The 2021 Taiwan Legal and Compliance Technology Hackathon (the Hackathon), organized by legal tech company Lawsnote and co-organized by the Judicial Yuan of Taiwan, and Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, came to a close on September 12. This year’s Hackathon was held online due to the outbreak of COVID-19 in Taiwan. Presence of the Judicial Yuan highlighted legal technology applications to the National Judge System that will be introduced in 2023. Whereas Deloitte emphasized applications related to compliance in the financial sector. Both open up more possibilities for the use of legal tech.
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In 2019, the LegalTech Hackathon made its debut in Taiwan under the effort of legal tech company Lawsnote with the purpose of enabling the law to produce tasks through the power of technology which could not be previously accomplished by human beings. More than 300 participants signed up for the first Taiwan LegalTech Hackathon. Since then, there were more than 80 projects pitched in the finals for the past three years. Now in its third year, the Taiwan LegalTech Hackathon has become the most iconic and largest legal tech events in Taiwan. This year’s LegalTech Hackathon became more ambitious in two ways: First, legal compliance issues were added which weren’t present in previous contests. Secondly, authoritative organizations, the Judicial Yuan and Deloitte, joined the Hackathon this year as organizers.
The growing trend and importance of legal technology applications was showcased by comments from the Disciplinary Court Judge Yeh, Li-Hsia, and Max Lin, Risk Advisory Managing Partner and RA Cyber Leader of Deloitte. As representative of Judicial Yuan of Taiwan, Judge Yeh, Li-Hsia stated: “We have always known that masters of programming are out there in the society. By holding this event, hopefully, we can invite the experts among the people to use their skills to solve some of the problems faced in judicial practice.” And Max Lin remarked: “There is increasing international attention in RegTech and through this event, we hope to find more local applications on compliance technology that can offer to the Deloitte RegTech Universe so as to further its global reach.”
In addition to the theme of legal tech, the event itself was full of “technology”. The organizer not only issued an exclusive NFT (Non-Fungible Token) for the Hackathon but also required all documents be completed through the online signing service “Dottedsign”. The finals of the Hackathon was held online as well as live-streamed on Youtube and Facebook due to the pandemic.
This year, there were 60 teams that participated in the Hackathon. After a two-month-long contest, 25 teams passed the preliminary rounds and made it to the finals. The judges were experts from different fields covering the private, government, and academic sectors. The biggest prize, $3,300 USD, was awarded to Team Cat Search’s (MAO SOU HE HO FA HSI) “Graphic Judgment” (judgment relationship chart). Second place went to Team French Confluence (FA SHIH TSUNG HUI), competing for the third time, on “Judgement Knowledge Map Tool.” The third-place, Team WWWY, also worked on a “Graphic Case” (visualize relationship in case) as their entry.
2021 Taiwan LegalTech & Compliance Hackathon First Place: Team Cat Search (MAO SOU HE HO FA HSI) won the biggest prize $3,300 USD.
It is worth mentioning that two teams comprised of high school students participated in the contest this year. Among them, “Judgment Search Optimization” by Team KHSH Bear from Kaohsiung Senior High School (HSIUNG CHUNG HSIUNG CHUNG HSIUNG CHUNG HSIUNG) was favored by the Judicial Yuan of Taiwan and won the Judicial Yuan Special Award. “Honestly speaking, the entry barrier for legal tech contest is quite high. The team must connect the two professional fields of law and technology, so I was very impressed to see high school students competing and even winning awards,” said Lawsnote founder Barry Kuo. Kuo further elaborated: “In addition to bringing legal professionals and technologists together to complete works, we also hope that these works are not just entries for the contest, but as commercial opportunities. Therefore, we are inviting more partners in the industry to join us on offering more favorable chances for commercialization in facilitating the legal tech progress in Taiwan.”
The 3rd LegalTech & Compliance Hackathon ended successfully with an online group photo of all the attendees.
About Lawnoste
Lawsnote is a company that aims to maximize legal service efficiency by deeply integrating technology with legal practices. More than 60% of lawyers in Taiwan are using Lawsnote’s products. Their products include “Legal Document Search Engine”, “Lawsnote Compliance System”, “Contract Review Automation System”, and “Find Lawyer Marketplace platform”.
Contact: Suzie Chang Email: suzie@lawsnote.com
Thanks to Lawsnote for sponsoring this content.
