EP#5: Thomas Bruce: the Renaissance man behind the Cello browser and Legal Information Institute

EP#5: Thomas Bruce: the Renaissance man behind the Cello browser and Legal Information Institute

From Rule-Breakers by PROPYLON

July 7, 2025 · 32 min

About this episode

Sean talks to Thomas Bruce about his career, including the development of the Cello web browser and the founding of the Legal Information Institute.

In this episode of Rule-breakers, Sean talks to Thomas Bruce about his remarkable career. From his days as a master electrician for the Yale Rep to touring with music legends, Thomas developed the Cello web browser, one of the internet's first graphical web browsers for Windows. He also co-founded the Legal Information Institute (LII) at Cornell in the early nineties when only fragments of legal information could be found on the internet. Discover Thomas' unique insights into early web development, the evolution of legal tech, and the surprising connections he finds between all his passions.

People in this episode

Guest: Thomas Bruce

Topics covered

  • web development
  • legal tech
  • internet history
  • music

Keywords

  • Cello browser
  • Legal Information Institute
  • early web
  • graphical web browsers

Mentioned in this episode

Products: Cello, Windows, Cello web browser, Legal Information Institute

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