Talk Justice, an LSC Podcast: Why is Legal Aid Embracing AI Faster than Other Legal Professionals

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WASHINGTON-Legal technologists discussed a recent survey that found that legal aid attorneys are adopting AI at a faster rate than other legal professionals on LSC's "Talk Justice" podcast, released today. Host Cat Moon is joined by Joanne Sprague, Senior Director of Everlaw for Good, which offers Everlaw's AI tools for free to non-profits and those providing pro bono legal services; Jennifer Zelnick, Principal Program Analyst for the State Bar of California Office of Access & Inclusion; and Angela Tripp, Program Officer for Technology at LSC.

In May of 2025, Everlaw partnered with the National Legal Aid & Defender Association, Paladin and LawSites to conduct a survey of 112 legal aid professionals. The survey formed the basis of the report, "The AI Advantage: How Technology Can Help Bridge the Justice Gap," which was published in September. It found that 74% of the legal aid organizations surveyed are already using AI in their work, which is double the generative AI adoption rate of the wider legal profession according to Everlaw's 2025 Ediscovery Innovation Report.

"Having worked in the social impact broader industry, not legal aid specifically, but across social impact issues and nonprofit areas for the past couple of decades, there's this sort of stereotype or bias that public interest and nonprofit organizations are laggards when it comes to tech adoption," said Sprague. "And in this instance, and particularly with legal aid professionals, we're seeing that really being flipped on its head."

Legal services organizations may be particularly interested in AI because of the impact it could have on the justice gap - the difference between the number of people who need legal help and the resources available to meet that need. Currently, legal services organizations must turn away about half of the eligible applicants who seek their services. Zelnick explains that AI could actually widen that gap.

"I think organizations are realizing that the justice gap has the potential to grow exponentially with AI, and what I mean by that is legal aid organizations realize that big law is using this technology, and if legal aid doesn't, the chasm between the services that legal aid can provide versus what private law firms can provide will continue to grow, and the resources available to legal aid clients will continue to be diminished compared to those who can pay for private legal services," said Zelnick.

Expanding access to under-resourced services is part of what Tripp believes drives legal aid's AI use, but she also thinks there is a broader culture of creativity that has propelled it forward.

"The innovation capacity of legal aid, it is often driven by scarcity, but also driven just by creativity," Tripp said. "The types of clients and cases that legal aid deals with often require that kind of creativity, not just because of scarcity, but also because many of the cases that legal aid organizations take are different from mainstream private lawyers…so the creativity and the ingenuity have been a part of legal aid for a long time."

Sprague explained that she was surprised by the results of the survey's question that asked respondents to rank the obstacles holding their organization back from incorporating AI into its work from most to least concerning. Data privacy, hallucinations and quality concerns, and ethical/professional responsibility concerns all ranked above "prohibitive cost."

"I spend a lot of time talking and hearing from other folks about the concerns that the cost of these technologies - which is large and increasing over time - is going to widen the justice gap and be a real problem," Sprague said. "And to see that at least at this this point in time that is not the highest concern or obstacle to adoption, I find really compelling."

Sprague said that she understands this could mean that cost is not a non-concern, but that other concerns are currently a higher priority. However, she is hopeful that this reflects that these technologies are more accessible for public interest work than people may think.

Listen to the full episode of Talk Justice online, on Spotify, YouTube or Apple Podcasts. The podcast is sponsored by LSC's Leaders Council.