Talk Justice An LSC Podcast Legal Services Corporation

Guests from a successful St. Louis collaboration discuss Legal Services of Eastern Missouri’s (LSEM) Neighborhood Advocacy Program on Talk Justice. There are 24,000 vacancies and abandoned properties in St. Louis. LSEM was inspired by Legal Aid of Western Missouri’s Adopt-a-Neighborhood program in Kansas City to start their own revitalization project. In 2018, they launched the Neighborhood Advocacy Program to start tackling the legal problems that create lingering neighborhood blight.  

Legal tech experts discuss their research and experiments with generative artificial intelligence (AI) for legal services on Talk Justice. Executive Director of the Legal Design Lab Margaret Hagan talks about her research into whether AI is worth the hype for access to justice. Lawyer and NYU professor Sateesh Nori shares his experience with utilizing AI for housing legal services.

Bestselling author and lawyer John Grisham joins LSC Board Member Robert Grey for a conversation on how his journey from small-town lawyer to big-time author influenced his philanthropic priorities and made him an advocate for access to justice. Grey, who serves as president of the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity, interviewed Grisham at a D.C. forum for LSC’s 50th anniversary on April 9.

Guests from the online bankruptcy service Upsolve and Philadelphia Legal Assistance (PLA) discuss a new, free web resource for people struggling with student debt on Talk Justice. PLA received funding from a 2023 LSC Technology Initiative Grant for the project and brought on Upsolve to develop the tools. Their goal is to raise awareness of available debt relief programs and provide guided assistance for qualified borrowers to pursue student debt elimination.

Former legal aid program directors discuss their lessons learned and current concerns on Talk Justice. Jon Asher, former executive director of Colorado Legal Services with 51 years in civil legal aid work, hosts the conversation with guests Marilyn Harp, former Kansas Legal Services executive director for 17 years, Steve Gottlieb, former Atlanta Legal Aid executive director for 42 years, and José Padilla, former California Rural Legal Services executive director for 38 years.

Experts discuss the vast funding gap in legal tech. LSC President Ron Flagg hosts the conversation with guests Bob Ambrogi, lawyer and award-winning legal tech journalist, and Cat Moon, director of innovation design for the Program on Law and Innovation at Vanderbilt Law School. Inspired by Ambrogi’s recent LawSites article, they discuss how tech companies, big law firms and corporate law departments could step up to help close the justice gap.