Social entrepreneurship is a relatively new concept. In 2011 Forbes produced its first Impact 30 list, which consists of the top 30 social entrepreneurs. Forbes defined a social entrepreneur as “a person who uses business to solve social issues.” At the top of the 2016 Impact 30 list is Scholly. Scholly matches students with scholarship opportunities. Its founder, Christopher Gray, created the site after spending 12 hours a day searching for scholarships so he could attend college. Scholly boasts it has helped its users receive over $35 Million in scholarships. The legal industry needs social entrepreneurs.

According to an American Bar Foundation study approximately 78% of people with legal issues do not have a lawyer. It is widely accepted that the U.S. has a serious access to justice problem. The problem is so prevalent that President Obama recently formed the Office for Access to Justice, a department of the DOJ. Shining a light on access to justice is good – actually it’s great. The problem, however, is that the conversation to find solutions revolves around tried and failed approaches such as non-profits, pro bono time, court facilitators, etc. The most cutting edge proposals involve non-lawyer practitioners like Washington State’s Limited License Legal Technicians (LLLT). These are great approaches for serving the very poor, but 78% of the population spans a huge number of people who do not qualify for legal aid. A problem of that size needs a much more powerful tool. Private industry is the only tool with enough force to forge a solution. We need social lawntrepreneurship.