Say Hello to Lit IQ

[Updated 4 April 2018: I’m no longer an advisor to LexCheck (formerly Lit IQ), and the last time I did any work for them was in 2016.]

At LegalTech West on Tuesday, July 14, during the session starting 1:30 p.m. PDT entitled “Legal Disruption Lightning Round Two,” Gurinder Sangha will make a five-minute presentation about Lit IQ. Let me tell you a bit about Lit IQ.

Over the years, I’ve sporadically thought that it would be helpful if you could use software to check draft contracts for glitches. And not just the kind of glitches that you’d catch with Word’s “Spelling & Grammar” function, or with any of the defined-term-checking products out there.

But I certainly didn’t have the resources or energy to develop such a product myself. That’s why I was intrigued when Gurinder contacted me to ask if I wanted to help develop Lit IQ. I told him that I did, so I’m now an advisor to Lit IQ.

I agreed to join Lit IQ for three reasons:

First, Gurinder is attempting to develop just the sort of broad-based contract-checking product that I had idly contemplated.

Second, Gurinder has assembled the suitable linguistics and programming expertise.

And third, Gurinder has already demonstrated that he’s got what it takes to pull it off. He founded Intelligize, the leading securities-research product. (To get a sense of how successful Intelligize has been, see this post by Dewey B Strategic.)

My role in Lit IQ is to ensure that the software looks for the right things. Essentially, it’s a matter of transposing to the software the recommendations regarding how not to draft contained in A Manual of Style for Contract Drafting and my other writings. Given that analysis of the building blocks of contract language is a subject I’ve made my own, I would have felt foolish if Gurinder had enlisted someone else.

It’s too early for us to have something for you to try out. But you can go here to sign up to be informed of developments.

About the author

Ken Adams is the leading authority on how to say clearly whatever you want to say in a contract. He’s author of A Manual of Style for Contract Drafting, and he offers online and in-person training around the world. He’s also chief content officer of LegalSifter, Inc., a company that combines artificial intelligence and expertise to assist with review of contracts.

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