"Law for Everyone" Challenge

Are you a law student with a legal tech idea that involves document automation or decision automation?
Now’s your chance to bring it to life—no coding required.

Apply now for the Law for Everyone Challenge and claim your free Gavel account to start building your own client-facing legal application. Whether it’s document automation, decision logic, or an entirely new legal workflow, your idea could be the next LegalZoom or TurboTax for law.

Legal tech innovation is more important than ever. You can build your own concept or draw inspiration from suggested topics below. Either way, we’ll equip you with the tools to create a real, working prototype on Gavel—no programming experience needed.

The winning team will receive:

• $1,000 cash prize
• A free Gavel Enterprise account

Eligibility Requirements

Participants must be enrolled in the Bucerius Legal Tech Essentials 2020 program or the Passport to Practice program, and must submit their materials by the deadlines below to be eligible.  

Teams must be between 3-4 members and must build legal tech applications on Gavel to solve a legal problem.  Any legal issue - corporate, consumer, government, and non-profit ideas - is eligible for entry.

Evaluation Criteria

Teams will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

• A demonstrated understanding of the gap in the legal market, including understanding existing solutions and tools. Students should learn from and improve upon what other have done, but do more than simply recreate a tool that addresses the same problem for the same users;
• A demonstrated understanding of the legal problem and need;
• Effectiveness, usability, scalability, sustainability, and creativity.  

Deadlines

On or before July 20, 2020 (11:59pm CST):  Submit your project ideas using the form at the bottom of this page or at hello@gavel.org (subject line: "Automate Law Challenge 2020").  Please include:

1. Names and emails of all team members;
2. Topic idea (this can change as you build).

Participants will receive a free Gavel account upon submission & will be listed on the participants page.

July 20-July 31: Build your applications, solicit feedback from other teams, and publicize your projects.

July 31-August 7 (11:59pm CST): Post a video (3-5 minutes) of your project to YouTube with the title "Documate Automate the Law Challenge: [YOUR TEAM NAME]."  In the comments, add a link to your live automation application.

Send a link to your video to hello@gavel.org by August 7th.

August 14, 2020 (1pm CT): Winners will be announced based on a 50/50 weighted scale of:

1. "Likes & Comments" on the YouTube video, a Twitter post, and a LinkedIn post; and
2. The votes of a panel of judges based on the eligibility criteria, including Professor Dan Linna, Amy Halverson (Wilson Sonsini), and Kathryn DeBord (Bryan Cave).

Project Ideas

• Domestic Violence: Shelter at home rules have placed domestic violence victims at higher risk.  Automate the documents for survivors to obtain relief in your jurisdiction.
• Eviction Defense: Prepare automated platforms for tenants to ask for rent forbearance.
• Expungements: Help provide a remedy to those suffering from the collateral consequences of past convictions by building an expungement tool for your community.
• Estate Planning: Assets that go through probate face legal fees and additional taxes.  Build a workflow to guide users to build a power of attorney or simple will.
• Abuse of Police Powers: In addition to peaceful protests, the legal system can help empower those who have been improperly treated, unlawfully detained, or faced excessive force. Build an application to file a complaint for damages or make it easier for citizens to make local reports.
• COVID Complaints: As soon as the courts come back, so will new claims for COVID-related relief. Make this easy by crafting complaints/responses for the common claims.
• Employment Law: Businesses are struggling to keep up with new rules, remote work and leave policies. Build a robust policy generator.

Resources

• Review the Gavel tutorial video here.
• Read about how to scope and launch a legal product here.
• Join the Gavel Slack #law-schools channel to form groups and chat with your peers.

Submit Your Project Before July 20, 2020