Paladin

Paladin provides software for the pro bono legal ecosystem, positioning itself as a platform that connects volunteer attorneys with organizations serving people who cannot afford legal help, and that gives legal teams tools to run pro bono programs more efficiently. Its stated vision is to increase access to justice globally by empowering legal teams to do more pro bono work with less administrative burden.

The product set spans opportunity discovery and matching, program administration, and reporting. Paladin describes ecosystem-wide infrastructure that helps legal services organizations (LSOs) maximize volunteer reach and helps law firm and in-house legal teams centralize their work, recruit volunteers, and report on business and community impact. Capabilities highlighted include dashboards to centralize inbound opportunities and manage distribution, targeting of matters to attorneys based on interests and expertise, connection to a national network of pro bono organizations, and impact visualization and reporting. A separate product, Paladin Insights, covers time and billing. Documentation is organized around distinct user groups: Paladin users navigating opportunities, administrators managing opportunities, legal service organizations, law schools, and Insights users.

The company frames its work against the size of the justice gap, citing that 5.1 billion people globally lack meaningful access to justice, and, per the Legal Services Corporation, that 92% of low-income individuals' civil legal needs go unmet or inadequately met and roughly 50% of qualified individuals are turned away from legal services organizations for lack of capacity.

Founding story

Co-founder and CEO Kristen Sonday, a first-generation-college Princeton graduate, encountered the complexity of the judicial system while conducting international criminal work for the U.S. Department of Justice in Mexico and Central America. Seeing the value of having an advocate throughout the legal process, particularly for diverse communities, motivated her to build technology to increase access. She subsequently joined the founding team of Y Combinator-backed Grouper, a New York City-based startup, before launching Paladin.

Business model

Paladin sells software to organizations in the pro bono ecosystem — law firms, in-house/corporate legal departments, legal services organizations, bar associations, and law schools — offering program management, volunteer matching, and impact reporting tools, plus a time and billing product (Paladin Insights). Careers materials reference competitive salary and equity packages, health care, and a 401k with matching, consistent with a venture-style operating company.

Traction

Paladin states it has connected volunteers with tens of thousands of individuals and organizations in need across civil and criminal matters. Third-party coverage cites partnerships with more than 300 legal service organizations alongside law firms, corporate legal teams, bar associations, and the U.S. government. Named clients and referenced users include Dentons and Chapman.

Latest developments

Kristen Sonday appeared on Seyfarth Shaw's Pioneers and Pathfinders podcast in March 2025 discussing Paladin's approach to justice technology; the episode was republished as a "Best of" replay in February 2026.