NYT Bestselling Author Mechele Dickerson to Keynote ClioCon 2026 on Closing the Access Gap

Mechele Dickerson, endowed chair at UT Austin Law and author of The Middle-Class New Deal, rounds out the ClioCon 2026 keynote lineup alongside previously announced speakers Ethan Mollick and Malcolm Gladwell.

Clio, the global leader in legal AI, today announced that New York Times bestselling author Mechele Dickerson will be a keynote speaker at ClioCon 2026, taking place October 26 and 27 in Boston. Dickerson holds the Arthur L. Moller Chair in Bankruptcy Law and Practice at the University of Texas School of Law, where she has spent two decades studying financial vulnerability, housing affordability, and consumer debt.

The middle class, the primary client base for most legal practitioners, is under historic economic pressure. At the same time, the legal system is undergoing a technology-driven transformation that is rewriting what access to legal services can look like. Dickerson’s work sits precisely where those forces meet.

In her keynote, The Middle-Class Moment: How Law Can Rebuild What It Helped Break, Dickerson will draw on research and anecdotes from her landmark book The Middle-Class New Deal to challenge legal professionals to see their work differently. She will map the gap between the law’s promise and its reality: who gets access to legal help, who falls through the cracks, and what it costs when clients can’t get the representation they need.

“Two forces are colliding in the legal industry right now: economic pressure on the people who need legal help most, and a technology shift that’s rewriting what access to legal services can look like,” said Reagan Attle, Chief Marketing Officer at Clio. “Mechele Dickerson has spent her career working at the seam of those two forces, and she brings the rigor this moment needs. Her keynote will examine how legal innovation is rewriting the rules of access, and what it will take to make that change real for the clients who need it most.”

The Middle-Class New Deal reached No. 5 on the New York Times bestseller list following Dickerson’s appearance on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, where Stewart called her ideas “music to my ears.” She has since been featured on PBS Amanpour & Company, BBC, The Guardian, and The New Republic.

ClioCon 2026 will bring together legal professionals from around the world to examine how their work is evolving and where meaningful improvement can take place. This year’s theme, Go Beyond Limits, reflects that focus. Dickerson joins previously announced keynote speakers Ethan Mollick and Malcolm Gladwell on the ClioCon 2026 keynote stage.

For more information on ClioCon 2026 and to secure your pass, visit cliocon.com.