Talk Justice: Episode Thirty Eight

Guest Speakers

Noella is the Founder and CEO of Rasa Public Benefit Corporation, a new legal tech company on a mission to make clearing a record simple and affordable for everyone. While serving as a Senior Policy Advisor to Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams, Noella led the successful campaign to pass Utah’s Clean Slate law, which automates the criminal record expungement process for more than 450,000 Utahns.  

Noella has served on the National Clean Slate Initiative Steering Committee and has provided technical assistance to other states on their campaigns to pass automatic clearance.  Noella has received several honors and awards for her public service, including being recognized as a Young Alumna of the Year, by the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law, and the 2019 Woman of the Year by Utah Business Magazine.  In her spare time, Noella enjoys the outdoors and spending time with her two girls.

Sarah Esther Lageson, PHD is a sociologist researching criminal legal systems, law, privacy, surveillance, and tech. Most of her research examines the growth of online crime data, mugshots, and criminal records that create new forms of “digital punishment” and has been featured in the New York Times, the Guardian, National Public Radio’s Planet Money, WNYC’s the Takeaway, and other media outlets.

Sarah is an Associate Professor at Rutgers University-Newark School of Criminal Justice, a 2020-2021 American Bar Foundation/JPB Foundation Access to Justice Scholar, and a grant recipient of the National Institute of Justice Early Career Award.

She has written for the Washington Post, Wired, Slate, Vice, The Appeal, San Francisco Chronicle, and The Conversation on issues related to law and tech.

Her academic research has been published in peer reviewed journals including Criminology, Law and Society Review, Law and Social Inquiry, Punishment & Society, The British Journal of Sociology, and Contexts. Her book, Digital Punishment, was published in 2020 by Oxford University Press and is the recipient of the Michael J. Hindelang award, which recognizes an outstanding contribution to research in criminology. 

She is a former Americorps VISTA volunteer and researcher for nonprofit organizations, and committed to producing scholarship for policy, litigation and public debate.

Sarah is a proud 3L student at Rutgers Law and recently interned at the New York Office of the Appellate Defender and the New York Legal Assistance Group’s Pro Se Clinic at the Southern District of New York.

Yousef Kassim is the Founder and CEO of EasyExpunctions, the only software-driven services company that specializes in automating legal documents for personal reputation management. EasyExpunctions was founded in Austin in 2014 shortly after Kassim filed a patent for a new method of document automation that is currently being utilized by the company.

Kassim is a graduate of Trinity University and St. Mary’s University School of Law, and is also licensed to practice law in Texas. Kassim recently moved his startup from Austin to its new headquarters in downtown San Antonio in response to incentives from local government and technology industry leaders interested in advancing job creation in San Antonio’s growing Tech District.

Moderator

Jason Tashea is a member of LSC's Emerging Leaders Council and writes about the intersection of technology, policy, and law. He is also the editor of the JusticeTech Download newsletter.