Melissa Franca and Emma Hawley are law students (3L and 2L, respectively) at the University of Wisconsin School of Law. They are currently enrolled in the school's Law & Entrepreneurship externship course, led by previous “Who Wrote That Up For You?” guest, Professor Charles Von Simson. The course pairs them with startup companies and entrepreneurs, and the two students have chosen to complete their externship this year with Courtroom5.  

Melissa and Emma both shared their aspirations to help people as the motivating factor in joining the legal profession. The curriculum has helped them understand the complexity of the law and has driven their interest in using technology to increase access to the courts. At Courtroom5, they've learned a lot about the litigation process and ways to simplify rules and procedures so laypeople can understand and use them. They described their Courtroom5 project -- to help pro se litigants specify discrete unbundled services for lawyers -- as something that has improved their understanding of the practice of law.

– Connect with Melissa Franca on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissa-franca-63b091147/

For more on the need to fix U.S. courts, subscribe to "Who Wrote That Up For You?" wherever you listen to podcasts. If you're in court without a lawyer, visit courtroom5.com to get access to justice today.