LSAC announces competition for law student access-to-justice ideas
Know any law students who have good ideas about helping low-income people with debt, evictions or government benefits? They could win up to $15,000 in seed money from the Law School Admission Council to work with nonprofit legal services groups.
The LSAC’s Justice Innovation Challenge is also interested in ideas about legal access issues involving domestic violence, foreclosures and business formations, according to a June 19 news release. There will be three awards—for $5,000, $10,000 and $15,000—and the competition is open to individuals and teams of up to four members. The deadline to apply is July 19, and a panel of judges will select the winners.
“The spirited determination to confront inequality with innovative solutions inspired us to develop the Justice Innovation Challenge as a platform that supports the next generation of leaders as they turn their ideas for furthering equity and access into action and, ultimately, results,” Kellye Testy, president and CEO of the LSAC, said in the release. “I look forward to seeing the creativity of law students who want to change the world by furthering equity and access.”
Photograph of Miguel Willis by David Fonda Photography.
Miguel Willis, a fellow with the LSAC and a 2018 ABA Journal Legal Rebel, also directs the Access to Justice Tech Fellows program, which he founded in 2016, as a student at Seattle University School of Law. The group originally partnered with nine legal groups and now has 33 fellows, as well as 28 host organizations, according to its website.
“Today’s law students are articulating incredibly sophisticated, powerful and profound ideas about ways that we can expand access to justice, and it’s an honor to support them,” Willis said in the June 19 news release.
