First published 5 September 2018
The 2018 Disrupting Law competition saw students from a range of disciplines and universities come together to produce an idea to advance legal practice and improve access to law and justice.
Cognicity, mentored by Law Squared, received the overall ‘Legal Innovation Award’ for conceptualising an assessment aid which assists lawyers in evaluating legal capacity. By using medical tests, Cognicity is intended to track the participants’ cognitive ability and to flag concerns like Alzheimer’s Disease. The winning team received a $3,000 cash prize.
CShrink, mentored by King & Wood Mallesons, were presented the ‘Runner Up Award.’ The team designed a concept that uses natural language processing to convert contracts into simple summaries and flowcharts. Each team member received Creative3 conference tickets.
The panel of judges consisted of Milan Gandhi, founder of The Legal Forecast, Trevor Nelson, Group Executive of Technology at PEXA and Peter Maloney, CEO of GlobalX.
Disrupting Law is an initiative developed by QUT Starters, a student-run organisation, and The Legal Forecast, run by early-career professionals. Teams of students from law, IT, business, engineering and design work closely with industry professionals over a 54-hour period, before pitching their ideas to a ‘Shark Tank’ style panel of legal and technology specialists.
In addition to Law Squared and King & Wood Mallesons, other industry mentors included Herbert Smith Freehills, Clayton Utz, Allens, Minter Ellison, McCullough Robertson, Piper Alderman, Ashurst, HopgoodGanim, Corrs Chambers Westgarth, ClarkeKann Lawyers and Hall & Wilcox. These partnerships gave students valuable insights, support and networking opportunities.
QUT Faculty of Law were proud to sponsor the event with QUT Business School, QUT Foundry, Janders Dean, Thomson Reuters, GlobalX and PEXA.
Individual winners:
Sophie Airton – The Janders Dean Award for exceptional leadership. Sophie has been invited by Janders Dean to attend and present at the 2019 #JDHorizons Conference in London with complimentary flights and accommodation.
Jodie Muller – The GlobalX Award for excellent technical skills. Jodie will undertake a 3 month paid internship with GlobalX.
Allyson Yule – The Thomson Reuters Award. Allyson will undertake a paid internship with Thomson Reuters.
Samuel Henry and Lauren Bayliss – The PEXA Award. Sam and Lauren will travel to Sydney to participate in PEXA’s Hack Day with complimentary flights and accommodation.
McCullough Robertson – Exceptional Mentors Award. The mentors from team McCullough Robertson were awarded with tickets to Beyond Billables’ Thrive Workshop in Brisbane.
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