Transforming legal research in the age of AI — and defending market leadership
WHY
Transform legal research in the age of AI and defend Thomson Reuters’ market leadership
The legal research market was being disrupted by generative AI. Competitors — Harvey, Lexis, and vLex — were aggressively positioning AI-powered solutions, creating existential pressure on Westlaw to redefine its future. At the same time, customer expectations had fundamentally shifted: lawyers no longer wanted better search results. They wanted answers, reasoning, and strategic guidance delivered in minutes rather than hours. Westlaw's previous AI product, AI-Assisted Research, had failed to build trust. It presented answers without transparency into sourcing or reasoning — and in a profession where a single incorrect citation can have serious professional consequences, "mostly right" is not good enough. Adoption was low, and warranted scepticism was high. An ambitious goal was set: create a completely new Westlaw experience centered around AI Deep Research, and launch it months ahead of the original plan — in time for ILTA, the legal industry's largest conference. What initially seemed impossible became a company-wide priority. The challenge wasn't simply building an AI feature. It was creating a differentiated legal research experience that could leverage Thomson Reuters' proprietary content, research tools, and decades of editorial expertise to produce results competitors simply could not match.
WHAT
Designed and launched Westlaw Advantage with AI Deep Research in four months
Led UX strategy, experience design, and cross-functional collaboration for the transformation of Westlaw into Westlaw Advantage — introducing AI Deep Research and a completely reimagined legal research workflow. Research and user testing ran continuously throughout, with every design decision grounded in real user feedback and guided by four core principles: Show the Work, Source Everything, Structure Over Chaos, and Ease of Use.
AI Deep Research
A multi-agent legal research experience that:
– Generates detailed research plans and conducts iterative legal research
– Produces comprehensive legal memoranda with cited authorities and counterarguments
– Surfaces sourcing transparency via KeyCite flags and inline tooltips on every key claim
– Supports clarifying questions, follow-up research, and report Verification
– Mimics the workflow of an experienced legal researcher — delivering in minutes what previously took hours
New Westlaw Advantage Experience
Designed and launched a completely reimagined product, including:
– New homepage experience and left navigation architecture
– Guided AI research workflows with real-time reasoning transparency – Sources management with filters — turning an overwhelming reference list into an auditable, searchable record
– Concise / Expanded depth toggle — replacing a confusing 3-option dropdown that testing repeatedly showed users couldn't parse
– Cases-on-both-sides analysis, clarifying question workflows, and follow-up research experiences
– Enhance tab — allowing users to tailor reports to specific client matters via AI generated questions
– Verify tab — enabling post-report accuracy checking before use in client work – Fully responsive mobile experience
Rapid Delivery Model
Delivered across four consecutive phases — all within an unprecedented four-month window:
– Phase 1 (August): AI Deep Research — report-first experience, KeyCite sourcing, realtime research steps
– Phase 2 (October): Westlaw Advantage — tabbed architecture, Enhance, filtered Sources, depth toggle
– Phase 3 (November): Enhanced Deep Research — Verify tab, TOC, modernised visual design
– Phase 4 (December–January): Fully responsive Westlaw experience AI Deep Research launched in approximately one quarter of the time it took to ship the previous AI-Assisted Research experience.
Cross-functional Leadership
Built trust with senior product leadership and coordinated design, research, and delivery across:
– Product, Engineering, and AI Labs — aligning on technical feasibility while protecting design intent
– UX Research — running weekly customer testing and rapid iteration cycles throughout all phases
– Legal content teams — integrating Thomson Reuters' editorial expertise into the AI research workflow
– Senior stakeholders — maintaining continuous alignment through a four-month compressed timeline
WOW
Delivered one of Thomson Reuters’ most successful product launches ever
Business Impact
– $10M+ in pre-launch sales before general availability
– $40M Greenberg Traurig deal — Deep Research cited as a major factor in the purchase decision
– 96% win rate for Westlaw Advantage — the highest among all products tracked
– $3.7M in launch-month sales — outperforming the launch of Westlaw Precision
– Monthly sales tripled from a $4.1M average to $12.5M in September, setting an all time global Westlaw sales record
Market Impact
At ILTA 2025, Thomson Reuters launched Westlaw Advantage while major competitors arrived without comparable Deep Research capabilities.
This created a decisive market advantage and established Thomson Reuters as the clear leader in AI-powered legal research at the moment the industry was most paying attention.
Customer Impact
Customers described AI Deep Research as a category-defining product: "A six-figure problem dealt with in ten minutes."
"It's almost like having a second-year associate at your disposal."
"I don't know I can go back to living without these tools."
"The report is just so good I want to cry."
Several customers reported that Deep Research solved highly nuanced legal questions, surfaced critical authorities missed by attorneys, and saved dozens — or even hundreds — of hours of legal work.
Engagement & Adoption
– 10x faster adoption than its predecessor — 3,103 users on Day 14 vs. 322 for AIAssisted Research
– 4x higher daily engagement — 31% daily engagement in first 40 days vs. 7% for prior AI product
– 287,800 reports generated across 20,680 users and 3,455 accounts by end of October
– 2.03 million page views by March 2026 — a +2,513.7% increase — averaging 2h 23m per session – 82.2% account adoption across eligible accounts, with thousands of first-time accounts still discovering the feature
Executive Recognition
"Surely our greatest achievement yet. Previous Westlaw launches got "This is cool." Deep Research got WTF reactions."
— Mike Dahn, Head of Westlaw
Design Leadership Recognition
The project earned a Far Exceeded performance rating, with leadership specifically recognising: building trust with senior stakeholders across a compressed timeline; driving rapid experimentation and iteration; leading one of the highest-profile initiatives in the company; delivering award-worthy work under extreme constraints; and helping create one of the most successful product launches in Thomson Reuters history.
The Westlaw Advantage team, won two of the five 2025 Breakthrough Awards at Thomson Reuters: the Market Impact Award — recognising initiatives that delivered significant commercial results and competitive wins — and the Game Changer Award — celebrating products, features, or projects that raised the bar for customers and the market.
The Breakthrough Awards are Thomson Reuters' annual recognition program, honouring exceptional achievements across Product, Engineering, Design, Content, and Editorial, and showcasing how bold ideas translate into real customer impact. A testament to what's possible when a global team across product, design, and engineering comes together to drive meaningful change