LawDroid Manifesto Podcast The Service Technologist: Jack Brandt
Dec 22, 2025
In this engaging discussion, Jack Brandt, a U.S. Coast Guard lieutenant and founder of Military Benefits Assistant, shares his journey from paying for graduate school to aiding fellow service members in accessing their education benefits. He explains how his tool evolved from a custom ChatGPT to a rule-based guided interview system, proving that sometimes traditional logic can outperform advanced AI. Jack emphasizes the importance of understanding user needs and how legal innovation doesn't require tech expertise, just a focus on service.
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Environment Accelerates Innovation
- Choosing Suffolk Law gave Jack access to legal innovation resources and practical clinics.
- The right environment accelerates nontraditional legal tech projects even for novices.
Curiosity Trumps Coding Skills
- Curiosity and discipline matter more than formal tech skills when building useful legal tech.
- Deeply understanding the problem lets non-technologists create effective tools.
Start Simple And Iterate Rapidly
- Use existing low-code/no-code tools to move from resource pages to application workflows.
- Iterate the product and track changes so the tool becomes substantially more helpful over time.