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For generations, Shepard's® has helped attorneys validate legal authority. In today's AI-powered legal landscape, that foundation is more important than ever—and it continues to evolve...
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For generations, Shepard's® has helped attorneys validate legal authority. In today's AI-powered legal landscape, that foundation is more important than ever—and it continues to evolve.
For more than 150 years, legal professionals have relied on a simple but essential principle: before you rely on legal authority, verify it.
That principle has endured through every major evolution in legal research—from rows of printed reporters and bound citators to online databases, analytics platforms and now AI-powered legal research. While the tools attorneys use have transformed dramatically, the need for trusted verification has not.
While AI-assisted research is helping legal professionals work more efficiently, the outputs should always be verified before being relied upon. Courts have recently sanctioned attorneys who have relied on AI-generated citations that were not independently verified before filing. This highlights the continued importance of validating legal authority as part of every research workflow. As legal workflows continue to evolve, trusted verification has become more important than ever.
When Frank Shepard published the first Shepard's Citations in 1873, legal research was a painstaking manual process. Attorneys searched for printed reporters and consulted Shepard's citation volumes to determine how courts had subsequently treated a case. While time-consuming, the process served an indispensable purpose: helping legal professionals understand whether an authority remained reliable before citing or relying on it.
What began as a printed citation service became the industry's trusted standard for citation validation, adapting from print to digital while maintaining the same unwavering commitment to legal accuracy.
Along the way, Shepardize® became part of the legal profession's vocabulary. Attorneys, judges and law students routinely use the term as shorthand for validating legal authority, reflecting the enduring trust Shepard's has earned over generations.
Despite extraordinary advances in legal technology, the question Shepard's has helped answer for more than a century remains remarkably simple:
Can I confidently rely on this authority?
The legal profession has always balanced efficiency with accuracy. Clients expect timely answers. Courts expect well-supported arguments. Attorneys are ethically responsible for the authorities they rely upon. Those expectations have not changed in the age of AI.
As AI becomes increasingly integrated into research, drafting and legal analysis, verification is no longer simply the final step before filing a brief. It has become a continuous part of the legal workflow, providing confidence at every stage of legal work.
By helping legal professionals understand how courts have treated legal authorities, Shepard's enables more informed legal analysis and reinforces confidence in the work product that follows. It allows attorneys to embrace new technology without compromising the rigorous standards that define the practice of law.
Attorneys are no longer validating citations only after research is complete. Increasingly, they need confidence in the legal authorities supporting AI-generated responses, drafted arguments, and legal analysis throughout the course of their work.
For more than 150 years, Shepard's has evolved alongside the legal profession. Today, that evolution continues with Shepard's® Verify.
Alt Text: Citation verification report within Shepard’s Verify
Built on the trusted foundation of Shepard's citation validation, Shepard's Verify extends verification into today's AI-powered legal workflows. It helps legal professionals validate citations and legal authority without disrupting the way they work. Rather than treating verification as a separate task performed at the end of research, Shepard's Verify helps bring trusted validation directly into the research, drafting, and review process.
The result is more than greater efficiency. It is greater confidence that legal professionals can leverage AI while continuing to meet the high standards their clients, colleagues and courts expect.
For more than a century and a half, Shepard's has been the trusted standard that attorneys turn to for citation validation. Shepard's Verify represents the next chapter in that legacy—bringing trusted verification into AI-powered legal workflows so legal professionals can move faster without sacrificing confidence.
Because the future of legal research will not be defined solely by how quickly information is generated. It will be defined by how confidently legal professionals can trust, and stand behind, the authority that supports it.
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