Joe Lawson

Joe Lawson is creating technology tools that increase access to justice and legal information for thousands of patrons, self-represented litigants, and attorneys. As Director of the Harris County Robert W. Hainsworth Law Library in Houston, Texas, Joe has recognized the need to be more tech savvy in order to make justice and access to legal information more equitable. Joe established and directs the Legal Tech Institute, a series of free learning opportunities focused on legal technology, designed for everyone from tech novices to tech wizards, and has worked on initiatives to bring Law Library services to people in the nation’s third most populated county who could not otherwise access its physical location. During the pandemic, Joe engineered the James Werner Award-winning virtual presence device, Synchronous Touchless Assistive Node (STAN), which enabled library staff to interact with patrons unable to visit the library in person.