The Geek In Review

Otto von Zastrow on MidPage.AI and the Future of AI-Powered Legal Research

Jun 23, 2025
Otto von Zastrow, founder and CEO of MidPage.AI, shares his innovative journey transforming legal research. He discusses the launch of MidPage.AI, designed to streamline case law interaction with smarter search tools and an intuitive UI. Otto reveals their unique Proposition Search feature, aimed at solving the 'needle-in-a-haystack' problem. He also touches on the challenges of competing against giants like Lexis and Westlaw, emphasizing how AI can empower new entrants in the legal tech arena.
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ANECDOTE

Pivot From Robotics to Legal Tech

  • Otto pivoted from AI robotics to legal tech inspired by friends overwhelmed with inefficient legal research.
  • He saw language models evolving rapidly and applied them to law for greater impact.
INSIGHT

Grid-Based Legal Search Innovation

  • Traditional legal search returns a list of links forcing users to open many tabs.
  • MidPage uses a grid/spreadsheet view that overlays search results with relevant case attributes for better filtering and comparison.
ANECDOTE

Kangaroo Court Empathy Building

  • MidPage uses an internal "kangaroo court" where every employee tries legal research tasks monthly, even engineers.
  • This builds empathy and improves product by exposing creators to real user workflows and challenges.
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