By: Tayler Sherman
For one weekend 6,000 participants from twenty-four different countries come together to try and develop technology-based legal solutions for some of the legal industry’s most pressing challenges. The FT Innovative Lawyers-Global Legal Hackathon (“FTIL-GLH”) is a global online event hosted by a collaboration of the Global Legal Hackathon (“GLH”) and FT Innovative Lawyers (“FTIL”) program. GLH was founded in 2018 by David Fisher, CEO of Integra Leader, who wished to promote collaboration among various industries and professionals. GLH’s success prompted FTIL, known for encouraging innovation and problem solving within the legal industry, to collaborate for this year’s event, as the COVID-19 pandemic forced the legal field, as well as other industries, to confront technological challenges at a greater scale.
The Hackathon invites organizations of all types, including law firms, law schools, and multinational banks, from all around the world to submit any urgent challenges they face. Participants are split into teams to develop solutions to urgent legal problems that provide a private benefit, promoting the business of law, or a public benefit, enhancing the legal system and access to it. At the conclusion of the event, the solutions are revealed to the public where businesses, law firms, and other organizations can offer to support the development of the solutions.
The legal industry is known for sticking to its traditional paper pushing methods and is historically reluctant to adopt technology-based solutions to promote an efficient client-based industry. The COVID-19 crisis forced the legal industry to take a leap into the digital age by adopting new methods of operation and the administration of justice. COVID-19 forced businesses and law firms to work entirely remotely, cutting out face-to-face meetings and forgoing paper transactions. This generated even more challenges for the legal sector’s heel-dragging entrance into the digital age.
In this year’s Hackathon, one of the world’s largest banks, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (“MUFG”) posed its challenge of efficiently communicating with lawyers and clients and protecting their data in the normal of remote working. The Hackathon’s team, consisting of Morgan Lewis and Integra Ledger, developed a program that uses a central dashboard to provide a secure communication platform and manage confidential electronic documents. The platform allows for video messaging, document sharing, automatic alerts, and more. This program improves productivity and efficiency between lawyers and their clients while also ensuring confidential information is protected.
Dechert LLP recognized that the re-opening of businesses presented a wide range of legal issues as companies began to re-open and implement new business plans. The COVID-19 pandemic presented significant challenges to companies as all levels of the government explore ways to address the pandemic. Although there is not a single solution to solve these challenges, Dechert acknowledged a core set of issues that companies faced. The program developed a way to provide “practical, jurisdictional-specific guidance on business preparation, infection control measures, remuneration, data protection and more[.]”
The Hackathon fosters a consumer-based, multidisciplinary, collective approach to solve the legal industry’s most complex issues and demonstrates the importance of collaboration. The legal field previously resisted joining the digital age, but with the help of technology-based companies, the legal sector can efficiently work remotely and engage in online learning by adopting new methods of operation and delivery. The Hackathon ensures justice reaches individuals in a variety of ways by allowing individuals to easily access and communicate with lawyers online. The Hackathon accomplishes this by providing support to re-open businesses, ways to post bail without cash, avenues for the expungement of records, and a streamlined process to match attorneys with pro bono clients.
Since the Hackathon takes place over a short period of time, there is a concern relating to the quality of the solutions developed. The restricted timeline may result in a lack of research, testing, and poorly coded applications. However, the Hackathon provides a strong platform to allow the legal industry to branch out, and, not only provide everyone with access to the law but also develop a more efficient technology-based industry.
Student Bio: Tayler Sherman is a third-year law student at Suffolk University Law School and serves as a Staff Member on the Journal of High Technology Law. Tayler holds a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice from Endicott College.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this blog are the views of the author alone and do not represent the views of JHTL or Suffolk University Law School.
