One will work with the Legal Services Corporation to develop web portals to help low-income Americans find appropriate legal aid resources. Another will help innocence projects develop a tool to better communicate with each other.
These will be two of the eight first-time Fellows announced Monday who will work under the umbrella of the American Bar Association Center for Innovation. The Center was established in September 2016 at the recommendation of the ABA Commission on the Future of Legal Services to encourage and accelerate innovations that improve the accessibility, affordability and effectiveness of legal services and to transform how the public accesses the law and legal information.
The Fellows, who were selected by the ABA Center for Innovation Fellows Committee, will begin work later this summer. Each will spend between three months and one year at the Center, and the group includes five NextGen Fellows, who will spend a year on projects, and three Innovation Fellows, whose fellowships run up to four months.
"We're thrilled to welcome these Fellows to the Center for Innovation," ABA President Linda A. Klein said. "They're not only helping lawyers and their clients in creative new ways, they're also giving us a glimpse into what legal services could look like in the decades to come."
The first class of ABA Center of Innovation fellows are:
- Microsoft-NextGen Fellow Amanda Brown, who will be working with the Legal Services Corporation to develop web portals to guide low-income Americans to legal aid resources. She is a graduate from the Loyola University College of Law in New Orleans.
- American University Washington College of Law NextGen Fellow Athena Fan, who is developing an app to help pro se litigants navigate local civil procedure.
- NextGen Fellow Tobias Franklin, who is creating CHESTER (Chicago Expert System for Tenant Eviction Rights) to empower Chicago residents facing eviction. He is a graduate of the University of Maine School of Law.
- Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law NextGen Fellow Reshma Kamath, who is exploring how blockchain technology can be leveraged in the insurance, compliance and human rights arenas.
- Innovation Fellow Aurora Martin, who is developing SAM (Scholar Advocacy Matchup) to match scholars with advocacy groups to advance policy and research. She is a graduate of the University of Washington School of Law.
- NextGen Fellow Irene Mo is developing tools and trainings to reduce privacy and data security risks for marginalized and low-income persons. She is a graduate of Michigan State University College of Law.
- Innovation Fellow Bryan Gossage is exploring how to leverage technology to make court administration more efficient, effective and fair. He has a bachelor's degree in sociology and his fellowship is sponsored by the North Carolina Bar Association, North Carolina Supreme Court and North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts.
- Innovation Fellow Bryan Wilson, who is developing a tool for innocence projects to more easily share pleadings and data. He is a graduate of the University of Missouri Kansas City School of Law.
To learn more about the Fellows and their projects, visit http://abacenterforinnovation.org/fellowships/meet-our-fellows.
Published: Fri, Aug 04, 2017
