2021 Award Winners
The American Bar Association Standing Committee on the Delivery of Legal Services has selected Documate, a San Francisco-based legal software provider, to receive the 2021 Louis M. Brown Award for Legal Access.
Also, COVID H.E.L.P. Illinois, a pandemic-inspired initiative which stands for Housing & Economic Loss Prevention, was awarded the 2021 Louis M. Brown Select Award.
The Louis M. Brown Award originated in 1995 and honors the work of Louis M. Brown, who for more than 60 years worked toward improving access to legal services for those of moderate incomes. The award itself honors the work of those who advance this mission in ways that are remarkable and replicable.
Documate helps to increase legal services to those of modest means through leveraged technology, principally through its “no code” platform that allows attorneys to create technology tools to expand their service offerings without the need to hire a software developer. Documate allows attorneys to create document automation, expert systems, guided interviews and legal apps, which can deliver legal services more broadly than traditional one-on-one representation. Its software is used by courts, legal aid organizations and private attorneys.
Covid H.E.L.P. Illinois earned this year’s Brown Select Award for receiving the most online votes from the public. The nonprofit organization provides a reliable and secure access point for residents of Illinois to legal information on the most common legal concerns caused by the pandemic, and it serves as a model for other states to replicate. The effort is a joint project of CARPLS Legal Aid, Cook County’s largest provider of free legal services, and other Illinois legal aid agencies. The project is supported by the Lawyers Trust Fund of Illinois.