When
it
comes
to
standalone
editing
software
for
legal
professionals,
there
have
been
basically
three
choices:
BriefCatch,
WordRake,
and
PerfectIt.
Now
that
list
is
one
shorter,
as
BriefCatch
has
acquired
WordRake.
According
to
Ross
Guberman,
founder
of
BriefCatch,
his
company
has
acquired
WordRake’s
core
product
and
technology
assets.
The
WordRake
product
will
be
integrated
into
BriefCatch
as
part
of
a
single
product
offering.
Scott
Johns,
WordRake’s
CEO,
is
joining
BriefCatch
as
a
strategic
advisor.
“Everyone’s
racing
to
build
AI
writing
tools,
but
most
of
them
start
from
scratch
with
no
real
expertise
in
legal
writing,”
Guberman
said
in
an
email.
“WordRake
has
12
patents
and
over
a
decade
of
proven
editing
algorithms.
We’re
thrilled
to
build
on
that
substantive
foundation
rather
than
reinvent
the
wheel
with
another
chatbot
or
UI.”
BriefCatch
and
WordRake
are
similar
products
in
that
they
each
focus
on
enhancing
clarity
and
concision.
In
contract,
PerfectIt
is
more
of
a
proofreading
tool
focused
on
punctuation,
capitalization,
formatting
and
the
like.
Back
in
2018,
I
tested
and
compared
all
three
of
these
legal
editing
programs
by
having
them
edit
four
opinions authored
by
Supreme
Court
Justice
Neil
M.
Gorsuch,
whom Slate once pronounced a
terrible
writer.
In
2022,
I
tested
BriefCatch
again,
just
after
it
came
out
with
its
version
3,
but
this
time
using
the
surreptitiously
leaked
draft
of
Justice
Samuel
Alito’s
majority
opinion
in
Dobbs
v.
Jackson
Women’s
Health
Organization
overturning Roe
v.
Wade,
had,
at
the
time,
been
subjected
to
a
firestorm
of
scrutiny
and
commentary.
I
also
tested
WordRake
again
in
2022,
after
it
released
what
was
then
its
latest
version.
I
first
tested
WordRake
way
back
in
2012,
shortly
after
it
was
released.
Last
year,
BriefCatch
released
a
new
version
4
that
added
two
new
features
that
use
generative
AI
to
enhance
legal
document
preparation:
AI-driven
Bluebook
citation
correction
and
a
context-aware
writing
advisor.
In
December,
BriefCatch
raised
a
$6
million
Series
A
funding
round
specifically
intended
to
support
expansion
of
its
AI
products
and
targeted
acquisitions.
“This
investment
lets
us
accelerate
two
things
at
once:
disciplined
acquisitions
and
deeper
product
development,”
Guberman
told
me
at
the
time.
“Our
goal
is
to
give
lawyers
and
judges
a
single,
integrated
AI
platform
for
elite
legal
writing
and
editing,
and
we’re
already
building
capabilities
that
leap
past
what
existing
editing
tools
—
or
generic
genAI
—
can
do
today.”
WordRake
was
originally
developed
by
Gary
Kinder,
a
lawyer
and
writer
whose
1998
book,
Ship
Of
Gold
In
The
Deep
Blue
Sea,
went
to
number
seven
on
The
New
York
Times
bestseller
list.
WordRake
has
12
patents
on
automated
editing
software,
all
of
which
will
now
be
transferred
to
BriefCatch.
“I
first
heard
Gary
Kinder
speak
when
I
was
a
summer
associate,”
Guberman
told
me.
“His
approach
to
editing
changed
how
I
thought
about
the
craft.
Bringing
WordRake
into
BriefCatch
decades
later
feels
like
the
perfect
next
chapter
for
us
and
for
legal-writing
tech.”