Hackathons to help drive legal innovation

At Neota Logic we’ve had years of experience working with law firms, corporate legal departments and universities, helping them run hackathons. We often get asked what these events entail and why law firms and corporations should be holding them. Here are our insights:

What is a hackathon?

A hackathon is a design sprint event where, traditionally, programmers and others interested in software development collaborate on software projects.

The goal of the hackathon is to create a functioning software by the close of the event.

Thanks to no-code platforms like Neota Logic, anyone can get involved in hackathon events, without needing programming experience.

Today, law firms and corporate legal departments are holding hackathon events with the primary objective of getting teams thinking about problems they face on a daily basis that could be solved with technology.

The events give participants a clear understanding of the product development process where they will scope and develop their ideas for software applications that can be used internally or by their clients, after the event.

Who should be involved in hackathons? 

The short answer is anyone! Seeing as you don’t need to be a programmer or have any technical experience when using no-code platforms, the key is working as part of a team to map out the actual problem you are trying to solve, along with the workflow and the outcome you are trying to achieve.

Neota has executed hackathon events across a spectrum of professionals from CTO’s, knowledge managers, innovation teams, in house legal departments, as well as law firms collaborating with universities. It’s best to bring together cross-functional teams to tackle a specific business problem.

What are the benefits of hackathons?

Hackathon’s are becoming increasingly popular in the legal industry but aside from the ‘buzz’ what value can they bring to your organisation?

• Drive Innovation – Many people from different fields will come together to identify and tackle a business problem. They become a great way to test new technologies, see if they actually work to solve these problems or workflow issues in an efficient way.
• Discover new ways of working – Hackathons are a great way to step out of your normal working routine and rethink and redefine ways of working. Teams can get loose with creative ideas and work with colleagues they wouldn’t normally work with.
• Networking and collaboration – Hackathons put you in a situation where you are required to work with new people for a certain period of time. Teams will form a strong bond when working together towards the same goal. Hackathons don’t always have to be run internally, Neota has worked with clients to invite university students who help look at issues with a fresh pair of eyes. The event also opens up a new way of finding the best talent. 
• Prototype ideas – Once the teams have refined their ideas and decided on which ones are viable they will begin to prototype and build the process structure. They will walk away with a working application that they can demonstrate to the business and/or clients.

Interested in running your own hackathon? Get in touch with Neota Logic.