How can I use CoCounsel to analyze contracts?

Instructions for using CoCounsel's "Extract Contract Data" skill, including sample prompts, and information on size limits for file uploads.

Valerie McConnell avatar
Written by Valerie McConnell
Updated over a week ago

In this article

Summary and video

With the “Extract Contract Data” skill, you can ask CoCounsel to answer questions about a set of contracts. This skill has been specifically trained on contractual language and is specially designed to parse contractual clauses.

Extract Contract Data allows you to quickly get answers and find relevant clauses in a set of contracts, making it easier to accurately track deal terms, dollar amounts, dates, and any other information within the analyzed contracts that you deem critical.

Please note: If you would like CoCounsel to review documents that are not contracts, please use the “Review Documents” skill.

Step-by-step instructions

(1) Launch “Extract Contract Data”

To get started, go to CoCounsel, select the skill menu, and click “Extract Contract Data."

(2) Choose the contracts that CoCounsel should analyze

You will then be prompted to choose up to 100 contracts for CoCounsel to analyze. You have the option of manually uploading up to ten contracts from your computer, or selecting contracts from an AllSearch database, as shown below:

If you choose the “upload” option, you have the option of either dragging and dropping your document into the box or selecting files to upload from your computer. The platform is compatible with PDF, TXT, and Word documents.

For guidance on creating an AllSearch database, please view the following Help Article: How do I use AllSearch?

Once you have uploaded your files, please select the "Enter questions" button:

(3) Enter the questions that CoCounsel should answer:

After uploading your contract(s), you will be prompted to enter up to 30 questions about those contracts in the text box. All questions must end in a question mark. You can also choose a specified format for your answers by clicking on the dropdown menu that appears on the right side of the question box. The default option is to provide text answering your questions, but you can choose to display CoCounsel’s responses as numbers, dates, or in a Yes/ No format, as shown in the orange box in the screenshot below:

(4) Confirm or edit your query

You can verify that CoCounsel’s interpretation of your query is correct before you click on the “Extract Data” button. To do so, slide the “Interpret Questions” button to the right, and CoCounsel will display its interpretation of the query that you entered in the pop-up window (shown in the purple box in the screenshot provided above).

If CoCounsel’s interpretation of your query is incorrect, you can revise your query in the question box. If CoCounsel’s interpretation is correct, you can click “Extract Contract Data” to proceed with the contract analysis. For best results, we recommend verifying CoCounsel’s interpretation of your query before prompting CoCounsel to proceed.

(5) Review CoCounsel’s Output

After you click on the blue “Extract Data” button, CoCounsel will prepare its responses to your questions. Results will stream live as CoCounsel generates its answers, as shown in the green box below:

Once the job is completed, results will be shown in “table” format, where uploaded contract(s) can be seen in the row(s), and questions to answers can be seen in the column(s). Click in the upper right corner (on the “arrows” icon) to get an expanded view of the results.

When you are in the expanded view, you can hover over CoCounsel’s answers to get more detail, as shown in the green box below. You can also download your results in Excel format by clicking “Download” on the bottom right (shown in the red box):

Limits

Input limits

File type

.doc, .docx, .pdf, .txt, and .zip folders

Files within a .zip folder must comply with file size and type limitations.

File size

500 MB .pdfs

20 MB text files

File amount

100 files

Requests

30 policies and sample clauses

TIP: If you have files that exceed the size limit, CoCounsel will reject the file. Divide the files into batches of 100 files or less before uploading.

Output limits

Unlimited relevant results.

Sample prompts to illustrate best practices for prompting and sample use cases:

  • Use case: to assist with due diligence.

  • Best Practice: ask specific questions about each contract individually, and use question marks for each question:

1. Who are the parties to the Agreement?

2. What is the term of the Agreement?

3. What is the address of the property?

4. What is the description of the premises?

  • Use Case: To obtain information to put into a lease schedule.

  • Best practice: break up multipart questions into multiple questions:

1. What is the term of the Agreement?

2. Can either party terminate the Agreement without the other party’s consent?

3. Is there a change of control provision?

4. Is the Agreement assignable?

5. Are there any conditions to assignment? (Instead of asking Is the Agreement assignable, and if so, are there conditions, break it into two questions.)

  • Use Case: quickly find key terms.

  • Best Practice: be specific in your questions, and do not use quotation marks around key phrases– confidential information, not “confidential information”:

1. Is this a mutual NDA?

2. What is the term of the Agreement?

3. How is Confidential Information defined?

4. What is excluded from the definition of confidential Information?

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