The winners of the Global Legal Hackathon (photo by David Lat).
Last Saturday, this young (or not so young) man went west, to attend the Global Legal Hackathon final round and gala at Chelsea Piers. It was a wonderful event, attended by a “who’s who” in the legal-technology world, offering a chance to catch up with old friends and to make new ones — and to witness the future of legal tech.
First things first: the winners of #GLH2018. The final round marked the culmination of two previous rounds of competition, in which an estimated 5,000 participants hacked away in 40 cities in 22 countries on six continents. The 14 finalists presented to a panel of distinguished judges from around the world — leading law firm adviser George Beaton (Australia), Michał Paprocki of ING Tech (Poland), Esther Dediashvili of FBC & Co. (Israel), Leo Elduayen of Koibanx (Argentina), and Wendy Callaghan of AIG (United States) — and in the end, four winners were crowned:
Winning the private sector category was Revealu, an app from Hungary that helps people download their personal data from online service providers under the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, and LexLucid, a team from Colorado that rates online consumer contracts.
In the public service category, Decoding Law, a tool from Hong Kong that helps users navigate statutory language, and RightsNOW App, a voice-activated legal information tool from New York, took top honors.
I had the pleasure of meeting the Decoding Law team, right before they were interviewed by Legal Talk Network, and sitting at dinner with Max Paterson of RightsNOW (which also won the Wolters Kluwer Global Impact Award, so congrats to them for that as well). I found myself deeply impressed by their enthusiasm and expertise, and having watched the 14 presentations, I was not surprised to see them win, along with LexLucid and Revealu. (In fact, Revealu might have been my favorite of the finalists — but that might just be a function of my immersion into the world of GDPR right now.)
All the GLH finalists received invitations to attend Above the Law’s upcoming Evolve Law Summit, taking place at the Four Seasons in Chicago on May 2, where they’ll have the chance to connect with investors, influencers, and fellow innovators. At least three finalists will be attending: LexLucid (congrats again), ANIKA of Australia, and Team Lemon of Nigeria. (If you’d like to join them at the EL Summit on May 2, tickets are still available.)
What does the future hold for the Global Legal Hackathon? Given the smashing success of the inaugural GLH, it was no surprise to learn, at the end of the evening, about plans for a second — an announcement that was met with hearty applause from the hundreds of attendees, who converged upon New York from around the world.
So mark your calendars! David Fisher — co-founder of the Hackathon and CEO of Integra Ledger, a leading blockchain company in the legal space– shared these exciting details with me:
- The date for #GLH2019 has been set: February 22-24, 2019.
- The Hackathon is forming a global advisory board to help to guide and grow the Global Legal Hackathon event and community. Contact the GLH if interested: [email protected].
- In response to inquiries from organizations around the world about engaging the GLH for similar events, the GLH is creating GLH Innovation Sprints as an offering for interested law societies, law firms, corporate legal departments, and law schools. Organizations can utilize GLH expertise to teach rapid legal tech innovation and prototyping. Again, reach out to GLH for more details.
Congratulations once again to the Global Legal Hackathon’s winners, finalists, and organizers — especially David Fisher and Aileen Schultz, who put together this massive (and massively successful) undertaking in just five short months. I’ll be following their future endeavors with great interest in the months ahead — and looking forward to seeing some or all of them at #GLH2019.
Global Legal Hackathon [official website]
The Evolve Law Summit: Connecting Innovators With Investors And Influencers [Evolve Law]
Global Legal Hackathon Announces Four Winners [Artificial Lawyer]
Global Legal Hackathon announces winners [ABA Journal]
Earlier:
- Come One, Come All — To The Global Legal Hackathon!
- Around The World In 40 Days: An Interview With Dera Nevin
- On Hackathons And Karma
- Legal Tech World Tours Take Off
David Lat is editor at large and founding editor of Above the Law, as well as the author of Supreme Ambitions: A Novel. He previously worked as a federal prosecutor in Newark, New Jersey; a litigation associate at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz; and a law clerk to Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. You can connect with David on Twitter (@DavidLat), LinkedIn, and Facebook, and you can reach him by email at [email protected].
