement, not replace your work product)”
open - r/biglaw · Oct 15, 2026CoCounselValues
“I use co counsel for litigation and i find it is much more accurate for litigation research than claude, chatgpt, or gemini.”
open - r/biglaw · Oct 15, 2026HarveyCriticizes
“Even when I add docs to a vault and ask for a review table, getting Harvey to actually “read” the docs is like pulling teeth.”
open - r/biglaw · Oct 15, 2026ClaudeValues
“Claude code with a syfert.com MCP (or a courtlistener MCP, or ding duff) is 500% better than Harvey and Legora.”
open - r/biglaw · Oct 15, 2026HarveyMixed
“It’s usually right but the times it isn’t it’s REALLY wrong.”
open - r/biglaw · Oct 15, 2026HarveyCriticizes
“I also do not think I’m getting real Opus 5 when I select it in Harvey. And it’s hella slow.”
open - r/biglaw · Oct 15, 2026HarveyCriticizes
“Harvey profits by arbitrating token costs, so they use the cheapest models they think can get away with for the bulk of response.”
open - r/biglaw · Oct 15, 2026HarveyCriticizes
“They came out years later than Harvey, when firms already adopted Harvey, but yeah, firms should abandon Harveyw”
open - r/biglaw · Oct 15, 2026CoCounselValues
“My firm has Harvey and CoCounsel, and I just use CC bc it has access to Westlaw.”
open - r/biglaw · Oct 15, 2026HarveyCriticizes
“It routinely gives me genuinely “lazy” answers that fail to address what are obviously critical aspects of the issue, in a way that is not true of Fable or Astra”
open - r/biglaw · Oct 15, 2026HarveyCriticizes
“The only reason firms choose Harvey is it doesn’t use our data to train its AI due to confidentiality, or else they are trash”
open - r/biglaw · Oct 15, 2026HarveyCriticizes
“All other tasks, such as the actual research, review, etc, are handled by whatever model Harvey wants, including their own shitty “proprietary” models.”
open
Hacker News
“What legal professionals actually pay for [...] is to give the AI access to a legal database of case law.”
in “Mike: open-source legal AI” · 7 voices
ValuesData coverageUnverified voice
6 more voices in this thread
- Hacker News · May 5, 2026ChatGPTValuesPro se litigant ran two years of federal litigation on a $20 ChatGPT plan for research, drafting and discovery, and forced a settlement. (summary, not a quote)open
- Hacker News · May 2, 2026ChatGPTCriticizes
“With ChatGPT and Claude, the risk is much higher, because you're basically uploading entire documents with potentially privileged material to a third party, as part of your prompt.”
open - Hacker News · May 2, 2026HarveyMixed
“LLMs are absolutely abysmal at legal research and analysis, and every week we are seeing reports of some lawyer being called out publicly for submitting a brief to a court with hallucinated case citations.”
open - Hacker News · May 2, 2026MixedOpen-source legal AI is better and fine for general work, but insufficient for full research without near-complete case law coverage. (summary, not a quote)open
- Hacker News · Apr 30, 2026CriticizesLegal professional says generic LLM wrapper is no replacement for Westlaw; cannot rely on it without recourse if wrong. (summary, not a quote)open
- Hacker News · Apr 30, 2026ValuesLawyer uses AI extensively but manually reads every cited case and checks on Westlaw it is still good law. (summary, not a quote)open
On CoCounsel · verbatim
r/Lawyertalk
“I attended a demo of Westlaw's CoCounsel a few weeks ago and was thoroughly impressed.”
in “Opinions on CoCounsel?” · 17 voices
ValuesDemoUnverified voice
16 more voices in this thread
- r/Lawyertalk · Oct 19, 2026CoCounselMixedThe Westlaw-backed knowledge base is the real selling point, but drafting and Q&A features are not much better than a well-prompted Claude, so value depends on how research-heavy the practice is. (summary, not a quote)open
- r/Lawyertalk · Oct 19, 2026CoCounselMixed
“I ran a 40 lawyer pilot recently and came away impressed. Expected to hate it based on what I read, but the updated platform they rolled out in August is much better.”
open - r/Lawyertalk · Oct 19, 2026CoCounselValues
“The legal knowledge and database of citations and flags with Claude’s reasoning models can't be beat.”
open - r/Lawyertalk · Oct 19, 2026CoCounselValues
“I use CoCounsel extensively as a corporate associate. It is very good.”
open - r/Lawyertalk · Oct 18, 2026CoCounselCriticizes
“The last time I ran a prompt through cocounsel, its output was that I should consult an attorney.”
open - r/Lawyertalk · Oct 18, 2026CoCounselMixed
“It can find cases that answer your question very well. But it can’t understand the significance of anything it finds, making it useless for drafting.”
open - r/Lawyertalk · Oct 18, 2026CoCounselCriticizes
“In my opinion, it’s not enough better than a top tier ChatGPT subscription to be worth paying the price Thompson Reuters is asking.”
open - r/Lawyertalk · Oct 18, 2026CoCounselMixed
“It's good - based off Claude - with LN resources (if you've paid and have access to them, of course). It's as perfectly mediocre as you'd expect.”
open - r/Lawyertalk · Oct 18, 2026CoCounselCriticizes
“The partner I’m working with LOVES Cocounsel and I consistently struggle to make it do what I need it to do. Almost always faster to do it myself.”
open - r/Lawyertalk · Oct 18, 2026CoCounselNeutral
“No way to save instructions that I know of.”
open - r/Lawyertalk · Oct 18, 2026CoCounselMixed
“From my experience, CoCounsel can reliably analyze facts/input I provide it with general legal concepts, but lacks the capacity to narrowly analyze or apply specific case law.”
open - r/Lawyertalk · Oct 18, 2026CoCounselMixed
“I think it’s overpriced for what it does. But that’s based on my free trial a couple of months ago.”
open - r/Lawyertalk · Oct 18, 2026CoCounselMixed
“It's pretty good for broadly picking stuff out of there but connected Claude can't see it which is a bummer.”
open - r/Lawyertalk · Oct 18, 2026ClaudeValues
“I've reduced understating/overstating significantly through those.”
open - r/Lawyertalk · Oct 18, 2026CoCounselMixed
“Just act like it’s a law clerk and know you’re going to have to wade thru some crap to get things professional.”
open - r/Lawyertalk · Oct 18, 2026CoCounselMixed
“It's got access to resources but the actual AI of it doesn't seem any better than the other products out there.”
open
Hacker News
“I work at a law firm and CoCounsel[1] is pretty good.”
in “Higher-paid employees looking for work are having a tough time”
ValuesGeneral useSays: works at a law firm
Short answers
From the same record as the tables above.
How many lawyers have posted about Lexis+ AI, Westlaw AI and CoCounsel?
We count 294 public voices on Lexis+ AI, 268 public voices on Westlaw AI and 411 on CoCounsel, posted since 2023 by lawyers and people who work with them, as of . Each voice is one post or comment that names the tool.
Do lawyers feel better about Lexis+ AI, Westlaw AI or CoCounsel?
Net sentiment is −14 for Lexis+ AI, 90% band −23 to −6. Net sentiment is +6 for Westlaw AI, 90% band −3 to +14. Net sentiment is +2 for CoCounsel, 90% band −4 to +9. Westlaw AI ahead of Lexis+ AI: the two 90% bands do not overlap. CoCounsel ahead of Lexis+ AI: the two 90% bands do not overlap. Westlaw AI and CoCounsel: the two 90% bands overlap, so net sentiment cannot tell them apart.
Task reports with these tools: Legal research report · Summarization report