On 26th July, Justis co-hosted a Student Legal Design Sprint with Emily Allbon of The City Law School, University of London, where a group of highly engaged students began to apply Legal Design to real-world problems, identified by a range of industry experts.
“Brilliant to see such engaged and enthusiastic students fired up about #legaldesign – can’t wait to see what they come up with over the summer. Very grateful to all those who got involved and gave up their time to help – our expert speakers, problem setters and mentors.” – Emily Allbon
“The whole day was really well structured with a good range of speakers and interesting content. It went above and beyond my expectations.” – Student, The City Law School.
Students from The City Law School, University of London, The London School of Economics and Political Science, Manchester Metropolitan University, Nottingham Trent University, Queen Mary University of London, University College London, University of York, and many more took part on the day.
The mentors, experts and speakers on the day included: Phil Richards from Jisc, Daniel Hoadley from the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting for England and Wales, Richard Mabey from Juro, Dr Liz Dowthwaite from the University of Nottingham, Andrew Maynard from Ruby Datum, Claire Stripp and David Harris from Browne Jacobson LLP, Justin North from Janders Dean International, Omefe Uduebor from qLegal, and Peter Bradley and Alan Wylie from Citizens Advice.
“It was a wonderful day, I learned a lot and got to engage with people outside and inside the legal sector, met new people and worked as a team to bring an idea together. I didn’t know Legal Design was a thing but I’m really interested and would consider it to be something I want to do in the future.” – Student, The City Law School.
The day began with Emily introducing the students to Legal Design, discussing its background and emphasising that it’s about putting the ‘human’ back into law, and making complex legal information understandable and accessible to the people that it affects. Her presentation included numerous examples of Legal Design in the real world, from Candy Chang’s Street Vendor Guide through to Robert Sikoryak’s Terms and Conditions, a graphic novel version of the iTunes Terms & Conditions.
This was then followed by Richard Mabey of Juro, who demonstrated Legal Design in action, through the example of his company re-designing their Privacy Policy to consider GDPR. Key to this process was considering and engaging end-users to ensure that the policy was clear and effective, while also conveying the important information that is required by GDPR. Key to this was the clear steps of the design process, from understanding the problem through to iterating after testing it with the people that would read it. He closed his presentation by emphasising the key point that Legal Design is about making the material being covered more transparent to the people who need to engage with it.
“Day 1 of the Legal Design Sprint was absolutely fascinating and insightful. As the law plays a part in everyday life, so should Legal Design.” – Student, The City Law School
Sandrine Herbert Razafinjato, a designer with Method, introduced the concept of design to the students in attendance, and the process of design from start to finish. This included stages of exploration and research, defining problems and proposing potential solutions, and designing those proposed solutions, testing and refining them until a well-designed end result is delivered. She emphasised that the user should be at the centre of good design work, and this is especially true of Legal Design.
With this primer on Legal Design, students were then introduced to five real-world legal problems by the industry experts invited to the event.
Phil Richards of Jisc’s problem of student contracts, the agreement signed by every student upon starting a degree, was one that all of the students will have engaged with which made it immediately understandable as a problem.
Dr Liz Dowthwaite of the University of Nottingham’s chosen problem of social media terms & conditions was also an immediately recognisable topic.
Daniel Hoadley of the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting for England and Wales introduced his chosen problem of consumer rights, highlighting how it is something that everyone has with every purchase they make, but that there is a general lack of awareness of.
Claire Stripp and David Harris of Browne Jacobson LLP presented the problem of student tenancy contracts, particularly emphasising the confusion between individual and group contracts, and the rights and responsibilities involved.
Finally, Peter Bradley of Citizens Advice Merton and Lambeth detailed the problems faced by applicants in finding information and applying for disability benefits, especially those affected by mental health.
“I really enjoyed the day, I learnt so much.” – LLB student, The City Law School
Each of the five problems the students were presented with offered a lot to engage with. As they separated into groups, and with the advice of industry experts and mentors on hand, they began tackling the problems identified and started to work on the design process with the skills they had been introduced to throughout the day.
The day ended with each group delivering a short presentation about the proposed Legal Design solutions they are considering, and every group had fully embraced the skills they were introduced to throughout the event and were working on very interesting potential solutions to the problems they were assigned to tackle.
“It was my first ever Legal Sprint workshop and I can clearly say I learnt a lot.” – LLB student, The City Law School
With each group delivering a short presentation about the proposed Legal Design solutions they are considering, we are very excited to see how their ideas develop before Day Two of the Legal Design Sprint on 6th September. If you have any questions related to the Legal Design Sprint, please contact Emily Allbon (e.allbon@city.ac.uk) or Matthew Terrell (marketing@justis.com). You can also read Emily’s insights into the day, and the background of the event on Lawbore.
“I believe that it was beautifully organised, everyone taking part in the workshop, as well as staff, were well taken care of plus all steps were taken to ensure everyone’s needs were met, all participants were comfortable and great support was also provided.” – LLB student, The City Law School
Great to be introducing at @Justis_London #LegalDesign2018, and catching up with @Jisc SOSI alumnus @JustisMatt – some great ideas being generated by some very bright students! pic.twitter.com/44juvtSEyg
— Phil Richards (@phrichjisc) July 26, 2018
Air of anticipation as team problems get introduced…@Lima_India_Zulu tells all about the challenges of social media agreements for under 18s #LegalDesign #legaldesignsprint @Justis_London pic.twitter.com/QTTDQDGmMV
— Lawbore (@lawbore) July 26, 2018
Wow! An awesome day! Can’t stop thinking about all the presentations today on #legaldesign. Feeling so inspired to create everything! Thank you @lawbore @Justis_London @DanHLawReporter @GetJuro @method_studios @Lima_India_Zulu @brownejacobson @Jisc @CitizensAdvice @CityUniLondon
— Jade-Amanda Laporte (@ladyjadeamanda) July 26, 2018
Amazing talk from @RMabey at @cassbusiness and their amazing GDPR story! At last a privacy policy I want to read!!! https://t.co/lL1p8lIYK8 #legaldesign2018 pic.twitter.com/iuweNPhksZ
— Legal Geek (@wearelegalgeek) July 26, 2018
Great to be at @cassbusiness school chatting #legaldesign with some amazing #lawstudents. Awesome to hear from @lawbore kicking it off! #legaldesign2018 pic.twitter.com/73Dt5utuY3
— Legal Geek (@wearelegalgeek) July 26, 2018
Excited to be speaking at the Legal Design Sprint alongside @JustisMatt @lawbore and @JimmyVestbirk #LegalDesign pic.twitter.com/gKz37rSNgl
— Richard Mabey ⚖✨ (@RMabey) July 26, 2018
Great SWAG organised today by @JustisMatt at #Legaldesign2018 pic.twitter.com/nrIBcyi8pd
— Legal Geek (@wearelegalgeek) July 26, 2018
Enjoying presentation by designer Sandrine from @methoddesignlab #legaldesign – use #design as a strategy for bringing people together to create usable products – #LegalDesign2018 #lawtech #legaltech thank you @JustisMatt for including me 👩🏻💻 pic.twitter.com/8E0OMxRjJb
— Joanna Goodman (@JoannaMG22) July 26, 2018
I really do have to hand it to @JustisMatt, @lawbore and @Justis_London for an incredibly well executed #LegalDesign sprint yesterday 👏
— Daniel Hoadley (@DanHLawReporter) July 27, 2018
Thanks you to everyone who came today! Both @lawbore and I were so inspired by your motivation and engagement. Thank you! #legaldesign2018 🍰 🎉👏🏻 pic.twitter.com/BTroJgjX87
— Matt (@JustisMatt) July 26, 2018
This is cool work mentoring #LegalDesign at @cassbusiness with @Justis_London #JDChillOut pic.twitter.com/lb5mB0plOn
— Janders Dean (@jandersdean) July 26, 2018
Contracts as comics! @lawbore kicking off #LegalDesign2018 pic.twitter.com/UrLpk0qkTv
— Jessica Brown (@JessicaCEBrown) July 26, 2018
We’re excited to be at the @CityLawSchool #LegalDesign2018 event to learn more about problems that can be tackled by #legaldesign and see how students take on the challenge (plus there are excellent buttons). Thanks to @lawbore and @JustisMatt for having us pic.twitter.com/88oeaQ1sYi
— LiPSS (@LiPsstrategy) July 26, 2018
The amazing Sandrine @method_inc talks us through tools to help with prototyping, collaboration and user testing #legaldesign #legaldesignsprint #useratthecentre pic.twitter.com/q26gfLgQo8
— Lawbore (@lawbore) July 26, 2018
