David Udell is the Founder and Executive Director of the National Center for Access to Justice -- the national nonprofit organization at Fordham Law School that is working to bring rigorous, principled research and analysis to the task of creating a fairer civil and criminal legal system and a more just society. David guides NCAJ's projects including the Justice Index with its Civil Legal Aid Attorney Count and Fines & Fees Index, as well as NCAJ's 2023 Project to create a new Consumer Debt Litigation Policy Index. David also guides NCAJ's Legal Empowerment Project with its research based advocacy initiative to update the laws and rules that prevent people from obtaining basic legal advice from social workers and other trained social services professionals working in local communities. David is a member of the advisory boards of the National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel and of the Justice Center of the New York County Lawyers’ Association. He is a former member of the New York City Bar Association’s Committee on Professional Responsibility for which he chaired a process that authored Narrowing the Justice Gap: New Roles for Non-lawyer Practitioners; he served on the Chief Judge of New York's Committee on Nonlawyers and the Justice Gap; and he is a co-author of New Roles for Non-Lawyers to Increase Access to Justice. David is a co-teacher of the Access to Justice Seminar at Fordham Law, where he also serves as a co-director of the Law School's A2J Initiative. David was the Founder and Executive Director of the Justice Program of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law School, and also served as a Senior Attorney at Legal Services for the Elderly (NYC) and a Managing Attorney at Mobilization for Justice (NYC). He is a graduate of NYU Law School.