Legal research company Fastcase today announced its eighth annual Fastcase 50 honorees, the “smartest, most courageous innovators, techies, visionaries, and leaders in the law.”

Fastcase has compiled the awards annually since 2011 as a way of highlighting entrepreneurs and visionaries who are helping to drive the future of law. This year’s selections bring the total honorees to 400. (Full disclosure: I was among that inaugural 2011 class.)

A number of this year’s honorees are pioneers in the areas of access to justice, artificial intelligence and data visualization.

“The Fastcase 50 Award season is exciting for us each year, as we get to honor a collection of smart, driven innovators with a passion to improve our profession,” Ed Walters, Fastcase CEO, said in a press release. “It’s fun for our team each year to draw inspiration from our heroes, many of whom are doing terrific, unsung work at the frontiers of law.”

You can find a list of all past honorees at www.fastcase.com/fastcase50  and a Twitter list of posts by honorees at https://twitter.com/fastcase/lists/fastcase-50.

Here are this year’s honorees:

  • Shruti Ajitsaria, Counsel and Head of Fuse, Allen & Overy.
  • Kenton Brice, Director of Technology Innovation, The University of Oklahoma College of Law.
  • John Browning, Shareholder, Passman & Jones; Adjunct Professor of Law, SMU Dedman School of Law; Adjunct Professor of Law, Texas Wesleyan University School of Law.
  • Femi Cadmus, Director, J. Michael Goodson Law Library at Duke University School of LAw; Vice-President, American Association of Law Librarians.
  • Adam Camras, CEO, LAWgical and Legal Talk Network.
  • Veronica Canton, Partner, Impowerus; Law Student Division President, Hispanic National Bar Association.
  • Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean and Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law, Berkeley Law.
  • Gabriela Cubeiro, Co-Founder and Director, CASEpeer.
  • Patrick DiDomenico, Chief Knowledge Officer, Ogletree Deakins.
  • Eric Falkenberry, Partner, DLA Piper.
  • Darren Fancher, Co-Founder and CEO, CASEpeer.
  • Andrea Ferster, Attorney, Law Office of Andrea Ferster; Past President, District of Columbia Bar; Steering Committee, DC Refers.
  • Erin Gerstenzang, Criminal Defense Attorney, EHG Law Firm.
  • Lori Gonzalez, President, The RayNa Corporation.
  • John Grant, Founder, The Agile Attorney.
  • Dazza Greenwood, Founder, CIVICS.com; Lecturer and Visiting Research Scientist, MIT.
  • Ivy Grey, Author of American Legal Style for PerfectIt, Intelligent Editing; Senior Attorney, Griffin Hamersky LLP.
  • Jack Grow, President and CEO, LawToolBox.com.
  • Pieter Gunst, Co-Founder and COO, Legal.io.
  • Kate Hagan, Executive Director, American Association of Law Librarians.
  • Jim Harbaugh, Head Football Coach, University of Michigan.
  • Shawnna Hoffman, Co-Founder and Global Co-Leader, IBM Watson Legal Practice.
  • Claudia Johnson, LawHelp Interactive Program Manager, Pro Bono Net.
  • Lisa Joy, Co-Creator and Executive Producer of Westworld.
  • Neal Katyal, Partner, Hogan Lovells.
  • Brian Kuhn, Co-Founder and Global Co-Leader, IBM Watson Legal Practice.
  • Patricia Lee, Special Assistant for Diversity and Bar Relations, State Bar of California (retired); Chair, Diversity and Inclusion Center, American Bar Association.
  • Saskia Mehlhorn, Director of Knowledge Management & Library Services, Norton Rose Fulbright.
  • John Nay, Co-Founder and CEO, Skopos Labs.
  • Cian O’Sullivan, Top Dog and Founder, Beagle.
  • Amanda Ostrowitz, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer, CannaRegs.
  • Patrick Palace, Owner, Palace Law; Past President, Washington State Bar Association; Owner, Sunken Cellars Winery.
  • Jeff Pfeifer, Vice President of Product Management, LexisNexis.
  • Amy Porter, Founder & CEO, LawPay.
  • Jonathan Pyle, Creator, DocAssemble; Contract Performance Officer, Philadelphia Legal Assistance.
  • Daniel Reilly, Co-Founder & CEO, Legably.
  • Katelyn Ringrose, Founder, Impowerus.
  • Daniel Rodriguez, Chair, ABA Center for Innovation; Immediate Past Dean, Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law.
  • Laura Safdie, Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel, Casetext.
  • Aileen Schultz, Co-Founder, Global Legal Hackathon; Director of Network Intelligence, Integra Ledger.
  • Sam Stoddard, Co-Founder and CEO, SimpleCitizen.
  • Michelle Suskauer, President, The Florida Bar; Partner, Dimond Kaplan & Rothstein, P.A..
  • Joseph Tiano, Jr., Founder and CEO, Legal Decoder.
  • Mark Torchiana, CEO, Courtroom Insight.
  • Darryl Towell, CEO, Docket Navigator.
  • Wilson Tsu, Founder & CEO, LearnLeo.
  • Jae Um, Founder and Executive Director, Six Parsecs.
  • Amy Wan, Founder and CEO, Bootstrap Legal; Founder, Legal Hackers LA.
  • Jeff Ward, Director, Duke Law Center on Law & Technology.
  • Ken White, Partner, Brown White & Osborne

Congratulations to all!

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.