Volunteer-created Airport Lawyer app helps people affected by Trump’s travel ban to access legal advice

A group of volunteer lawyers and software developers created an app to help those affected by US President Donald Trump’s travel ban on people arriving in the United States from seven majority-Muslim countries within just two days of the surprise ban’s announcement, it has emerged.

The Airport Lawyer app, which connects valid US visa and green-card holders from the affected seven countries with volunteer lawyers, was reported last week by Legal Futures as being developed and implemented in just two days in response to the ban, making it a “fantastic example of rapid prototyping and iterative design” (RPID). After a few days of chaos in which large numbers of people were illegally detained or deported, the US courts blocked the travel ban, but Trump’s vow to reinstate it (either through litigation or a new executive order) may mean that Airport Lawyer’s most important role is yet to come. Airport Lawyer’s creators have said that their next step is to develop a tool to help volunteer lawyers who are not familiar with immigration law to better assess the needs of people they connect with through the app.

Greg McLawsen, who leads the Airport Lawyer project, said: “This is RPID in practice. The applications I built are simply gathering and distributing data. There is no legal advice being given [by the app]. But with a concerted effort and a passionate team, we went from idea to product that is actually making a difference in a few short days. With committed people, the right technology, and most importantly, the right approach – RPID – you can accomplish incredible things very quickly.”