ZLS.app
What is ZLS.app?
ZLS.app is case management software purpose-built for public defenders, created by people who lived the problem: a former deputy public defender and the former CIO of the nation’s largest public defender office. Public defenders represent millions of Americans who cannot afford a lawyer, yet the software they rely on was never designed for them. ZLS gives defender organizations a single AI-powered platform to manage cases, discovery, and workload data, so attorneys spend less time on paperwork and more time on clients. ZLS serves defender organizations across twelve states and territories, including Kansas’ statewide system.
Company Leadership
Mohammed Al-Rawi
Co-Founder
Mohammed brings more than twenty years of technology leadership in the public and private sectors, most recently as Chief Information Officer of the Los Angeles County Public Defender’s Office, the largest and oldest public defender office in the country. There he led a landmark digital transformation, replacing decades of paper-driven processes with secure, cloud-first, AI-enabled systems built around clients, not just case files. He previously served as CIO of Los Angeles County Parks and Recreation, where he led nationally recognized initiatives including an AI-aided drowning detection system, and managed countywide enterprise technology at the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. Before his public service career, he directed global IT operations at the Los Angeles Times, supporting international correspondents during the Iraq War. A former Commissioner and Chairman of Los Angeles County’s Innovation and Emerging Technology Commission, Mohammed was named one of Government Technology’s “Top 25 Doers, Dreamers and Drivers.” He co-founded ZLS.app to build, from the ground up, the platform public defenders deserve, one that no budget or geography should put out of reach.
Mohammed earned his bachelor’s degree in computer science, summa cum laude, from California State University, Los Angeles.
Ryan Wolfe
Co-Founder
Ryan spent more than a decade practicing as a public defender before building software for them. He served ten years as a Deputy Public Defender in Los Angeles County, one of the highest-volume criminal court systems in the country, representing thousands of indigent clients in matters ranging from misdemeanors to serious felonies. He later practiced with the Missouri State Public Defender, giving him firsthand experience inside both a major urban office and a statewide defender system. That decade in the courtroom is the foundation of ZLS.app: Ryan co-founded Kodify LLC in 2021 to build the case management platform he wished he’d had as a practicing defender. A St. Louis native, Ryan returned home in 2024 after eighteen years in Los Angeles and now helps lead the company from its headquarters at T-REX downtown.
Ryan holds a J.D. from the USC Gould School of Law (2012) and a bachelor’s degree from Vanderbilt University (2006).
