Open Innovation Uncovers Innovations in Law

Published Mar-04-19

Breakthrough:
A browser extension to help consumers understand company service agreements and a voice command app for legal information.

Company:
Global Legal Hackahton, United States

The Story:

Open Innovation Uncovers Innovations in Law Open innovation is a concept that is benefiting companies in multiple industries such as automotive, aerospace, healthcare, mining, energy, construction and consumer products. Using external sources of knowledge can also be advantageous to those that work in the legal sector.

In 2018, the inaugural Global Legal Hackathon (GLH) got off the ground bringing together representatives of law schools, law firms, tech companies, government entities, members of in-house legal teams and others. The purpose was to develop innovations to improve the legal industry on a global level and to do so in a rapid timeframe.

More than 5,000 participants took part in events held in 40 host cities in 22 countries. They split into more than 600 teams and were tasked with developing solutions for either private benefit (the business and practice of law) or public benefit (good government, legal systems and A2J- access to justice).

A total of 14 teams reached the final stage after passing through two rounds. Ultimately four winners were selected.

Breakthrough Concepts

“Judging the Finals of the Global Legal Hackathon was the toughest of gigs,” said George Beaton, one of the judges. “The creativity, depth and potential socio-economic benefits of each of the 14 finalists were inspiring. There were no losers.”

He added, “GLH is a truly global movement seeking solutions to pressing problems related to law, justice, trade, fairness, education, privacy, and economic growth. The winners were society, youth and democracy — and four notable teams from Hong Kong, Hungary and the USA.”

The winning legal solutions for the private sector were:

LexLucid from Denver for a browser extension that makes company service agreements more transparent. The aim is to help consumers make informed decisions about the products and services they use.

RevealU from Budapest for a tool that lets users discover and delete their personal data subject to Europe’s European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

The winning legal solutions for the public sector were:

Decode Law from Hong Kong for a machine learning powered browser plugin that helps people read and understand legislation. It breaks down complex terminology into simple language and explains defined terms.

RightsNOW from New York for a voice command app for legal information. It has been nicknamed Siri for legal after Apple’s voice-activated personal digital assistant. In a tweet after the finals, the team wrote: “We’re truly honored and excited to continue on our journey of bringing #accesstojustice to those who need it most.”

Transformative Changes

Beyond the winning innovations and other novel submitted technologies, organizers of the Global Legal Hackathon were enthused by the energy of the participants because it demonstrated the potential for collaboration and technology to make transformative changes in the legal world that are going to help a lot of people.

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