CoCounsel for Microsoft Outlook allows you to manage your emails, documents and matters directly to HighQ and Legal Tracker, from Microsoft Outlook for Office 365.
The add-in is linked to your Microsoft 365 account and is available on both Windows and Mac desktops, and your browser.
Install the add-in to add a
Thomson Reuters
button in your
Outlook
integrations bar. The add-in provides options for saving and filing emails and documents in your 'My files' area of Collaborate, create matters, and share documents.
Installation and security
The Installation and Security article includes answers to
Security FAQs.
Log in for the first time
Please see
here if you have not yet logged in and connected your HighQ or Legal Tracker accounts.
The contents of the add-in panel vary according to the accounts you have connected.
Matter Management features
Set-up iSheet associations
As a HighQ admin of the organization, you can set up iSheet Associations in the add-in settings. You can map your matter management iSheets to easily create new matters directly from Outlook.
Click
Add iSheet Mapping
to create a new mapping.
If you are not an admin user, you can view and select a mapping but you cannot edit it.
You can add up to eight mappings, however, you can only create one association per iSheet. The following message appears if an association already exists:
The mapping is already created for the selected Site and Isheet.
1. Select your Site and iSheet
Select your site and an iSheet from the site to start mapping.
The add-in currently does not support User Lookup or Calculation columns.
The same User permissions to Sites and iSheets used in HighQ apply with you use the Outlook Add-in.
2. Select your iSheet fields
iSheet mandatory columns from the selected iSheet are shown in a table.
These columns are all required to create a record; you cannot remove these lines from the table.
Click
Add
to select additional columns. You can list a total of 12 columns in this window.
Selected columns keep the column format from iSheets (dropdown, single-line text, etc.)
Mapping supports a maximum of 12 columns (both mandatory and optional). If your iSheet has more than 12 mandatory columns, we recommend you reduce the number of mandatory fields.
An error message is displayed if the selected iSheet has more than 12 mandatory columns:
Max number of 12 rows has been reached. Delete existing rows to create new ones
.
3. Map columns
You can now match each selected column with the most appropriate value in the
Equivalent fields
menu.
Select the most appropriate available value; this should match your iSheet column as closely as possible. If you can’t find a matching field, select
Other
from the bottom of the dropdown menu.
This information helps to increase precision when the add-in identifies and extracts information from an email.
4. Enable AI Extraction
If you have subscribed to the add-in AI features you can use them in your matter intake process. Choose the values that you want to extract with the AI service and click the
AI extraction
checkbox for each row.
If the row is not selected, then the add-in either leaves the column empty or uses the default value (if provided in the
Set default value
field, below).
5. Set a default value
The default value is used if
AI Extraction
is not selected, or the AI extraction does not return any relevant data.
For example, you might want to set a default value if you know that this specific column is often filled (more than 50% of the time) with the same value. If the AI extraction does not find this information, then the correct value is usually already present and does not need to be changed, saving time.
6. Add additional context to facilitate the AI extraction
Additional AI prompts
are used if
AI Extraction
is selected. For each field, this information is used as additional context to increase the precision of AI extraction.
This is an optional field that needs careful consideration for the best results. For instance, you can use it to define some acronyms or data that are specific to your business and not understood by the untrained AI service.
As an example, if the acronym “AAA” means “Africa, Asia and America” in your company, add an AI prompt such as
"AAA" means "Africa, Asia and America"
to help the AI model to identify this value.
7. Save the mapping
After you have checked the iSheet mapping table, click
Save mapping
to save that mapping and return to the main screen.
If you want to temporarily pause the creation of the iSheet mapping, you can save a draft and edit it later.
If the mapping is incomplete, click
Save a draft
to create the draft, When the mapping is complete, this button is replaced with
Save Mapping
.
Manage your mappings
If you create more than one mapping, select the default mapping for incoming emails in iSheet Associations settings. The default mapping is used to create new matters in the add-in. You can switch from one mapping to another at any time.
An admin can edit and create mappings from the iSheet Associations settings screen.
Users without admin access are able to view the mappings and change their default mapping, they cannot edit or create mappings.
iSheet Associations in Settings
Admin view:
Delete and edit options are available within iSheet Associations.
User view:
Delete and edit options aren't available.
Create a matter - from an email or manually
The Outlook Add-in can effortlessly create new matters (as HighQ iSheet records or Legal Tracker matters) directly from Outlook.
You can either manually enter your matter information or use the 'Extract Information' AI feature.
Create a matter using AI
The 'Extract information' feature helps you streamline your matter intake process by intelligently extracting the most important information from an email legal request and mapping it to your legal request records.
Select the email that contains an intake request open the add-in and select
Extract information
:
An intake request card is created, and you can choose to create a matter on HighQ and Legal Tracker.
If you don’t have permission to create a matter on HighQ, you can still send a standard Intake Request.
Legal Tracker permissions
The matter creation feature is accessible to users with the matter creator role, or higher, in Legal Tracker. The process is streamlined as input is required for just five fields:
Short Matter Name
,
Full Name/Parties Involved
,
Matter Description
,
Currency
, and optionally,
Matter ID
. Mandatory fields are automatically filled with values sourced from the add-in defaults. Users with permission can later edit those values in the Legal Tracker platform.
Click
Intake Action
and select your preferred service to create a matter and access the matter information extracted from the email.
Matter details are extracted from the email and shown in the app panel:
Click the edit pen in the top-right corner to edit the extracted matter details:
When the matter details are finalised, select
Create Matter
. This validates the matter creation and the matter is created on HighQ or Legal Tracker, based on your initial selection.
Keep in mind that the rules configured for your HighQ iSheet or Legal Tracker fields or columns apply here. This includes field formats, mandatory columns and optional fields.
A green tick is displayed if the field matches requirements: .
If the field does not match requirements, then an error message is displayed:
This field is required
.
Please add or adjust text so the content matches the requirements.
A confirmation screen opens. Click
Go to matter
to open the matter in Legal Tracker or HighQ; click
Back to Home
to leave the matter creation panel.
If some mandatory information is missing from your request, you can gather the additional details needed to create your matter.
Click
Email requester for more info
to automatically draft an email request for the missing information:
A draft email is automatically created, based on the missing mandatory information.
Only the mandatory details needed to create a matter are requested in the drafted email reply. You can add requests for optional fields, but these aren’t automatically included.
You can edit the reply but keep it structured and use appropriate keywords so that the legal requestor can efficiently reply. The add-in can then extract the missing information from the new reply.
Once it is ready, send your email reply to the requester.
When you receive a new reply from the requester with the missing information, the following card appears:
Click
Extract info with CoCounsel
to extract the previously missing information and complete your matter creation. If some information is
still
missing, you can repeat the process until the add-in has all the information that it needs.
Create a matter manually
Click on the following cards to create a matter
without
using the AI Extraction feature:
The fields are the same
as described above, but the card is empty; you can manually complete all the fields to create your matter.
Send an intake request to Legal Tracker
You can send matter intake requests directly to Legal Tracker from the Outlook add-in. This is an option for all Legal Tracker users, regardless of system role, This feature simplifies the intake process as it only requires you to submit a short matter name to initiate the request.
Select
Send intake request
from the add-in panel:
Enter an appropriate
Short matter name
and select the
Keep requestor updated
checkbox if you want to keep the initial requestor (the author of the email) informed. If selected, the requestor receives an email regarding the status of the request. Click
Send request
to send the request for review (see below).
The matter is not created immediately, as the request is routed to Legal Tracker Matter creators for review. A Matters creator can either create a matter, request more information, or reject the request.
Save the email when creating a matter
When you create a matter, select
Upload email and attachments
to save the email and attachments linked with the matter so that all matter information is consolidated in the same location.
View and Edit iSheet Records in Outlook
Gain productivity and efficiency by accessing your iSheet records in Outlook.
Click
View my iSheet records
in the
Manage Matters
section, to access
My iSheet Records
:
This opens a pop-up window. This window allows you to add your favourite views from the list of iSheet views created on HighQ.
Select
Add view
; then select a view that you want to access in the add-in.
Select a site, an iSheet and your preferred View, then click
Next
. You see a preview of your view, embedded in Outlook. If this is correct, click
Add View
. If necessary, click
Back
and change your selection.
Notes:
Views are pulled directly from HighQ iSheets. If you want to select a new View, you must first create it in HighQ.
HighQ user permissions are required to view and edit iSheets. If you don’t have access to a view or an iSheet on HighQ, you won’t have access in the add-in.
When you add a view, you get a success message and the list of Views opens. This is the main menu to manage Views that you need to access while using Outlook.
You can add, delete and edit your views.
You can add up to ten views.
You can select a default view. This view is displayed when you open the
All records
tab.
The
All records
tab displays the list of iSheet records and allows you to view, edit and delete iSheet records.
You can apply filters to your views and use the search functionality to quickly find iSheet records. You can also adjust the number of items per page and navigate through the pages.
Click the
Filters
icon to filter search results; you can apply conditions for each column. Filter labels indicate the applied filers:
Click the
x
in a label to remove that filter. Or select
Clear filters
to clear all the filters.
Filters are saved and are still selected the next time you open this window.
If you create a new search, previously selected filters are removed.
Settings
Click the settings icon to open settings:
General
Matter management settings
Activate Intelligent Intake features
: - Enable or disable the AI Extract Information intake feature. If the box is checked, then you’ll be able to use this functionality. If the box is unchecked, then the
Extract Information
button is hidden and the feature is disabled.
Always ask for confirmation before scanning emails
- If this is selected, confirmation is needed before you extract the information from an email request. A pop-up appears to confirm if you need to extract information from the email. This provides an extra layer of security if emails can contain sensitive information.
Suggest relevant actions
- Enable or disable suggested actions. The application can dynamically suggest actions based on your previous use of the add-in.
Where do you want to create your matter by default
- Select a default location for created matters when information is extracted with the AI feature. This does not change the options in the add-in, which allows you to create matters manually.
Ask me every time my preferred location to create a matter
- If this is selected then you are always prompted to select
HighQ
or
Legal Tracker
when you create a matter with the AI feature. If it is not selected, you can only create a matter on the platform that is selected by default (HighQ or Legal Tracker).
HighQ
iSheet associations
Sharing options
You can adjust the default sharing options for your content in the
Sharing options
menu.
There are two sections, one for your own files and sites and another for any other files and sites (i.e. not created or owned by you). When you share files from your site or My Files the add-in follows your
My File sharing
settings. When you share a file from any other site, the add-in follows
site file-sharing
settings
Show dialog when sharing
- If this is selected, current share settings are displayed before the link is generated. This allows you to verify and change settings if HighQ settings are not appropriate. If not selected, you are not asked to verify the share settings and the add-in follows the default settings for sharing files to generate links.
Legal Tracker
Save email preferences
In the
Legal Tracker
section under
Preferences
, the
Save Email and Attachments
allows you to define default values for two key fields:
Folder
and
Access Security
.
Folder
- Choose a default folder for uploading emails and attachments to a matter.
You can modify the folder selection during the
Upload Emails and Attachments
process; click the matter hyperlink to change the folder before you upload the email.
Access Security
- Specify a default access security setting for uploaded emails and attachments.
You can modify access security during the
Upload Emails and Attachments
process; choose an option from the Access security menu in the
Choose Matter
window.
Create matter preferences
Preferences for Matter creation are managed in Legal Tracker. To set values in the Outlook add-in select
Open Settings in Legal Tracker
, then open the
User Profile
section in
Outlook Add-in Defaults
.
Ensure all settings are configured correctly in Legal Tracker then return to the Outlook add-in and click
Sync with Legal Tracker
to synchronize all changes.
Click
Save
to keep the synced values.
This ensures seamless integration and consistency between the two platforms.