Cayley Balser

Cayley Balser (she/her) has worked with i4J since Fall 2020 and has experience working in all three of i4J’s impact areas. As the Director of Research at i4J, Cayley’s role is to implement and teach trauma-informed, community-engaged, project-based courses centered on applying participatory action research and design and systems thinking methodology to legal empowerment and access to justice projects. Through this work, Cayley connects with community members, plans and oversees interviews and surveys, and works with students on qualitative and quantitative data collection, analysis, and synthesis. 

Her multidisciplinary research interests focus on access to and integration of trauma-informed approaches within legal education and services. She is indebted to the community members who share their time, lived-experience expertise, and energy with her to make this research and work possible. Cayley earned her J.D. from the University of Arizona College of Law in May 2022, graduating Cum Laude and receiving the Hon. Earl H. Carroll Public Service Award, and is a licensed attorney in the state of Arizona. Cayley was nominated for and joined the Legal Service Corporation’s Emerging Leaders Council in May, 2024 and is a member of the State Bar of Arizona’s Access to Justice Committee.

Prior to law school, Cayley earned Master in Education (M.Ed.) and Education Specialist (Ed.S.) degrees in Mental Health Counseling from the University of Florida and is a National Certified Counselor (NCC). Her area of focus as a clinician was suicide prevention, trauma, and substance use. She designed and implemented intervention programs on various scales and presented her work at regional and national conferences. She attended Clemson University where she was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa and earned a B.A. in Psychology.

Featured Publications:

• Cayley Balser, Stacy Rupprecht Jane, Antonio M. Coronado, An Innovative Approach to Medical-Legal Partnership: Unauthorized Practice of Law Reform as a Civil Justice Pathway in Patient Care, 51(2) Am. J. L. Med. 286 (2025).

• Cayley Balser & Antonio M. Coronado, Power-Conscious Legal Work: Building a Roadmap for Rural Access to Justice Through Trust, Accountability, & Trauma-Informed Practices, 41 Ak. L. Rev. 145 (2024).

• Cayley Balser & Stacy Rupprecht Jane, The Diverse Landscape of Community-Based Justice Workers, IAALS Expert Opinion (February 22, 2024).

• Antonio M. Coronado, Rachel Crisler, Cayley Balser, & Stacy Rupprecht Jane, Re-Regulating Justice: Realizing Housing Stability Through Community Legal Advocacy, 23(3) J. Affordable Housing & Comm. Dev. Law 393 (2024).

• Cayley Balser, Erin Weaver, Stacy Rupprecht Jane, Gabriela Elizondo-Craig, Tate Richardson, & Antonio Coronado. Leveraging Unauthorized Practice of Law Reform to Advance Access to Justice, XVIII L.J. Soc. Justice 66 (2023).

• Cayley Balser, Trauma-Informed Practices at Innovation for Justice (i4J), blog post (October 2024).

• Christopher T. Robertson, Andrew Keane Woods, Kelly Bergstrand, Jessica Findley, Cayley Balser, & Marvin J. SLepian, Diverse Patient’s Attitudes Towards Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Diagnosis, PLOS Digital Health 2(5) e0000237.

• Jessica Findley, Adriana Cimetta, Heidi Burross, Katherine Cheng, Matt Charles, Cayley Balser, Ran Li, &  Christopher T. Robertson, JD-Next: A Valid and Reliable Tool to Predict Diverse Students’ Success in Law School, 20 J. Empirical Legal Studies 134 (2022).

• Katherine Cheng, Jessica Finley, Adriana Cimetta, Heidi Burross, Matt Charles, Cayley Balser, Ran Li, & Christopher T. Robertson, JD-Next A Randomized Experiment of an Online Scalable Program to Prepare Diverse Students for Law School, 71(4) J. Legal Ed. 673 (2022).

Conference talks and presentations: 

• Co-presenter, Designing Trauma-Informed Ethical Justice Tech, LSNTAP webinar (April 2025).

• Co-presenter, Using a Trauma-Informed Ethical Tech Design Framework to Create Effective Public-Facing Legal Tech Tools, Legal Services Corporation Innovation in Technology Conference (January 2025).

• Panelist, The Legal Academy’s Role in Re-Imagining Legal Education, Association of American Law Schools Annual Meeting (January 2025).

• Panelist, The Lawyers’ Justice Corp: A Link Between Access to Justice and Lawyer Licensing, Association of American Law Schools Annual Meeting (January 2025).

• Keynote speaker, Building at the Speed of Trust: Designing Intentional Community-Based Justice Work, A Place Called Justice Webinar Series (October 2024).

• Panelist, Coming Home: Bringing Knowledge and Power Back to Community, Flashlights: Jailhouse Lawyers, Legal Empowerment, and Building a Just World Together Conference (September 2024).

• Presenter, (Re)traumatization and Access to Justice, Self-Represented Litigation Network (September 2024).

• Panelist, Come Play with Us in the Sandbox: Utilizing Tech, Other Legal Professionals, and Community-Based Advocates to Serve More People, Legal Services Corporation Innovation in Technology Conference (February 2024). 

• Facilitator, Beyond Leveraging, Leading Together: Developing a Coalitional Framework for Legal Tech Innovation,  Legal Services Corporation Innovation in Technology Conference (February 2024).

• Presenter, A Community-Drive Approach to Regulatory Reform, International Access to Justice Forum (October 2023). 

• Presenter Increasing Access to Justice through Regulatory Reform, Pro Bono Institute Annual Conference (February 2023). 

• Co-presenter, Leveraging Regulatory Reform to Advance Access to Justice, Legal Services Corporation Innovation in Technology Conference (January 2023). 

• Co-presenter, Expanding Arizona’s LP and Utah’s LPP Program to Advance Housing Stability, Arizona Supreme Court Access to Justice Commission (January 2022). 

• Presenter, Leveraging Your MLS to Expand Access to Justice, University of Utah Capstone (August 2021). 

• Co-presenter, Bridging the Justice Gap through Innovation, State Bar of Arizona Convention (June 2021). 

Scholarship Interests:

Access to Justice (A2J); trauma-informed practices; trauma-responsive practices; legal education; adult education; law and education; law and sociology; multidisciplinary research; participatory action research; engaged scholarship; leadership and education; community research ethics.