When Elliott Fontenette was six years old, his father asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up. “A Ghostbuster,” Fontenette said, without missing a beat. As a young boy in New Orleans, Louisiana, it was his favorite TV show. When his dad broke the news that ghostbusting wasn’t an actual career, Fontenette instead chose a role based on one of his mother’s favorite shows—”Matlock.” “Okay, I’ll be a lawyer, then,” Fontenette said.
As he grew older, it became clear just how important the law is in real life. He came to see it as a powerful force for good, a way to protect people, and to ensure that he and his loved ones always know their rights and can act on them.
Now, as managing attorney and special projects lead at the Texas Legal Services Center in Austin, where he’s worked for the last 15 years, Fontenette ’09 is reshaping access to justice for the underserved. Through transformative initiatives—such as installing dozens of accessible legal kiosks in public spaces across Texas and expanding TLSC’s TexasLawHelp.org from 220,000 users in 2010 to more than 5 million in 2024—he’s helped ensure that millions of Texans, in both rural and urban communities, have a fairer shot at justice. And personally, he’s provided free legal advice to over 4,000 clients.
We recently caught up with the alum, who’s currently leading an ambitious new project that will harness artificial intelligence to help individuals determine their eligibility for expunction—and, if they qualify, guide them through a faster and more accessible filing process. He’s one of four distinguished Texas Law graduates selected by the law school’s Alumni Association to be recognized for their accomplishments in the legal profession.
Your time at Texas Law left a lasting impression. Tell us about its impact.
When I applied to law school, I wanted to go somewhere where I could get a good education, I knew there was a good network, and there was a focus on how the law affected people. Texas Law does a fantastic job with that. I also wanted to be near family. There was such great energy at the school and in Austin. I still think about my constitutional law class with Lucas Powe. It taught me how practical realities like the court makeup or what’s happening in the country at a given time affects the law and outcomes. I think about Texas Law all the time at work—in particular, what I learned about academic freedom from David Rabban and a class on disability law that has been very helpful—and it informs my daily practice. Most of my best friends from law school were in my Green Society group, and I regularly lean on my network for advice and support. I got my internship at TLSC, which led to a full-time job, through the Long Career Launch Program. Texas Law gave me a great foundation.
You’ve had a long tenure at TLSC. What did you initially work on?
I joined as an intern after law school. For three months I worked on TLSC’s Legal Hotline for Texans, giving advice to seniors on things like grandparents’ rights and wills and estates . Then I was hired as primary staff attorney for the self-represented litigants project. We had ambitious goals: create a video guide for pro se litigants acting on their own behalf, develop automated divorce forms—think “TurboTax for the law” —and launch a pioneering live chat service, one of the first in the country offering free legal advice. I also wrote the script and managed filming of our video guide, “The Legal System Helping Yourself,” learning firsthand that explaining the law simply requires deep understanding. The live chat service launched in May 2010. That first year we were getting our bearings, so we focused solely on learning how to provide help over live chat and only provided legal information and referrals. In 2011, we began providing free legal advice to qualifying clients. The live chat service handled 538 chats in 2010, 3,645 chats in 2011, and 4,184 chats in 2012. In the early days it was just me and a part-time attorney staffing live chat. I could be juggling up to eight chats at a time on issues like child support, eviction, divorce, foreclosure, and bankruptcy . Since then, we have added more staff and utilized law student and attorney volunteers. Since chat started, we have handled more than 200,000 chats in total.
What are some chat cases that have really stuck with you?
One woman originally from the Philippines was in debt after not realizing she had to pay child support to the Texas state registry. She’d been paying directly to her husband—he claimed she hadn’t paid. She spoke Tagalog and was having trouble communicating her issues. I was able to work with an interpreter to break down her issues and give her advice and get her a pro bono attorney to wipe away her debt. She worked at a nail salon and sent me a gift certificate I told her I couldn’t use, but I framed it.
Another case during the pandemic involved an individual who had notice the sheriff was showing up to evict her. I stayed on the chat with her for hours. We got her into an emergency shelter, helped her figure out how to store her things, and move forward. With legal aid work, you see these big crises happening in real time and try your best to help. The system is built pretty purposely for attorneys. But more people are having to do it on their own because they can’t afford an attorney. They also need some way to get a legal remedy. One of our goals at legal aid is make sure 100% of people get some form of meaningful assistance.
Then you took on revamping TexasLawHelp.org, which provides free and reliable legal information to Texans. What was that like?
As the chat launched, I realized the immense untapped potential of TexasLawHelp.org. When the person running it left, I took over and led a massive, multiyear site redesign. I focused on building collaborative relationships with legal aid partners across Texas to increase high-quality content and am happy to say this was successful. By the end of my time managing TexasLawHelp, we had thousands of pieces of content on the site including toolkits, forms, instructions, publications, and videos.
In college at Louisiana State University you studied finance, not technology. How did you develop an expertise in tech and digital tools?
I mostly learned on the job. I took a web-mastering class in high school that I didn’t think would as useful as it’s been. And I read a lot about design and coding. My wife originally introduced me to the ideas of usability and project management. I’ve learned so much from her. I also ended up getting my project manager certification in 2019.
What’s kept you at TLSC?
One of my big beliefs is everybody has potential and something to teach you. Things like divorce or eviction can get in the way of peoples’ goals. Through my work, I hope to ease peoples’ burdens so they can focus on what truly matters to them. If I can remove something as overwhelming as an eviction from their path, then in some small way I feel like I’m contributing to the greater good. I’m working alongside some other great people at TLSC and legal aid at large who also work to make access to legal information and resources available to low-income persons.
One of my big beliefs is everybody has potential and something to teach you.
I feel extraordinarily lucky to do this job. It might sound cliché, but my dedication stems from a confluence of three core influences: my family upbringing, my Catholic faith, and, perhaps surprisingly, the media I consumed as a child. I loved He-Man, the Real Ghostbusters, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and X-Men. I wanted to be those heroes who helped people, and while I’m certainly no superhero, that fundamental childhood desire to help others stuck with me and has undoubtedly colored the choices I’ve made.
Among your current projects, what are you working on?
Since January I’ve been working on the Statewide Expunction Moonshot program. Collaborating with Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas, Beacon Law, Lone Star Legal Aid, and Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, we’re developing an AI-powered platform to automate eligibility determination and form generation for criminal record expunctions and non-disclosures, plus other tools and initiatives like hosting and operating free legal clinics for users once these tools are developed. A criminal record can have many negative implications for Texans—from trouble getting a job to finding a place to live. The project aims to help those who qualify to expunge or deal with these records so they can move on in their life with a clean slate. It’s exciting to leverage cutting-edge technology for this critical access-to-justice need.
Overall, how do you think the U.S. is doing on access to justice?
There really is bipartisan agreement that access to justice is important. But, how do you execute on that? Technology can do so much because it’s a force multiplier. Lawyers can also do immense good with so little of their time. We have accomplished attorneys who volunteer with us, providing information and resources over chat. It takes an hour out of their week, but I guarantee you they’ve saved people weeks of time and put the people they talked to at ease.
A hallmark of your career has been tackling new challenges and mastering new skills. What are the next “big things” on your radar?
One of my long-term hopes is to build a triage system on TexasLawHelp.org that allows people to start with a broad legal issue—like divorce—and receive tailored legal information based on their specific circumstances. The system would always provide relevant information and a referral to the appropriate legal aid provider in their area. And in cases where it’s appropriate—such as an uncontested divorce without children—it would also offer the right forms and step-by-step instructions. It would be similar in spirit to the excellent triage tool on Michigan Legal Help, which has been a source of inspiration to me for years. That kind of tool could help so many people and makes me excited to come to work.
Finally, as the Distinguished Alumnus for Community Service. how would you define an “outstanding” alum, and what does it mean to you to be honored by your fellow alumni and the law school?
An outstanding alum is somebody who is passionate, engaged, and fully conscious of how they’re living their work life. I cannot tell you the level of honor and appreciation I feel to receive this recognition. I never expected it. It’s wonderfully validating, and it’s one of the biggest honors of my life behind being my parents’ son, my wife’s partner, and my son’s father.