Talk Justice: Episode 71

Featured Guests

Stacy Rupprecht Jane is the Director of Innovation for Justice and has two decades of experience in community advocacy and expanding the reach of civil legal services for under-represented populations. Her research focuses on the application of human-centered design and innovation to social justice issues including eviction, debt collection, domestic violence, regulatory reform, and online dispute resolution. Prior to launching i4J , she worked in the United States District Court for the District of Arizona and served as an adjunct professor at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law. Stacy was appointed to the Arizona Supreme Court’s Access to Justice Commission in 2021. She received the Association of American Law Schools’ Deborah L. Rhode Award in 2022, which honors the contributions, service, and leadership of Deborah Rhode by recognizing new trailblazers in legal education and the legal profession. Stacy received the Arizona State Bar Award of Special Merit in 2020 for her contributions to the furtherance of public understanding of the legal system, the administration of justice, and confidence in the legal profession. Stacy earned a B.A. from Trinity University and a J.D. from the University of Arizona.

Lucian Pera’s practice focuses on legal ethics work, media law, and commercial litigation.

Lucian is one of the nation’s leading legal ethics practitioners. For more than 30 years, Lucian has represented lawyers, law firms, clients, and those who do business with lawyers and law firms, on the widest possible array of issues relating to legal ethics and the regulation of lawyers. His practice is national in scope.

The ABA Center for Professional Responsibility recently bestowed on him the prestigious Michael Franck Award, their highest award for work in the field of ethics and professional responsibility over his career. For twenty years, in addition to his work as a practicing ethics lawyer, he has been a leader at the highest levels of the ABA on revisions to the Model Rules of Professional Conduct and other important lawyer conduct issues.

Lucian was the youngest member of the ABA “Ethics 2000” Commission that rewrote the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct. He recently served three years as chair of the ABA Center for Professional Responsibility. He speaks and writes extensively on the ethical and regulatory aspects of the rapidly-changing legal services market. He is founding chair of the Practising Law Institute’s annual full-day program, “The Ethics of NewLaw.”

Known for his command of legal ethics issues, Lucian represents clients in matters ranging from lawyer discipline defense to lawyer malpractice defense to expert witness work. He also represents and advises clients — including lawyers and their firms and other businesses — on a wide range of potential business ventures, especially ventures and business models new to the legal services market. He advises on the ethical and lawful use of innovative marketing techniques, as well as lawyer and law firm relationships with vendors of all kinds, from marketers, to outsourcing vendors, to litigation funders. He has helped lawyers and law firms establish and maintain compliance while providing non-legal ancillary services to clients and others.

Since the earliest days of his practice, Lucian has also represented media outlets in matters ranging from claims for defamation or invasion of privacy to access to courtrooms, public records, and meetings of government bodies.

Lucian’s wide-ranging civil litigation practice includes a variety of commercial, personal injury, and intellectual property litigation, as well as numerous state and federal appeals.

Host

As director of innovation design for the Program on Law and Innovation, Caitlin “Cat” Moon designs the J.D. curriculum for PoLI Institute with the goal of empowering students to lead in the innovation of 21st century legal services delivery. Professor Moon also founded and directs the PoLI Institute, which provides interactive post-graduate executive education to legal professionals. She also co-founded and produces the Summit on Law and Innovation (SoLI), which brings together experts across legal, technology and other disciplines in collaborative innovation projects

In addition to her roles at Vanderbilt, Moon works with law firms, legal departments and law schools globally to apply the methods and mindsets of human-centered design to re-imagine leadership and legal professional formation and modernize the delivery of legal services. Her current research focuses on innovation leadership and legal professional formation and includes co-creation of a 21st century framework for lawyer competency, the Delta Model. 

Moon maintains an active law license and, before joining the Vanderbilt Law faculty, she provided legal counsel and strategic guidance to start-up companies through her Nashville-based legal practice for over 20 years. She serves on the College of Law Practice Management’s Board of Trustees and on the advisory boards of the MIT Computational Law Report and the Justice Technology Association. Moon was recognized in 2016 by the American Bar Association among the inaugural Women in Legal Tech and as a Fastcase 50 honoree. She received the Tennessee Alliance for Legal Services’ 2017 Janice M. Holder Award, which recognizes a legal professional who “has made significant contributions in advancing the quality of justice statewide by ensuring the legal system is open and available to all.”

Moon holds a B.A. and J.D. from Vanderbilt University, and an M.A. from Western Kentucky University.