‘Impossible’ Innovation During A Crisis

Well before the pandemic, guests Ndidi Moses and Michael Burton knew there were problems with how bar groups met and courts served the public.

Moses, who made it a goal to increase virtual meetings and events at the Connecticut Bar Association, says the prep work for her year as bar president paid off when the pandemic hit, and the bar was that much more ready to make the shift to virtual.

In St. Louis, Judge Burton explains how his area courts were already struggling to meet North County residents’ needs, especially in cases involving evictions and orders of protection. The pandemic further strained access, then opened it up more than many could have imagined.

Host Farrah Fite walks Burton and Moses through the design thinking steps each took to identify users and their unique needs, then build prototypes and test systems to serve those users.

Fite teases out the lessons that bar leaders can learn for their own associations and how to replicate similar ideas in other jurisdictions.

Michael Burton is the presiding circuit judge for St. Louis County.

Ndidi N. Moses is an Assistant U.S. Attorney at the U.S. Attorney's Office in New Haven.