(Photo of Noella Sudbury by Austen Diamond)
Noella Sudbury knew she was onto something big when she helped organize Utah’s first free “Expungement Day” in 2018. The former public defender and Goldman Sachs compliance attorney had gone to work in 2016 for Ben McAdams, then-mayor of Salt Lake County. McAdams had introduced initiatives to address criminal justice reform, and Sudbury had become immersed in improving the expungement process.
One in three adult Americans has a criminal record, which she says can create significant barriers to housing, employment or even volunteering in their children’s classrooms.
Expungement was also expensive and complicated and, at that time, typically took about 18 months to complete, Sudbury says.
After hundreds of people came to the Expungement Day event, Sudbury knew she needed to do more.”It was the first time I think as a lawyer that I realized how big of a justice gap we had and how access to this simple legal proceeding could absolutely transform someone’s life,” says Sudbury, 39, who earned a bachelor’s degree in social justice from the University of Utah in 2006 and a JD from the University of Utah’s S.J. Quinney College of Law in 2009.
Sudbury founded Clean Slate Utah, a nonprofit that raises awareness of automatic record clearance, in 2021. She also had begun working on clean slate laws in other states; there are now 12.
Sudbury started Rasa Legal in 2022 to make the process of clearing a criminal record simpler and more affordable. She researched how to use technology to assist with expungement and learned about Pennsylvania’s Clean Slate law. By the following year, she had helped introduce and pass a similar clean slate law in Utah. It requires the government to automatically clear certain misdemeanor records.
“Noella sees individuals as they are and not by their record,” says Destiny Garcia, the executive director of Clean Slate Utah, who worked with Sudbury to clear her own criminal record. “She will sit down with someone, and she will listen to their story. She will take the time to get to know them and understand how to help them.”
In the course of her work, Sudbury realized many people still needed help determining their eligibility for expungement and finding a lawyer to complete the process. That’s where Rasa comes in. Using its $15 eligibility screening tool, in less than three minutes, people can see what’s on their record and whether it can be cleared. If they have eligible cases, they can hire Rasa to clear those records using custom software that streamlines the process. While law firms can charge thousands of dollars for expungement, Rasa starts at $250 per case.
“What sets Noella apart is she’s out there changing the structural framework of the laws that then enable her to serve consumers in a way she thinks is necessary,” says Natalie Anne Knowlton, the founder of Access to Justice Ventures and a 2023 ABA Journal Legal Rebel.
According to Sudbury, Rasa, which has 16 employees and now offers its services in Utah and Arizona, has helped nearly 17,000 people and fully cleared more than 3,000 records. It is currently working to expand into other states and provide workforce development services to clients.
In her free time, Sudbury loves spending time with her two kids, traveling and being in nature.
Joan Howarth and Deborah Jones Merritt
Oregon State Board of Bar Examiners
