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Reinventing Legal Writing

Ari Kaplan speaks with Ross Guberman, the founder of Legal Writing Pro, who provides training on legal writing worldwide.

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Ari Kaplan speaks with Ross Guberman, the founder of Legal Writing Pro, who provides training on legal writing worldwide and recently released BriefCatch, a Microsoft Word plug-in that offers detailed editorial suggestions to improve writing and metrics to benchmark performance.

Ari Kaplan:  Tell us about your background and the genesis of BriefCatch.

Ross Guberman:  I spend my time delivering legal or judicial writing workshops around the world to lawyers, judges, and corporate leaders. I recently launched BriefCatch, which can scan a document at any stage looking for thousands of potential ways to improve it, providing suggestions and enhancing the editing process. While it doesn’t know whether you are making the ideal argument, it helps you express your points as concisely and clearly as possible.

Ari Kaplan:  How did you develop the initial set of criteria on which the judgments are made?

Ross Guberman:  Many of the lawyers who have attended my workshops suggested that I develop this tool so I owe some of the credit to them. I started collecting a lot of the edits that I teach a bit haphazardly, but then hired a developer who taught me how to communicate the different rules, algorithms, and edits. Once I established the system, I used an array of legal documents at different stages to identify the universe of possible edits and improvements. It is an iterative process on which I spent a lot of time before I launched trying to perfect and I’m sure I will be doing the same for a long time.

Ari Kaplan:  What are some of the most significant writing issues that BriefCatch identifies?

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Ross Guberman:  It targets all sorts of wordy or cumbersome phrases, then suggests tight, concise alternatives. Lawyers, including law firm partners and judges, just use too many words. BriefCatch also highlights patterns in your writing, so if you use the same transition repeatedly, it will provide replacements. It also identifies weak verbs and adverbs, offering a selection of stronger verbs to choose from. The system will generally flag sentences that are cumbersome and long, which might have escaped your vision and editing, as well as mistakes and misused words that grammar checker and other tools just don’t find.

Ari Kaplan:  Who is using BriefCatch?

Ross Guberman:  Lots of individual lawyers, who are either solo practitioners or with firms of all sizes. In fact, entire firms are beginning to offer it to their lawyers. Government agencies and courts also use it and we even have quite a few users outside of the United States. The early signs are positive and pretty gratifying.

Ari Kaplan:  What are the ultimate benefits for legal professionals?

Ross Guberman:  One thing people have told me is that they are actually becoming more precise writers and active editors just by using the tool. It focuses your attention on high priority items in a draft that you can change or improve, yielding some really good benefits in a short time. And, by truncating the editing process and helping you triage your work, it lets you get more done with less wasted activity to write off.

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Ari Kaplan:  Can you use BriefCatch for non-legal documents?

Ross Guberman:  Definitely. While I always intended to brand it as something for lawyers and judges since there are a lot of rules involving case law citations and things that don’t matter to those who are not practicing, 90-95 percent of the rules, algorithms, and suggestions apply to any type of writing, such as articles, pitches, and even attorney biographies.

Ari Kaplan:  Do you have any advice for individuals in the legal industry who are trying to develop technology?

Ross Guberman:  Getting the right developer is key. My developer already had a lot of experience with online writing tools, which certainly made the relationship smoother and more productive. I would also recommend creating a job aid or work product tool that has a learning component because lawyers are looking for technology that combines both since it solves a short-term problem but also helps with long-term skill development.

Ari Kaplan:  How do you see tools like BriefCatch transforming training?

Ross Guberman:  The just-in-time idea is really taking off and you see that with the increasing interest in short e-learning programs. Many lawyers feel like they are under so much time pressure to produce top quality work with unfair deadlines and in are a constant state of exhaustion. Unless that trend reverses, and I don’t think it will, any kind of job aid or tracking tool will be appreciated.

Ari Kaplan regularly interviews leaders in the legal industry and in the broader professional services community to share perspective, highlight transformative change, and introduce new technology. 

 

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