“It is said that the simple step of believing in yourself is all it takes. That could not be any closer to the truth.” — Maria Padilla, Relativity Fellows Alum, Alumni Network Group President, Sr. Project Manager at Relativity
The path to greatness is never clear and unobstructed. As you urge yourself on toward a life you believe in your gut can exist for you, you will stumble through precipitous potholes, trudge up mountains, and find prohibitive barriers blockading your route at every turn. It is only through grit and a stubborn belief in yourself that you can hurdle forward in pursuit of success. And it helps if you go in with a full pack of provisions.
But everyone’s path is unique, and some paths are more treacherous than others. Opportunity can be a biased commodity—doled out generously for some and withheld from others. And this suppression of access keeps things like job education and profitable careers locked out of reach for millions of people.
This disparity of opportunity is what Relevate seeks to help resolve.
A New Name, a Heightened Vision
Originally Relativity Fellows, Relevate is a multiphasic career pathways program committed to helping talent from non-traditional backgrounds build life-changing careers in legal tech. Relevate equips candidates from diverse backgrounds with the opportunities, skills, and support necessary to achieve career success and financial security.
“As Relativity responds to the opportunity divide,” says Sean Neilsen, Relativity’s manager of Talent Pathways programming, “we have to think about both the virtue of our efforts (how our actions benefit society through access to justice, equity, responsibility, and being a good neighbor) and their value (the most important outcomes for our organization, our communities, and the individuals we serve).”
Relevate is that commitment to action. With this balance of intention as their north star, Sean and a cross-functional team have transformed Relativity Fellows to amplify and expand the program’s value in the hopes of better serving our communities and our industry.
A Thoughtful Evolution
But where did it all start? What inspired the program at its inception?
Relativity Fellows launched in Chicago in 2020 in response to this growing opportunity divide. Through this program, Relativity hired motivated individuals facing socioeconomic barriers to spend 3-5 months full-time learning legal tech and the Relativity platform—preparing students to start a career in the industry. Fellows were armed with curriculum tied to specific roles, with the intention of converting graduates to these roles, guaranteeing them a job after the program.
After a few program iterations across 2021 and 2022, 30 Fellows graduated—2 were hired by BlueStar, 4 accepted positions at Lighthouse, and 24 converted to permanent roles at Relativity in customer support, sales, and project management.
“After the first few cohorts,” Sean says, “it became challenging to guarantee jobs so far in advance and ensure a positive experience for our participants and stakeholders throughout the intensive learning period. It became clear that we couldn’t continue to run the program in its current form because we would be asking participants to drop everything to join the program full-time without being able to guarantee a job at its conclusion.”
Reimagining Paths to Success
Driven by these insights, in 2023, Relativity Fellows paused with purpose. Our talent acquisition and social impact teams collaborated to develop a new and more sustainable talent mobility model: Talent Pathways. This model sticks closely to Fellows’ core values by creating career pathways for non-traditional talent from diverse backgrounds, including high school and post-secondary internships.
But Sean had a more expansive vision for this iteration of the program. Capitalizing on this momentum, the team also began exploring how Talent Pathways could bolster individuals and communities on an international level. By building connective tissue with other regions, like Krakow, in which Relativity was already finding and fostering emerging talent, Sean and the Talent Pathways drivers began broadening the reach and impact of the program through a global lens, ensuring that this expansion was both sustainable and scalable.
The reimagined Talent Pathways would reach more people in more communities around the world. If the program could open long-shut doors for motivated individuals regardless of their location, then it could facilitate the upward mobility and financial security of whole communities across the globe. Fellows was evolving to affect international change. And access to career pathways in more geographies is on the way.Sean and his team then matured Talent Pathways in 2024. “It was time to renew our commitment to the mission behind Relativity Fellows,” Sean says, “with a more scalable and sustainable solution that creates even more value for program participants, Relativity, and our global communities—with a strategic emphasis on increasing activity in Krakow.”
So, with the help of a cross functional task force, the team proposed the plans for Fellows’ 2025 transformation. A significant effort was made by this cross-functional group across several months to put forward something intentional and innovative.
“The Relevate transformation not only maintains value from our historical efforts through Relativity Fellows, but it in fact increases it without sacrificing its virtue. We are meeting people where they are to provide life-changing opportunities to build a career in an incredible industry and find financial security. Whether their path leads them to employment with Relativity or elsewhere, we want to be a part of it.”
Sean Neilsen, Manager, Talent Pathways Programming
For Businesses, Diversity Brings Major Benefits
An inclusive workforce pool doesn’t just benefit employees. A 2020 study shows that companies in the top 25 percent for ethnic and cultural diversity were 36 percent more profitable than those in the bottom quarter.
“When Relativity or other employers in the legal tech industry have a hiring need,” Sean says, “Relevate will provide a diverse pool of skilled and motivated talent with evidence-based insights to support the interview process.”
But Relevate isn’t only creating a pipeline of talent for Relativity. By equipping participants with transferable skills, exposing them to our industry, and building connective tissue with Relativity’s Academic Partners program, Relevate also creates a pathway to jobs in the industry, giving employers access to emerging talent from diverse backgrounds to help build well-rounded teams.
Relevate partners gain tremendous value from participating:
- Diversifying the Legal Tech Workforce: Relevate helps build a more inclusive and representative industry by opening doors to talent from non-traditional backgrounds.
- Creating Scalable Talent Models: The framework offers a replicable model for sourcing, training, and integrating emerging talent into tech roles with a responsive and sticky talent pipeline.
- Driving Innovation Through Inclusion: A more diverse workforce brings broader perspectives, leading to more innovative solutions and better outcomes for clients and communities.
- Setting a Standard for Corporate Responsibility: Relevate positions Relativity as a leader in equitable workforce development, inspiring other companies to invest in inclusive talent strategies. Partners gain a positive amplification of their employer brand and powerful industry partnerships.
Effective Inclusion is Local and Global
Relevate isn’t just fine-tuning its service to local communities; the program also seeks to level opportunity abroad.
“Relevate is international by design to align with our organization's footprint,” Sean explains. “While the US and Poland will serve as inaugural launch points due to our strong growth in each region, this initiative is designed to scale into a global program, ensuring we can reach and impact communities worldwide.”
Sean and his team intend to accomplish this through a four-pronged approach:
- Bridging the Opportunity Divide: Relevate creates access to high-growth careers in legal tech for individuals from underserved and underrepresented communities, helping to close socioeconomic gaps.
- Localized Empowerment: Through region-specific Ignition programming in cities like Chicago and Krakow, Relevate partners with trusted local organizations (e.g., One Million Degrees and Hearty Foundation) to deliver culturally relevant support.
- Strengthening Community Ecosystems: By collaborating with nonprofits and educational institutions, Relevate amplifies the impact of existing community programs and builds a more resilient local talent pipeline.
- Corporate-Community Engagement: Relativity employees engage in mentorship and volunteerism, fostering meaningful relationships and shared growth between the company and the communities it serves.
This approach allows Relevate to expand on the foundation and successes of Relativity Fellows to support more non-traditional talent in more geographies. The vision is both broad and laser-focused; more than anything, it’s an impactful way for Relativity to serve our communities and walk the walk of fostering a culture of belonging.
“It is through completing the Relativity Fellows program that I have grown significantly, both professionally and personally. It has empowered me to take charge of my career, advancing from Project Manager to Senior Project Manager in an industry that once seemed beyond my reach. As President of the Fellows Alumni Network Group, I continue to grow my leadership skills and am committed to fostering a supportive community. The quote, ‘Nothing is impossible, the word itself says 'I'm possible,”’ inspires me daily and I hope it will inspire others to pursue what they believe is impossible.”
Maria Padilla, Fellows Alum, Alumni Network Group President, Sr. Project Manager at Relativity
Onward and Upward into the Future
The current evolution of Relevate brings promising momentum towards workplace equity, but there is so much more to come as Relevate leadership continues to mature the program.
“We plan to grow Relevate by deepening our regional roots and expanding our global reach,” Sean says. “In the near term, we’re focused on strengthening Ignition programming in Chicago and Krakow—working closely with trusted partners like One Million Degrees, Braven, Year Up, Genesys Works, and the Hearty Foundation. These partnerships allow us to meet talent where they are and tailor support to local needs.
“At the same time,” Sean continues, “we’re expanding access to Ascent Academies through the Nerds.Family platform—making targeted preskilling in engineering, product management, and customer success available to learners around the world. As we grow, we’re also looking to create new academies to support other career paths (think sales, marketing, etc.) and investing in stronger alumni engagement, employer partnerships, and volunteer opportunities to create a full-circle ecosystem of support.”
In the future, Relevate is excited to offer:
- More global access to learning and mentorship
- Expanded career pathways in new disciplines
- Stronger employer connections for job opportunities
- Alumni-led programming to foster leadership and community
Whether you’re just starting out or ready to level up, Relevate offers a continuum of support and resources designed to even the legal tech playing field. Participants can make their mark on an already mature program that will grow along with them.
“Our biggest hope is that Relevate becomes a model for what inclusive talent development can look like in tech—and beyond. We want it to be a program that not only opens doors, but also generates value for organizations, builds community, and catalyzes long-term career success for every participant. We hope Relevate becomes a space where people feel seen, supported, and empowered to pursue careers they may not have thought were possible.”
Sean Neilsen, Manager, Talent Pathways Programming
Diversity is a Superpower
As for the impact Relevate will have, Sean envisions a smarter, stronger, more vibrant industry—one where differences are celebrated and everyone feels comfortable being exactly who they are.
“For individuals, we hope Relevate is a launchpad—one that helps them unlock their potential, build meaningful careers, and gain financial security.
For communities, we hope Relevate becomes a catalyst for economic mobility and generational change. By investing in local talent and partnering with community-based organizations, we aim to strengthen the ecosystems that support long-term success.
For the industry, we hope Relevate challenges the status quo. We want to help redefine what talent looks like in legal tech—contributing more diverse perspectives that ultimately fuel innovation.”
Relevate puts into action the belief that we are strongest when we are afforded the freedom to let our unique personhood shine, and that every person deserves a fair shot at a meaningful, stable career. And if we can empower individuals by clearing the rubble from their path and equipping them with a roadmap to success, our industry, communities, and world will be better for it—transforming, as alum Maria Padilla says, the impossible into “I’m possible.”
The path to opportunity awaits. Are you ready to take the leap? Learn more about the benefits of Relevate, what the program will look like in your life, and the different tracks to legal tech success in our next blog post, coming tomorrow.
Graphics for this article were created by Caroline Patterson.
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