When Kara Peterson co-founded descrybe.ai, she wasn’t simply launching a authorized tech startup. She was making use of the logic of public well being to the authorized system. She noticed one thing attorneys usually miss: that authorized info, like clear water or vaccines, turns into life-altering solely when it’s accessible, comprehensible, and broadly distributed.
Kara is just not a lawyer. Her background is in public well being and communications. But she now leads an organization that has used AI to summarize greater than 3.3 million judicial opinions and made them free and publicly accessible. In our dialog on “Notes to My (Authorized) Self,” she defined how justice, like well being, is a public good. And entry to legislation is one in every of its essential supply programs.
Authorized Transparency Is A Well being Fairness Concern
Kara grew up in Madison, Wisconsin, in a tradition steeped in social justice. Her early experiences formed a worldview that makes her uniquely suited to construct bridges between authorized complexity and on a regular basis actuality. As she places it, “Entry to the legislation is so deeply related to different systemic issues. This can be a technique to assault one thing that’s been damaged for generations.”
From a public well being lens, the connection is apparent. Folks battle to seek out housing, defend themselves at work, or navigate household legislation — not as a result of they lack intelligence however as a result of they lack entry. And when authorized literacy is simply triggered by trauma, as when somebody is fired, evicted, or sued, we’re organising tens of millions of individuals to fail.
Authorized info, when made legible earlier than the disaster hits, turns into preventive infrastructure. It’s no totally different than distributing hand-washing guides or vaccination directions.
Human Bias Already Exists. AI Simply Makes It Seen
A lot of the worry surrounding AI in legislation is legitimate. However Kara is fast to level out that lots of the dangers we affiliate with machines are already deeply embedded in human programs.
“If we had a judicial system that was utterly truthful and didn’t ever take individuals’s biases under consideration, that may be laborious to match. However we all know that’s not the way it works.”
Her level is just not that AI is ideal. It’s that our present authorized infrastructure is way from it. And if we choose new instruments by perfection whereas accepting the issues of legacy programs as inevitable, we stall innovation. As an alternative, she suggests we strategy AI as we might a brand new public well being software.
We consider its security. We perceive its limits. We measure affect. And we hold a human within the loop to not protect custom, however to protect context and accountability.
Legislation Ought to Not Be A Trauma-Solely Language
One of the vital hanging moments in our dialog got here after we mentioned how most individuals “be taught” the legislation.
We don’t be taught employment legislation till we’re fired.
We don’t perceive custody legislation till we divorce.
We don’t have interaction with IP legislation till our work is stolen.
“It’s at all times after one thing painful,” Kara famous. “And even while you’re educated, even when you will have attorneys within the household, it’s nonetheless extremely laborious to know the system.”
That is precisely the place authorized tech can intervene, not simply to cut back time or price, however to cut back the hurt of delayed understanding.
It’s why at TermScout, we certify contracts not only for equity, however for readability. We wish contract critiques to really feel much less like harm management and extra like knowledgeable consent. When individuals can see, evaluate, and perceive the phrases of a deal in plain language, they acquire company.
Justice Tech Is Enterprise Tech For The Relaxation Of Us
What Kara and her staff at descrybe.ai are doing parallels what we do at TermScout. They’re making judicial opinions legible. We’re making contracts legible. Each fashions are designed to scale readability, not simply output.
And that’s the deeper takeaway right here.
The justice hole and the contract hole are a part of the identical drawback: society has accepted authorized opacity as regular.
Nevertheless it doesn’t must be.
If we will clarify a 30-page authorized opinion to a nonlawyer, we will clarify a vendor contract to a startup founder. If we will summarize a posh ruling with an AI mannequin, we will certify a set of phrases with a regular.
Kara reminded us that not all affect lives within the courtroom. Among the most significant change comes while you give individuals instruments earlier than they’re in disaster.
The legislation is not only for the few. It’s infrastructure. And after we deal with entry to it like a public well being mission, we cease asking how a lot hurt we will tolerate and begin designing programs that forestall it altogether.
Olga V. Mack is the CEO of TermScout, an AI-powered contract certification platform that accelerates income and eliminates friction by certifying contracts as truthful, balanced, and market-ready. A serial CEO and authorized tech govt, she beforehand led an organization by way of a profitable acquisition by LexisNexis. Olga can also be a Fellow at CodeX, The Stanford Heart for Authorized Informatics, and the Generative AI Editor at legislation.MIT. She is a visionary govt reshaping how we legislation—how authorized programs are constructed, skilled, and trusted. Olga teaches at Berkeley Legislation, lectures broadly, and advises corporations of all sizes, in addition to boards and establishments. An award-winning basic counsel turned builder, she additionally leads early-stage ventures together with Digital Gabby (Higher Parenting Plan), Product Legislation Hub, ESI Circulate, and Notes to My (Authorized) Self, every rethinking the observe and enterprise of legislation by way of know-how, information, and human-centered design. She has authored The Rise of Product Attorneys, Authorized Operations within the Age of AI and Information, Blockchain Worth, and Get on Board, with Visible IQ for Attorneys (ABA) forthcoming. Olga is a 6x TEDx speaker and has been acknowledged as a Silicon Valley Lady of Affect and an ABA Lady in Authorized Tech. Her work reimagines individuals’s relationship with legislation—making it extra accessible, inclusive, data-driven, and aligned with how the world truly works. She can also be the host of the Notes to My (Authorized) Self podcast (streaming on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube), and her insights usually seem in Forbes, Bloomberg Legislation, Newsweek, VentureBeat, ACC Docket, and Above the Legislation. She earned her B.A. and J.D. from UC Berkeley. Comply with her on LinkedIn and X @olgavmack.
