{"id":143931,"date":"2026-02-12T16:37:39","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T00:37:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/02\/12\/in-a-marriage-of-legal-editing-tools-briefcatch-has-acquired-wordrake-and-its-12-editing-patents\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T16:37:39","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T00:37:39","slug":"in-a-marriage-of-legal-editing-tools-briefcatch-has-acquired-wordrake-and-its-12-editing-patents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/02\/12\/in-a-marriage-of-legal-editing-tools-briefcatch-has-acquired-wordrake-and-its-12-editing-patents\/","title":{"rendered":"In A Marriage Of Legal Editing Tools, BriefCatch Has Acquired WordRake And Its 12 Editing Patents"},"content":{"rendered":"

The post In A Marriage Of Legal Editing Tools, BriefCatch Has Acquired WordRake And Its 12 Editing Patents<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When it comes to standalone editing software for legal professionals, there have been basically three choices: BriefCatch<\/a>, WordRake<\/a>, and PerfectIt<\/a>. Now that list is one shorter, as BriefCatch has acquired WordRake.<\/p>\n

According to Ross Guberman<\/a>, founder of BriefCatch, his company has acquired WordRake\u2019s core product and technology assets. The WordRake product will be integrated into BriefCatch as part of a single product offering.<\/p>\n

Scott Johns<\/a>, WordRake\u2019s CEO, is joining BriefCatch as a strategic advisor.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone\u2019s racing to build AI writing tools, but most of them start from scratch with no real expertise in legal writing,\u201d Guberman said in an email. \u201cWordRake has 12 patents and over a decade of proven editing algorithms. We\u2019re thrilled to build on that substantive foundation rather than reinvent the wheel with another chatbot or UI.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Related: On LawNext: CEO Ross Guberman On How BriefCatch Is Expanding Its Mission to Help Legal Professionals Improve their Writing<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Back in 2018, I tested and compared all three of these legal editing programs by having them edit four opinions<\/a>\u00a0authored by Supreme Court Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, whom\u00a0Slate<\/em>\u00a0once\u00a0pronounced\u00a0a terrible writer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In 2022, I tested BriefCatch again<\/a>, just after it came out with its version 3, but this time using the surreptitiously leaked draft of Justice Samuel Alito\u2019s majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women\u2019s Health Organization<\/em> overturning\u00a0Roe v. Wade<\/em><\/a>, had, at the time, been subjected to a firestorm of scrutiny and commentary.<\/p>\n

I also tested WordRake again in 2022<\/a>, after it released what was then its latest version. I first tested WordRake way back in 2012<\/a>, shortly after it was released.<\/p>\n

Last year, BriefCatch released a new version 4<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

In December, BriefCatch raised a $6 million Series A funding round<\/a> specifically intended to support expansion of its AI products and targeted acquisitions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis investment lets us accelerate two things at once: disciplined acquisitions and deeper product development,\u201d Guberman told me at the time. \u201cOur goal is to give lawyers and judges a single, integrated AI platform for elite legal writing and editing, and we\u2019re already building capabilities that leap past what existing editing tools \u2014 or generic genAI \u2014 can do today.\u201d<\/p>\n

WordRake was originally developed by Gary Kinder<\/a>, a lawyer and writer whose 1998 book, Ship Of Gold In The Deep Blue Sea<\/em><\/a>, went to number seven on The New York Times bestseller list.<\/p>\n

WordRake has 12 patents on automated editing software, all of which will now be transferred to BriefCatch.<\/p>\n

\u201cI first heard Gary Kinder speak when I was a summer associate,\u201d Guberman told me. \u201cHis 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.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The post In A Marriage Of Legal Editing Tools, BriefCatch Has Acquired WordRake And Its 12 Editing Patents appeared first on Above the Law. 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. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":143850,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-143931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/BriefCatchAcquiresWordRake-Featured-1024x576-iqqpXD.png?fit=1024%2C576&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}