From 0 to Prototype in 24 Hours

Hogan Lovells Legal Tech Hackathon with BRYTER

The Legal Tech Hackathon, organized by Hogan Lovells and the University Dusseldorf, took place last weekend. 30 ‘legal hackers’ prototyped and built several, fully functional legal applications on the BRYTER Platform in under 24 hours – without any prior training. The newly built tools will be used in Hogan Lovells’ innovative and new approach to deliver legal services.

The Legal Tech Hackathon was jointly organized by the international law firm Hogan Lovells and the Dusseldorf University faculty of law under Prof. Dr. Rupprecht Podszun. The event took place at Hogan Lovells’ ‘Sky Office’ in Dusseldorf. More than 30 ‘legal hackers’ participated in the event ranging from students, over academics, associates and partners to the German Managing Partner, Dr. Stefan Schuppert.

Objective: Develop legal automation tools

The objective of the Legal Tech Hackathon was to turn legal expertise into code and to build digital applications for Hogan Lovells’ clients. Using the BRYTER no-code app builder, the hackathon took a fresh and revolutionary approach to legal innovation: building digital legal products in an interactive and iterative process combining rapid prototyping with structuring logic and formalizing legal reasoning. And it worked: different teams developed six easy-to-use yet complex legal applications in record time.

A challenging but rewarding experience. During the hackathon, the participants got their head around the basics of rules-based reasoning, formalized legal content and digital transformation. This allowed to transfer semantically complex legal structures into convenient, easy-to-use digital modules. The hackathon clearly underpinned the great potential of workflow automation and scaling legal services.

The following tools have been built during the hackathon:

• Foreign Direct Investment Assessment
• Influencer Marketing Compliance Tool
• Trademark Litigation Checker
• Data Breach Analytics Tool
• Expat Tax Advisor
• Administrative Office Fine Assessor

The Framework: Legal Tech Hackathon

The event kicked off with opening words by Nico Kuhlmann as well as Dr. Lehment, followed by Dr. Leopold von Gerlach, Global Chair of Hogan Lovells. BRYTER’s CEO, Michael Grupp, then delivered an introductory keynote on the current status quo of legal operations, automation and AI. After the introduction, the participants chose their topics and started working on their projects – split up in six competing teams.

The first challenge was to visualize and model the envisaged legal product in just two hours. This included to clearly define the project, to sort provided information and to model the various processes and decision paths – using whiteboards and flipcharts. This explorational stage allowed to outline a clear mental and operational map for the participants going forward.

No training required – just plug and play and scribble away

Finally, the teams were introduced to the BRYTER Platform. Michael Huebl, CPO at BRYTER, explained and introduced the basic functionalities of the no-code building platform. Then, the participants logged in to the BRYTER Platform for the first time – without any prior onboarding, training or introduction. Supported by the BRYTER Innovation Team, the teams started ‘coding’ right away.

Rapid Building: From 0 to Applications in 24 hours

At noon – less than 24 hours later – the six teams presented the surprisingly complex applications in front of a jury consisting of several opinion leaders, including Pia Lorenz, Executive Editor Legal Tribune Online, and Prof. Dr. Martin Mauve, Chair of Informatics at the University Dusseldorf.
The results were stunning: each team managed to build fully functional tools with complex legal content and processes. The jury acknowledged that all teams presented market-ready, highly relevant and easy-to-use applications including document automation and up-and-running email integrations.

Both the students and the associates got acquainted with the emerging field of workflow automation in an entertaining but challenging environment. The formalization of legal structures as well as the digital modelling of decision structures allowed a tangible experience with legal tech applications, leading to digital products.

Please get in touch if you are also interested in organizing a Legal Tech Hackathon or exploring the potential of the BRYTER compliance process automation platform.