Justice tech providers and LSOs share a fundamental commitment to expanding access to justice, and recognizing and understanding their distinct cultures and approaches can help these organizations collaborate more effectively
This article is the first in an ongoing series titled “Scaling Justice“, by Maya Markovich in consultation with the Thomson Reuters Institute. This series aims to not only explore how justice technology fits within the modern legal system, but how technology companies themselves can scale as businesses while maintaining an access to justice mission.
Mission-driven legal technology providers — often called justice tech providers — and legal service organizations (LSOs) share a fundamental commitment to expanding access to justice for all individuals. While both aim to provide essential legal information and support to those in need, they each operate with distinct cultures and approaches.
Recognizing and understanding these differences can help these organizations collaborate more effectively, ultimately leveraging their collective expertise to better serve people seeking legal assistance.
This shared mission drives LSOs and justice tech companies to meet clients where they are, whether through community-based clinics or digital platforms. Working with limited resources, both have developed strategies to maximize their impact through creative solutions — and collaboration is a natural extension of their shared mission for justice equity.
Finding shared values in legal services
LSOs bring decades of community trust and deep systemic knowledge to their work. Through direct service, they’ve built strong relationships with clients, courts, and community partners. Their comprehensive understanding of legal systems comes from daily navigation of these complex procedures on behalf of vulnerable populations. However, they cannot serve everyone who seeks their help — due to limited capacity, matter type, or other reasons.
Justice technology providers complement the traditional strengths of LSOs with innovative approaches. Their focus on user-centered design and client outreach brings fresh perspectives to legal service delivery, while their ability to rapidly iterate on solutions enables quick adaptation. Often, justice tech founders have lived experience with the problems they’re seeking to solve and are similarly plugged into their communities. Their broad understanding of legal challenges and use of technology to scale support helps bridge the justice gap for legal aid clients as well as the often-overlooked middle-income population that may be seeking legal recourse.
Navigating partnership challenges
Despite complementary strengths and mission alignment, partnerships between LSOs and justice tech organizations can face challenges.
Time constraints affect both parties: LSOs are often stretched thin, serving as many immediate client needs as possible with little bandwidth to experiment; meanwhile, tech organizations face pressure to develop, test, and deploy solutions quickly. With LSOs typically moving deliberately due to institutional restrictions and tech organizations moving fast to deliver their best products through rapid iteration, different organizational paces can create friction in joint projects.
Further, funding constraints and different financial models can misalign partnership expectations and jurisdictional complexities, while regulatory hurdles can often complicate implementation of tech across regions. Sadly, it is frequently the simple lack of awareness about potential partnerships that prevents promising collaborations.
5 essential tips
These 5 recommendations for justice tech companies to build meaningful collaborations with LSOs are drawn from listening sessions with LSOs in 2024.
1. Authentically present yourself
A long-term commitment to access to justice principles demonstrates alignment with LSO values. Justice tech firms should communicate their genuine passion for solving legal access problems, not merely as a professional or company goal, but as the North Star that motivates their work to bridge the justice gap through technology.
For a justice tech leader, sharing your path to justice technology is a powerful way to connect and build trust. Highlight relevant background and experience that uniquely positions you to solve the problem, including your technical expertise, and how and why you built your solution and selected your team.
2. Practice radical product transparency
LSOs are stretched for time and operate on scant resources. They are also justifiably concerned about running up against boundaries that could jeopardize their funding. As a justice tech leader, you should distinguish clearly between the legal information and advice your products and services provide. Be transparent about what your product can do today, and what you’re working on building toward in the future.
Unrepresented people are often subjected to predatory practices, and LSOs can rightfully be fiercely protective of their clients, so trust concerns may emerge around data security and client privacy. Address data concerns proactively and provide comprehensive explanations of data privacy practices. Outline clear data-sharing policies and document your security measures.
It is also critical to validate the impact your product may have in order to encourage LSOs to invest in technology that scales. Share your data, demonstrate your focus on measurable outcomes, and propose success metrics that will measure progress for both organizations.
3. Build strong relationships
Trust is essential. LSOs are more apt to invest in building external partnerships that have worked successfully with peers, so tech leaders should actively work to build goodwill and cultivate positive references now. They should engage their advisory board members as advocates and connectors, ask for feedback after connecting with non-profits and government agencies, and document client success stories.
Maintaining clear communication is also critical, so leaders should practice responsive engagement, use clear and jargon-free language, and document commitments and follow-through. Demonstrate reliability with consistent follow-up, adherence to deadlines, and addressing concerns promptly.
4. Research non-profits, generally and specifically
Understanding the dynamics of non-profits means accounting for unique funding cycles, grant report deadlines, and budget constraints. Navigating their processes requires a nuanced approach that acknowledges resource limitations and recognizes the complex ecosystem in which these organizations operate. Justice tech companies that are non-profits themselves may be more familiar with these issues, but for-profit companies may need to take time to familiarize themselves with the non-profit model and its key stakeholders.
Effective partnerships also require thorough due diligence on the specific non-profit of interest. By carefully examining financial documents, studying annual reports, and researching funding sources, justice tech startups can gain crucial insights into an LSO’s financial health, mission, and operational capabilities.
5. Ensure long-term sustainability and reliability
Technology partnerships in legal services require more than an initial connection — they need a strategic approach to sustainability and support. Justice tech companies should design smooth handoff processes that promote intuitive knowledge transfer supported by comprehensive documentation. Robust training resources ensure that LSOs and tech providers can fully leverage new systems, bridge potential skill gaps, share resources, work to each organization’s strengths, and empower teams to use technologies effectively. Successful collaborations should focus on creating seamless transitions that minimize disruption and maximize ongoing stakeholder value.
Readying for the long journey
Successful partnerships among justice tech firms and LSOs are built on trust, transparency, and a shared commitment to expanding legal access. These collaborations transform potential connections into powerful opportunities to advance justice equity by creating lasting value for both organizations and the communities they serve.
If you’re currently operating in the state of North Carolina or building toward that market, consider applying to collaborate with Legal Aid of North Carolina’s Innovation Lab. For more information about mission-focused legal tech, visit the Justice Technology Association and the Duke Center on Law & Tech