Clearbrief is attracting more investor interest for its AI-powered software that gives legal professionals a way to automatically detect misrepresentations in litigation documents.
The Seattle startup just closed a $3.5 million seed round led by Reign Ventures, with participation from a group of notable backers including Court Lorenzini (former CEO of DocuSign), Jack Newton (CEO of legal tech unicorn Clio), Amy Weaver (President of Salesforce), Hadi Partovi (founder of Code.org), federal judge Kate Vaughan and Lata Setty of How Women Invest.
GeekWire previously reported on the company’s seed funding. Other investors include Sequoia and Madrona Venture Group, and former Avvo CEO Mark Britton.
Clearbrief’s software uses natural language processing to evaluate how legal writing is supported by supporting evidence. It can be used by lawyers to evaluate their own work or their competitors’ briefs. It can also help judges read a brief along with the evidence, all in one place.
Clearbrief CEO Jacqueline Schafer told GeekWire that being able to identify a sentence that is not supported by the cited evidence is “magic.” She pointed to a client who ran an opponent’s Washington state court opening brief through Clearbrief, which flagged an incorrect sentence that led the client to reconsider its strategy.
Schafer is a former litigator who served as an assistant attorney general in Washington and Alaska. His industry experience revealed administrative inefficiencies for both lawyers and judges.
Clearbrief is taking advantage of pandemic tailwinds as hearings and proceedings are conducted virtually, and the legal industry adopts more technology. New regulations, such as New York’s recently adopted rule on hyperlinks in electronically filed documents, are also helping drive growth.
Clearbrief also aims to make the law more accessible to the public with tools like this interactive SCOTUS opinion.
The company, which launched last year, has 10 employees and is growing. It has clients across the country, including government litigation departments.
