#LegalTechLives with Ed Walters, CEO of Fastcase & Georgetown Law Professor
“Let the tool do the work” — Ed Walters
For this edition of LegalTech Lives, I spoke with Ed Walters, CEO of Fastcase, Georgetown Law Professor and LegalTech Innovator. Prior to founding Fastcase, Walters worked in both Washington, D.C. and Brussels at Covington & Burling, where he advised major software companies and sports leagues. Walters also holds experience in public relations and speechwriting, specifically at the White House from 1991–1993 in the Office of Media Affairs and then Office of Presidential Speechwriting. He has published articles for The Washington Post, The New York Times, The University of Chicago Law Review, The Green Bag and Legal Times. Walters holds degrees from Georgetown University (A.B. in government) and University of Chicago (J.D.) and continues to remain active on the boards of Pro Bono Net, Public.Resource.org, and Friends of Telecom Without Borders.
Kathleen Killin: To start us off, can you provide a background as to what Fastcase is and why you felt the need to build such a product?
Ed Walters: My co-founder Phil Rosenthal and I were working at Covington & Burling in Washington and Brussels, and we noticed that even very large clients were looking for alternatives to legal research incumbents. It was 1999, and we knew that, in the coming Internet age, there needed to be alternatives, and damn good ones, for legal research. We started Fastcase to democratize the law and to make research smarter. We wanted to be Google (algorithmic, fast, democratic) to the incumbents’ Yahoo (editorial, simple, and stuck).
KK: We are both in the business of legal research, how do you think research will evolve within the next five years?
EW: I’m excited to see the historic law opening up in the United States and around the world, but I remain concerned that new caselaw, statutes, and regulations are less open than when we started. We were actually threatened with a lawsuit for using Georgia’s public regulations on Fastcase in a free legal research service for members of the State Bar of Georgia. We’ve filed suit in federal court in Georgia, asking the court to declare that private publishers can’t lock up public law.
I’d like for legal research and public law to be more public and more broadly accessible — but I don’t take that for granted. In some cases, we’re going to have to fight for it.
KK: You have varied experience in media relations and speech writing, specifically at the White House. How have you parlayed that experience into being a successful CEO?
EW: I’ve been lucky to have some terrific mentors before starting Fastcase — they have been great examples of humility, grace under pressure, and a lack of ego about work, all ideals that our team aspires to.
KK: What is one piece of advice that you have received that has stuck with you? Who is it from?
EW: When I was a kid, I used to build things a lot with my father, who is a litigator in Baton Rouge, La. He always told me,
“Let the tool do the work.”
At the time, he meant that you shouldn’t muscle a saw or slam a hammer — but it’s a really nice fit for legal research tools, too.
KK: As a pioneer in LegalTech, what is your advice for new companies who are now starting-up in the legal space?
EW: One underrated value for entrepreneurs is relentlessness — the ability to keep going in the face of adversity. I was lucky that my co-founder was stubborn (in a good way) and unwilling to quit, even during very difficult early days of Fastcase. Come hell or high water, we were determined to open a new door for people who wanted access to the law. Legal tech takes a very long time to catch on (ROSS Intelligence may be an exception here) –
if you’re going to be a legal tech entrepreneur, you’d better be relentless.
KK: What app (other than Fastcase!) can you not live without?
EW: I’m hopelessly addicted to Twitter, which is my newspaper, my business intelligence engine, and my failsafe communication with friends. Close seconds are Google Maps, The Weather Channel, and ESPN.
KK: I’m planning a trip to DC this summer, what is your favorite activity to do in the city?
EW: DC has some amazing bookstore cafes, like Kramerbooks in Dupont Circle or Politics & Prose farther north in Van Ness. In the summer get into Rock Creek Park, an arboreal wormhole through the city that’s great for running, hiking, or biking.
KK: I saw that you have a strong connection with Chicago, what are your favourite deep dish toppings?
EW: I’m an omnivore, so I like almost anything on a pizza. I went to University of Chicago, so my favorite Chicago pizza place is a Hyde Park haunt — Medici on 57th. It’s lost a step, but the nostalgia makes everything taste amazing.
Ed — thank you so much for speaking with me. Your thoughts on legal research being accessible and available to all is a view we share here at ROSS. I also agree about being relentless, I too have a stubborn streak. One of my favorite quotes is “If you are going through hell, keep going”, said by Winston Churchill. I think that adversity builds character and we appreciate our accomplishments more once we have fallen down a few times. Your quote “let the tool do the work” has really resonated with me. At the moment, I’m quite interested in how early technology impacted the development of cooking; and I can’t help but relate your quote to the dough hook and how it helped the baker be more productive. The amount they were able to bake in a day increased exponentially, with bakers diversifying their products. It truly is amazing how technology has impacted our everyday lives!
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