Disrupting the law

Candice Pillay is a Partner at Hogan Lovells, a Johannesburg law
firm. She coordinates the firm’s citizenship and pro bono
activities and heads its enterprise development and social
entrepreneurship practice. The firm’s lawyers provide pro bono
legal assistance and access to justice. In this article, Pillay
writes on how to bring innovations to law.

As developing countries continue to gain access to technology
and begin to innovate existing systems, it has become clear that
technology has stopped being an end in itself but an instrumental
tool and means to accelerate growth and development.

For more than a decade, African economies have exceeded the
global average for growth and this acceleration has been mirrored
by the advancement of innovation on the continent. But what has
been particularly interesting about these technological
advancements is that they exemplify a rejection of “growth for
growth’s sake” – innovators in Africa have been developing systems
that talk specifically to African particularities and key
challenges.

The internet has played a major role in the democratisation of
technology and knowledge. If the cultural impact of this has been
the challenging of conceptions of expertise, what implications does
this have for the legal industry? At Hogan Lovells, a firm that
prides itself in its dedication to promoting access to legal
services for all, we believe that technology can be instrumental in
improving systems to ensure that justice is accessible to
everyone.

The Hackathon

This is why we partnered with The Hague Institute for the
Internationalisation of Law (HiiL) that brought its prestigious
event for legal and justice innovators, Global Legal Hackathon
(globallegalhackathon.com), to South Africa for the first time this
February. The event will see local innovators compete for a place
at a New York showcase of the best law-tech innovations in the
world. Global Legal Hackathon took place over three days, from
23-25 February at the Tshimologong Precinct in Johannesburg, South
Africa, and teams developed technology-led solutions to pressing
justice problems. Whether it’s improving the business and practice
of law with blockchain and AI, or helping with good government,
legal systems and access to justice, this is an opportunity for
justice entrepreneurs to build on existing ideas, or to create a
team around an entirely new concept for justice innovation.

Innovating the law

Innovations can range from improvements to contracting and
supply chains, to solutions to social justice issues. Two South
African entrepreneurs took top honours in the 2017 Innovating
Justice Challenge (IJC), impressing a 300-strong crowd of lawyers,
politicians and activists at the Innovating Justice Forum at Peace
Palace in The Hague last December. With new initiatives such as
Global Legal Hackathon, HiiL Southern Africa, in association with
Hogan Lovells, plans to help even more start-ups in the justice
sector to achieve success.

According to Connor Sattely, Business Accelerator Agent at HiiL,
“having quantifiable, measurable, and verifiable data about justice
needs and the challenges in a justice system is essential for the
legal profession to move into the 21st century.

”Justice systems and legal services have been accused of being
regressive, hierarchical and elitist. Billions of people risk
becoming powerless when faced with land disputes, crime, divorce,
consumer problems, unfair dismissal, disagreements with a neighbour
or landlord, grievance with a public authority, or a
business/contractual conflict.” (http://www.hiil.org/about-us).

Even when people can afford legal services, their issues may be
left unresolved for a multitude of reasons including a lack of
responsiveness of legal providers to the ever-changing environments
in which legal systems exist.

Access to justice for all

In South Africa alone, nearly a million people access legal
services through legal aid, a number which excludes the pro bono
efforts of the countries law firms. “It’s simply not enough to have
protective laws, functional institutions or progressive
constitutions. Accessing justice is fundamental to enacting the
rule of law and legal aid is a precondition for effecting it, by
providing assistance to people otherwise unable to afford legal
representation,” says Justice Mlambo, Chairperson of Legal Aid
South Africa.

Legal issues are seldom isolated, and are often informed by or
resultant of various other factors ranging from socio-economic
constraints to mental-health concerns. It is vital that justice
systems, the legal industry and its providers be committed to
mitigating these challenges through innovative thinking. But
limiting this innovation to those already with the industry would
be tantamount to the elitism the field has been charged with. That
is why initiatives like Global Legal Hackathon are so important.
Justice systems are there to serve and protect the citizens of the
world – who better to navigate its innovation than the ordinary
people that are its main constituents?

Candice Pillay is a Partner at Hogan Lovells, a Johannesburg law
firm. She coordinates the firm’s citizenship and pro bono
activities and heads its enterprise development and social
entrepreneurship practice. The firm’s lawyers provide pro bono
legal assistance and access to justice. In this article, Pillay
writes on how to bring innovations to law.

As developing countries continue to gain access to technology
and begin to innovate existing systems, it has become clear that
technology has stopped being an end in itself but an instrumental
tool and means to accelerate growth and development.

For more than a decade, African economies have exceeded the
global average for growth and this acceleration has been mirrored
by the advancement of innovation on the continent. But what has
been particularly interesting about these technological
advancements is that they exemplify a rejection of “growth for
growth’s sake” – innovators in Africa have been developing systems
that talk specifically to African particularities and key
challenges.

The internet has played a major role in the democratisation of
technology and knowledge. If the cultural impact of this has been
the challenging of conceptions of expertise, what implications does
this have for the legal industry? At Hogan Lovells, a firm that
prides itself in its dedication to promoting access to legal
services for all, we believe that technology can be instrumental in
improving systems to ensure that justice is accessible to
everyone.

The Hackathon

This is why we partnered with The Hague Institute for the
Internationalisation of Law (HiiL) that brought its prestigious
event for legal and justice innovators, Global Legal Hackathon
(globallegalhackathon.com), to South Africa for the first time this
February. The event will see local innovators compete for a place
at a New York showcase of the best law-tech innovations in the
world. Global Legal Hackathon took place over three days, from
23-25 February at the Tshimologong Precinct in Johannesburg, South
Africa, and teams developed technology-led solutions to pressing
justice problems. Whether it’s improving the business and practice
of law with blockchain and AI, or helping with good government,
legal systems and access to justice, this is an opportunity for
justice entrepreneurs to build on existing ideas, or to create a
team around an entirely new concept for justice innovation.

Innovating the law

Innovations can range from improvements to contracting and
supply chains, to solutions to social justice issues. Two South
African entrepreneurs took top honours in the 2017 Innovating
Justice Challenge (IJC), impressing a 300-strong crowd of lawyers,
politicians and activists at the Innovating Justice Forum at Peace
Palace in The Hague last December. With new initiatives such as
Global Legal Hackathon, HiiL Southern Africa, in association with
Hogan Lovells, plans to help even more start-ups in the justice
sector to achieve success.

According to Connor Sattely, Business Accelerator Agent at HiiL,
“having quantifiable, measurable, and verifiable data about justice
needs and the challenges in a justice system is essential for the
legal profession to move into the 21st century.

”Justice systems and legal services have been accused of being
regressive, hierarchical and elitist. Billions of people risk
becoming powerless when faced with land disputes, crime, divorce,
consumer problems, unfair dismissal, disagreements with a neighbour
or landlord, grievance with a public authority, or a
business/contractual conflict.” (http://www.hiil.org/about-us).

Even when people can afford legal services, their issues may be
left unresolved for a multitude of reasons including a lack of
responsiveness of legal providers to the ever-changing environments
in which legal systems exist.

Access to justice for all

In South Africa alone, nearly a million people access legal
services through legal aid, a number which excludes the pro bono
efforts of the countries law firms. “It’s simply not enough to have
protective laws, functional institutions or progressive
constitutions. Accessing justice is fundamental to enacting the
rule of law and legal aid is a precondition for effecting it, by
providing assistance to people otherwise unable to afford legal
representation,” says Justice Mlambo, Chairperson of Legal Aid
South Africa.

Legal issues are seldom isolated, and are often informed by or
resultant of various other factors ranging from socio-economic
constraints to mental-health concerns. It is vital that justice
systems, the legal industry and its providers be committed to
mitigating these challenges through innovative thinking. But
limiting this innovation to those already with the industry would
be tantamount to the elitism the field has been charged with. That
is why initiatives like Global Legal Hackathon are so important.
Justice systems are there to serve and protect the citizens of the
world – who better to navigate its innovation than the ordinary
people that are its main constituents?