The subsequent era of legal professionals will strategy the identical outdated issues in very alternative ways. At its coronary heart, the occupation isn’t all that totally different than it ever was. Search for 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 solution to on-line analysis, instruments scour hundreds of contracts to seek out the language the consumer wants, Zoom opened up new frontiers in accepting verbal abuse, and bots monitor billable hours. A complete new assortment of applied sciences to carry out primarily age-old duties.
However the place do they study these new applied sciences?
The National Society for Legal Technology maintains a Authorized Analysis Expertise curriculum employed by greater than 350 universities, regulation faculties, and different authorized education schemes throughout 11 international locations. And this week, Descrybe joined the listing 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 company for $650 million. TR has pulled the plug on the unbiased, free Casetext software and introduced their expertise absolutely underneath the TR roof.
For that matter, Fastcase turned vLex and now becomes 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,” mentioned 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 choice, however its energy is within the low price — $20/month — choice that provides customers additional options and entry to instruments like Cytator, which feels like a Marvel villain who subpoenas planets.
“As a authorized expertise training knowledgeable and trade marketing consultant, I’ve evaluated numerous instruments that promise to streamline authorized analysis and evaluation—however few ship with the precision and practicality of Descrybe,” mentioned Doug Lusk, Founder and CEO of NSLT. “This platform stands out for its means to distill complicated court docket opinions into clear, accessible summaries whereas preserving the nuance and authorized significance of the unique textual content. Descrybe empowers attorneys, paralegals, and regulation college students to have interaction with judicial content material extra effectively and with better 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, after all, is as loud as a web-based authorized analysis value quote: the trade is slowly, grudgingly realizing that it wants $20-a-month instruments. Essentially the most constant tech grievance in my inbox includes a small or solo apply lawyer rending clothes and gnashing tooth over the lack of Casetext. Descrybe smelled blood and stuffed the hole quicker than a Supreme Courtroom clerk opening a FedEx bundle from Leonard Leo.
As a result of there’s a value level on this market that wants decrease price choices. Not each consumer is made of cash. Actually, most of them aren’t. And it’s not simply indigent shoppers… with the rising price of authorized companies, there are center class shoppers who balk at the price of legal professionals. The very last thing they want is to be overlaying a agency’s large on-line analysis overhead. There shall be regulation college students who find yourself serving that market and they should know get successful outcomes with the instruments constructed to reap the benefits 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 Thinking Like A Lawyer. Be happy to email any suggestions, questions, or feedback. Observe him on Twitter or Bluesky for those who’re excited by regulation, politics, and a wholesome dose of faculty sports activities information. Joe additionally serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.
