LWOW SPRINT 2026 13-15 MARCH 2026 HOSTED BY NOVA SCHOOL OF LAW + NOVA SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS CARCAVELOS, PORTUGAL
LWOW Sprint 2026
A 3 day in-person “weekender” journey focused on innovation, collaboration, and transformation in law. It is hands-on upskilling for practicing and aspiring legal and business professionals who seek to enhance their cross-cultural, collaboration, problem solving, and leadership skills while hacking alongside kindred spirits who share a passion for intrapreneurship and community exchange.
Click here for the Sprint 2026 One-Page Planner (to come)
WHO'S INVOLVED and WHY:
Legal Departments/Law Firms/Legal Services and Legal Tech Companies sponsor teams at LWOW Sprint in order to:
Build networks and transform relationships with clients and colleagues.
Train-the-trainers i.e., cultivate future leaders so that they can add value in new ways including leading collaboration and innovation training sessions for others in your organization or at client’s organizations.
Co-create the foundation of a solution to a business-of-law or corporate social responsibility (or ESG) challenge.
Recruit diverse, global talent.
Build brand recognition as an innovative thought leader.
Provide a one-stop, closed-ended opportunity for talent to partake in pro-bono and continuing education.
Individual Participants are a mix of legal professionals, business executives, venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, technologists, regulators, judges, compliance professionals, academics, and law and business student who want to:
Join a diverse community of change agents who solve problems at the intersection of law, business, and technology.
Accrue continuing legal education and/or pro-bono hours.
Learn new methods of leading, teaming, innovating, problem solving, design thinking, collaborating, communicating, and inspiring change.
Transform relationships with colleagues and clients.
Differentiate yourself as an intrapreneur who shapes the future.
HOW IT WORKS: THE 3-4-5 Method of INNOVATION™ in 48 hours
Over three high-energy days, LWOW Sprint teams—made up of legal and business professionals, academics, and students from around the world—collaborate to tackle a real business-of-law or ESG challenge selected by a Team Sponsor. Using design thinking and the 3-4-5 Method of Innovation™ (developed by LWOW Founder Michele DeStefano), participants work in three phases over 48 hours and five steps.
Sprint begins with a trust-building KickOff (Phase 1), followed by intensive collaboration and creative problem-solving (Phase 2), including ideation, prototyping, and consumer storytelling. The experience concludes with a dynamic ConPosium (Phase 3), where teams pitch their solutions in Ignite-style to a panel of expert judges for feedback.
While final solutions vary in readiness, every team delivers a “Project of Worth” and participants leave with stronger problem-solving skills, creative confidence, new mindsets, and global connections. 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 problem-solving.
As Ursula K. Le Guin points out in her book, The Left Hand of Darkness: “It is good to have an end to journey towards; it is the journey that matters, in the end.” LWOW Sprint isn’t an end—it’s a launchpad. A concentrated, transformative experience designed to spark long-term individual and collective growth.
TEAMING:
At LWOW Sprint, everyone joins a team sponsored by a leading law firm, corporate legal department, or legal tech company that brings a real business-of-law or ESG challenge they care about solving.
What makes it special? Each sponsor handpicks up to four professionals from their organization—rising stars and changemakers who are passionate about doing things better. These Lead Hackers work alongside talented students from around the world, LWOW coaches, project managers and mentors. Together, they work in an intense, fast-paced environment to tackle real problems and develop the groundwork for meaningful, practicable solutions.
Click here to learn more about roles in Sprint.
