As CEO of the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System at the University of Denver, Brittany Kauffman is living out her high school dream: “I didn’t know lawyers,” she said. “I didn’t know what I wanted to do. But I did know I wanted to make a difference.”
A former litigator, she now leads one of the country’s most influential organizations dedicated to improving the civil justice system, convening judges, lawyers, policymakers and legal educators to turn ideas about civil rights into meaningful reform.
Raised in a civically engaged, service-oriented family, Kauffman took a staff job at a law firm in Montana just after college.
As she saw how attorneys could produce outcomes for individuals and communities alike, “it came together for me,” she said. “I realized the law could be a way to make the kind of difference I had always wanted to make.”
After graduating from the University of Colorado Law School, Kauffman joined Arnold & Porter, where she specialized in natural resources, environmental and Indigenous law. She worked on complex litigation and high-impact matters, including representation of tribal clients and long-running land disputes.
While she felt the work was meaningful, she found herself wondering “how we improve the justice system as a whole, not just case by case,” she said. “I’m a systems person.”
Her instinct to build and repair systems led her to IAALS in 2012. Since stepping into the role of CEO in 2022, Kauffman has spearheaded efforts to modernize civil courts, expand access to justice and reduce cost and delay.
Among her initiatives as CEO is a landmark collaboration with the National Center for State Courts to craft recommendations for civil case management nationwide.
“We don’t just think about what the system should look like,” she said. “We work to make those changes real.”
For Kauffman, justice work is as much about people as it is about policy. She points to the network of judges, lawyers and reformers she collaborates with as one of the most rewarding aspects of her role. She noted, “Many of these are women, who are helping lead the conversation about what our justice system should be.”
Brittany serves on the Legal Services Corporation Rural Justice Task Force and as a commissioner of the executive committee of the Colorado Access to Justice Commission.