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Clearbrief
Seattle, Washington, legal AI company that works inside Microsoft Word to check citations, link facts to evidence, and build timelines, exhibits, and tables of authorities for litigators.
Litigators and law firms that draft in Microsoft Word and want every citation and fact checked against the record before filing.
Teams that draft outside Word, or firms that want a full legal research database as the main tool.
Verdict
Clearbrief is a Seattle, Washington, company whose Word add-in checks citations and links each fact in a filing to its evidence. It suits litigators who want to catch fabricated cases and unsupported claims before a judge does. Its founder built it after years as an appellate lawyer in Washington and Alaska.
Score Breakdown
How Clearbrief scores in the categories that matter to its buyers.
Pricing
Clearbrief publishes a monthly per-user Solo price and quotes Enterprise Unlimited with volume discounts and training.
| Plan | Price | What stands out |
|---|---|---|
| Solo | $300 / user / month | Core drafting and checking features; multi-year deals by request |
| Enterprise Unlimited | Custom | Volume discounts and one-on-one training |
The Field at a Glance
How Clearbrief compares with other AI legal research vendors we reviewed, by Overall Score and relative typical engagement cost.
Clearbrief scores 8.0 in AI legal research, ahead of Paxton (7.9) and Alexi (7.3). Relative cost lands mid-band for this subcategory.
Use-case matrix
| Use case | Fit | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Citation checks | Strong | Flags fabricated or wrong case citations. |
| Fact linking | Strong | Ties each fact to the evidence it cites. |
| Word add-in | Strong | Works inside Microsoft Word. |
| Exhibits and timelines | Strong | Builds timelines, exhibits, and tables of authorities. |
| Research database | Mixed | Relies on outside research sources. |
| Transactional work | Weak | Built mainly for litigation filings. |
Who it’s for
Good fit
- Litigation teams at law firms
- Appellate lawyers
- Corporate legal teams that file in court
Poor fit
- Teams drafting outside Word
- Transactional-only practices
- Buyers wanting a research database
Review Excerpts
Below are excerpts from public reviews. Our team scoured public reviews, forums, and chat rooms to get a balanced view of customers' experience with this company. Paid reviews and pay-for-play sites such as Clutch were excluded.
Clearbrief says more than 3.2 million pleadings have been drafted and checked with it since it launched.
“One of the most wonderful things about Clearbrief is that it is hooked into LexisNexis and if you have case citations in your document that you have generated through AI it will tell you if some of them are hallucinations.”
Clearbrief's Solo plan costs $300 per user per month, and lower rates are only offered through multi-year agreements.
Company Facts
- Headquarters
- Seattle, Washington (GeekWire)
- Founder
- Jacqueline Schafer (CEO) (GeekWire)
- CTO
- Jose Saura, who spent two decades at Microsoft (GeekWire)
- Latest round
- $4M led by Authentic Ventures, How Women Invest, and Reign Ventures, June 2024 (GeekWire)
- Earlier investors
- Sequoia and Madrona Venture Group (GeekWire)
- Volume
- More than 3.2 million pleadings drafted and checked, per the company (clearbrief.com)
- Website
- clearbrief.com
Key Leadership
Jacqueline Schafer
Founder and CEO
Methodology
This page is an independent evaluation of Clearbrief for buyers comparing options in AI legal research. AI Industry Reviews accepts no sponsorships, advertising, or pay-for-placement fees. Clearbrief did not pay for this review.
What we scored
The headline number is an Overall Score on a 0-10 scale. Eight criteria sit under it in two groups.
- Buyer outcomes (for AI legal research)
- Citation and fact checking
- Microsoft Word integration
- Posted solo rate
- Breadth beyond litigation
- Company & commercial
- Innovation & product leadership
- Project management & communication
- Pricing
- Contract fairness
Pricing measures whether the price looks fair for the value delivered, including packaging and renewal friction that show up in real buying cycles.
Score Composition
| Input | Weight | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Reviews | 40% | A proprietary read of what practitioners say about likes, complaints, and day-to-day use, including public review sites, forums, and private chat rooms. Paid reviews and pay-for-play sites such as Clutch are out of scope. |
| Product | 35% | Hands-on look at screens and workflows. |
| Pricing | 15% | Whether the price looks fair for what you get. |
| Docs & training | 10% | Docs, tutorials, and training material. |
How we balanced the evidence
The Overall Score is the simple average of the eight criteria. Recommendation language follows that score and the fit pattern described above.
Scope
Clearbrief is graded here as AI legal research. Criteria scores can move as more review volume and product checks are added.