Within the last 10 days, two major legal research companies have launched brief-analysis tools. On July 12, Thomson Reuters unveiled its Quick Check, a feature that will be available starting July 24 to all subscribers to Westlaw Edge, as I reported in this post.

Then last week, Bloomberg Law previewed its forthcoming brief analyzer, which it is calling by the eponymous placeholder name Brief Analyzer, and which will be out in beta in September and then for general availability by the end of the year, as I reported here.

But brief analysis is hardly a new technology. In fact, it was three years ago that the first brief analyzer came to market, introduced by the legal research startup Casetext. Launched in 2016, its CARA — short for Case Analysis Research Assistant — uses artificial intelligence to analyze users’ uploaded briefs and memoranda and find relevant cases the document omits.

While other such products have come along since CARA, these latest announcements by Thomson Reuters and Bloomberg indicate that this technology has now gone mainstream.

So what’s it all about? For my column this week at Above the Law, I analyze what’s going on with brief analyzers and why this technology matters to your practice: For Legal Research, Brief Analysis Is The New Vogue.

Photo of Bob Ambrogi Bob Ambrogi

Bob is a lawyer, veteran legal journalist, and award-winning blogger and podcaster. In 2011, he was named to the inaugural Fastcase 50, honoring “the law’s smartest, most courageous innovators, techies, visionaries and leaders.” Earlier in his career, he was editor-in-chief of several legal publications, including The National Law Journal, and editorial director of ALM’s Litigation Services Division.