Case study
Carnevale Business Law turns efficiency into client value with CoCounsel and Westlaw Advantage
By adopting AI solutions from Thomson Reuters, Carnevale Business Law reduces process-heavy work and redirects that time to strategy, creative thinking, and client service
Introduction
For Carnevale Business Law, efficiency is not about cutting corners; it's about reducing time spent on manual processes and creating more time to support clients.
This business law firm — comprising 6 lawyers and a team of 10 paralegals and law clerks — specializes in litigation, corporate matters, financial services, and estate and succession planning. They needed tools that could help their team move faster on routine work while preserving the originality, judgment, and creativity that define their practice.
By adopting CoCounsel and Westlaw Advantage Canada from Thomson Reuters, the firm reduced time spent on process-heavy tasks, improved early-stage research, and supported junior legal professionals and clerks, all while freeing up more time for strategic client work.
Efficiency gains without compromising standards
Like larger organizations, Carnevale Business Law faces pressure to serve clients efficiently, control costs, and keep pace with a rapidly changing legal environment. However, smaller firms often have fewer internal resources when unfamiliar issues arise or workloads spike.
Morgan Connor, a lawyer at the firm, helped lead the push to bring more advanced Thomson Reuters tools into the practice. The goal was not to replace legal thinking, but to better support lawyers, paralegals, and clerks in the early stages of research, drafting, and document-heavy workflows.
Before adopting the newer AI-enabled tools, the firm was already using Westlaw products. But as demands increased, so did the desire for technology that could do more, especially in research support, drafting assistance, and time-consuming clerical tasks.
One major driver was the administrative burden attached to litigation files. Preparing document indexes, assembling records, and organizing affidavits for documents can consume hours of staff time, leaving less time to address more substantive work.
Using CoCounsel and Westlaw Advantage as a stronger starting point
Today, Carnevale Business Law uses CoCounsel and Westlaw Advantage as practical, everyday tools across both litigation and corporate work.
For Connor, one of the biggest advantages is speed at the start of a matter. With a new intake, a lawyer may have limited facts and little time to prepare for an initial call. Instead of spending hours on unbilled preliminary research, the team can use Deep Research — Westlaw Advantage’s advanced AI research capability — to obtain a grounded overview of the legal landscape, identify relevant issues, and quickly understand which principles or causes of action deserve closer attention.
"Deep Research is a good starting tool, and it cuts down on time. You're efficient, and you can have that first conversation with the client feeling knowledgeable and supported," Connor says. The same benefit applies to drafting. Rather than starting from a blank page, lawyers can use CoCounsel to help structure a memo, refine a difficult paragraph, or improve clarity in a draft. The result is not a finished filing ready to submit unchanged — it is a faster route to a stronger first draft.
Westlaw Advantage and CoCounsel really opened our ability to take on more files and also take better focus of those files.
Morgan Connor
Lawyer, Carnevale Business Law
Connor emphasized that this helps protect the team's own legal reasoning and voice. Instead of spending valuable time on baseline language or initial framing, they can focus more on case strategy, fact development, and creative argumentation.
A practical tool for clerks and junior legal professionals
The value of the tools extends beyond lawyers. Law clerk Shaelyn Shanahan described using Westlaw Advantage to answer procedural questions, understand unfamiliar issues, and find examples of how other practitioners have approached similar filings. For someone fielding questions throughout the day, having a fast and reliable starting point has become a major advantage.
In one litigation matter, Shanahan needed to research procedural requirements for bringing a motion. Basic online searching was not enough for such a specific legal topic. By using Deep Research and related Westlaw tools, she was able to understand how statutory amendments had changed the framework, identify the relevant regulation, and locate supporting authority. Just as importantly, the answer was presented in a way that made it easy to follow and apply. "It's like a librarian that knows exactly where everything is and points you directly to that information," Shanahan says.
Combating the narrative of overreliance and skill erasure
Connor and Shanahan see AI as a force for good in legal practice and a driver of client satisfaction. Shanahan describes Deep Research as a tool that expands legal thinking rather than shutting it down.
“Typically, when you think of AI, you think of turning your brain off and letting a machine do it for you. But in this instance, it's almost the opposite. It has expanded my learning with increased tools at my disposal.”
Shaelyn Shanahan
Law Clerk, Carnevale Business Law
Smaller firms often lack dedicated knowledge management support teams. Deep Research helps fill that gap for lawyers and clerks who cannot simply walk down the hall to ask a librarian for help. The tool can help provide an explanation of a doctrine, test, or procedure, and then the user can follow up with more targeted questions or a deeper source review. In that sense, the tools function like an always-available assistant or first-line mentor.
More time for clients, more capacity for the firm
For Carnevale Business Law, the return on investment is clearest in how the tools change the economics of time.
When a task that once took 10 to 20 hours can be shortened dramatically, the benefit is not simply fewer hours spent. It is the ability to redirect that time into new matters, more responsive client service, better file management, and deeper strategic work.
Connor notes that firms often discount time spent on labour-intensive administrative work, meaning those hours do not always translate into realized revenue. By using CoCounsel and Deep Research to reduce the burden of routine research and document preparation, the firm can redirect that regained capacity to work that is more valuable to clients and more productive for the practice.
That time saved makes the investment easier to justify, especially for smaller firms that need to maximize every hour. "It's an investment in the firm, making us more strategic, efficient and productive,” Connor states.
The tools have also improved the day-to-day experience for the team. Lawyers and clerks spend less time wrestling with tedious tasks and more time doing substantive work. Clients benefit from faster turnaround, more efficient research, and lower frustration around avoidable costs.
The result: Efficiency without losing originality
What stands out most in Carnevale Business Law's experience is not just the time saved. It is the balance the firm has achieved between efficiency and individuality.
CoCounsel and Westlaw Advantage Deep Research have helped the team streamline administrative work, improve early legal analysis, support clerks and junior professionals, and create more room for strategic thinking. But just as importantly, the tools have done so without diminishing the firm's commitment to creativity, judgment, and client-focused advocacy.
For Carnevale Business Law, that is the real value — not replacing lawyers, paralegals, and law clerks, but empowering them to spend more of their time where they add the most value.
Morgan Connor
Lawyer, Carnevale Business Law
Shaelyn Shanahan
Law Clerk, Carnevale Business Law
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