BriefCatch Blog

Writing Tips & Legal Writing Articles

BriefCatch Achieves SOC 2 Type 1 Compliance

By Ross Guberman / May 8, 2023 /

We are thrilled to announce that BriefCatch has achieved SOC 2 Type 1 compliance. This milestone is the latest display of our commitment to the highest security and data-protection standards. The SOC-2 Type 1 audit is a rigorous evaluation that validates our adherence to strict security controls and practices. It showcases our dedication to safeguarding…

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Starting Sentences With “And” or “But”: A Tale As Old As Time

By Ross Guberman / April 10, 2023 /

I’ve written elsewhere about the myth that you can’t start sentences with “And,” “But,” or “Yet.” And (see what I did?) there’s nothing new here. Look below! Arts and Letters William Shakespeare (Hamlet) But break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue. Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice) And to all this she must yet…

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Making Peace With “Which” vs. “That”: A Cheat Sheet

By Ross Guberman / March 12, 2023 /

Which “which” vs. “that” rules make you wish that grammar evaporated? Do “which” hunts sometimes feel like witch hunts? Help is on the way! This post will share my best “which vs. that” trick, along with examples from opinions, a brief, and a contract. Let’s start with this example. Why did the Federal Trade Commission…

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Law360: “How BigLaw Is Using Writing Tools To Maximize Attorneys’ Time”

By Ross Guberman / November 14, 2022 /
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BriefCatch 3: The Verdict Is In!

By Ross Guberman / November 9, 2022 /

The word from the legal-tech world on BriefCatch 3: “Indispensable.” “Stellar.” “A class of its own.” Want to hear from the jurors themselves? Jean O’Grady: “[L]ike having a silent coach.” Joe Patrice: “[N]ot everyone can be Elena Kagan. But you can get close!” Bob Ambrogi: “More than 11,000 legal-specific editing suggestions . . . thousands of…

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“If an editing program can clean up a Supreme Court Opinion, imagine what it can do to your brief.”

By Ross Guberman / October 13, 2022 /

If your editing chops can improve published work product, hats off. You’ve fine-tuned a document that’s likely faced many rounds of editing, often by many hands. That’s all the more true for a high-profile Supreme Court opinion. With that high bar in mind, legal-tech guru Bob Ambrogi recently ran Justice Thomas’s opinion in Bruen through…

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A Day in the Life of the American Contract

By Ross Guberman / November 23, 2021 /

Do practicing lawyers get to vote on legal-writing controversies? Not if you ask some self-styled pundits. Like other forms of writing, legal writing has its descriptivists (“Here’s how lawyers do write”) and its prescriptivists (“Here’s how lawyers should write”). The prescriptivists, who dominate the field, have the virtues of idealism and of trying to foment large-scale change in the profession. But they are…

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Scarlet Johansson v. Disney: What’s at Stake?

By Ross Guberman / August 1, 2021 /

Why is Johansson suing Disney? For allegedly interfering in her Black Widow contract with Marvel Studios, a Disney subsidiary. Johansson claims that Disney rushed to release Black Widow on its streaming service to grow the Disney+ subscriber base and to devalue her interest in the film’s profits. What does her Black Widow contract say about…

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Textualism Whiplash: Two Supreme Studies

By Ross Guberman / April 1, 2021 /

“We are all textualists now,” said Justice Kagan at a speech honoring Justice Scalia. The Justices all agree on that much. But then what? In 2016, the Supreme Court had to decide whether “involving a minor” limited just the third type of crime below or the other two types as well. That case was Lockhart…

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Microsoft Word’s New Editor: Lawyer Beware?

By Ross Guberman / January 16, 2021 /

You’ve probably seen a spell checker turn “tortious interference” to “tortuous interference.” Ouch! But how does MS Word’s new Editor handle more-sophisticated editing suggestions in legal documents? We report below; you decide.

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