Why We Need More Hackathons

The next level in collaboration.

We in the legal tech industry spend a lot of time discussing innovation — this column is just one example of that — but outside of legal trade shows and conferences, there aren’t many opportunities for people who work in law firms, corporate legal departments, and other institutions to connect and work on innovation together. As the legal tech market continues to crowd with new players and products, it’s crucial for the people who actually need better tools to have a space to express their needs and collaborate on solutions.

Fortunately, we are beginning to see the rise of more collective opportunities for legal professionals to connect directly with their peers and with software developers to work on technology solutions that will provide the biggest benefits to common challenges. One such initiative is the Global Legal Hackathon.[1] Now in its second year, the event brings together professionals from around the world to identify and develop new solutions for the legal industry. I recently sat down with David Fisher, the event’s founder, to discuss the impetus for the hackathon and the importance of such events for the legal market.

Fisher is the founder and CEO of Integra Ledger and one of the founders of the Global Legal Blockchain Consortium, a legal industry group focused on standards and governance for the use of blockchain technology in the industry. “Blockchain is very much about connecting disparate parties on a peer-to-peer level, and I launched the Global Legal Hackathon as another way to do just that,” said Fisher.

What started as a concept quickly transformed into a much larger event than Fisher expected. Following an article in Artificial Lawyer in December 2017, he received a wave of responses from legal professionals around the world who were keen on getting involved. In the course of ten weeks, the Hackathon expanded to more than 40 cities in 22 countries, drawing more than 5,000 participants.

His team quickly pulled together to organize the platform and help participants organize events in each city, ultimately hosting multiple events that gave thousands of participants an opportunity to form teams, build products, pitch and present them in a period of just 54 hours. The final round included 14 teams who traveled to New York to pitch their concepts to a global panel of judges. Thanks to its successful launch last winter, Fisher’s team is planning to expand the event further this year. “Operating at such a large scale allowed us to create an efficient platform from the very beginning,” Fisher noted. “Thanks to our experience last year, we will be able to expand to more cities and more countries around the world for 2019.”

Examining the Global Legal Hackathon brings to mind some key reasons why events of its kind are so important to the industry:

Connectivity between participants: The Hackathon provides a forum for networking and collaboration that is rare to encounter in our industry. Connections made at industry events or conferences certainly have their value, but participating in an iterative process with industry peers presents a different kind of opportunity to connect with people whom you may not otherwise encounter.

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Exposure for great ideas: Since they’re essentially open playing fields, hackathons have the potential to shine the light on people with great ideas. This presents a very different format from many other legal market events, where start-ups may not have as much of a presence as other companies. Events of this kind allow truly innovative thinking to take center stage.

Identification of common issues: It’s normal for professionals in certain functions to have similar sets of challenges — and chances are there’s someone halfway across the world with the same challenges as you, and perhaps that person has an idea about how to solve them. Collaborative events give professionals the chance to connect and dive into solving for specific use cases that impact their work and their clients. “Last year, we saw that the practitioners in certain fields — such as contracts — had very similar challenges. For this year’s Hackathon, we are creating opportunities for teams to connect on specific topics so they can concentrate their efforts on those commonalities.”

Within our industry, we have a unique opportunity to shape innovation and how tech solutions are adopted. User-driven events such as hackathons have the potential to contribute a great deal of insight and highly valuable solutions to benefit professionals at many levels within the market.

“Everyone in the legal industry is talking about innovation right now, but when you’re focused on operating your business, it’s not easy to innovate within your own environment,” said Fisher. “Hackathons can create a unique laboratory for professionals to invent, build and innovate around common challenges that practitioners encounter every day.”

[1] Wolters Kluwer is the global sponsor of the 2019 Global Legal Hackathon.

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Dean Sonderegger is Vice President & General Manager, Legal Markets and Innovation at Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S., a leading provider of information, business intelligence, regulatory and legal workflow solutions. Dean has more than two decades of experience at the cutting edge of technology across industries. He can be reached at Dean.Sonderegger@wolterskluwer.com.

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