WordRake Holdings, LLC, a software company focused on clear and concise editing for professionals, announced its collaboration with the Paralegal Studies Program, within the School of Education and Public Service, at Midlands Technical College (MTC) for the 2020-21 academic year. Together, WordRake and MTC hope to spotlight the role of paralegals in the document creation process and the importance of strong legal writing for all legal professionals.
“Legal writing plays an undeniably important role for all legal professionals, so we’ve been collaborating with law schools to incorporate WordRake into the curriculum and make it widely available for students,” said Scott Johns, President of WordRake. “Recognizing how closely lawyers and paralegals work together, it made sense to bring WordRake into paralegal programs, too.”
Paralegals assist lawyers in carrying out their professional responsibilities and perform legal research, prepare documents, interview clients, and more. Midlands Technical College trains paralegals for that role and offers an Associate Degree and academic Certificate in Paralegal Studies. Both paralegal education programs are approved by the American Bar Association.
“Paralegals are expected to have mastered the document creation process and all technology that’s part of it before they start work,” said Debra C. Galloway, Attorney and Paralegal Professor for Midlands Technical College. “By incorporating WordRake into my legal writing and legal research courses, my students will have better legal writing skills and technology abilities that will prime them for success as a paraprofessional.”
The WordRake-MTC collaboration introduces paralegal students to legal writing technology widely used throughout the legal profession and allows students to hone their legal writing and editing skills in a supportive environment. About 100 paralegal students will receive one-year WordRake licenses to use the software on their personal computers for writing assignments.
This is WordRake’s first collaboration with a paralegal program. WordRake launched its first academic legal writing collaborations last year starting with Suffolk University Law School; the program will continue for a second year.
“I believe in the power of a dynamic, well-trained team that leverages technology and includes many different legal professionals,” said Ivy B. Grey, Vice President of Strategy & Business Development for WordRake. “Extending our academic collaborations to include paralegal schools reinforces our position that great legal writing is important for all roles and that it takes a team to deliver effective, efficient legal services.”
WordRake was created so lawyers could focus on their legal analysis without using unnecessary verbiage. While teaching over 1,000 legal writing programs, WordRake founder Gary Kinder identified a set of signals that would indicate wordiness and muddled writing. Those signals became the foundation for WordRake editing software.
About Midlands Technical College
Midlands Technical College is a two-year comprehensive community college serving Richland, Lexington, and Fairfield counties in South Carolina. The Paralegal Studies Associate Degree program is a 61-credit-hour program. The Paralegal Studies Certificate program is a 24-credit-hour program.
About WordRake
Launched in 2012, WordRake is editing software designed by writing expert and New York Times bestselling author Gary Kinder. WordRake runs in Microsoft Word and Outlook, and its suggestions appear in the familiar track-changes style. It uses complex, patented algorithms to find and improve weak lead-ins, confusing language, and high-level grammar and usage slips. Learn more about bringing WordRake to paralegal programs or law schools.
