SMU LIT Hackathon 2021

“Increasingly law firms will need to use technology to keep up, and offer, greater value for money… what we need to recognize and adapt to is the ability of technology to augment, not replace, what humans can do.”

Guest-of-Honour, Permanent Secretary for Law, Ms Lai Wei Lin

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INTRODUCTION

The SMU Legal Innovation and Technology (LIT) Hackathon 2021: Ctrl + Shift+ Sui Generis was organised by the Singapore Management University Legal Innovation and Technology club (“SMU LIT”). It is the largest inter-varsity, fully virtual, 3-day hackathon held in Singapore, fielding 179 students from all Institutes of Higher Learning in Singapore competing for $12,500 worth of prize money and almost 300 audience members from around the world. The event was graced by guest-of-honour Ms Lai Wei Lin, Permanent Secretary for Law and Second Permanent Secretary for Education.

This year, students worked in teams of 3-5 to develop a legal technological solution to address problem statements under the theme The Next Decade in Legal Tech in Singapore, inspired by the Singapore Ministry of Law’s Legal Industry Technology & Innovation Roadmap Report—The Road to 2030.

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PROBLEM STATEMENT & THEMES

There were 17 problem statements which featured  real-world challenges faced by the legal industry provided by our 8 prominent industry donors and partners. The sub-themes for these problem statements include:

1. Inter-jurisdictional Streamlining

2. Access to Justice

3. Cybersecurity

4. Challenges to Remote Working and e) Efficient Work Processes

 

WEBINARS & WORKSHOPS CONDUCTED

During the event, our Platinum Donors Rajah & Tann Technologies, Rajah & Tann Cybersecurity and Linklaters presented insightful webinars on various topics surrounding legal technology in the industry. This included innovation, cybersecurity, the legal industry of the future, and the impact of legal technology. The Platinum donors also shared their views on legal technology amidst COVID-19, unconventional legal careers and non-legal stakeholders in a panel discussion moderated by LIT’s President, and joined by our Platinum Outreach Partner, ALITA. Other highlights of the event include talks and webinars given by our Gold and Supporting Partners on legal technology.

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PANEL OF JUDGES

After 3 days of intensive hacking, the technological solutions by the teams were judged by our illustrious panel of judges comprising : Mr Andrew Wong, Ms Erlina Ke, Mr Michael Lew, Mr Rama Tiwari, Mr Ricky Tan, Ms Shanice Choo.

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PRIZE WINNERS

• Final Champion & Winner of the Dentons Rodyk Access to Justice Award: Team QWERTY

• Final 1st Runner-up & Winner of the Clifford Chance Impact Award: Team Astrazenacca

• 2nd Runner-up: Team Baristars

• Winner of the Singapore Academy of Law Best Tool to Improve Law Firm Operations and Productivity Award: Team Spam Conspiracy

• Winner of the AWS Cloud Award & LexisNexis ‘Advancing What’s Possible’ Award: Team WWT LLP

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Their projects can be viewed here.

 

• Team QWERTY - LowerTheBar - LowerTheBar presents a solution targeted at finding a lawyer when you are unsure of what area of law to look at: LowerTheBar uses speech recognition and deep learning to classify legal problems and find lawyers tailored to their needs, without requiring prior knowledge of the law. The AI is trained using legal case facts to recognise key terms in simple, conversational language, and match these terms to find an appropriate lawyer.

• TEAM ASTRAZENACCA - Luman - Luman is a one-stop application that caters specifically to legal professionals. It includes mental wellness resources, various help channels, and a space for you to stay connected to others. Luman features 3 main areas to mitigate the psychological risk of COVID-19 in the legal industry, namely: resources, connectivity tools and stress relievers.

• TEAM BARISTARS - LawyerMatch - LawyerMatch is a one-stop integrated mobile application aimed at easing legal navigation for financially-strained individuals ineligible for legal aid. A client-lawyer matching algorithm and chatbot assistant eases their process of finding lawyers who possess the required expertise at suitable price points.

• TEAM SPAM CONSPIRACY - LawSuite - LawSuite is an integrated social-driven platform that connects trainees to their seniors and colleagues through gamification. Trainees will have the opportunity to learn the ropes from their seniors, bond with their colleagues and even experience being in the office, virtually.

• TEAM WWT LLP: Law what Law - Law what Law is targeted for students who may not know which sort of lawyer is needed. A web app allows a user to write out their situation in natural language  (English) AI is then used to figure out exactly what area of practice their situation is most relevant to! Next, a platform that allows users to see lawyers in that area of practice is recommended by external sites (prototype), as well as lawyers who signed up on the Law what Law platform. These lawyers can list out their services and area of practice and be transparent with their fees - be it fixed or hourly.