What Works? Exploring the Evidence for People-Centered Justice Solutions
A critical — and perennial — question for people-centered justice policy and practice is, what works? Through the lens of promising approaches like alternative dispute resolution (ADR) and health justice partnerships, as well as human-centered approaches to researching and designing solutions, panelists will explore both the knowledge we have and the data we need for effective people-centered justice solutions.
Presenters:
Maurits Barendrecht
Professor of Innovation of Justice Systems(Emeritus), Tilburg University
R&D Advisor, Hague Institute for the Innovation of Law
Prof. Maurits Barendrecht is Professor Innovation of Justice Systems (emeritus) at Tilburg University (Netherlands) and R&D advisor at the Hague Institute for Innovation of Law. He specializes in evidence-based innovation in the justice sector. His work focuses on integrating interdisciplinary know how on dispute resolution in formal, mandatory legal procedures. He worked on innovating resolution pathways for divorce, personal injury, day to day crime, disputes with government agencies and more. He published extensively on outcome metrics, regulation and financing of justice pathways, using a people-centered perspective. Most of his work is internationally comparative. He holds a PhD in Law from Tilburg University.
Michele Leering
Visiting Scholar, Queen’s University Faculty of Law
Michele Leering (PhD, CM) is a Visiting Scholar at Queen’s University Faculty of Law in Canada. As the former Executive Director of the Community Advocacy & Legal Centre, she practiced as a community lawyer and over three decades led numerous participatory action research projects to tackle issues of local poverty, homelessness, unmet civil legal needs, and rural and remote access to justice. Her work focused on transforming legal services to be more holistic and evidence-based, addressing the multifaceted and intersecting needs of clients and marginalized communities. Michele promotes a diversity
of legal service delivery approaches, including early intervention and prevention, proactive and systemic advocacy, and robust community legal education initiatives. Her research contributes to building a people-centered justice ecosystem that values legal literacy, capability, and empowerment; and the contributions of trusted intermediaries, paralegals, and community justice workers. Her recent research includes health justice partnerships, imperatives for legal education reform (reflective practice as meta-competency), and designing more robust professional competency frameworks. She has collaborated with organizations like Namati and the Open Society Foundations to advance community-based legal clinics as a vibrant model for enhancing access to justice and legal empowerment globally.
Zainab Malik
Senior Policy and Advocacy Advisor, The Hague Institute for Innovation of Law (HiiL)
Zainab Z. Malik is a human rights lawyer and international development professional with over 15 years of experience driving transformative change in the global justice landscape. She currently serves as a Senior Policy and Advocacy Adviser at The Hague Institute for Innovation of Law (HiiL), where she leads the development of global policy and advocacy strategies to advance people-centered justice and strengthen justice systems worldwide.
Her work has focused on expanding access to justice and addressing critical human rights issues, including sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), fair trial rights, and the abolition of capital punishment and torture. Previously, Zainab was Head of Policy and Advocacy at Justice Project Pakistan (JPP).
Zainab also brings international program experience from her role as a Program Development Specialist at the International Development Law Organization (IDLO), where she designed rule of law and access to justice initiatives across Africa and the MENA region. An LL.M. graduate of Harvard Law School and an experienced litigator, she has represented survivors of SGBV, police torture, and prisoners with mental illness. She has also trained lawyers and judges on defending vulnerable clients and applying international law in domestic litigation. Zainab remains deeply committed to justice systems that are inclusive, humane, and responsive to people’s needs.
Moderator:
Director of Research and Programs for the Access to Justice Research Initiative, American Bar Foundation
Matthew Burnett is Director of Research and Programs for the Access to Justice Research Initiative at the American Bar Foundation (ABF), a visiting scholar with the Justice Futures Project at Arizona State University, and an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center. Prior to joining the ABF, Matthew was Senior Policy Officer at Open Society Foundations (OSF), where he worked to advance access to justice and legal empowerment through research, advocacy, litigation and grantmaking in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe, and the United States. Earlier in his career he helped to launch and led the Immigration Advocates Network and served as law clerk to Justice ZM Yacoob of the Constitutional Court of South Africa. Matthew’s research on access to justice has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics, the World Bank, and Canada’s International Development Research Centre. He currently serves as an advisor to the National Center for Access to Justice and is co-founder, with Rebecca Sandefur, of Frontline Justice and the Justice Worker Lab.