David Udell Dishes on Growing Access to Justice Research

"Ever since his days as a young boy enrolled at a Quaker summer camp, David Udell has been interested in justice.

The executive director of the National Center for Access to Justice, housed at Fordham Law School, said the "values-driven experiences" he had at camp, coupled with growing up in the shadow of Watergate, taught him a core lesson "about the importance of the rule of law applying to everyone in our society."

"There's this sort of consistent line in my life of wanting to give the law its due and to try to make the world more just," he told Law360.

That line has led him to leadership roles in the national civil right to counsel movement, the national indigent defense reform movement, and initiatives to strengthen the Legal Services Corporation, America's largest single funder of civil legal aid. Before helping establish the NCAJ in 2010, Udell spent more than a decade at New York University's Brennan Center for Justice, where he oversaw litigation, research and public advocacy work.

Now he focuses on using data to increase access to justice through NCAJ projects such as the Justice Index, which ranks states according to metrics like support for people with disabilities or those without lawyers..."

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