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Koch Finds a New Calling in a Consumer Legal Site From The New York Times
FEBRUARY 7, 2000 - Ed Koch was sitting in his 30th-floor law office in Rockefeller Center one
day last fall when he got a phone call from a 28-year-old lawyer who wanted
to start a legal Web site for consumers.
The timing was auspicious. The feisty former mayor of New York had just
finished "I'm Not Done Yet!" -- his memoir of staying active and in the
public eye past 70. And now, the dot-com world beckoned. "Ah," he recalled
thinking at the time, "to be 75 and still relevant."
The result of that phone conversation, TheLaw.com, is to appear on the Web
Monday. Koch's co-founder of the site is that young lawyer, David Polinsky,
who is the chief executive of the venture. Robert Kinelski, who has an
M.B.A. from the Wharton School and is a former marketing executive at
Colgate Palmolive, is the chief operating officer.
In a first round of financing, TheLaw.com attracted roughly $2 million from
Israel Seed Partners, a venture fund in Israel, and this week, Koch said, he
and the other executive team members plan to be in California seeking a
"substantial second round" of venture capital. TheLaw.com is also set to
appear this week at Demo, a technology conference in Indian Wells, Calif.,
where 80 companies, selected from 1,000 applicants, will show off new
products and services. Hundreds of venture capitalists attend, browsing for
promising investments.
"The founding team is passionate about the law, and they see law as
entertainment, as well," said Chris Shipley, the editor of the DemoLetter
who runs the conference. "And I was impressed by Ed Koch, who understands
both those things."
TheLaw.com joins a handful of other legal sites, including USLaw.com and
Findlaw.com. But Kinelski insists that TheLaw.com will be the first "truly
consumer law site." It is intended, he said, to "translate legal complexity
into plain English and empower people so they don't feel intimidated by
lawyers when a life event involves an encounter with the legal system, like
divorce, bankruptcy, a real estate contract or whatever."
The site will sell ads and directory listings for law firms.
Initially, TheLaw.com will offer 25 legal topics, with plans to expand to
more than three dozen soon. Law school professors from around the country
are being signed up to contribute online commentary and advice in their
areas of specialty. Its contributors will weigh in with "legal reality
checks" on movies, television programs and novels in which lawyers are
prominent characters. And Koch plans to do online chat sessions for an hour
or two each week.
Is Hizzoner a hacker? "No," Koch said, adding that he farms out most
computing chores to three assistants in his law office. "But it's my
intention to become computer literate."
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