The inaugural Legal Generative AI Hackathon, run at the Centre of Entrepreneurship, was led by Professor Dan Hunter, Executive Dean of The Dickson Poon School of Law.  

The hackathon, which took place over a weekend, aimed to provide Law and Informatics students with an opportunity to leverage their respective disciplinary approaches and provide innovative solutions to legal challenges using cutting-edge AI technology.

The hackathon was open to undergraduates in their second and final years and postgraduates who are studying either Law or Informatics. No prior experience in AI was required, but participants were asked to bring passion, curiosity, enthusiasm, and willingness to learn about the intersection of law and technology.

The hackathon provided a timely and relevant opportunity to equip future legal professionals with technology skills, and technologists with legal domain knowledge. The intersection of law and technology provides opportunities for students to be at the forefront of innovation, in a world where more AI-powered solutions will streamline legal processes, improve access to justice, and transform the development of legal services.

During the hackathon, students divided into teams and pitched their ideas to representatives of the event sponsors Ashurst and PwC after an intense two day period of brainstorming, ideation, and prototyping. Alongside the opportunity to compete for prizes to a panel of expert judges, the participants also had the chance to showcase their skills and highlight their accomplishments and ideas to potential employers.

Participants were able to connect with like-minded individuals, mentors, and professionals from both the legal and technology sectors, in addition to hearing from and speaking to PwC and Ashurst over the weekend. Feedback from students highlighted the collaborative and supportive atmosphere, which fostered discussion to facilitate innovative approaches.

On the final day of the hackathon, seven teams presented their ideas in ten-minute presentations to the judges. Although there was one overall winning team, prizes were also awarded on the basis of creativity, feasibility, and innovation. The hackathon judges remarked on the overall high standards demonstrated by students throughout the hackathon.

Saikeerthana Allamaraju, Diyaa Kuntal Desai, both current LLM students, and Eunhye Song a Data Science MSc student, won the first prize overall. They remarked that ‘Experimenting with LLMs and attempting to work out a plausible solution to AI use cases over the last two days has been an amazing learning experience’.