Complete
Advocacy
&
Productivity
Platform,
Revolutionizing
the
Case
Management
System
for
Public
Defenders
Productivity Platform,
Management System for Public
Defenders
EMPOWERING THE ZEALOUS
ADVOCACY YOUR CLIENTS
DESERVE
Public defenders are often forced to use frustrating software or spend countless hours creating their own reports, making it difficult to effectively serve their clients. ZLS is here to change that. Our powerful and intuitive cloud-based case management system streamlines the process and saves time, allowing offices to win more funding by providing dynamic data on their work. With ZLS, everything is organized and easily accessible, freeing public defenders to focus on advocating for their clients.
The magic in this job happens when we’re fully present on the task that’s in front of us. Making information easy to access and easy to enter isn’t just time saved, it’s getting your sanity back and getting to sleep well at night…For me, all of the functionalities of ZLS operate to reduce my anxiety and let me stop worrying about cases.
Other case management systems seem designed to track paper, not people. Our job is the opposite – it is to bring humanity into a paper-centric system. So I need a system that’s people-centric – that tells me about my clients’ cases across multiple courts, with multiple staff members, and the relationships between people within their life…There’s a lot of systems that can’t track that at all, but in a year of use with ZLS, we’ve built a mini-universe that mirrors our jurisdiction and gives us important insights.
ZLS is a robust system built specifically for public defenders to make both the administrative and legal aspects of our jobs easier. It is simple to use due to its intuitive functionality, which makes it perfect for offices with a full range of users, from those who are technology experts to those who are less tech-savvy. Our numerous duties as public defenders, like evidence review, conflict checks, and keeping detailed notes about your clients and their cases, are easier to handle with a client management system like ZLS.
Before ZLS, we felt like a chicken with its head cut off. It’s hard to exude an air of competence or professionalism if your office can’t even tell a court coordinator or a client which attorney is handling which case. ZLS has given us the tools to securely store evidence, collaborate with and cover for colleagues, and ensure that each case is documented in order to protect our clients and our office.
We reviewed so many possible case management systems for our office. Most were designed for private law firms and had unnecessary features we needed to work around, like billable hours. ZLS is designed for Public Defender Offices and prioritizes our needs. The pricing model also allows us to plan our budget ahead of time, rather than needing to estimate based on number of cases created or data storage amounts.
Selecting a case management system – the right one for us – was one of the most critical choices we had to make when we started our large, rural office. We vetted as many as we could and ZLS was the clear-cut winner. Their customer service is out of this world, and the product itself is so clearly built to address needs unique to public defender offices. It was one of the best decisions we made.
INTUITIVE
ZLS was created by public defenders, with constant feedback from real cases, to produce a truly intuitive experience for everyone on the defense team. That perspective was combined with experience in deploying enterprise applications and the latest user experience (UX) best practices to create the only case management system to offer PDX – Public Defender Experience. The result is a system with virtually no learning curve that saves time and helps clients rather than becoming just one more task in the overwhelming world of indigent defense.
COMPREHENSIVE
Existing case management systems often fall short in their ability to effectively manage and organize all aspects of a case, including digital evidence, email and text communications. They also tend to focus on the case itself, rather than the client, which can lead to missing important connections and insights.
ZLS is a powerful, cloud-based case management system built by public defenders, with input from real-world cases, that addresses these shortcomings. The system is designed to encompass everything that public defenders and their teams need to manage their cases, while also providing a holistic view of the client and their needs. It even utilizes advanced algorithms to suggest potential conflicts and surface key insights, including patterns in police reports from particular officers or how a certain expert tends to testify.
ZLS integrates all email communications directly into the client’s case and offers two-way texting, including automatic SMS court reminders, making it easy to stay in touch with clients. With unlimited storage, ZLS can handle the “digital tsunami” from the prosecution and keep digital discovery organized using customizable categories and tags. Team members can also review, annotate, and share notes from videos directly in the client’s case.
EMPOWERING PUBLIC DEFENDERS WITH SECURE AI
At ZLS.app, we are dedicated to bringing the future to indigent defense through our Secure GenAI integration. This powerful tool enhances Public Defenders’ capabilities by allowing them to manage voluminous documents, notes, calls, emails, and text messages more efficiently. By leveraging the advanced capabilities of GenAI, ZLS.app saves valuable time enabling Public Defenders to focus on what matters most—advocating for their clients.
The Secure GenAI integration offers advanced document summarization, condensing lengthy case documents, notes, and communication threads. This ensures critical information is quickly accessible. GenAI provides contextual analysis, highlighting key information and insights, which aids Public Defenders in preparing their cases more effectively. Reviewing extensive case files, transcripts, and evidence becomes significantly more manageable, helping attorneys spot crucial details that could influence the outcome of a case
FUTURE-PROOF
ZLS is built using the world’s most popular and scalable web frameworks, which enables us to easily adapt to changing demands and ensure smooth operation at all times. By deploying microservices and scaling up computing power as needed, we can ensure that the system is always able to meet the needs of our users. And by hosting ZLS on Amazon Web Services (AWS), we can provide a powerful, secure, and reliable cloud-based platform that is designed to evolve and adapt to the future. With 99.9% uptime, you can trust that ZLS will always be available when you need it.
SECURE
As a system built for public defenders with the attorney-client relationship at its heart, ZLS has confidentiality and security integrated at every opportunity. This includes secure integration capabilities for industry leaders like Google and Microsoft, advanced code-security analytics, best practice implementation of Amazon’s Web Services (AWS) architecture including file versioning and data backup and disaster recovery, and the highest field-level encryption for the most sensitive pieces of information like personally identifiable information (PII) and Protected Health Information (PHI).
AFFORDABLE
Public defender agencies are often faced with limited budgets and a struggle to keep up with the vast resources that are poured into prosecutors and law enforcement. This has made it difficult for them to develop a modern, comprehensive case management system in-house.
Too often, offices are forced to rely on outdated legacy systems or settle for systems designed for other purposes, like customer support, sales, or civil litigation, that have been adapted to fit their needs.
ZLS was specifically designed to meet the unique needs of public defender offices, with a focus on affordability and ease of use. Our system is built with cost-saving features, such as document and file management, email and calendar integration, and text messaging, that eliminates the need for additional expensive services. And our pricing model is simple, with straightforward subscription tiers per user, making budgeting for ZLS easy and predictable. With ZLS, there is no upfront investment, and the hidden costs of maintaining servers, hiring IT staff, or ongoing custom development are eliminated.
Insightful
Public defenders need to prove their worth to funders and stakeholders, but traditional methods of quantifying their workload can be burdensome. ZLS offers a solution by providing dynamic reports that are tailored to the needs of public defender offices. These reports can include over ten specific report types and can be fine-tuned with customizable layouts and filters. Any report can be exported in Excel or PDF on demand for expanded flexibility and analysis. Additionally, ZLS provides no-code custom fields that allow for easy adaptation to unique jurisdictional or funder requirements. And with ZLS, when timekeeping is turned on, tracking workload effort is seamless and does not add extra burden to already overworked public defenders.
ZLS Subscription Packages
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| ZLS Core | ||||
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| People Management Suite |
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| Court & Event Management Suite |
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| Organization Management Suite |
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| Intelligent Conflict Check |
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| ZLS 360° Reporting |
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| ZLS Mobile WebApp |
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| Advance File Management Suite | 1TB | 10TB |
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| ZLS DocGen (Generate Legal Documents Easily) |
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| ZLS.ai (Secure GenAI Assistant for Case and Document Review) |
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| Two Way Text Messaging (Client/Client Family/Experts) |
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| NO FTA! (Automated Court Appearance Text Reminders) |
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| Task and Case Assignments |
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| Enhanced Time Tracking and Reporting |
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| Email Integration (Google Workspace/Office 365) |
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| ZLS Interface and Customize | ||||
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| ZLS Custom Fields |
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| ZLS Future Upgrades |
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Who we are
Mohammed Al Rawi
Co-Founder
Mohammed Al Rawi is the Co-Founder of ZLS.app, where he is leading the transformation of indigent defense technology nationwide. With more than 20 years of experience in technology strategy, innovation, and public sector modernization, Mohammed brings a unique perspective shaped by both his personal journey and professional service.
As the former Chief Information Officer for the Los Angeles County Public Defender’s Office — the largest and oldest public defender’s office in the country — Mohammed spearheaded a landmark digital transformation, replacing decades of paper-driven processes with secure, cloud-first, AI-enabled systems designed around people, not just case files. His leadership enabled attorneys to better serve clients with dignity, efficiency, and equity.
Previously, Mohammed served as CIO for Los Angeles County Parks and Recreation, where he led nationally recognized initiatives like the life-saving automated drowning detection system, and at the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, where he managed countywide enterprise technology transformations. Before his public service career, he directed global IT operations at the Los Angeles Times during the Iraq War, supporting international correspondents at a critical time.
A nationally recognized innovator and former Commissioner and Chairman of the Innovation and Emerging Technology Commission for Los Angeles County, Mohammed was named one of Government Technology’s “Top 25 Doers, Dreamers and Drivers” for his impact on advancing public sector systems.
Today, through ZLS.app — a mission-driven, client-centered case management platform built by technologists and public defenders — Mohammed is working to ensure that every public defender office, regardless of budget or geography, has access to modern, equitable technology. For many offices, he serves as a “Fractional CIO,” extending his expertise and passion for transformation directly to the local level.
Mohammed earned his bachelor’s degree in computer science, summa cum laude, from California State University–Los Angeles. His journey from refugee to public servant to entrepreneur fuels his belief that technology, when human-centered, can be a force for justice and equity.
Ryan Wolfe
Co-Founder
Ryan served as a public defender for over 11 years in Los Angeles and St. Louis. He has handled dozens of jury trials and juvenile adjudications. In 2016, he was recognized by his colleagues as Misdemeanor Attorney of the Year. During his tenure in Los Angeles, Ryan played a key role in advancing technology within the office, including serving on the steering committee responsible for implementing the agency’s case management system. He was also selected to be a trainer for newly hired public defenders in Los Angeles County. He is continuing his advocacy for indigent clients through contract appointments in St. Louis.
Ryan earned his law degree from USC, where he received multiple honors including the Public Interest Law Foundation Student of the Year and the Mason C. Brown Award for trial advocacy and commitment to public service. Before law school, Ryan began his professional journey in technology, first leading a seven-person development team at a small business, then moving on to implement enterprise-level systems at one of the largest mutual fund companies in the world.
He also served as the chair of the board of directors at St. Joseph Center, a leading Los Angeles-based social service agency with a $50 million annual budget and over 300 staff, focused on empowering the homeless and working poor.
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