It took awhile to realize that the legal field had much more than Big Law or Judicial Clerkships. Even when exploring the legal aid field, I found that there’s an incredible in the legal aid field.

You know that cliche moment that changes everything? Like meeting the love of your life, deciding to move somewhere else — just that general change in trajectory moment. Some never experience it and some, experience it more than once. While I knew I wanted to pursue a career in legal aid, it took one plane ride from Dallas to San Francisco to change exactly how.

Coming from the midwest, I had no idea about legal tech or design-thinking — just that if you graduated from KU Law you got a biglaw job in KC or worked for the government in Topeka. As far as I knew , legal tech in anyway wasn’t something my local legal community was interested in or even, knowledgeable about. You might argue that I wasn’t looking hard enough and that’s fair, because KLS had been working with online and tech resources for a long time. Which, the disconnect there is a whole other topic about the legal education system generally — I digress.

It’s funny how things work, so I flew from KC to Dallas in a middle seat in one of the last rows. So at the layover, I jumped to the front row for a window seat. And the first person on the plane sat down in my row. For the next three hours, we chatted about law, legal aid, technology, social entrepreneurship, public policy, travel, politics, the Royals’ world series win, and more.

Now, I serve as a Access to Justice Technology Fellow for the summer at Kansas Legal Services in Topeka, KS. And, the most difficult part of the job is explaining what I do.

My usual pitch goes like this:

“I’m spending the summer at Kansas Legal Services, a mostly grant-funded non-profit law firm, that provides legal services to low-income and underserved communities in Kansas. I am working specifically on online resources for pro se litigants or self-representing persons.”

And to be honest, I didn’t really know this either until a couple weeks into the fellowship when I began my projects. At KLS, I am helping develop a chatbot, plan videos, inventory legal forms, and gain legal experience. Ultimately, I spend my time identifying what common questions or problems users have about the available resources, how to make our available resources better, and what resources are we missing.

From legal friends to lay persons, these projects incite a lot of different questions. Many include: “Well does this take jobs away from Lawyers?” “Will this make Lawyers obsolete?” “It technology smart enough to do this?” “Does this actually help people will win their case?”

We all know what’s going on. The lack of funding and desperate need for legal help drives the need for technology and innovation in this field. Those in poverty, often have more than one legal issue, and cannot afford an attorney but usually have internet access or mobile capabilities. Giving people resources to know how to navigate the legal system and  be empowered to do so helps much more than doing nothing at all.

Rather than sitting behind a computer all day gathering data, my experience includes a legal intern component. This helps me better understand how clients use the available resources. I observe KLS attorneys work with Protection from Abuse clients and observe pro se litigants navigate a PFA hearing. This includes watching appearances, witness testimonies, and entering evidence. I visit self-help centers, including Johnson County (Olathe KS) and Franklin County (Ottawa, KS). I take intake phone calls and refer applicants to online resources for self-representing opportunities I participate as a representative on KLS’s LiveChat to help website users access forms and find what they need.  And, I’ve accompanied the attorneys to Senior Outreach Clinics and work on Wills or Power of Attorneys.

The information I gain from that experience then helps me with the following tasks: Update and create new HotDocs, update and create new a2j Author Interviews from HotDocs, research and develop questions users would have during Law Help Interactive Interviews to program into a Chatbot, and research and develop content for writing the video script.