Singapore Management University (SMU) hosted its first-ever legal technology hackathon on campus last month.  Held over three consecutive days in early February, the Hackathon, which was organised by SMU’s Legal Innovation and Technology (LIT) club and made possible by the generous support of the Singapore Academy of Law (SAL) and Rajah & Tann Technologies (R&TT), saw 50 students from six local tertiary institutions vying for the top prizes.

The 18 participating teams, which comprised students from both the legal and IT-related disciplines, were challenged to come up with innovative technological solutions to one of 12 legal industry problem statements curated by SAL. The problems include: raising awareness of individual legal rights, providing individuals with information on lawyers, and making legal research less tedious and more efficient, among others.

After a gruelling 36 hours of competition, the teams remained energetic and enthusiastic as they presented their innovative and well thought out creations to an illustrious judging panel comprising Mr Yeong Zee Kin (Assistant Chief Executive at the Infocomm Media Development Authority); Mr Tan Ken Hwee (Chief Transformation & Innovation Officer of the Supreme Court); Mr Rajesh Sreenivasan (Partner at Rajah & Tann and Director of R&TT);Mr Michael Lew (Chief Operating Officer at R&TT); and Mr Garrett Teoh (Director at Accenture).

[Photo: One team presenting their ideas to the panel of judges]

Eventually, it was SMU’s Team Hackwagon, comprising Ng Jun Xuan, Ian Lam and Kong Yu Jian, which won over the judges with their creation – a platform that encourages online collaboration among lawyers and allows them easy access to past research projects. Emerging as the first runner-up was Team Lawgic, represented by Glenice Tan from NUS, as well as Wan Ding Yang, Carolyn Au and Nicolas Wee from SMU. The mixed-institution team created an informative telegram bot which can provide self-assessment for potential clients, and an automated portfolio generator powered by an algorithm utilising the SAL’s LawNet application programming interface (API). In third place was SMU’s Team Super Spuds comprising Sambhavi Rajangam, Nur Shukrina bte Abdul Salam, Abhyuday Samadder and Chung Jia Hui Joey. They came up with a one-stop online hub for the laymen to search for legal questions on crime, personal injury, general matters and Syariah Law.

[Photo: Team Hackwagon came up tops at the hackathon.]

[Photo: Team Lawgic (left photo) and Team Super Spuds (right photo), with Justice Lee Seiu Kin.]

Over and above the invaluable experience as well as new found friendships, the top three teams received cash prizes worth $2888, $1888 and $888 respectively. Furthermore, Team Lawgic and Team Law-L were lauded as the teams which made the ‘Most Creative Use of the LawNet API’ and walked away with additional prize vouchers of $200 and $150 respectively.

[Photo: Justice Lee Seiu Kin delivering the closing address at LIT Hackathon 2019.]

In his closing address, Guest-of-Honour Justice Lee Seiu Kin reminded all participants of the growing importance of technology’s role in the legal sector. He quoted examples of analytics being deployed in foreign courts to assist judges in analysing precedent deviation trends and sentencing effectiveness. He also urged all teams to continue working together to bring their LIT Hackathon ideas to fruition, and encouraged the organisers to make the LIT Hackathon an annual feature in Singapore’s legal technology landscape to promote legal technology awareness among students.

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