Circa Paladin’s founding, back in 2016!

When we started Paladin around 5 years ago, we knew that building technology to scale justice was a big idea, but there was no blueprint for building a justice tech company. The concept for Paladin grew from a pro bono case Felicity took on as a junior associate, where her client — a Colombian man and his family fleeing gang violence — were seeking asylum. Our idea was simple: what if we could help close the justice gap by leveraging technology to make it easier for lawyers to represent low-income individuals at scale?

The first years of Paladin were marked with product experimentation and pivots, co-development sessions with early users, and a race to build out Paladin’s product suite for law firms, in-house teams, bar associations, and legal services organizations. Over time, through Paladin’s technology, we’ve been able to increase pro bono engagement by over 30% in the first year on average, and save teams 80–100 hours of work per year to free up that time for higher leverage work.

As we saw, 2020 was in many ways a pivotal year for justice; COVID-19 highlighted once again the need for legal innovation to help the millions of people currently underserved, and the racial justice protests last summer brought with them a new public awareness of the importance of justice in America. During that time, we were thrilled to partner with the American Bar Association to launch the first national disaster relief pro bono portal, and launch a new racial justice category on Paladin’s platform to meet the rising need.

The ABA National Disaster Relief Portal

Fast forward to today, we’re proud that Paladin’s technology is now used by dozens of leading law firms, corporate in-house teams, and bar associations to streamline their pro bono programs, as well as over 150 legal services organizations to increase volunteer capacity. Our software has now made over 15,000 connections between attorneys and immigrants, children and families, nonprofits, incarcerated individuals, and others seeking legal help, and we’re just getting started.

Reflecting on our journey, it’s clear that Paladin is at an inflection point. We’re excited to grow Paladin into a global justice tech company that scales pro bono legal services and beyond. In recognition of this shift, we are excited to announce that as of today, Kristen Sonday will take the reins as Paladin’s new CEO, and Felicity Conrad will become Paladin’s Chairperson. Felicity’s vision and skillset have grown Paladin from an idea to a successful pro bono platform today, and with a strong background in operations and scaling startups, no one is better placed than Kristen to shepherd the next phase of growth. In her new role as Chairperson, Felicity is committed to Paladin’s justice tech vision and will work closely with the team to achieve it.

We would not be here without the support of our incredible partners, investors, and advisors who have helped shape Paladin along the way and, of course, the amazing volunteers who take on pro bono through Paladin every day. We can’t wait to continue collaborating with you to scale access to justice in this exciting next chapter!

With gratitude,
Felicity & Kristen


A Letter from the Founders on the Next Chapter of Paladin was originally published in Paladin on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.