Legal Tech: The Risks and Rewards of Interweaving Legal Technologies

A symbiotic relationship between legal technology entities occurs in many various forms and sizes which in turn results in varying degrees of codependence. These alliances can also form for a variety of reasons as touched on introductorily. Staying with the theme of integrations for the time being, however, the inspiration for companies wanting to collaborate in the first place should be assessed. A focus area for this trend can be found in the brief drafting vertical of legal tech as it is a bustling space that contains multiple players which accomplish different brief-related tasks. For those unfamiliar, legal brief drafting can be essentially concentrated into three main components: drafting, checking and formatting. Each component possesses software solutions that luckily aim to assist brief drafters with a historically monotonous task through automation. Of these solutions, Casetext's Compose, BriefCatch, and ezBriefs accomplish either drafting, checking, or formatting through automation to some degree. Each software solution offers users distinct functionality and features in their respective realms to expedite the briefing process for the end user. But what if the three companies worked harmoniously to offer users one super solution that automatically drafts, checks, and formats a brief with less groundwork from the author other than the substantive arguments and points?

Beginning with Casetext's Compose, this solution boasts that it "provides all the arguments, legal standards, and pre-packaged research you need to get things done, faster than ever." This being the case, it is evident that Compose serves as a brief drafter's first stop in the journey to creating a substantive and fileable brief. One important component to Compose's offering that is relevant to this hypothetical collaboration event is that the tool is web-based, meaning that it is accessible via www.compose.law after the creation of an account. Users will then select the options that Compose presents depending on their desirable outcome while offering helpful hints and templates along the way. Undoubtedly this tool is useful in the initial creation of a brief, however once the author is finished, they would now have to dissect their writing along with Compose's suggestions to ensure the presentation of a cogent argument with appropriate rhetoric, sentence structure, and flow.