Law without walls

The Law Without Walls (LWOW) program aims to accelerate innovation by tackling the contemporary issues the legal education and profession face. 

It is the only legal education incubator in the world. Initiated by Miami Law School, LWOW connects students, professionals, entrepreneurs and academics from more than 25 elite law and business schools around the world, including Harvard, Stanford, Peking and Tel Aviv universities. 

“LWOW brings together today’s leaders and those of the future to innovate collaboratively to solve problems facing legal education and the legal profession for the benefit of whole communities, the marketplace and for greater access to justice and legal services,” says Lead Faculty Representative and LWOW Academic Mentor Associate Professor Rita Shackel. 

“Few such experiential opportunities exist for students with the potential for real-life international impact.” 

Sydney law students Claudia Sheridan and Sandra Hu were selected to attend LWOW 2016. They were sponsored by global law firm, King & Wood Mallesons.

The technology/law intersect 

Claudia is a penultimate year Arts/Law student majoring in Government and International Relations who also works as a paralegal at the head office of gym franchise Anytime Fitness. 

She has been a social media producer for a commercial television network, and she volunteers with the Aboriginal Legal Service. Claudia has an interest in the nexus between technological innovation, social networking and human rights law. 

She is hoping LWOW will give her the opportunity to explore how developments in technology can be harnessed to change people’s engagement with social justice issues in a positive way. 

Sandra is a penultimate year Commerce/Law student, with a major in Finance. She completed a two-year cadetship at a global professional services firm and currently works as a paralegal. 

She is interested in seeing how innovative technology can enhance the services offered by commercial businesses and legal practices. She aspires to a career in international commercial law and hopes technology will allow her to work in a more fluid global legal structure. 

The Executive Director of Innovation at King & Wood Mallesons, Michelle Mahoney, was supportive of sponsoring the two Australian representatives. 

“The future of law needs young, curious minds who are willing to explore the boundaries of innovation,” she said. “This was a fabulous opportunity for Claudia and Sandra to start their legal innovation journey.”

Kicking off the program The 2016 Law Without Walls KickOff took place at IE University in Madrid, Spain, between 16-17 January. 

This was followed by the ConPosium at the University of Miami from 16-17 April. At the Madrid KickOff, the students met their teammates, then spent four months working virtually with students from Peking University, Miami University and the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro to come up with a ‘Project of Worth’ in their topic area. 

The Miami ConPosium was the concluding presentation of Law Without Walls at which the students pitched their projects to judges. 

Sandra’s project, Photo Guard, is a software program that educates teenagers on the legal ramifications of distributing sexual or nude images, and protects teenagers with a tracking feature that empowers them to hold someone legally accountable. 

The impetus for the product was the problems young people face in navigating the legal landscape. 

“Teenagers are stuck between laws which theoretically protect them but in practice harm them,” Sandra said. 

The product was voted “most creative” and the team is hoping to continue development and eventually take it to market.

Claudia’s product, C Cube, is a specialised ratings and data analysis portal that evaluates company compliance systems in Japan, China and South Korea. 

It functions as a complementary risk assessment and monitoring tool for investors by providing them with insights into the compliance structure and culture of company targets. 

The product also caters to company clients by providing benchmarking and evaluation services that can shape future compliance strategies. The University of Sydney would like to thank King & Wood Mallesons for supporting Sandra and Claudia to attend the conferences in Miami and Madrid.