LWOW Topic Challenge Selection: Solving Pressing Legal Industry Problems With Innovation
Each LWOW team tackles a pressing legal industry issue—ranging from technology or business challenges to corporate governance or responsibility. At Sprint, the sponsoring organization in collaboration with their team or internal/external clients selects the team’s topic challenge, which can span areas like AI, knowledge management, compliance, ethics, service delivery, talent development, ESG, and more.
Teams then narrow the challenge for a specific audience and co-create a solution, hopefully with “legs” that can be further developed internally. Listen here for an example of how a Novartis-sponsored team created a solution that cut medicine time to market from 3 months to 3 weeks.
Other past examples of topics are listed below, and we’re happy to help brainstorm, refine, or phrase your challenge.
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 or ESG criteria
How to develop a narrow topic challenge
At Sprint 2026, we have 3 in-person days/48 hours to tackle topic challenges. Selected challenges/problems 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.