Excerpt from ABA Journal:
The founding members and companies of the nonprofit Justice Technology Association are Sonja Ebron, the co-founder and CEO of Courtroom5; Erin Levine from Hello Divorce; Camila Lopez, the co-founder and CEO of People Clerk; and Yousef Kassim, the CEO of Easy Expunctions. Both Levine and Lopez are members of the ABA Journal’s 2022 class of Legal Rebels.
Maya Markovich, who is a justice tech executive in residence at Village Capital, has been tapped as the association’s executive director.
“There’s a massively underserved population of consumers that aren’t getting access to justice,” Markovich says. “We believe that tech can be part of the solution.”
The new organization defines Justice Tech as a sector that “encompasses innovative technology businesses, initiatives and solutions designed to improve or open access to the exercise of one’s legal rights; increase individual agency; improve outcomes for those seeking legal help; and more equitably and efficiently administer a legal system or service.”
Some of the association’s planned activities include raising awareness about the justice tech sector; sharing reliable data about companies’ service of consumers; and educating investors about the opportunities available to them in justice tech. One way they plan to highlight the opportunities in the justice tech space is by demonstrating that it can bridge different technology sectors—such as legal tech, financial tech and education tech.
The association is also seeking out other direct-to-consumer companies and entrepreneurs to join the organization, according to Markovich, who previously served as chief growth officer at Dentons’ Nextlaw Labs.
Ebron, who was a guest on the Aug. 18 episode of the Legal Rebels Podcast last year, says sharing best practices to address common issues will be another important function of the association.
“I am looking forward to exchanging information and best practices on consumer protection, regulatory proceedings, fundraising sources and other challenges unique to our space,” Ebron says. “I think we’ll all be surprised at how strong the sector becomes when the diversity of current justice tech solutions coalesces under one umbrella.”
— Lyle Moran for ABA Journal
