Robert Ambrogi Blog
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.”