Nikole comes to Frontline Justice from the Alaska Legal Services Corporation (ALSC), Alaska’s only statewide provider of free civil legal assistance to low-income Alaskans, where she served as Executive Director for the past 13 years and before that as a staff attorney and supervising attorney for nearly 12 years. As Executive Director, Nikole oversees 12 offices and more than 60 staff across the vast and remote State of Alaska, and a diverse practice that includes housing, public benefits, health care access, protection from gender-based violence, child welfare, indigenous rights to self-determination and land access, and tribal court development. Nikole has also served nationally as a special advisor to the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defense (SCLAID) and is a member of the Legal Services Corporation’s Rural Justice Task Force.
Nikole stood out among an exceptional field of candidates for her remarkable work building community-led, people-centered justice models and her innovative expansion of the scope of who can provide legal assistance, commitment, and vision that are at the heart of Frontline Justice’s mission and values. This includes her groundbreaking launch of Partnering for Native Health, a Medical-Legal Partnership involving non-lawyer justice workers that won the 2019 World Justice Challenge. It also includes her critical leadership in reforming restrictions on unauthorized practice of law for justice workers in Alaska; these reforms were approved last year by both the Alaska Supreme Court and State Bar Board of Governors.
We’re also extremely excited to announce that Jim Sandman will serve as chair of the Frontline Justice National Leadership Council and senior advisor. Jim brings extensive national experience and strategic insight as President Emeritus of the Legal Services Corporation, which he led from 2011 to 2020, and as Distinguished Lecturer and Director of the Future of the Profession Lab at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School. Prior to his exceptional public interest career, Jim practiced for 30 years with the international law firm of Arnold & Porter, including a decade as the firm’s Managing Partner. Jim is a passionate advocate for relaxing restrictions on the unauthorized practice of law and expanding the supply of helpers for people with civil justice problems.
Nikole and Jim join Matthew Burnett, co-founder and senior advisor to Frontline Justice and a leading national and international voice for non-lawyer community justice workers, to form a formidable founding leadership team that has the expansive breadth and depth of knowledge and expertise to tackle this critical challenge.
This moment has been over a year in the making as we worked to raise our initial startup fund, recruit a powerful bipartisan National Leadership Council, establish a brand and website that captures the essence of our mission and ambition, and hire our Founding CEO. Thank you for all of your support throughout! Now the real work begins. Alongside Nikole, Jim, Matthew, and every one of you, we look forward to supercharging a national movement of justice workers to democratize access to justice and ensure equal justice for all!
Warm regards,
Becky Sandefur Cecilia Muñoz John Bridgeland
Frontline Justice Co-Chairs