Copilot for Legal: Microsoft Joins the Legal AI Race

Microsoft has announced the general availability of more than 20 purpose-built legal skills and new partner-built plugins, bringing legal-specific capabilities and trusted sources directly into Microsoft Copilot. Building on what Microsoft previously introduced as Legal Agent, these capabilities now come together as legal plugins in Copilot. They go beyond prompts to support deeper document work in Word and multi-step work across files in Cowork. They also connect to the trusted systems and sources that legal teams rely on.

Purpose-Built for Legal Work
Legal work leaves little room for approximation, so Microsoft built these capabilities alongside legal engineers who translate real-world legal standards, practices and workflows into the experience.

These are more than prompts layered on a general-purpose model. Each skill combines legal-specific reasoning with Microsoft 365’s native capabilities to produce work in the format legal teams need. When redlining an agreement, for example, Copilot can determine how a clause should change while Word applies the edit as a native tracked change and preserves the document’s formatting. Similarly, when drafting a new contract, Copilot can draw on approved SharePoint precedents, then use native Word content controls to create structured placeholders that stay editable and consistent throughout the document.

In Word, Copilot supports deep document work, with experiences built directly into the document that help legal professionals review, refine and act on their work. In Cowork, legal professionals can delegate broader, multi-step work across agreements, emails, meetings and files, such as tracking obligations and deadlines across contract portfolios, comparing key terms across agreements and building case chronologies.

Work IQ is the intelligence layer that connects Copilot and agents to an organisation’s real-time knowledge, context, people and work. This includes the matters, standards and information behind the work, not just the document in front of the user.

For legal teams, these capabilities can streamline the work that fills their day:

• Draft and prepare faster: Turn approved precedents and templates into new agreements or structured legal memos.
• Review and negotiate with confidence: Review agreements against playbooks, help identify terms needing attention and propose tracked edits.
• Stay on top of obligations: Extract commitments, deadlines and triggers, then trace related agreements to determine which terms remain in force.
• Turn research into guidance: Compare materials and requirements, identify potential gaps and develop the analysis into structured guidance.
• Move matters forward: Build case chronologies, surface key dates and open questions, then turn meeting records into formal minutes and resolutions.

Aneesh Mehta, Senior Corporate Counsel, Microsoft, said: ‘For me, the real benefit of Copilot is that I don’t have to change how I work. I’m already living in Word when I negotiate an agreement, and now I can use Copilot to help with the first pass and see its proposed redlines right there in the document. Being able to review the language in context is huge. Something that might take me an hour to review initially can often take several minutes, which means I can get to the substantive issues faster and spend more of my time on legal judgment, negotiation strategy, and advising my clients.’

Get Started Today
The new legal capabilities in Copilot are now generally available to Microsoft Copilot customers worldwide. Explore the new legal capabilities and learn how organisations can get started.

Related Coverage on Legal Practice Intelligence: Big Tech and Legal AI

Astra for Law: A GPT-6 Model Built for Legal

Anthropic’s Claude AI Jolts Legal Tech Sector

Google Cloud Launches Gemini Enterprise for Legal