Microsoft 365 Copilot’s Researcher agent can turn a paralegal’s research brief into a structured memo with case citations and a source list in a few minutes. In my test it did that for a software licensing dispute, and I’d treat the result as a first draft to check. I didn’t verify a single citation in the video, and nobody should rely on one until it’s been checked in a proper legal database.
Courts have already dealt with what happens when nobody checks. In 2023 a US federal court fined two New York lawyers US$5,000 after a ChatGPT-drafted filing cited cases that didn’t exist, and since 3 February 2025 the NSW Supreme Court’s Practice Note SC Gen 23 has required practitioners to verify that every citation and authority exists, a check that can’t be done with a generative AI program.
What did I test?
I played a litigation paralegal asked for background research on a commercial contract dispute over a software licensing breach. The prompt set that context and asked for four things:
- Key precedents in software licensing disputes.
- The damages frameworks courts have typically applied in similar cases.
- Relevant provisions of the Uniform Commercial Code for software transactions.
- Recent trends in how courts treat SaaS agreements compared with traditional licences.
It asked for the result as a research memo with case citations, key holdings and strategic considerations. The brief is US-centric because the Uniform Commercial Code is American law, so treat this as a test of how Researcher handles a research brief rather than of any Australian position.
What did Researcher do well?
It checked the brief before starting. Researcher came back with clarifying questions first. I was happy with the prompt, so I replied “go ahead”, but you can answer them and narrow the scope before it spends time on the wrong question.
It showed its working. While it ran, an expandable panel showed its reasoning: considering relevant precedents, exploring the key issues and frameworks. You can see where it’s heading before the memo arrives.
It followed the structure I asked for. The memo opened with an executive summary, then sections on notable cases involving use restrictions, the damages framework for software licence breaches, the relevant UCC provisions, and SaaS versus traditional licensing enforcement. Citations sat inside the text, and the sources appeared both in a Sources panel and as a bulleted list at the end.
It was quick. It finished in about three or four minutes. I’d guess the same gathering by hand across Google Scholar, LexisNexis and Westlaw takes at least half a day, though I didn’t time a manual comparison.
What didn’t I check?
The part that matters most. In the video I scrolled through the memo and admired the detail, but I didn’t open the cited cases to confirm they exist, say what the memo says they say, and are still good law. Checking them is the paralegal’s job, and in the video nobody had done it yet.
Researcher’s sources also shape what it can find. It searches the web through Bing’s index plus your work content through Microsoft Graph and any connectors your organisation has set up. It isn’t searching Westlaw or LexisNexis, so it can miss authorities that only live behind those paywalls, and it can lean on commentary sites and summaries rather than the judgment itself.
How I’d let a legal team use it
In the video I said Researcher moves a paralegal from gathering research to analysing it. I’d still give it to paralegals and lawyers on that basis, as a scoping and structuring tool, with rules written down before anyone uses it on a live matter.
The first rule is that nothing it cites goes into advice, a submission or a memo to a partner until someone has pulled the authority from a primary source and read it. Researcher’s source list makes that quicker because you know where to start, but it doesn’t replace it. Under rules like SC Gen 23 a person has to do the verification. Asking another AI to check it doesn’t count.
Second, put the jurisdiction, court level and date range in the prompt. My brief didn’t name a US state or a time window, and a better prompt would have. The Copilot prompting rules I teach apply here: say what you want, why, who it’s for and the shape you want back. Answering Researcher’s clarifying questions properly is the cheapest place to tighten the scope.
Third, use it for the work it suits: a background memo on an unfamiliar area, a list of issues to research properly, or a structure for a research note. I wouldn’t ask it whether a particular clause is enforceable.
Fourth, think about the matter data. Researcher works within each person’s existing permissions, so it can draw on matter files someone can already open. Your tenant’s information architecture decides what it can reach, so review who can open which matter sites before a legal team switches it on.
Who can use Researcher now
Researcher is available to business and enterprise users with a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence, and to Microsoft 365 Premium subscribers. It sits under Agents in the Microsoft 365 Copilot app, and if it’s missing your admin may not have enabled it. The difference between Microsoft 365 Copilot and the free Copilot Chat covers the licensing in more detail.
Researcher can also use Anthropic’s Claude models for research, once an admin allows Anthropic models in the Microsoft 365 admin centre. Microsoft’s Researcher guide covers access and the model options.
Frequently asked questions
How long does a Researcher report take? Mine took about three or four minutes. Microsoft puts simple queries at under five minutes and highly complex ones at 10 to 45 minutes.
Can an admin stop Researcher using the web? Yes. Researcher follows the tenant-wide web search setting, so if web search is turned off it works from organisational data only. There’s no setting to allow or block individual websites, and admins can block Researcher entirely.
Can compliance teams see what someone asked Researcher? Not by default. Microsoft’s Researcher FAQ says Researcher session content isn’t directly accessible to admins or compliance tools, which a legal team should know before using it on client matters.
