We are so proud that two of our team members, Tyler Smith - developer and Peter Bottomley - designer, took part in the first LegalTech in Leeds Hackathon on Friday, the 10th of March and.. (drum roll) won! Tyler's team won the £6000, and he will donate his share of the award money (£1000) to AVA, a charity committed to ending gender-based violence and abuse.
As Strategic Partners' of LegalTech in Leeds, Calls9 couldn't miss the opportunity to participate and support this fantastic initiative. And besides Tyler and Peter, our CEO Adam Roney was one of the Judges - though to avoid the conflict and to be transparent, he tapped out of the final scoring decision.
How it worked
Participants were randomly split into six teams. Each team had 5-6 people and approximately one person of each role type. Roles ranged from developers and UX specialists to legal experts.
Teams were asked to pick a legal challenge businesses face and try to solve it by creating a business case and pitch as well as a working demo.
Following the development of the business pitch and demo, teams had 10 minutes to present their solution. Judges asked questions and left the room to discuss their feedback and scores.
The Winning team
Tyler's team, Remedy Robin, went through all the business types listed on the judging guidelines and asked their legal expert what some of the legal pain points can be in each industry. Then, they quickly started talking about the concerns for return requests at SMEs in the retail industry and how they had no legal defence when it came to illegitimate requests. From there, they identified that the manual review process was the main bottleneck and explored how AI could streamline this process. This would allow SMEs to push back on illegitimate requests, saving them time and money.
Tyler's contribution to his team was an AI demo that worked seamlessly. This combination of real tech alongside clear business case articulation and addressing a large market need was impressive and stood out.
And, a big shout out to all the team members who did a fantastic job.
- Claire Geller, law student from the University of Law
- Declan Daws, business analyst from xDesign
- Sabryna Scornaienchi, legal technologist from Addleshaw Goddard LLP,
- Zarlush Zaidi, associate at White & Case LLP.
- And Tyler, our Developer!
As Tyler said
Everyone on our team did incredibly well. I was apprehensive about spending so much time on the AI demo, as I couldn't spend as much time developing the business and presentation side of the project. But that apprehension quickly disappeared as the competence of our team members became immediately apparent. Not just their expertise in their respective fields, but their communication and time management skills of everyone was impressive. Not a second was to be wasted, and as soon as something was identified not to be a valuable use of time, we would immediately move forward without cutting anyone off or creating an unfriendly atmosphere.
Why did they win?
The team chose a topic that almost everyone could immediately identify with; and a solution that made immediate sense. Their presentation was well-researched, and they considered every possible angle and explained it in detail. They had a working demo to prove that everything was possible to accomplish (even in a single day!), and they delivered it with enough confidence that gave them the credibility they needed.
If it was a dragon's den pitch, some of the judges would be in!
Overall, the Hackathon went great, people travelled from all over the country to participate, and the event was backed by prestigious local and national businesses. So, again congratulations to Peter and Tyler for their fantastic work, and of course to the LegalTech in Leeds team for organising it.
Let's finish with another quote from Tyler, who decided to donate his share of the award money to AVA (Against Violence & Abuse) "It's great to be part of a team that values making these positive impacts. It feels good to know that our work can make a difference!"
Read more information on LegalTech in Leeds website.
