The American Bar Association has announced that Martha Minow, Morgan and Helen Chu Dean and Professor of Law, will serve on the advisory council for its newly formed Center for Innovation in Chicago. The ABA has also announced the names of the governing council for the center, which will also have three special advisors, including two former ABA presidents.

“At a time when access to and trust in traditional justice institutions are strikingly inadequate, new technologies and institutional reforms offer real promise,” said Minow. “I’m honored to take part as the ABA’s Center for Innovation contributes to these efforts.”

Minow has taught at Harvard Law School since 1981, where her courses include civil procedure, constitutional law, family law, international criminal justice, jurisprudence, law and education, nonprofit organizations, and the public law workshop. An expert in human rights and advocacy for members of racial and religious minorities and for women, children, and persons with disabilities, she also writes and teaches about privatization, military justice, and ethnic and religious conflict.

The Center for Innovation was designed to position the ABA as a leader and architect of the legal profession’s efforts to increase access to justice and improve the delivery of services to the public through innovative programs and initiatives. It will serve as a resource for ABA members, maintaining an inventory of the ABA’s innovation efforts as well as the efforts of the domestic and international legal services community. The center will also operate a program of innovative fellowships to work with other professionals, such as technologists, entrepreneurs and design professionals, to create models that improve the justice system.

“Extraordinary talent has been recruited from the tech and design worlds to join forces with respected leaders of the bar to govern the Center,” said Linda A. Klein, president of the ABA. “This unprecedented collaboration will assure that out of the Center will come a surge in legal services delivery innovations that will benefit the public for decades to come.”

The Center was created based on a recommendation from the ABA’s Commission on the Future of Legal Services. Andrew Perlman, dean of Suffolk University Law School, will chair the governing council. Janet Jackson, formerly the director of the ABA’s Office of the President, will serve as managing director of the Center.

The governing and advisory council members include leaders from the legal profession and business community, the judiciary, and legal education, as well as young lawyers, technology experts and other legal service innovators, including non-lawyers.

The governing council members are:

  • Ramon A. Abadin, partner at Sedgwick in Miami
  • Nathan D. Alder, attorney with Christensen & Jensen in Salt Lake City
  • Chad Burton, CEO of CuroLegal in Dayton, Ohio
  • Karl Camillucci, attorney at Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP in Chicago
  • Mark Chandler, Senior Vice President and General Counsel at Cisco in San Jose, Calif.
  • Margaret Hagan, fellow at Stanford Law School Center on the Legal Profession
  • Dana M. Hrelic partner at Horton, Shield & Knox in Hartford, Ct.
  • Mary McQueen, president of the National Center for State Courts in Williamsburg, Va.
  • Camille Nelson, dean of the Washington College of Law American University in Washington, D.C.
  • Rebecca L. Sandefur, faculty fellow at the American Bar Foundation in Chicago
  • Marty Smith, founding director of Metalure, Inc. in Bainbridge Island, Wash.
  • Hon. Eric Washington, chief judge of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals

Members of the advisory council are:

  • Hon. Ann Aiken, district judge of the U.S. District Court of Oregon in Eugene
  • Lisa Foster, director of the Access to Justice in Washington, D.C.
  • Jordan Furlong, principal with Law21 in Ottawa
  • Martha Minow, dean of Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Mass.
  • Janai Nelson, associate director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in New York
  • Alex “Sandy” Pentland, director at the MIT Connection Science and Human Dynamic Labs in Cambridge, Mass.
  • Daniel Rodriguez, dean of Northwestern Pritzker Law School
  • James J. Sandman, president of the Legal Services Corporation in Washington, D.C.
  • Ed Walters, CEO of FastCase in Washington, D.C.
  • Denis Weil, innovation executive in Chicago

The center also will have three special advisors:

  • William C. Hubbard, partner at Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough and former ABA president
  • Judy Perry Martinez, attorney in New Orleans and chair, of the ABA Commission on the Future of Legal services
  • William H. Neukom, chairman of the World Justice Project and former ABA president

Minow serves as vice chair of the board of directors of the Legal Services Corporation. She was recently honored by the Sargent Shriver Center on Poverty Law with the Sargent Shriver Equal Justice Award for her significant contributions to the movement for equal justice for low-income individuals.