The following technology of legal professionals will strategy the identical outdated issues in very other ways. At its coronary heart, the career isn’t all that completely different than it ever was. Lookup caselaw, match clauses to market, get yelled at, fill out timesheets… dawn, sundown. However how they do these duties retains evolving. Hardbound copies of Shepard’s gave strategy to on-line analysis, instruments scour 1000’s of contracts to search out the language the consumer wants, Zoom opened up new frontiers in accepting verbal abuse, and bots monitor billable hours. An entire new assortment of applied sciences to carry out primarily age-old duties.
However the place do they find out about these new applied sciences?
The Nationwide Society for Authorized Expertise maintains a Authorized Analysis Expertise curriculum employed by greater than 350 universities, legislation colleges, and different authorized teaching programs throughout 11 nations. And this week, Descrybe joined the record of instruments alongside Lexis+, Westlaw, Bloomberg Legislation, Fastcase, and HeinOnline as one of many six core analysis instruments within the curriculum. It takes this place because the alternative for Casetext, which joined the Westlaw household when Thomson Reuters acquired the corporate for $650 million. TR has pulled the plug on the unbiased, free Casetext instrument and introduced their expertise totally underneath the TR roof.
For that matter, Fastcase turned vLex and now turns into Clio as a result of authorized tech strikes… quick.
“It’s a proud second to see Descrybe becoming a member of the ranks of the world’s most revered analysis instruments — and to know we’re serving to transfer the sector ahead,” stated Kara Peterson, Descrybe co-founder and a 2024 ABA Ladies of Authorized Tech honoree.
Descrybe’s toolkit affords pure language search, simplified case summaries, quotation evaluation, issue-level insights, a short checker, and bilingual entry to over 3.6 million federal and state court docket opinions. Like Casetext earlier than it, Descrybe has a free possibility, however its energy is within the low value — $20/month — possibility that provides customers additional options and entry to instruments like Cytator, which appears like a Marvel villain who subpoenas planets.
“As a authorized expertise schooling professional and business guide, I’ve evaluated numerous instruments that promise to streamline authorized analysis and evaluation—however few ship with the precision and practicality of Descrybe,” stated Doug Lusk, Founder and CEO of NSLT. “This platform stands out for its capability to distill advanced court docket opinions into clear, accessible summaries whereas preserving the nuance and authorized significance of the unique textual content. Descrybe empowers attorneys, paralegals, and legislation college students to have interaction with judicial content material extra effectively and with higher confidence. In an period the place time and readability are at a premium, Descrybe.ai is setting a brand new commonplace for the way authorized data is consumed and understood.”
The subtext, in fact, is as loud as a web-based authorized analysis worth quote: the business is slowly, grudgingly realizing that it wants $20-a-month instruments. Essentially the most constant tech criticism in my inbox entails a small or solo follow lawyer rending clothes and gnashing enamel over the lack of Casetext. Descrybe smelled blood and stuffed the hole quicker than a Supreme Court docket clerk opening a FedEx bundle from Leonard Leo.
As a result of there’s a worth level on this market that wants decrease value choices. Not each consumer is made of cash. In truth, most of them aren’t. And it’s not simply indigent purchasers… with the rising value of authorized companies, there are center class purchasers who balk at the price of legal professionals. The very last thing they want is to be protecting a agency’s huge on-line analysis overhead. There will probably be legislation college students who find yourself serving that market and they should know find out how to get successful outcomes with the instruments constructed to make the most of that area.
Which is all to say that there’s an ideal — maybe Casetext-sized place — for Descrybe to fill on this curriculum.
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Legislation and co-host of Considering Like A Lawyer. Be at liberty to e-mail any ideas, questions, or feedback. Comply with him on Twitter or Bluesky should you’re thinking about legislation, politics, and a wholesome dose of faculty sports activities information. Joe additionally serves as a Managing Director at RPN Government Search.
