The US Department of Justice offers legal help to marginalized communities with needs around civil rights, voting, domestic violence, and more. Legal aid groups and state courts offer free help to people experiencing housing, debt, family, and other major life problems. This policy lab will examine how to make this legal help more accessible, trusted, and impactful. How can more people be aware and empowered to use legal help, especially in a more equitable way?

Students in this policy lab will research and design national strategies for making legal help and government services more discoverable, user-friendly, and trustworthy. Students will conduct user research, technology experiments, and legal research to identify what specific initiatives might make legal help more engaging and impactful.

The students will be able to explore a range of new kinds of innovations–from technology, to community partnerships, to service design–and help the partner make a coherent strategy for increasing uptake and engagement with their public services.

This class is open to graduate and undergraduate students from across campus.