Margaret Hagan is the Executive Director of the Legal Design Lab and a lecturer at Stanford Law School and the Stanford Institute of Design (the d.school).

Margaret researches, designs, and develops new ways to make the US civil justice system work better for people. This includes exploring new AI tools, forms and paper notices, websites, in-person services, courthouse design, regulation and policies, and coalition-building.

She teaches project-based Policy Lab and Design School classes, with interdisciplinary student groups working in partnership with legal aid groups, courts, local governments, and nonprofits. In these classes, students learn how to lead innovation in the legal system, through user research, multi-stakeholder workshops, data analysis, and the creative design of new legal product, services, and policies.

Margaret has served as the director of the American Bar Association Task Force on Evictions, Housing Stability, and Equity since 2021. In 2020, she was awarded the Rebuilding Justice Award from the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System. She is a member of the American Law Institute.

Margaret graduated from Stanford Law School in June 2013. She served as a student fellow at the Center for Internet & Society and president of the Stanford Law and Technology Association. While a student, she built the game app Law Dojo to make studying for law school classes more interactive & engaging. She was a fellow at the d.school from 2013-2014, where she launched the first version of the Legal Design Lab, experimenting with how strategic design can make legal services more usable, useful & engaging.

Margaret holds an AB from the University of Chicago (2003), an MA from Central European University in Budapest (2004), and a PhD from Queen’s University Belfast in International Politics (2008), where she was a Marshall Scholar. She is originally from Pittsburgh.