ben jackson

Legal Innovation + Technology Certificate
Class of 2020

Ben Jackson is an entrepreneur and legal technologist who is obsessed with making the legal industry work for ordinary people. He is currently a 2L in Chicago Kent’s Legal Innovation and Technology Certificate Program. Prior to law school, Ben managed talent development at a Fortune 500 company, helped grow an insurance startup to over $100m in annual revenues, and founded two companies.

During his 1L year, Ben worked as an early team member of Upsolve, a non-profit that gives Americans a financial fresh start through free Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing. With his help, Upsolve served thousands of families and eliminated $156m in debt while becoming fully self-sustaining - an unprecedented feat for a legal nonprofit. Fueled by Upsolve’s success, Ben launched his current venture, Immigrants Like Us, with Upsolve co-founder Jonathan Petts. Immigrants Like Us (ILU) is a non-profit “TurboTax” platform that helps people prepare their immigration forms quickly, accurately, and for free. It also provides free attorney review of these forms for clients who are low income, victims of abuse, or “Dreamers.”

After law school, Ben plans to continue building tools like ILU to make justice more accessible by helping lawyers work more effectively.