Can AI identify potential legal risks faster than an experienced media lawyer? According to ClearDraft co-founder David Burgess, the answer is increasingly yes. But identifying a risk and deciding what to do about it are two very different things.
Burgess recently joined Releveraged, a podcast featuring founders building innovative businesses in the legal sector, to discuss the thinking behind ClearDraft and how AI could transform the way publishers and content creators approach legal clearance.
Drawing on more than 25 years of experience in media law, including senior roles at Netflix, The Independent, and the Evening Standard, Burgess explains how traditional clearance has long required lawyers to spend hours reading manuscripts, articles, and other content to identify a relatively small number of potential legal issues.
ClearDraft aims to change that by using AI to handle the time-consuming process of identifying risks, allowing lawyers to focus their expertise on assessing and resolving them.
During the conversation, Burgess reveals that ClearDraft's AI is continuously tested against experienced lawyers and is consistently faster than human reviewers when it comes to spotting potential issues.
But he is equally clear about where the technology's role should end.
"We have not built a machine that makes the call. I don't think we should. I think that's a human interaction. I think that's a human moment."
As Burgess explains, legal decisions involve far more than identifying a potentially problematic passage. They require an understanding of the client, the content, the individuals involved, and the wider circumstances surrounding publication.
"We very quickly realized we were building an issue-spotting machine to allow humans to make the call."
It's this distinction that sits at the heart of ClearDraft's approach: using AI to make the initial stages of legal clearance faster and more efficient, while keeping expert legal judgment central to the process.
Beyond the technology itself, Burgess also explores the broader opportunity to make specialist legal support more affordable and accessible. By reducing the time lawyers spend reviewing content, ClearDraft aims to help more publishers, journalists, and independent creators identify and navigate legal risks before publication.
Listen to the full conversation:
