The students' reports inform the commission's work groups and are part of a pro bono project organized by Iowa Law's Citizen Lawyer Program.
Tuesday, October 21, 2025

Written by: Gloria Kosir

Five Iowa Law students’ work was included in the Iowa Access to Justice Commission’s 2025 annual report. Students prepared the four research memos as part of a pro bono project through the college’s Citizen Lawyer Program (CLP).

CLP provides students opportunities to volunteer with a variety of entities, including structured, law-related pro bono projects with governmental and non-profit organizations. Associate Professor of Instruction Brian Farrell is the director of CLP and supervised the students volunteering with the Iowa Access to Justice Commission. 

The commission and its work groups seek to identify and address barriers that Iowans face to ensure everyone has equal opportunities to navigate the legal system. The four research memos canvassed a variety of topics, including legal fines and fees, artificial intelligence developments, and the delivery of legal services:

  • Access to Justice National Landscape Review: Efforts to Reduce Fines and Fees (2Ls Megan LeBlanc and Kathryn Linehan, Appendix E)
  • Pro Bono and Continuing Legal Education Initiatives (2Ls Abigail Bylund and Christina Roche, Appendix F)
  • National Landscape Review: Allied Legal Professionals (Kathryn Linehan, Appendix G)
  • ATJC AI Developments (Abigail Bylund and 2025 Iowa Law graduate Sydney Wagner, Appendix H)

In addition to honing strong communication, research, and teamwork skills, students learned about various access to justice issues and the legal profession.

“1Ls’ first semester is focused on foundational classes that can sometimes feel distant from specific individuals’ legal problems in the world today. These courses are critical to learning legal reasoning, but a lot of students also want to understand, ‘what is the legal experience like for most people? What problems do average people have?’” Farrell said.

“The commission’s understanding of access to justice is much broader than just the role of lawyers, and recognizes that sometimes people need information or non-lawyer assistance. I think that’s really valuable and not something that students will necessarily get elsewhere in law school,” he added.

Each of the reports investigated a topic and its effects on access to justice. The students applied for pro bono projects and were matched to the Access to Justice project in September 2024, working independently or in small groups to provide information to the commission.

Iowa Law’s Citizen Lawyer Program facilitates up to 20 different pro bono projects with over 70 student participants during any given semester. In Fall 2025, 86 students are engaged in 20 distinct projects with 17 different partner organizations. These structured projects provide students with opportunities to explore different aspects of the legal profession while contributing to initiatives that interest them, all on a volunteer basis. Project partners range from Kids First Law Center to Iowa Legal Aid to the Johnson County Attorney’s Office.

More information is available on CLP’s webpage.