Lawyers and legal professionals using the AI-powered document drafting tool Clearbrief to create a legal brief or document will now be able to seamlessly view any case law they cite thanks to a partnership with the legal research and intelligence company Fastcase, the companies announced today.
As I have written before, Clearbrief is an innovative legal technology product designed to strengthen legal writing in Microsoft Word by instantly finding the best evidence or law to support your argument. Its patented AI examines legal documents and automatically finds and displays any citations to the factual source documents cited — such as exhibits, depositions or transcripts — as well as case law, statutes and regulations.
Through this partnership with Fastcase, Clearbrief is expanding the coverage of case law that is available to be automatically displayed within a document. That means that when a document being drafted or reviewed in Clearbrief cites a case, the user will be able to read the actual case without the need to switch to a separate window or tab.
Another feature of Clearbrief is the ability to generate interactive, hyperlinked versions of completed documents to share with judges, opposing counsel, clients or others, enabling those who receive the document to view the underlying facts and law.
With this partnership, recipients of a Clearbrief document will not need their own Fastcase account in order to view the case law sources.
Clearbrief founder Jacqueline Schafer said this partnership with Fastcase furthers her company’s goal to provide more visibility into every underlying source referenced in a legal document. “We love that Fastcase is readily available to millions of attorneys through bar memberships and that they have a shared commitment to making the law more accessible to the public.”
“Our vision for Fastcase is that law should be like electric power: widely available at affordable, transparent prices, to empower all kinds of legal appliances,” Fastcase CEO Ed Walters said in a statement. “Clearbrief is such an amazing drafting tool, and we’re really happy that we can power its users to even greater success.”
Clearbrief also has partnerships in place for access to legal resources with the Free Law Project and Justia.
Clearbrief launched in March 2021 with backing from a notable roster of investors, including Mark Britton, the founder and former CEO of Avvo; Bryan Garner, legal writing expert and editor of Black’s Law Dictionary; and Bill Neukom, longtime Microsoft general counsel, and subsequently raised a $3.5 million seed round.
Since then, it has earned a number of accolades, including the 2022 Clio Launch//Code contest for best new app, Legalweek 2022 New Law Company of the Year, American Legal Technology Awards 2021 Legal Tech Startup of the Year, and 2021 Washington State Bar Association APEX Legal Innovation Award.
