LWOW Topic Challenge Selection: Solving Pressing Legal Industry Problems With Innovation

Each LWOW team tackles a key legal industry issue, focusing on either a business challenge or a social justice concern. In LWOW Sprint, the team’s sponsor, with support from LWOW leadership, selects a specific topic challenge. These challenges cover diverse areas such as operations, marketing, compliance, ethics, quality of legal advice, service delivery, ESG, and access to justice. Teams then refine the problem for a specific audience and create a solution. Past challenges are listed below by year, and we’re available to help brainstorm, select, and phrase topic challenges.

NOTE: Organizations sponsoring more than one team can use the same Topic Challenge for all teams or select a unique topic challenge for each team.

Topic challenges often stem from:

  • Internal priorities and initiatives

  • Pain points and opportunities for growth (either internal or faced by a client)

  • Emerging trends and forecasted issues

  • Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives

  • A company’s CSR or ESG criteria

How to develop a narrow topic challenge

At Sprint 2025, we have 3 in-person days/48 hours to hack (versus 4 months in years past) to solve Topic Challenges. Therefore, Topic Challenges/problems to be solved should be as narrow as possible.

See below examples of how to narrow broad Topic challenges and/or click HERE:

  • Original Topic: Waste Not, Want Change: How can advances in technology further a reduction in food waste? (Sponsored by Accenture)

  • Narrow Suggestion: Waste Not, Want Change: How can we provide consumers with the right data to combat food waste in the home and change food behaviors? 

  • Original Topic: Justify Me: How can in-house really know that legal tech enhances their value while keeping business and the bank account in mind? (Sponsored by Eversheds Sutherland + Link Assets Services)

  • Narrow Suggestion: Justify Me: How can in-house use legal tech to  enable the retrieval and review of specific clauses and vital information across 100s of contracts in a way that keeps business and the bank account in mind?

  • Original Topic: Are You Feeling Me: How can law firms, in house departments and technology providers collaborate for better business outcomes? (Sponsored by iManage)

  • Narrow Suggestion: Are You Feeling Me: How can law firms and law companies unite to create a RFP process that is more efficient and at the same time, works for them and also works for, in-house departments from a substantive standpoint?

  • Original Topic: Tech for Good: How might advancements in tech and AI be used to empower immigrant families in the United States? (Sponsored by Microsoft)

  • Narrow Suggestion: Tech for Good: How can legal technology be used to better prepare in-house lawyers for their pro bono service endeavors so that they can hit the ground running and ensure that learnings from prior lawyers providing the same pro bono service are not lost?

For a list of past topics, please click here.

 

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