{"id":2974,"date":"2021-01-28T06:09:57","date_gmt":"2021-01-28T14:09:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unicourt.com\/blog\/?p=2974"},"modified":"2021-11-16T00:35:10","modified_gmt":"2021-11-16T08:35:10","slug":"qa-with-amanda-brown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unicourt.com\/blog\/qa-with-amanda-brown\/","title":{"rendered":"UniCourt Influencer Q&A with Amanda Brown of Lagniappe Law Lab"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Access to justice at scale.<\/em> That\u2019s the goal behind Lagniappe Law Lab<\/a>, Amanda Brown\u2019s mission-centered legal tech nonprofit. The Law Lab\u2019s goal is to bring access to justice to a broader and broader cross section of the community while integrating all parts of the Louisiana justice system. Ultimately, the organization\u2019s goal is to break down silos and provide a wealth of resources to various civil legal technology projects \u2013 in other words, to build systems that ensure the efficient delivery of legal services to the most underserved communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We enjoyed sitting down with Amanda to learn more about her background, her motivation for launching Lagniappe Law Lab, and her take on what 2021 has in store for the access to justice movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UniCourt: Tell us your story. What is your background, and what led you to what you are doing now?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Amanda Brown: Growing up in poverty in rural Louisiana, becoming a lawyer wasn\u2019t really on my radar. In fact, one of those high school career\/aptitude tests said I would make a great secretary\u2026 (maybe they meant Secretary of State?). It wasn\u2019t until someone vandalized my grandfather\u2019s property during my Sophomore Year of high school that I thought lawyering could be an option for me. I remember being so upset that someone would do such a thing and wishing that person could be held accountable. Expressing this to my grandfather, he said plainly, \u201cyou know, that\u2019s what lawyers do.\u201d And so began my love affair with justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like many college students (especially ones that were told they\u2019d be better off as a secretary), I struggled to figure out what I wanted to major in. I first studied engineering, but became intimidated by the sheer volume of math left to be learned after the first year. A switch to the business college felt right, so I studied marketing for a bit before finally settling down and graduating in economics. Despite my undergraduate commitment issues, I always knew in the back of my mind that to do right by 15-year-old me, I had to go to law school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After graduation, I had a fairly routine law school experience until my last semester of law school, where (after much inner turmoil about whether it would be \u201cuseful\u201d for my legal career) I participated in a legal technology clinic. That experience really taught me core concepts of technology and solution design in the law. I put those new skills to use in my first year of practice as a disaster recovery lawyer by supporting the design\/development of the ABA\u2019s \u201cFlood Proof\u201d app. Soon after, I found myself in Seattle as the ABA Center for Innovation\u2019s Microsoft NextGen Fellow, where I worked on the Legal Navigator Portal project. After a post-fellowship stint as a consultant, I started up Lagniappe Law Lab and the rest is history!  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking back, I\u2019m realizing my rocky college experience had a massive impact on my ability to operate in the squishy world of legal technology. The disciplines I studied are the perfect confluence of everything I love about being in this space: design, data, and understanding plus reaching your market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UC: What is Lagniappe Law Lab? What is its mission?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

AB: Incorporated in 2019, Lagniappe Law Lab is an independent 501(c)(3) funded by the Louisiana Bar Foundation that serves the greater civil justice system here in Louisiana. We work closely with legal aid programs, pro bono projects, various committees, courts, law schools, and the Louisiana Access to Justice Commission to bring technology, data, and design to the equation, helping our network scale its ability to meet the public\u2019s needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UC: What motivated you to start Lagniappe Law Lab? What gap does it fill or problem does it address?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

AB: I was motivated to start Lagniappe Law Lab after consulting with the Louisiana Bar Foundation on some legal technology projects. During that time, I realized while we had a great appetite for legal technology amongst our stakeholders, there wasn\u2019t enough human capital to go around to plan, execute, and \u2013 most importantly \u2013 sustain and govern these efforts. I also found that because we had separate, independently run legal services programs, projects being carried out internally sometimes overlapped with work other programs were already doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taking a page from Joyce Raby\u2019s book, I modeled Lagniappe Law Lab after the Florida Justice Technology Center (FJTC), hoping to establish a centralized, statewide center that could break down silos and provide dedicated resources to carrying out civil legal technology projects. This model gives us a unique, global view on the state of legal technology in Louisiana and allows us to influence technology adoption at the system level, rather than on an individual project basis. I often feel like I\u2019m actually in the business of building systems rather than products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UC: What do you think 2021 has in store for the Access to Justice movement? <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

AB: I truly think 2021 has the capacity to be one of the biggest years for access to justice yet. COVID-19 exposed the deficiencies in our system\u2019s technology abilities, and a scramble to implement technology exposed the deficiencies in the system overall. This brought a lot of players to the table that previously played the role of active impeder or tacit endorser of access to justice efforts. It seems like we may finally have an audience that\u2019s not <\/em>just willing to listen to what we have to say, but also help us execute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I guess what I\u2019m trying to say is that the biggest victory of 2021 wouldn\u2019t be more technology, more service innovations, or even more regulatory reform experiments across the country. Instead, the real prize is a truly collaborative justice system. From there, I have confidence that things that are genuinely in the best interest of justice will have a fighting chance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UC: What are some of your favorite resources for learning about A2J?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

AB: I\u2019m really digging into podcasts these days. Andrea Perry Petersen\u2019s Reimagining Justice<\/em><\/a> <\/em>podcast is a great source for all things legal innovation and human-centered design. It\u2019s really nice to get perspectives and insights from people outside the U.S., and her podcast lineup is pretty diverse in that respect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you want to drink from the well, so to speak, the Legal Services Corporation has recently launched its Talk Justice<\/em><\/a> podcast and it\u2019s truly an excellent synopsis of what\u2019s currently happening in access to justice. The range it covers is a great reminder that not all legal innovation is rooted in technology. It\u2019s also about partnership building, advocacy, regulatory reform, and really understanding who it is you\u2019re trying to serve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I also can\u2019t walk away from this question without my obligatory \u201cTwitter is the best\u201d comment. Seeing what other access to justice advocates and innovators are doing (or thinking) is a great window into what\u2019s happening now or what\u2019s to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UC: What advice would you give other women in law who want to start their own nonprofit or company? <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

AB: At the highest level, I would have to say stay focused. Your business should be mission-driven, and it\u2019s really important to keep those promises to your organization and yourself. The mission will keep you moving in down times and help you make stronger decisions if\/when distractions come along.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pragmatically, the most important thing you can do is be customer-obsessed (or more eloquently, human-centered). Whether you\u2019re building a service business or product, it\u2019s critical that you do the research to understand who your customers are and what they want or need. An important aspect to this is recognizing that who they are or what they want\/need is subject to change at any moment. Ensure systems are in place to assess how you\u2019re meeting their needs and be ready to pivot when necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UC: What are some of your favorite sayings? What are some real-world examples of how you’ve seen those sayings come to life?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

AB: One that I try hard to embrace is \u201cdon\u2019t talk about it; be about it.\u201d This is mostly about the value of the prototype or starting small. It\u2019s so easy to get hung up in the details or how big the problem is that you look back and realize you haven\u2019t actually made any progress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bringing tech to the law has its inherent risks (risk to the consumer\u2026 risk to yourself\u2026) but I\u2019ve seen first-hand the impact of a prototype or proof of concept. This type of asset has incredible power to influence change because it precipitates a real, tangible thing from a simple concept. With that thing, it\u2019s so much easier to get input about the next iteration, all while getting stakeholders invested in and becoming champions for its success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UC: What are your goals for 2021? What projects are you working on? Are there any events in the legal tech or A2J spaces we should be aware of?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

AB: My goals for 2021 are to continue building out the Louisiana Civil Legal Navigator both in breadth and depth. For starters, we\u2019re working on adding triage interviews for more legal topics. At the same time, we\u2019re also looking for ways to deepen what is currently a purely informational experience by building pathways to real action \u2013 whether that\u2019s assembling court forms or facilitating a warm handoff to a lawyer or legal services program. In a nutshell, I\u2019m hoping we can make meaningful strides toward building out the public-facing digital infrastructure for civil justice in Louisiana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m also keenly aware of the digital poverty that exists in Louisiana. So, to support the work we\u2019re doing to build out online experiences, we\u2019re also looking to bring hardware and internet to areas with very little access, plus supporting digital skills in the community where possible. It\u2019s definitely one of those \u201cbig hairy audacious\u201d goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some events I\u2019m looking forward to this year include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n