How Thomson Reuters leveraged Superside to turn a justice initiative into high-impact videos
THE CUSTOMER
Driving change through AI and justice innovation
Thomson Reuters is a global content and technology leader, serving industries ranging from legal and tax to risk and media. Its flagship product, CoCounsel, is an AI-powered assistant that can help professionals complete work more thoroughly, accurately and quickly than possible through human effort alone. For legal professionals, CoCounsel can significantly reduce the amount of time required to complete legal research, document review and drafting, for instance analyzing thousands of pages of information in just minutes.
Recognizing what a profound effect a solution like CoCounsel could have on efforts to close the justice gap in the US, Thomson Reuters launched its AI for Justice Legal Aid initiative. The program offers deeply discounted access to CoCounsel for legal nonprofits and helps those organizations get maximum value from the technology from day one. To provide that support, Thomson Reuters closely partnered with a small group of nonprofits to understand how best to apply CoCounsel to their work—then shares the resulting customized training with other nonprofit CoCounsel adopters with similar needs.
One of the key partners in this initiative is The Innocence Center, a legal nonprofit that works to overturn wrongful convictions and advocate for justice reform. Knowing they’d achieved remarkable results with CoCounsel, Thomson Reuters sought to amplify their story through a compelling video narrative.
THE CHALLENGE
From the outset, Erin Nelson, who works in product marketing and content strategy for Thomson Reuters, knew this video had to do much more than showcase CoCounsel. It needed to center the people using it and the people they serve, to tell a story that would resonate emotionally with viewers about the real impact of technology on social justice.
We wanted to make clear to nonprofits that we're not just selling you this AI solution. We’re also taking the time to understand your needs and challenges, so we can help you expertly use CoCounsel for your specific use cases.
Nelson had a clear vision: the video should feel authentic and personal, more like a human interest segment than a corporate marketing piece. But she also faced significant constraints. With limited internal resources, executing this vision seemed daunting.
I did not have the bandwidth. And I wouldn’t have even known where to begin to try to produce this, from finding a local crew, creating the detailed concept direction … So I said to Superside, ‘here's my problem’ and they said, oh yeah, we can solve that.
The project needed to be executed flawlessly and efficiently, without diverting significant internal time away from the broader AI for Justice Legal Aid program.
THE SOLUTION
Nelson, who had previously worked with Casetext (acquired in 2023 by Thomson Reuters), already had a well-established relationship with Superside, thanks to their prior collaboration on Casetext’s brand and website work. When it came time to produce the video about The Innocence Center, Superside again proved to be the ideal partner.
The creative process began with thoughtful discovery and deep listening. Rather than jumping straight to logistics, Superside’s team first worked to understand the deeper purpose and emotional resonance behind the video.
The team really took the time to do a lot of what you're doing right now actually, asking me things like, ‘okay, just step back and tell us... how did you wind up here? Why is it that you need this asset? And what do you want it to do?’
This collaborative foundation gave Nelson complete confidence in Superside’s creative ownership of the project.
Superside managed all aspects of production, including:
- Pre-production (including prep meetings, shooting deck, and crew syncs)
- Sourcing a trusted on-the-ground crew in San Diego
- Shooting
- Video editing
- Sound and music
- Color grading
- Video graphics
Superside focused on constructing a compelling narrative from Thomson Reuters’ materials. This involved collaboratively determining interview questions, refining questioning techniques and strategically shaping the resulting story. Superside worked with Nelson to build the right story by choosing questions to ask interviewees that would elicit the most effective stories. This ensured that the final content would feel emotionally resonant, cohesive and aligned with the broader goals of the program.
I almost didn't even know what I wanted until I saw it in the examples of similar work that Superside shared... where you're telling a story in an interesting way, and there are multiple people telling it. So that it feels like a documentary, not a talking-head-behind-a-desk testimonial.
Superside produced four video assets, including a core video and cutdowns, to maximize flexibility across Thomson Reuters’ content ecosystem.
Core video:
Cutdown:
Throughout, Superside delivered not only flawless logistics but also creative storytelling that matched the vision. The results were powerful videos that will serve as cornerstone assets not only for the AI for Justice Legal Aid Program, but for the larger story Thomson Reuters is telling about CoCounsel, the market-leading AI legal assistant.
Creative excellence at a quarter of the cost and effort
Nelson made clear that without Superside, this project simply would not have been possible to deliver with the same quality, efficiency or internal ease:
When I think of what the final cost was, I would say that it was a fraction, about 10% of what it would've cost us in my and my team's time and resources. I was the only person internally working on this. It would have taken at least another couple of people internally, with just the right expertise, if we hadn't had Superside.
Beyond financial savings, Superside’s ability to handle all production logistics meant that Nelson did not need to divert additional team bandwidth or manage external vendor sourcing. This enabled Thomson Reuters to produce a premium, story-driven video on time with minimal internal strain.
Without Superside, this outcome literally would not have been possible, meaning having such high-quality assets as quickly as we did, for what we paid.
Building a creative partnership for the future
The success of this project is deepening the strategic partnership between Superside and Thomson Reuters. Nelson is already advocating for further video work with Superside and considers them a top creative partner.
I've been doing this kind of work for 20, 25 years and this is one of the best agency relationships I've ever had, both in terms of what it’s like to work with the people on the team, as well as the results.
One of the qualities Nelson values most is Superside’s ability to scale without sacrificing a sense of partnership and care.
They have people everywhere who do everything... yet the experience of doing any particular individual project with Superside feels like working with a small boutique agency and feels like at any given moment we're their only client.
Looking ahead, Nelson and her team plan to build on this successful model.
Great storytelling partnerships start with trust and shared purpose
The Innocence Center video project demonstrates how a trusted creative partner like Superside can empower enterprise teams to tell purpose-driven stories with heart, clarity and impact—while saving time, effort and cost.
The results never fail to exceed expectations. And the process of getting there is always not just easy and smooth, but honestly a pleasure.
For enterprise brands seeking to amplify their most meaningful initiatives, Superside offers not just creative scale, but creative partnership.
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