What and why
Microsoft 365 Copilot is introducing legal plugins in Word and Cowork. These plugins provide purpose-built skills to help legal professionals summarize, draft, review, and redline legal documents. They can use work context from Microsoft 365 and connect to supported third-party legal sources, helping legal professionals complete legal work in the Microsoft 365 experiences they already use.
Rollout schedule
- Public Preview (Worldwide): Rollout began in late April 2026 and is expected to complete by mid-December 2026
- General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out in mid-October 2026 and expect to complete by mid-December 2026
Impact on your organization
Who is affected
- Users with Microsoft 365 Copilot commercial licenses
Platforms and services
- Microsoft 365 Copilot
- Word desktop
- Cowork
What will happen
- Legal plugins in Copilot provide purpose-built skills to help legal professionals summarize, draft, review, and redline legal documents.
- The plugins can use work context from Microsoft 365 and connect to supported third-party legal sources.
- The legal capabilities include more than 20 purpose-built legal skills.
- In Word desktop, the legal plugin is enabled by default. When enabled, Copilot can use legal skills to complete legal tasks in Word.
- In Cowork, users must add the legal plugin before Copilot can use legal skills to complete legal tasks.
- The legal skills can help users review contracts against playbooks, draft contracts using templates and precedent agreements, compare contracts with precedents, templates, and policies, and explain tracked changes.
- The Legal Agent is being retired. Existing Legal Agent users will lose access to the product.
Action required and recommendations
No admin setup is required.
If your organization plans to use the legal plugins:
- Ensure Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses are assigned to eligible users.
- Review internal legal workflows that may benefit from these capabilities.
- Communicate these capabilities to your legal teams.
- Update internal documentation or help desk guidance as appropriate.
- Instruct legal team users to add the legal plugin in Cowork.
- Instruct legal team users to use legal skills in Copilot in Word desktop.
If your organization does not plan to use the legal plugins:
- Turn off Legal Skills in M365 Copilot in Word in the Microsoft 365 Apps admin center to disable the legal plugin in Word for all users.
- Turn off the Cowork for Legal plugin in the Microsoft 365 admin center to disable the plugin in Cowork for all users.
Learn more
Compliance considerations
| Question | Answer |
| Does the change alter how existing customer data is processed, stored, or accessed? | Yes. The legal plugins can use work context from Microsoft 365 to support legal tasks. The supplied source does not specify changes to data storage or caching. |
| Does the change introduce or significantly modify AI/ML or agent capabilities that interact with or provide access to customer data? | Yes. Legal capabilities previously released as the Legal Agent are being made available as legal plugins in Word and Cowork. They provide purpose-built legal skills and can use work context from Microsoft 365. |
| Does the change provide users a new way of interacting with generative AI? | Yes. Users can use purpose-built legal skills in Copilot in Word and Cowork to summarize, draft, review, and redline legal documents. |
| Does the change add integration with third-party software products? | Yes. The legal plugins can connect to supported third-party legal sources. The supplied sources do not identify specific third-party products. |
| Does the change include an admin control? | Yes. Admins can turn off Legal Skills in M365 Copilot in Word in the Microsoft 365 Apps admin center and turn off the Cowork for Legal plugin in the Microsoft 365 admin center. The supplied source does not specify whether these controls support Entra ID group membership. |
| Does the change allow a user to enable or disable the feature themselves? | Yes. In Cowork, users must add the legal plugin before using its legal skills. The supplied source does not state that users can independently disable the Word legal plugin. |