LWOW2021 Offerings:
LWOW SPRINT-X
LWOW provides up-skilling and reskilling, transforms culture and relationships (especially with clients), and helps teams create innovative solutions to real business-of-law and corporate social responsibility challenges. Utilizing design thinking methods of innovation developed specifically for legal professionals. Most importantly, LWOW infuses the hearts and minds of those who participate with a passion and the tools for collaboration and transformation.
WHY LWOW SPRINT
The focus is changing from what services and expertise legal professionals provide to how they provide them. The highest quality legal expertise (at the best price) is not sufficient. In today’s global, complex, multi-disciplinary marketplace, clients need legal professionals with a high risk tolerance and business and growth mindset who are collaborative, creative problem finders and solvers, and who serve as counselors (not just legal advisors).
Given the needs of the global and complex legal landscape, successful legal professionals must be creative problem solvers, leaders with a high risk tolerance and business mindset that can use technology, collaboration, leadership, and communication skills to overcome the walls of law. LWOW answers this call.
Clients want legal professionals to be innovative, collaborative, & client-centric. Throughout our virtual programming participants will learn essential skills in order to fulfill the new requirements of a 21st century lawyer.
SPRINT PREP (April-December 2020)
Given the intensity of Sprint, the preparatory programming focuses on leveraging intergenerational, cross-culture, multi-disciplinary exchange to change the mindsets, skill-sets, and behaviors of legal service providers, business professionals, and law and business school students. Sprint Prep involves opportunities for LWOW participants to come together and build a sense of community and a strong network that makes the LWOW experience so unique!
LWOW Knowledge Exchange (November/December 2020) (Optional)
These interactive online 20 minute sessions enable participants to gain experience networking on virtual platforms, receive nuggets of knowledge from their very own community, and get to know other members of LWOW (not just their own team prior to Sprint). Attendance by sponsor participants is optional.
Dates and times to be announced
Targeted Skills: Cultural Competency, Business Acumen, & Networking
SPRINT-X (20 January 2021 - 21 April 2021)
Overview: An all-virtual experiential learning program in law, innovation, collaboration, and transformation. Sponsor participants collaborate in multi-disciplinary teams composed of legal and business professionals and students from law and business schools around the world who work together virtually to create viable solutions to real problems related to the business of law or social justice. In addition to creating and presenting the foundation of a practicable solution, over the course 4 weeks period, participants learn design thinking principles and new ways of communicating, leading, and approaching collaboration and culture change that can be applied in the future within the organizations in which they work. Sprint-X equips participants with skills and experiences required to build and maintain successful client relationships.
The 4-Week Sprint (LWOW-X Sprint) (MANDATORY):
Why a 4-week Sprint
LWOW Sprint-X is designed to match the demanding environment legal professionals work in today which often requires extraordinary talented multi-disciplinary teams to be pulled together really quickly to work collaboratively on urgent matters. LWOW mirrors real life Agile Sprints, often done over 4 weeks to meet client demands. This new time frame will allow teams to collaborate in a more in-depth manner to accomplish the same goals (and more!) as the original 48-hour Sprint. The intensive LWOW Sprint mirrors real life sprints to meet client demands. As such, it requires hard work and resilience, delivers personal and professional growth and, of course, celebrates the LWOW community of change agents.
How The Sprint Works
The community meets real-time online for four hours each Wednesday over four weeks. At the end of the four hours, Lead Hackers help identify the tasks the Student Hackers must complete over the course of that week. Lead Hackers mentor the students during the week by guiding the problem finding and ideation processes. Lead Hackers will also provide introductions for interviews related to market research and targeted consumer audience. Lead Hackers will likely spend approximately 2 hours per week via email assisting the students.
Each team is composed of 2 to 3 professionals selected by the sponsoring entity who serve as Lead Hackers alongside the other team members who are assigned to the team by LWOW including 2 to 3 Student Hackers and 2 LWOW Hacker Mentors (mix of professionals and academics). This core team is aided by 1 assigned, dedicated LWOW Project Manager (who prevents drift) and 1 LWOW Innovation Coach (who drives quality). Additionally, all Sprint teams have access to resident experts in business planning, pitching start-ups, technical engineering, branding and marketing.
Teams will go through the 3 (phases) - 4 (weeks/sessions) - 5 (steps) Method of Innovation developed by Professor Michele DeStefano:
Week 1: Participants have already attended the LWOW Virtual Sprint KickOff but will be reacquainted with the program and each other during the first session. This phase creates a foundation of trust for the intense teaming that comes next. It also focuses on problem refining. Teams will explore and narrow down their topic challenges.
Weeks 2-3: Over the next two sessions, teams will participate in intensive hacking, dynamic, design-thinking exercises centered on problem finding, consumer storytelling, ideation, and solution development in order to co-create the foundation of a viable solution to a narrow assigned problem. (Note: teams will meet with LWOW Leadership this week for project development)
Week 4: In the last session, the Sprint concludes with a short ConPosium in which teams pitch their solution in 5 minute ignite-style format to a panel of multidisciplinary judges who ask questions and provide feedback. Although the level of viability will vary, all teams’ solutions will be “Projects of Worth” yielding substantive growth in problem-solving skills, mindset training, networking and relationship building. Participants will have grown individually and learned collectively and will return to their places of work or study with a wealth of new tools for work and creative proactive collaboration skills. (Note: teams will meet with LWOW Leadership this week for project development)
Targeted Skills: Participants gain a global perspective on the changing legal marketing place, learn new methods of collaborative problem finding and solving, and hone the skills that clients desire: teaming, leadership, mentoring, communication, project management, innovation, cultural competency, business planning, presentation, problem finding/solving, presentation, networking, technology, and change agency. Specifically each stage of the programming will target skills required of a 21st century legal practitioner.
The 3-Month Incubation (LWOW-X Inc.) (3 Months, February - April 2021) (MANDATORY)
Overview: The student hackers, volunteer mentors/project managers (and any Sponsor participant who so choose) will continue to refine, distill and incubate their team’s Projects of Worth developed during LWOW Sprint-X. The focus over these three months is on developing a full business plan, challenging assumptions, and prototyping.
How it works:
Teams attend webinars weekly on Wednesdays to contextualize innovation in law by covering the broad topics that will frame the narrower challenges assigned to teams in the LWOW Sprint and that provide substantive training for development of their projects. Topics of these recordings include consumer storytelling, prototyping, branding and business planning, and more.
Teams are guided by volunteer mentors and a dedicated LWOW Project Manager and any Lead Hackers (Sponsor participants that wish to stay on to assist). Teams attend guidance meetings with LWOW leadership to help guide their incubation process.
Targeted Skills: Business Acumen, Leadership, Design thinking, Online Teaming, Presentation, Feedback, Empathy, Innovation & Project Management, Mentoring, Prototyping, Training the Trainers, Finding/Refining/Solving Problems
Virtual ConPosium (14 April 2021) (MANDATORY)
Teams will present the refined solutions (15 minutes) to a panel of judges. Judges will ask questions and provide constructive feedback on at least three factors: substance, creativity, and viability. Three finalists will be chosen to present during PopPosium. Attendance by sponsor participants is optional.
Targeted Skills: Leadership, Online Teaming, Presentation, Feedback, and Communication
LWOW PopPosium (21 April 2020) (MANDATORY TO VIEW VIRTUALLY)
In-person Community Celebration of the Three Finalists
Following the ConPosium the week prior, the three finalist teams will present for the final title of ‘Best Overall’ Project of Worth. Whilst presentations will be all-virtual we are hoping to host multiple community building celebratory in-person viewing parties to watch the Top 3 LWOW Sprint-X Inc. finalists in a social setting where our community members can come together and network. Locations TBD.
Targeted Skills: Cultural Competency, Networking, Collaboration
LWOW PopUp (June 2021) (OPTIONAL)
Community Networking In-Person Events
LWOW PopUps are interactive, community and skills building events designed to help introduce LWOW to newcomers and provide refreshers to those who have participated in LWOW before. Hosted at various places around the world, these PopUps vary in content and form, however, each PopUp includes an interactive exercise related to teaming or creative, collaborative problem solving that attendees can later utilize in their own teaming efforts at the organizations in which they work.
Targeted Skills: Cultural Competency, Networking, Collaboration
School Commitment/Student Application Process
Click here to fill out a form to commit to participation in LWOW 2021 and requesting the number of students you would like to participate from your school in LWOW Sprint-X. Note: there is a $500 admin fee per student per program.
Application Timeline/Deadlines:
Applications open: 25 August 2020
Deadline to confirm school participation and number of requested students: 7 September 2020
LWOW to confirm number of student participants for each school: 12 September 2020
Applications due: 15 October 2020
School selected students to be communicated to LWOW: 20 October 2020
Student Selections: 30 October 2020
Team Assignments: Early January 2021
Recruitment Resources
The LWOW Team is committed to supporting you in the mission to spread the word about LWOW and garner student engagement. Please find resources for LWOW 2021 recruitment below. The application (including information on the process, FAQs, and more) can be found at lwow.org/apply. A reminder that you can find us on twitter/instagram @lawwithoutwalls. Should you have any questions or further needs, please email lawwithoutwalls@lwow.org. Thanks!
Email Template for Prospective Students
Informational Flyer (attachment)
Videos to help with Recruiting Students
Videos (Recruitment material)
Personal Pitch examples (YouTube playlist)
Social Media
For twitter, instagram (square size) (Coming Soon)
For Facebook, Linkedin, other platforms (rectangle size) (Coming Soon)
Flyer
Option 1: Apply Now!
Option 2: Apply Now!
LWOW Sprint-X 2021 Skills Chart
Other Info and Support
Testimonials (Click here) Survey results from past participants
Participating Schools (Click here)
Sample winning application (Click here) Winner of Unilever's internal contest to participate as a LWOW Team Leader (one winner, more than 200 entries)