The founder of the nascent National Justice Impact Bar Association says it will assist qualified “justice-impacted” people—those with criminal records—who want to become lawyers but face obstacles to obtaining a law license.

A decade ago, as a teenager, Dieter Tejada got into trouble with the law and spent several months behind bars after pleading guilty on an assault charge.

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Debbie Mukamal, executive director of the Stanford Criminal Justice Center at Stanford Law School, agreed that an insider perspective on the criminal justice system would be valuable to the profession.

“I think this is a time when we are recognizing the effects of mass incarceration and recognizing the unique role that formerly incarcerated people can and should be playing in addressing reforms in the criminal justice system,” Mukamal told Law360. “So as we’re seeing that these people should be at the table and should be part of creating solutions to fix some of these issues, these questions are coming to the fore.”