JTDL: Supporting Ukrainian Legal Aid
The news, events, and opportunities in justice tech. Want to post in the newsletter? Simply reply to this email.
Editor’s Note
During my last research project, I met Yevgen Poltenko, who runs the Legal Development Network in Ukraine. They organize legal aid offices across the country, standardizing services and building innovative resources that help thousands of Ukrainians.
Even in war, they continue to provide services.
Last week, I received a note from Yevgen saying he is relatively safe and reestablished contact with LDN's partners across the country, including those now in occupied territory.
Like everything in Ukraine at the moment, this work is existential. As much as Russia’s aggression is about historic grievance, it's also about their failed attempts to break Ukraine's democracy and rule of law—the very notions that Yevgen and his partners defend.
Due to these extraordinary circumstances, their work has three goals:
1. To ensure the safety of their personnel;
2. To provide up-to-date information and legal assistance to the neediest Ukrainians; and
3. To prepare for post-war recovery and reconciliation.
To make this critical work possible, they need our support. Moving their personnel from hot spots to safer areas, while still operating, will cost $25,000. Providing legal services to those displaced, injured, or worse by the war will cost $36,000. Finally, they need to raise $71,000 to support those who have had their homes destroyed, register charitable contributions from abroad, and continue recording births and deaths.
To support the mobilization of these efforts, please donate to LDN and share this information with your networks. We’ve already seen a tremendous outpouring of support from the American legal and justice technology community, including Clio, Paladin, and many individuals.
In this fight for the future for Ukraine, LDN is a front line defender of the rule of law, guaranteeing that every Ukrainian can access their rights and live in peace. If that isn’t worth throwing our weight behind, I don’t know what is.
News
A judge in Massachusetts dismantles the defense of a proprietary risk assessment used in the local criminal justice system. (Twitter)
Thousands of confidential ethics and juvenile records were published online. (ABA Journal) (h/t Keith Porcaro)
A cellphone dragnet used to find a bank robbery suspect was found unconstitutional. (NBC)
Automated expungement comes to Michigan, making it the first state to include felonies. (Detroit Free Press) (h/t Rebecca Williams)
Inside the volunteer “police department” arresting people in virtual reality. (Input) (h/t Caleb Bushner)
A Nebraska company is selling wiretap-esque access to social media accounts and third party data. (TechDirt)
Police abolitionists are building a dispatch app to replace 911. (Vice)
The hidden role of facial recognition tech in many arrests. (Wired)
The role of digital evidence in the persecution of LGBTQ people in Egypt, Lebanon, and Tunisia. (Harvard)
I spoke with the American Bar Association about the need for more thoughtful justice technologies. (ABA)
Events
RightsCon is June 6-10. (RC)
Jobs & Opportunities
[New] ACLU needs an associate software engineer. (ACLU)
Amnesty International Tech has multiple positions. (AIT) (h/t Damini Satija)
[New] The Anti-Defamation League needs a assistant director of tech policy. (ADL)
Arlington County, VA’s states attorney needs a data and litigation support analyst. (ACSA) (h/t Oren Gur)
[New] Bay Area Legal Services (Florida) needs a digital project manager. (BALS)
[New] Blue Ridge Labs is accepting fellowship applications. (BRL)
Boundless has numerous openings. (B) (h/t Chase Hertel)
Center for Democracy and Technology has multiple open positions. (CDT) (h/t Alex Givens)
The Civil Beat Law Center needs a staff attorney. (CBLC) (h/t Brian Black)
Color of Change needs devs and PMs. (CoC) (h/t Archana Ahlawat)
The Congressional-Executive Commission on China needs staff for it’s technology-enhanced authoritarianism research. (CECC)
The Criminal Justice Administrative Records System at the University of Michigan is looking for fellows. (CJARS)
[New] Data & Society need a senior designer. (DS)
The Day One Project has numerous openings. (D1P)
Georgetown’s Center for Privacy and Technology needs a senior associate. (GU) (h/t Samantha Simonsen)
Harvard’s Library Innovation Lab needs a technologist-in-residence. (LIL)
HeatSeek needs a program associate. (HS)
JustFix is hiring for multiple roles. (JF) (h/t Pinky Chan)
Just Tech has numerous openings. (JT) (h/t Legal Tech Jobs)
LawSites needs a part-time editorial assistant. (LS)
The Law Society of Alberta’s regulatory sandbox is taking applications. (LSA) (h/t Len Polsky)
The Law Society of Ontario’s regulatory sandbox is taking applications. (LSO) (h/t Will Morrison)
The Legal Education Fund in the UK needs a research principle. (LEF)
[New] The Legal Services Corporation has an RFI out for a mixed methods researcher. (LSC) (h/t Sarah Abdelhadi)
Measures for Justice has multiple positions open. (M4J)
The National Center for State Courts needs court consultants. (NCSC)
[New] The National Freedom of Information Coalition invites research proposals focused on FoI and technology. (NFOIC) (h/t Brittany Suszan)
The National Registry of Exonerations needs an ED. (NRE) (h/t Amani Smathers)
The New York County District Attorney’s Office needs a technical product specialist. (DANY)
North Carolina’s Indigent Defense Services needs a research director. (IDS)
Northeastern University needs a information justice prof. (NEU)
Northwestern Law is launching the Journal des Refusés and accepting statements of interest. (JdR)
[New] Paladin is hiring a front end engineer. (P) (h/t Felicity Conrad)
PEW seeks a freelancer for a lit review on research related to court time and costs, email your interest to the link. (PEW) (h/t Darcy White)
The Philly District Attorney's Office is looking to fill a number of roles, including for a dev. (PDAO)
The Policing Project needs a legislative director. (PP) (h/t Kaylynn Lopez)
Princeton’s Center for Information and Technology Policy needs summer interns. (CITP)
ProBonoNet needs a product manager. (PBN)
SimpleCitizen, an immigration tech company, has engineering, product and sales roles. (SC) (h/t Eleni Manis)
Stand Together Ventures Lab needs an investment analyst. (STVL)
Stanford CodeX is looking for fellows. (SC)
Stanford Law School needs a justice innovation lead. (SLS) (h/t Andrew Wichmann)
Stanford RegLab needs fellows. (SRL) (h/t Christine Tsang)
Surveillance Technology Oversight Project has openings. (STOP) (h/t Eleni Manis)
Systemic Justice is hiring for multiple roles. (SJ)
[New] Theory and Principle, a legal software development boutique, has multiple postings. (T&P)
[New] Texas Indigent Defense Commission needs a director of research. (TIDC)
The University of North Carolina needs a post-doc researcher on AI decision making. (UNC)
The University of North Carolina’s Criminal Justice Innovation Lab needs a research director. (UNC)
The University of San Francisco needs a data ethics fellow. (USF)
Upsolve, the bankruptcy platform, is hiring for multiple roles. (US)
Upturn needs a research assistant. (UT)
Vera needs an innovation senior associate. (Vera)
Yale’s Internet Society Project needs an executive director. (ISP)