The Global Legal Hackathon, the world’s largest technology innovation event and learning laboratory for the legal industry, will open the #GLH2022 competition on March 25-27, 2022. Thousands of legal professionals, software developers, designers, and businesses will come together for one purpose: rapid development of solutions to improve the legal industry.
Returning for its fourth year, #GLH2022 is expected to surpass previous years, with over 100 host cities and 10,000 participants expected from around the globe, tapping into the creative energy of a legal industry that is experiencing accelerated innovation as a consequence of the pandemic.
Starting on Friday evening and continuing until Sunday evening, teams will develop new technology solutions to “business of law” and “access to justice” problems, and compete to be selected as winners in their respective cities and progress to the global semi-finals. Finalists will then be invited to the Global Legal Hackathon Final round & Gala (covid regulations permitting) to take place in London later in 2022.
One of the major upgrades to the 2022 GLH event is a new, online technology platform that enables and supports both in-person and virtual participation. This is essential to accommodate the different regulations and requirements in each country that may still limit in-person gatherings. Also new for #GLH2022 is an option for participants to register and login using a blockchain-based GLH Private Key. This will allow participants to hold their login credentials with maximum privacy and security.
Kearra Markowich, executive director of the Global Legal Hackathon explained, “The global pandemic forced the legal industry to rapidly innovate and evolve, and the Global Legal Hackathon was no exception. We are very proud of our new technology platform, developed specifically for this global event, that will allow more innovators and more teams from around the world to participate in #GLH2022, regardless of whether or not they are participating in person, or virtually.”
One of the newest supporters of the hackathon, the host for #GLH2022 in Paris, France, is Ubisoft, the global publisher of leading video games. Geoffrey Delcroix, Head of Legal Innovation at Ubisoft commented on their decision to host #GLH2022 in Paris in 2022, “innovation and creativity are part of Ubisoft’s DNA, and that is also true in our legal team. Driven by a bold vision for legal innovation, our goal is to explore new territories for legal professions and transform legal mindset to embrace creativity, prototyping, diversity, and entrepreneurship. We are really excited to join the GLH community and contribute to this inspiring community alongside other French legal innovators”.
The Global Legal Hackathon has always had strong support in host cities across Europe, and this year the European Legal Technology Association is a launch supporter of #GLH2022. Holger Zscheyge, president of ELTA, commented, “The European Legal Technology Association is proud to support the Global Legal Hackathon, an initiative that brings together enthusiasts at the intersection of law and technology worldwide to work on innovative ways to make legal help more accessible and the practice of law more effective. The GLH truly sparks interest in legal technology, and this is very much aligned with our own goals.“
In past years, global finalists and semi-finalists have used the worldwide visibility of the Global Legal Hackathon as a springboard to launch new legal technology companies focused on business of law or access to justice solutions.
