A. Jason Velez

I am the Founding Attorney of 1LAW, and I review the answers in our legal answers library — 1,186 published consumer questions as of August 2026.

Why I do this

Most people never ask a lawyer anything. In researching access to justice I found that 80 to 90 percent of the population does not use legal services at all, because the legal world is simply foreign to them. That is not a shortage of lawyers. It is a shortage of doorways.

The standard I try to hold to is straightforward: give the person asking the same answer I would give my own family or a friend. Not a brochure, not a pitch to call the office — the actual answer, including when the answer is that they do not need a lawyer at all. A good number of the questions in our library end that way, and they are published anyway.

I came to this through pro bono work rather than theory. Years ago I helped a family with a small lease matter and did not charge for it, because the goodwill mattered more than the fee. Two years later that same client brought me a substantial employment case, and said the reason was the earlier help. The lesson stuck — the way people find a lawyer they trust is by having met one who helped them when there was nothing in it for the lawyer.

The Utah sandbox

1LAW was the first company invited into Utah's legal regulatory sandbox, created by the Utah Supreme Court and overseen by its Office of Legal Services Innovation. The sandbox permits new legal-service models to operate under supervision, gathers data on whether consumers are actually helped or harmed, and intervenes when they are harmed.

Operating there means our model is examined rather than assumed. I wrote about what that looks like from the inside for the American Bar Association: A View from the Utah Sandbox, Law Practice Today, December 2022.

Through the platform we have interacted with roughly 55,000 people looking for legal help. The library on this site is drawn from those conversations, with names and identifying details removed before anything is published.

Background

I am the founding partner and creator of 1LAW, which began as a practice in St. George, Utah and has since grown into a platform reaching people well beyond it. Everything on this site is a continuation of the same effort: making legal help reachable by people who would otherwise never get any.

Alongside my Utah practice I completed a course in international studies at the Universidad de Chile, which broadened my work across environmental and immigration matters, and I have been involved with the Innocence Project, which uses DNA and forensic evidence to overturn wrongful convictions. I am a member of the National Trial Lawyers, and was named to Utah Legal Elite in 2005, 2006 and 2011.

Representative work

• Tried and settled cases exceeding $20 million in aggregate, including a single-case settlement of $5.5 million.
• Appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit — Moscoso-Morales v. Gonzales, No. 05-9524 (10th Cir. July 14, 2006).
• Appeal to the United States District Court for the District of Utah — Gonzalez-Martinez v. Department of Homeland Security, No. 2:08-cv-00800 (D. Utah 2009).

Past results depend on the facts of each case and are not a prediction or guarantee of the outcome of any other matter.

Education

• S.J. Quinney College of Law, University of Utah — Juris Doctor, 2001
• University of California San Diego — Bachelor of Arts, 1995
• Universidad de Chile — international studies

Away from the practice I am married with two sons, and spend my free time biking, surfing, snowboarding, and staying active in my community.

Verify and connect

• Utah State Bar member directory profile
• LinkedIn
• The legal answers library — every page carries the review byline

Answers in the library are general legal information, not legal advice, and reading one does not create an attorney-client relationship. Legal services are provided independently of 1LAW, Inc. by affiliated or referral attorneys, who are responsible for information processed in that legal-service relationship, subject to professional duties and the applicable engagement agreement.