On May 17th the School of Law, in partnership with The Law Schools Global League and IE Law School in Madrid; and with sponsorship from Herbert Smith Freehills, hosted a Legal Technology Venture Day and Startup Competition. Four startups competed for the opportunity to represent the UK and Ireland on the IE Law School stage at the South Summit in June. The four competing startups were: Convey Guru; Inclusive Law; Lawri; and Talk Terms. The Jury were Prof Joan Loughrey, QUB School of Law; Lyn Harris, Herbert Smith Freehills, Macarena Plaza Vela, IE Law School; and Allen Martin, Techstart VC. After careful deliberation the Jury were delighted to announce Talk Terms as winner with Incusive Law as runner-up and will travel to Madrid in June to compete alongside teams from Brazil and Japan.

The competition was accompanied by a keynote address by Simon Whittaker of Vertical Structure, addressing his building a business; availing of opportunities and his reflections on cybersecurity’s place in modern enterprises. There was also a panel discussion on startups and on legal technology involving Sophie O’Donnell from Microsoft; Liam Reid from Enzai; Stephanie Barrett from Herbert Smith Freehills; and John Morison from QUB School of Law. The discussion ranged across from what startups and large firms can learn from each other; to the place of technology in law; to the feeling when a startup lands their first client.

Speaking after the event Dr Ciarán O’Kelly, chair of the organising committee; said “Teaching and research in law and technology has long been at the heart of the School of Law’s mission, not least through our LLM in Law and Technology; the LINAS doctoral training programme and research housed in the School’s Global IP and Technology Research Centre. I hope that the Venture Day further marked out the School of Law’s global commitments in the space as well as its status as an anchor institution contributing to the community closer to home. Our four competing startups were amazing and inspirational. And our keynote and panel contributors made a real impact on the day. I am very grateful to all of them for playing part. Most of all I am delighted at how the enthusiastic response to the event: I hope we can build on this energy to further support the legal technology sector in the years to come.”

Head of School Prof Joan Loughrey added “The School of Law at Queens has a long and proud tradition of cutting edge scholarship and research in the tech space. This fantastic event speaks to our identities as an international  Law School, a member of the prestigious Law Schools Global League and an anchor institution in Northern Ireland committed to serving our community and working with employers in Northern Ireland and beyond. Thank you to our League partners to our sponsors Herbert Smith and to all the team who were involved in the day, with particular thanks to Dr Ciarán O’Kelly who led on this.”