Hey LegalHackers,

The Philadelphia chapter of LegalHackers.org in partnership with ILTA.org, is gathering to discuss how to create a thriving community of free and open source legal technology developers and users in our local communities.

In this forum, we will:

• Introduce the concept of free and open source software (FOSS).
• Hear from Jonathan Pyle, founder of docassemble, one of the projects bringing open-source software development principles to the legal-tech space.
• Hands-on session to build legal apps with Community.Lawyer's web-based, no-code tool.
• Discuss how we can foster and sustain open-source development work in our communities.

Please bring your lunch; beverages will be provided. Event details are below, but feel free to post/email your questions.

Registration: In addition to signing up on this meetup, it is mandatory to register through the ILTA link too:
https://www.iltanet.org/events/event-description?CalendarEventKey=460a2049-a763-4723-9d54-81e4c73a2828&CommunityKey=6218551c-3f07-4656-ace8-2e16b1254628&Home=%2flive-events%2flocal-meetings

When: Dec 12, 2019 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM eastern
Where: Duane Morris LLP, 30 South 17th St., 12th Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19103
Partners: International Legal Technology Association (ILTA)
Attendance: Free

Part 1: About Free and Open Source Software and Docassemble:

docassemble is a free, open-source expert system for guided interviews and document assembly. It provides a web site that conducts interviews with users. Based on the information gathered, the interviews can present users with documents users can download/e-mail. It may submit an application, direct user to other resources on the internet, store user input, interact with APIs, or simply provide the user with information. It was created by a lawyer/computer programmer to help automate the practice of law, but it is a general-purpose platform with applications in a variety of fields.

Website: https://docassemble.org/

Bio:

• Jonathan Pyle, Philadelphia Legal Assistance & docassemble.org
  Jonathan Pyle is the Contract Performance Officer at Philadelphia Legal Assistance (PLA), where he is responsible for LSC compliance, reporting, and implementing new uses of technology to analyze, streamline, and expand service delivery. Before joining PLA, he practiced law in the areas of class action defense and government investigations, and served as vice-president of a management consulting company. In his spare time, he develops and maintains Docassemble, a free, open-source expert system platform.
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-pyle-6800a75
• http://www.abajournal.com/legalrebels/article/jonathan-pyle

Part 2: Hands-on app building session with community.lawyer

Description: Community.lawyer is an intuitive no-code platform that lawyers use to build apps that automate document generation, streamline client intake, and enhance legal services.

Website: https://community.lawyer

Bio:
Michael Hassin, Community Lawyer
Michael Hassin is the Chief Technology Officer at Community.lawyer. Prior to Community.lawyer, Michael worked as an engineer at one of the leading global technology consultancies, ThoughtWorks, and developed software for Fortune 500 companies across a diverse array of industries.

Resources:

• Docassemble, a FOSS platform for coding guided interviews: https://docassemble.org
• The Accord Project, an open ecosystem for building smart contracts: https://www.accordproject.org/
• Community.lawyer's App Builder: a no-code tool for developing and sharing legal apps: https://community.lawyer/help-guide
• Massachusetts Defense for Eviction (MADE), an example of a Docassemble app, written by Quinten Steenhuis: https://www.gbls.org/MADE and https://github.com/GBLS/docassemble-MAEvictionDefense

See you soon!

#Philadelphia #OpenSourceSoftware #legaltech #docassemble #legalHackers #ilta