LawDroid Manifesto Podcast

Hey there Legal Rebels! 👋 I’m excited to share with you the 54th episode of the 2026 season of the LawDroid Manifesto podcast, where I will be continuing to interview key legal innovators to learn how they do what they do. I think you’re going to enjoy this one!
If you want to understand how AI can democratize access to justice through radical transparency and community-driven innovation, you need to listen to this episode. The team at Legal Aid of North Carolina is at the forefront of solving the access to justice gap with practical technology solutions that center people and equity in everything they do.
Building Trust Through Technology and Radical Transparency
Join me as I interview Scheree Gilchrist, Chief Innovation Officer, Megan Hennings, Program Manager and Staff Attorney for the Innovation Lab, and Helen Headrick, Chief Communications Officer, all from Legal Aid of North Carolina.
In this episode, the team shares how they’re tackling the massive access to justice gap affecting 92 percent of low-income families trying to address civil legal needs. They dive deep into their innovative approaches, including LIA, their AI-powered chatbot that provides 24/7 legal information in multiple languages. The conversation reveals how radical transparency, community engagement, and collaborative problem-solving are essential ingredients for building trust with communities that have historically been left out of the justice system.
Their stories and insights underscore the critical importance of putting people at the center of technology development, testing rigorously with real users, and approaching innovation as a village effort. This episode is a must-watch for anyone interested in the intersection of law, technology, and social justice, offering valuable perspectives on how to implement AI responsibly in service of those who need legal help most.
The Skinny
The Legal Aid of North Carolina team tackles one of the most pressing challenges in American justice: the fact that 92 percent of low-income families facing civil legal needs cannot get help through the justice system. Scheree Gilchrist, Chief Innovation Officer, explains that the justice gap isn’t just about law: it’s about access, information, and trust. Many people don’t understand their legal rights, don’t know where to turn for help, and don’t trust institutions to support them. Through their Innovation Lab, the team has developed multiple solutions including LIA, an AI chatbot providing legal information in English and Spanish 24/7, an intake triage system that routes people to appropriate services, and other tools designed through extensive community testing. Helen Headrick emphasizes their commitment to radical transparency, making everything they create open source and freely available to other organizations. Megan Hennings describes their rigorous testing process involving real clients and attorneys to ensure tools genuinely serve user needs. The team’s collaborative approach involves legal experts, communications specialists, and technology partners working together to democratize access to justice, while remaining adaptable to rapidly evolving AI capabilities and maintaining ethical responsibility to stay current with technology changes.
Key Takeaways:
* The access to justice gap affects 92 percent of low-income families trying to address civil legal needs, representing a crisis of access, information, and trust
* Legal Aid of North Carolina’s Innovation Lab approaches technology development by centering people and equity in everything they create
* LIA, their AI-powered chatbot, provides 24/7 legal information in English and Spanish on every page of their website, making legal help accessible when offices are closed
* Radical transparency is core to their mission, everything they build is shared freely with other organizations through toolkits and documentation
* Their testing process involves real clients and attorneys providing feedback throughout development to ensure tools genuinely meet user needs
* The team emphasizes that solving the access to justice gap requires a village, collaboration between legal experts, communications specialists, community members, and technology partners
* They approach AI implementation with both excitement about its potential and caution about its limitations, always maintaining human oversight and clear disclaimers
* Building trust with communities that have been historically marginalized requires listening, transparency, and demonstrating that technology serves their needs
* The legal landscape is evolving rapidly with AI and e-court systems, creating an ethical responsibility for attorneys to stay current with technology
* Future success depends on democratizing legal knowledge rather than gatekeeping it, making conflict resolution accessible to everyone who needs it
Notable Quotes:
* “The justice gap is really not just about the law. It’s about access, information and trust. LSC puts out a justice gap report and it tells you that 92 percent of low income families that are trying to address civil legal needs, those needs go unmet through the justice system.” - Scheree Gilchrist (04:02-04:28)
* “What the numbers show is that people are left out of the system. They don’t have access to the courts. They don’t have the information they need to arm themselves. They’re not empowered and they don’t trust the institutions to provide information for their legal needs as well.” - Scheree Gilchrist (04:34-04:53)
* “Think about a parent, two kids who is now facing an eviction and they get a notice from their landlord that they have to go to court. Most people don’t understand what their legal rights are. They don’t understand when they have a legal right.” - Scheree Gilchrist (06:10-06:32)
* “It takes a village to solve these problems. When we say innovation or we’re in an innovation lab, we don’t mean one person doing one thing. We mean a bunch of people collaborating, bringing ideas to the table, brainstorming, trying something, testing it, figuring out what works, what doesn’t work.” - Megan Hennings (10:44-11:00)
* “We really value like radical transparency. And I say radical transparency meaning we kind of put it all out there. We share things probably faster than maybe other people have in the past, partly because, you know, if we’re going to build trust, then we have to show that we’re doing that.” - Helen Hedrick (12:37-12:53)
* “People are already going to seek out legal help using AI. Our clients are already doing this. And so we want to demystify that, educate them on that, and provide them with a safe place to do that if they’re going to do it anyway.” - Scheree Gilchrist (14:44-14:59)
* “We worked with actual clients at Legal Aid of North Carolina. So they came to our office and sat in a room with all of us, like developer, the communications team, myself, and we watched as they actually chatted with LIA, asked their questions, tested her out.” - Megan Hennings (18:43-18:59)
* “LIA is available 24/7 in English and Spanish on every page of our website. So no matter what page you’re on, if you’re looking for a domestic violence restraining order, if you’re looking for an eviction answer, if you’re looking for the application for our services, LIA’s there.” - Megan Hennings (20:10-20:25)
* “We have LIA on there. We have explanations of the warnings, the benefits, the limitations. We have FAQs, which include videos of me talking about it. We have a place where, you know, if they want to try LIA out, she’s actually on the page.” - Helen Hedrick (22:04-22:19)
* “The theme here is trust, right? Like it all goes back to trust. Like you said, we’re trying to build trust with a community that largely has not been served well by institutions like the justice system.” - Helen Hedrick (25:54-26:07)
* “Our clients are out there. They’re going to go to the source of help that they have. And if that’s ChatGPT at 3 a.m. when they have a crisis going on and our office is closed, that’s what they’re going to do.” - Scheree Gilchrist (40:08-40:21)
* “I think we’re long past the time where we can pretend like the legal field is not going to be impacted or it’s going to remain the same. Right now it’s staying abreast, learning what the best practices are and learning what the new models are.” - Scheree Gilchrist (40:52-41:08)
* “For me, it’s really like it’s democratizing the law. It’s not gatekeeping everyday access to resolving conflict, which the law is our court system is at the end of the day. In that spirit, we try to make everything that we do democratized and shared.” - Megan Hennings (43:07-43:24)
Clips
Eviction Misunderstandings Costs Lives
Marrying Tech with Human Touch
The Legal Field Is Rapidly Changing
Information Prevents Legal Emergencies
The Legal Aid of North Carolina team exemplifies what it means to innovate with purpose. Their work demonstrates that effective legal technology isn’t just about sophisticated AI models or sleek interfaces, it’s about understanding the real barriers people face and designing solutions that genuinely serve them. By involving clients directly in the testing process, maintaining radical transparency about both capabilities and limitations, and sharing everything they create with other organizations, they’re building a model for responsible AI implementation that other legal services organizations can follow.
What makes their approach particularly powerful is the recognition that technology alone won’t solve the access to justice gap. It requires collaboration across disciplines, deep community engagement, and a commitment to building trust with populations that have historically been marginalized by traditional legal institutions. Their willingness to share their work openly, including both successes and lessons learned, accelerates progress across the entire legal aid community.
Closing Thoughts
As someone who’s spent years working to democratize access to justice through technology, I find the Legal Aid of North Carolina team’s approach both inspiring and instructive. What strikes me most is their unwavering commitment to putting people first, not as an abstract principle, but as a concrete practice embedded in every stage of their work.
The team’s emphasis on radical transparency resonates deeply with me. In an era where AI can seem like a black box, their decision to openly share not just their tools but their entire process, including the challenges and limitations, builds exactly the kind of trust that’s essential for serving vulnerable communities. They’re not just building technology; they’re building relationships.
I’m particularly excited by their recognition that solving the access to justice gap requires a village. Legal aid organizations don’t need to reinvent the wheel individually. By sharing toolkits, documentation, and lessons learned, Legal Aid of North Carolina is helping create a rising tide that lifts all boats. This collaborative spirit is exactly what our profession needs more of.
The work they’re doing with LIA demonstrates how AI can extend the reach of legal services without replacing human judgment. Available 24/7 in multiple languages, providing information when offices are closed and people are in crisis; this is practical, people-centered innovation that addresses real needs. And by maintaining clear disclaimers, human oversight, and pathways to actual legal assistance, they’re implementing AI responsibly.
For our Legal Rebels community, the Legal Aid of North Carolina team offers a blueprint for how to approach legal technology innovation: start with deep empathy for the people you serve, involve them throughout the development process, maintain transparency about capabilities and limitations, share what you learn with others, and never lose sight of the fact that technology is a means to justice, not an end in itself.
As AI continues to evolve at an exponential pace, organizations like Legal Aid of North Carolina that combine technological capability with deep community trust will be best positioned to close the access to justice gap. The future they’re building? where legal knowledge is democratized rather than gatekept, is one worth fighting for. And they’re proving that with the right approach, that future is already becoming reality.
Support LANC
If you’d like to support Legal Aid of North Carolina and their efforts in closing the access to justice gap, donate! Support: legalaidnc.org/donate



This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.lawdroidmanifesto.com/subscribe

Ruby Powers, co-vice chair of ABA Tech Show 2026, shares why Chicago's March 25-28 conference is the essential gathering for legal professionals navigating technological transformation. From her journey as first-time attendee to conference leadership, Ruby reveals strategic approaches to maximize networking, navigate hundreds of vendors, and absorb concentrated knowledge from the legal tech community's central convergence point. Learn how practitioners, vendors, academics, and consultants all benefit from this "magical" experience that delivers life-altering connections and unexpected business opportunities. Whether you're solo or Big Law, discover why attendees consistently report jumping light years in their operational progress. For deeper insights and exclusive content, visit www.lawdroidmanifesto.com.


This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.lawdroidmanifesto.com/subscribe

Kim Bennett, co-founder of Fidu and managing attorney of Kay Bennett Law, shares her pioneering approach to transforming legal practice through subscription and flat fee models. Discover how she's building client-centered solutions that expand access to justice while creating sustainable practices for lawyers. Kim reveals how AI and technology are creating unprecedented pressure on traditional billing models and why the shift to value-based pricing is no longer optional. Learn practical strategies for designing authentic legal practices that serve both practitioners and underserved communities who have been systematically excluded from legal services.
Get more insights and resources at www.lawdroidmanifesto.com


This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.lawdroidmanifesto.com/subscribe

Hey there Legal Rebels! 👋 I’m excited to share with you the 51st episode of the 2025 season of the LawDroid Manifesto podcast, where I will be continuing to interview key legal innovators to learn how they do what they do. I think you’re going to enjoy this one!
I have had the pleasure of working with Scheree Gilchrist for a few years now and her ingenuity and resourcefulness have always been impressive. I welcomed the chance to learn more about her in this interview and what makes her tick. Because of her mission-driven dedication to helping people access justice, I have dubbed her, “The Fearless Catalyst.”
If you want to understand how to transform legal aid delivery through fearless innovation and truly center services around the people who need them most, you need to listen to this episode. Scheree is at the forefront of legal aid innovation and brings a uniquely purposeful and compassionate perspective to leveraging technology for access to justice.
LawDroid Manifesto is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Scaling Justice Through Fearless Client-Centered Innovation
Join me as I interview Scheree Gilchrist, Chief Innovation Officer at Legal Aid of North Carolina.
In this insightful podcast episode, Scheree shares her journey from growing up between Jamaica and the United States to becoming a pioneering force in legal aid innovation. She dives deep into how she’s transforming the way vulnerable North Carolinians access critical legal services through technology, including the Justice Hub portal that integrates AI chatbots, client messaging, document management, and resource referrals into a seamless experience. Scheree demonstrates how her team is meeting clients where they are—whether that’s at 2 a.m. on a Wednesday or any other time they need help.
Her stories and insights underscore her fearless approach to innovation, rooted in her experiences as a junior lawyer in rural North Carolina where she witnessed firsthand the circuitous nature of legal aid work. This episode is a must-watch for anyone curious about how technology can break down barriers to justice and create meaningful impact for underserved communities.
The Skinny
Scheree Gilchrist, Chief Innovation Officer at Legal Aid of North Carolina, shares her journey from splitting her childhood between Jamaica and the United States to becoming a transformative force in legal services innovation. With a deeply client-centered philosophy developed during her time as a junior attorney in rural North Carolina, Scheree demonstrates how she’s leading the development of Justice Hub—a comprehensive portal that integrates intake, AI assistance through Leah, client communications, document management, and resource referrals. Throughout the conversation, Scheree emphasizes that her work is driven by a singular mission: solving problems for people who would otherwise have no access to legal information or the courts, breaking the endless cycle of poverty that traps vulnerable communities. Her Jamaican resilience and optimism, combined with her strategic use of technology and unwavering focus on client needs, exemplifies what fearless innovation looks like in the legal services space.
Key Takeaways:
* Scheree’s client-centered philosophy stems from her early experiences as a junior lawyer witnessing clients caught in a circuitous cycle of returning for help because their interconnected legal, social, and other needs weren’t fully addressed
* Justice Hub represents a comprehensive approach to client services—a “MyChart for legal” that allows clients to apply for services, message attorneys, upload documents, chat with the AI assistant Leah, and access resources all in one portal
* The portal meets clients where they are, enabling them to access services at 2 a.m. or whenever they need help, eliminating barriers like taking time off work to visit physical offices
* Cherie grew up splitting time between Jamaica, New York, and Florida, attending school and law school in Jamaica, which shaped her culturally Jamaican identity and resilient, optimistic approach to challenges
* Her path to innovation began as a practicing attorney questioning “how can we make this better?” rather than accepting the status quo of legal service delivery
* The work-life balance myth: Cherie candidly shares that true balance doesn’t exist—instead, it’s about prioritizing what matters each day, having strong support systems, and being honest about the full investment required to achieve meaningful goals
* Her motivation remains focused on the end goal: helping people who would otherwise have absolutely no access to legal services or courts, moving them out of the endless cycle of poverty
* Jamaicans are warm, friendly, and optimistic by nature—cultural traits that inform Cherie’s approach to her work and her resilient response to challenges
Notable Quotes:
* “We’re in the middle of trying to launch our new intake portal and get that off the ground and also deal with the holidays. You know, I said it’s kind of like you got to hurry up before you could take some time off. Like you got to accelerate before you decelerate.” - Scheree Gilchrist (00:01:17-00:01:29)
* “I like to think of it as my chart for legal. It’s not quite there yet. But if you think of what that could be, where somebody who is applying for services at a legal aid program has just anything they need done, they can get it done in their portal, right?” - Scheree Gilchrist (00:02:02-00:02:17)
* “We’re meeting people where they are. If it’s the middle of the night and they need to get something to us, they can do that. If they need to shoot off a message, that message will be there in the morning.” - Scheree Gilchrist (00:03:11-00:03:20)
* “One of the things that struck me was just the circuitous nature of our work as a legal services attorney, because we were dealing just with the legal problems, but our clients come to us as sort of the intersection of legal, social, and other needs.” - Scheree Gilchrist (00:04:05-00:04:24)
* “I have always questioned, how can we make this better? How can we help our clients? How can we meet them where they are? How can we solve as many problems for them as we can, knowing that we’re attorneys and we’re not gonna be able to address everything, but how can we solve them or at least direct them in the right path?” - Scheree Gilchrist (00:04:33-00:04:53)
* “I actually grew up in Jamaica. I split my time between Jamaica, New York and Florida. So my mom has always lived here in the U.S. and my dad lived in Jamaica. And so I’ve always split my time between the U.S. and Jamaica. But I went to school in Jamaica, went to law school in Jamaica. I feel more Jamaican.” - Scheree Gilchrist (00:05:47-00:06:07)
* “Jamaicans are resilient people, right? We’re warm and friendly and optimistic by nature. I think that’s just culturally who we are.” - Scheree Gilchrist (00:06:26-00:06:35)
* “This is my opinion. There is no work-life balance. There is prioritizing. And what takes priority, that changes day to day.” - Scheree Gilchrist (00:42:03-00:42:13)
* “I think it’s a disservice for anybody who is driven and successful, and that drive allowed them to be successful to then say, Oh, you should have work-life balance. Because I guarantee you, if you look at their path to success, there was no balance on that path to success.” - Scheree Gilchrist (00:43:37-00:43:52)
* “You cannot realize a goal without a full investment and commitment to get into that goal. But I think along the way, you have to figure out how do you juggle? How do you manage your priorities? What sort of support system you need to have around you?” - Scheree Gilchrist (00:44:26-00:44:43)
* “I think at the end of the day, it’s still the people that we serve. I get a lot of satisfaction from solving problems for people who I know were their last hope in some situations, right?” - Scheree Gilchrist (00:45:42-00:45:58)
* “I look at our clients and the people that we work with, but for legal aid attorneys and others who are willing to give up their time, pro bono volunteers and others who are willing to give up their time and efforts, you’re talking about people who would have absolutely no access to basic legal information, no access to the courts, and just they would be stuck in an endless cycle of poverty.” - Scheree Gilchrist (00:45:58-00:46:27)
Clips
Balance Is Misleading For The Driven
There Is No Balance—Prioritize
Why Rental Assistance Matters
Curiosity Beats Conformity
Scheree’s journey reflects the power of questioning the status quo and refusing to accept that “this is how we’ve always done it.” From her earliest days as a junior lawyer in rural North Carolina, she saw the limitations of a system that only addressed one piece of her clients’ complex, interconnected problems. Rather than accept this reality, she made it her mission to transform how legal aid serves vulnerable communities.
What stands out most is Scheree’s unwavering focus on the people she serves. Every technological innovation, every process improvement, every strategic decision is filtered through one lens: does this help people who would otherwise have no access to justice? This clarity of purpose, combined with her Jamaican resilience and optimism, makes her a truly fearless catalyst for change in the legal services space.
Closing Thoughts
As someone who’s worked with Scheree and Legal Aid of North Carolina, I can tell you that her fearless approach to innovation isn’t just talk—it’s deeply embedded in everything she does. What makes her particularly effective is that her innovations aren’t driven by technology for technology’s sake. They’re driven by a fundamental commitment to the people who need help most.
The Justice Hub portal she’s launching represents something profound in legal services: a recognition that clients are consumers too, and they deserve the same level of convenience and accessibility that they experience in other parts of their lives. Why should someone have to take time off work and physically visit an office when they could access help at 2 a.m. from their phone?
What strikes me most about Scheree’s perspective on work-life balance is her honesty. Too often, successful people present a sanitized version of their journey, suggesting that you can achieve extraordinary things without extraordinary commitment. Scheree tells it like it is: achieving meaningful goals requires full investment, strategic prioritization, and strong support systems. It’s not balance—it’s the juggle.
For our Legal Rebels community, Scheree’s story offers both inspiration and a practical blueprint. Real innovation in legal services doesn’t come from grand theories or expensive consultants. It comes from lawyers who care enough about their clients to ask “how can we make this better?” and then have the courage to actually change things.
As we close out 2024 and head into 2025, Scheree’s work reminds us what this is all about: breaking down barriers, expanding access, and ensuring that vulnerable people aren’t stuck in endless cycles of poverty because they can’t access basic legal help. That’s the kind of fearless, purposeful innovation our profession desperately needs.



This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.lawdroidmanifesto.com/subscribe

Join Tom Martin as he interviews Jack Brandt, U.S. Coast Guard Lieutenant and founder of Military Benefits Assistant, about building AI-powered tools that help service members access education benefits they've earned but may not know how to claim.
Jack shares his journey from paying out of pocket for graduate school to helping 19 crew members access benefits during his deployment as education services officer. He reveals why he evolved Military Benefits Assistant from a custom ChatGPT to a rule-based guided interview tool—demonstrating that sometimes traditional logic serves users better than the newest AI technology.
This episode offers valuable insights on choosing the right tool for the problem, building technology grounded in service, and how legal innovation doesn't require being a tech expert—just understanding the problem deeply and staying focused on serving users.
Learn more and access exclusive content at www.lawdroidmanifesto.com


This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.lawdroidmanifesto.com/subscribe