Talk Justice: Episode 73

Featured Guests

Bill Hooks is Director of Advocacy at Montana Legal Services Association (MLSA). He joined MLSA following a career as a criminal defense attorney in state government and in private practice. Bill served for five years as Chief Public Defender for Montana’s Office of the Public Defender. He also served as Chief Appellate Defender for eight years, and worked in private practice representing clients in state and federal courts. In 2006 the Montana Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers named Bill its Criminal Defense Lawyer of the Year. Bill is a recipient of the State Bar of Montana’s Local Professionalism Award.

Daniel Webster is a housing attorney at Montana Legal Services Association (MLSA). He joined MLSA in 2022 after receiving his J.D. and certificate in American Indian Law from University of Montana School of Law. Daniel was a Margery Hunter Brown Indian Law Clinic student. Daniel also has a B.A. in Psychology from University of Montana. During law school, from 2020-2021, Daniel served as a Housing Justice intern with MLSA and he worked at MLSA as a Consumer Law Intern. Prior to going to law school, Daniel worked as a case manager for adults with disabling mental illnesses. Additionally, he worked 7 seasons at the U.S. Forest Service in Libby and Kalispell on the timber crew, occasionally working on wildfires. Daniel loves playing and watching basketball and he enjoys spending time with friends and his dog, Beau, in Montana’s beautiful outdoors, preferably near water.

Ransom Wydner (he/him) is the vice president of pro bono and social impact work for SixFifty, the technology subsidiary of Wilson Sonsini. He joined SixFifty in early 2020, and found joy and purpose in helping promote SixFifty’s free tools to support people who can’t afford legal help. Ransom formally took over as Vice President of Pro Bono in December of 2021. 

SixFifty’s mission is to make the law more accessible. SixFifty devotes part of its time and resources to creating free legal tools for those who can’t afford attorneys. The company believes that people should feel empowered by the law, not intimidated, and is committed to building free tools that increase access to justice for everyone. 

Ransom is the lead singer in King Niko, a dance-rock band based in Salt Lake City, Utah. He once filled in with Panic! At the Disco when King Niko was performing alongside them at a show. 

Host

Ronald S. Flagg was appointed President of the Legal Services Corporation effective February 20, 2020, and previously served as Vice President for Legal Affairs and General Counsel since 2013.  He previously practiced commercial and administrative litigation at Sidley Austin LLP for 31 years, 27 years as a partner. He chaired the firm’s Committee on Pro Bono and Public Interest Law for more than a decade.

Flagg served as president of the District of Columbia Bar in 2010-2011 and currently serves as Chair of the Bar’s Pro Bono Task Force.  He presently also chairs the board of the National Veterans Legal Services Program. He has also served as Chair of the District of Columbia Bar Pro Bono Committee, Chair of the Board of the AARP Legal Counsel for the Elderly, as a member of the American Bar Association’s House of Delegates, on LSC’s Pro Bono Task Force, and as a member of the Board of the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, the Board of the District of Columbia Access to Justice Foundation, and  the District of Columbia Judicial Nomination Commission.

Flagg graduated with honors from the University of Chicago and cum laude from Harvard Law School. He began his career as a law clerk to Judge Myron L. Gordon, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin and as attorney-advisor in the United States Department of Justice, Office of Intelligence Policy.