Board of Directors

  • Natanya Pope-Sohel, Esq.

    Natanya Pope-Sohel is a passionate public interest attorney committed to expanding access to justice. She currently serves as Staff Attorney at the Illinois Torture Inquiry and Relief Commission, where she investigates claims of torture and wrongful convictions, and founder of Clean Slate Legal Services, a law firm dedicated providing affordable and accessible legal assistance. Prior to her legal career, Natanya was a high school teacher, later earning her J.D. from Chicago-Kent College of Law with a concentration in public interest law and legal technology.

    Her legal work spans roles at Illinois Legal Aid Online, where she built automated legal tools, and Legal Aid Chicago, where she led a court-based help desk focused on criminal record relief. Natanya also holds leadership positions in the legal nonprofit sector, including Vice President of the Black Women Lawyers Association of Greater Chicago, as a member of Public Interest Law Initiative's Alumni Network Leadership Council, and on the Justice Society of the Chicago Bar Foundation.

  • Matthew Newsted, Esq.

    Matt Newsted (he/him) is the Associate Director of Legal Technology at Illinois Legal Aid Online (ILAO). He works to make the law accessible for everyone by managing ILAO's legal content and developing their document assembly tools. After receiving his Juris Doctor from DePaul University College of Law, Matt worked for 3 years as staff attorney at Legal Aid Chicago. He then spent 11 years doing IT support at Northwestern University, where he earned an M.S. in Computer Information Systems.

  • Jessica Kim, LSW

    Jessica Kim (she/her) is a licensed social worker based in Chicago. She obtained her MSW at Loyola University Chicago and currently works as a trauma-informed therapist. Jessica specializes in working with Asian Americans to heal from spiritual abuse and racial trauma and thrive in their unique identities. She is also passionate about mental health advocacy for diverse communities and facilitates workshops and community-based programs to de-stigmatize mental health and promote equitable access to care.

Staff

  • Andrew Sharp, Esq.

    The son of a civil rights attorney and a computer scientist, Andrew Sharp, Esq. was probably always destined for a career focused on using technology to increase access to justice. Chicago-Kent College of Law was his obvious choice for law school, with its Center for Access to Justice in Technology and national reputation as a leader in the field. Andrew spent many hours at Kent’s Self-Help Web Center, and saw firsthand how innovative solutions can truly help people in need. He loved his first internship at Illinois Legal Aid Online so much that he ended up taking a full time job with them before starting his 3L year, and finishing his degree (and studying for the bar!) in the evening.  After 6 years on the content team at ILAO he felt called to join an organization that he had partnered with to create a legal clinic at his church, and became the Vice President of Legal Services at Administer Justice where he now oversees the operation of over 100 church-based community legal clinics in 19 states. He lives with his wife, Lydia, who he met in law school and is also a legal aid attorney, in Oak Park, IL, with their two daughters and two cats.

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