Applications open for largest legal tech hackathon in Singapore

Singapore, 8 March 2018 – The Singapore Academy of Law (SAL) and the Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC) have announced that applications are now open for Singapore’s largest legal tech hackathon - TechLaw.Fest Hackathon.

The hackathon will be an intense, fast-paced 48-hour challenge on 4 – 6 April 2018 at Suntec Convention Centre. It is open to students and professionals – ranging from legal professionals, software developers and designers -- and will be held in conjunction with regional law tech forum TechLaw.Fest 2018.

This competition challenges participants to come up with out-of-the-box solutions to everyday problems faced by lawyers, in-house counsels, users of legal services and data protection officers (DPOs) in Singapore. To emphasise the importance of personal data protection, teams will be expected to incorporate Data Protection by Design in their solutions.

These challenge areas are drawn from 100 legal industry problem statements collated by SAL’s Future Law Innovation Programme (FLIP) – a strategic initiative to prepare the legal industry for technological disruption – as well as four data protection problem statements.

The top three winning teams will receive prize vouchers of up to $12,000 and the opportunity to develop their solutions further under SAL’s FLIP Accelerator Programme.

“Technologies like blockchain, artificial intelligence and smart contracts will impact the business models of legal services.” said Mr Paul Neo, SAL’s Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer. “FLIP aims to prepare our legal community to become future-ready by helping law firms and legal professionals understand, develop and integrate relevant technology solutions to help in the future practice of law. Collaboration to cross-pollinate ideas between the tech and legal sectors is key to achieve this, and this hackathon is an excellent opportunity for the legal and tech sectors to co-create new services and operating models for the delivery of legal services in the future economy.”

“Digital disruption and transformation is inevitable for every sector, and thus it is critical that new and innovative ideas be presented to help drive the sector along,” said Assistant Chief Executive (PDPC) Yeong Zee Kin, IMDA. “The PDPC believes competitions such as TechLaw.Fest’s hackathon help sectors work through their challenges and discover new solutions and technologies to keep them globally competitive.”

Participants can register for free at http://bit.ly/techlawfesthackathon2018. Registration is open until the event day and walk-ins will be allowed (subject to space availability).