Case study
From hours to minutes: How CoCounsel reimagined tax workflow efficiency at Copeland Buhl
How Copeland Buhl used CoCounsel Tax to answer 14,000+ tax questions, achieve firmwide adoption, and cut research time from hours to minutes.
Introduction and executive summary
With 14,000+ questions answered in six months and firmwide adoption, CoCounsel delivered faster insights, better quality work, and hundreds of hours recaptured across the tax practice.
Copeland Buhl is a top 20 Midwest accounting and advisory firm headquartered in Plymouth, Minnesota. Founded in 1971, it delivers a client experience that combines deep expertise in accounting, tax, and advisory services with a practical, relationship-driven approach.
Allison Stevens, Tax Partner and firm-wide technical lead, is part of the Compliance team responsible for reviewing tax returns. She is responsible for all technical issues, tracking new legislation and guidance, and technical training. With 67 professionals now licensed and actively using CoCounsel, the organization has fully integrated AI-driven research into daily tax workflows. This widespread adoption is yielding benefits of time savings and improved responsiveness to clients.
67
Active CoCounsel licenses
14K+
CoCounsel messages in 6 months
1+
Conversations per user per day
Challenge
Inefficient, frustrating research processes
Checkpoint has been available for years at the firm, but new users often found that it took time to learn how to research effectively, and this was a barrier to adoption. Before CoCounsel, staff could spend hours chasing irrelevant sources, going down unproductive research paths, and asking senior colleagues for help. Stevens described “quick questions” that never really were quick — often requiring long, manual digging through Checkpoint keyword searches, state charts, or primary sources.
“What people used to tell me about research was, they hated it because they would spend so much time going down the wrong rabbit holes.”
Allison Stevens
Tax Partner, Copeland Buhl
Other work such as, drafting memos or IRS and state notice letters required significant time — often duplicating work, as reviewers had to revisit research to validate staff conclusions.
Managing growing client complexity
The firm’s client base and regulatory landscape are becoming more complex, which can impact project timings. The firm recognizes the need for trustworthy AI to assist them in delivering client satisfaction. Allison states that “AI is not always right and it's not perfect and that's OK — it gets us to the answers a lot faster. We need the ability to ensure that the AI is giving us correct information. It’s important to have more than just the primary sources — to be able to read the PPCs for examples — when we're doing that deeper research.”
Solution
As one of the first firms to have adopted CoCounsel, Copeland Buhl had tested other AI systems but found they lacked the depth, library integration, and accuracy required for tax work. They have been very intentional in their strategy for using CoCounsel and it has been embraced by staff and embedded across the entire tax practice.
The firm has seen benefits from users being able pose simple or complex questions and receive immediate, source linked answers, and time savings across a variety of workflows. Allison notes that “It's a super easy way to ask very complicated tax questions from a reliable source.”
As CoCounsel continues to evolve, feedback loops between the firm and Thomson Reuters product teams feel meaningful, with promised fixes delivered to schedule and visible improvements increasing user satisfaction. Allison says “It feels like a true partnership — we’re being heard, and we can see the follow through.”
Outcomes
Drafting and reviewing written work
Drafting and reviewing work is an area already seeing significant time savings, with plans to continue to find new processes to improve. Research memos drafted or pre-reviewed by CoCounsel, are saving 15 to 30 minutes per memo for reviewers. The Notice Response team are seeing time savings from IRS and state notice response letters being drafted automatically from the notice details.
Significant time savings and workflow acceleration
- Research projects completed two to three times faster
- “Quick questions” answered in minutes rather than hours
- Reviewers save 15 to 30 minutes per research memo due to CoCounsel pre analysis
- These CoCounsel interactions represent hundreds of hours recaptured
Improved accuracy and early issue detection
Staff can upload memos or documents for CoCounsel to provide technical review and identify missing considerations. In one example CoCounsel surfaced a critical Minnesota tax issue months before the firm would have otherwise discovered it — prompting state-level dialogue and new Department of Revenue guidance.
Empowering junior staff and reducing interruptions
Team members have always been encouraged to “ask the question, it’s important” and now CoCounsel is empowering them to conduct research, reducing “hallway questions” to senior staff.
“One staff member has had 35 conversations with CoCounsel this month already, so that’s 35 conversations she didn't have to interrupt somebody else for. That allows people to focus on doing their own work and moving projects along.”
Allison Stevens
Tax Partner, Copeland Buhl
Better client responsiveness, without losing personalization
Lead times on questions from clients are reduced as everybody can deal with their client’s questions with CoCounsel. The response back to clients continues to have the Copeland Buhl oversight and personal touch, and the client relationship is strengthened by this faster turnaround on questions.
High adoption and empowerment across all experience levels
Stevens cautions against over-reliance on AI and encourages staff to develop thoughtful prompting and to ensure that research is still being conducted with full due diligence. The firm has held training sessions but part of CoCounsel’s appeal is that it is easy to get started by having a Conversation. By monitoring usage, she can work with colleagues to encourage adoption. New hires with just two months’ experience are among the highest users. As Allison puts it “Everybody has said they can’t live without this anymore.”
At a glance
