Two companies with technology for helping lawyers proofread, format and finalize documents today announced their merger. The companies, Microsystems and XRef, both have Microsoft Word proofreading add-ins designed for lawyers and say their merger will enable them to bring even better technologies to the market.

Microsystems, which has offices in the U.S. and the UK, markets products to the legal, professional services and life sciences industries. Its products DocXtools and DocXtools Companion are designed for lawyers and provide tools within Word for editing, formatting and proofreading documents.

XRef was founded in 2014 in London by founder Stephen Scanlan and co-founder Travis Leon, a former Linklaters lawyer, and later expanded to the U.S. market. Its proofreading software is a Word add-in that identifies various types of drafting errors. In particular, it finds and helps correct errors with defined terms, such as failing to capitalize a defined term or setting up a defined term but never using it.

In a statement issued this morning, Leon said:

Our organizations are the two forces that have built this market. We recognized that working together we would better serve the market and clients’ needs. As co-founder at XRef, my objective was to help law firms around the world to better use technology in dealing with the increasing demands of the legal industry. Working with Microsystems will accelerate the achievement of that goal by leveraging the strengths of our two organizations.

The statement did not say whether the companies’ products will be integrated or kept separate.

Photo of Bob Ambrogi Bob Ambrogi

Bob is a lawyer, veteran legal journalist, and award-winning blogger and podcaster. In 2011, he was named to the inaugural Fastcase 50, honoring “the law’s smartest, most courageous innovators, techies, visionaries and leaders.” Earlier in his career, he was editor-in-chief of several legal publications, including The National Law Journal, and editorial director of ALM’s Litigation Services Division.