ABOUT
Hack the Law is an initiative of King's Entrepreneurship Lab at the University of Cambridge. The initiative began with 2024 LLM x Law Hackathon, which was the first expansion of well-established initiative run by CodeX, the Stanford Center for Legal Informatics.
What is Hackathon?
Hackathons are fast-paced, high-energy events where diverse participants collaborate to develop software solutions within a limited timeframe, often competing for prizes.
In this focused environment, teams experiment and solve problems rapidly, developing prototypes that challenge conventional approaches and expand technological boundaries.
Our hackathon primarily targets interdisciplinary students because their diversity, unconventional thinking and exposure to cutting-edge technologies brings fresh perspectives to longstanding problems in the legal industry.
We believe that by blending student creativity with modern technology and industry expertise, hackathons can lead to breakthrough innovations that transform both the legal market and society at large.
Inaugural LLM x Law Hackathon (2024)
The Hackathon attracted a diverse group of students from multiple fields including STEM, law, business, linguistics and history.
Over 150 participants attended, travelling to Cambridge from 12 countries and representing 33 universities.
The Hackathon was also attended by leading firms in law, tech, and LegalTech, as well as from the public sector. This highlighted not only an enthusiasm for LegalTech but also an exploratory and collaborative spirit in the field.
For more information, click here.
LLM x Law Hackathon 2.0 (2025)
Besides the hackathon for students, we introduced a startup track for entrepreneurs with legaltech projects alongside the existing student hacker track. Ten projects (of which 4 were local hackathon winners) from the UK, San Francisco, Canada, and Europe pitched to a panel of incubators, accelerators and VC funds actively investing in legaltech.
This year, we welcomed students from 43 universities travelling from 14 countries on the hacker track. For the first time, they could also compete for “Access to Justice” cash prize. Award winning teams refined their pitch with the help of a professional PM and presented their refined work at LegalTechTalk, a major industry conference with over 4,000 attendees. To keep the hackathon projects open source we launched a “Hack the Law” GitHub repository.
Lightning talks evolved into a mini-conference featuring 18 presentations on law × AI from diverse perspectives. For hackers, we organised pre-hackathon technical workshops to familiarise them with available tools.
We established partnerships with local sponsors who funded teams to travel to Cambridge from Germany, Netherlands, Slovenia, Czechia, and Singapore.
The event attracted 250 participants across all tracks and the conference.
HACK THE LAW 3.0 (2026)
In its third edition, the initiative outgrew the hackathon alone. We expanded our focus to include a full-day conference, co-shaped with Clifford Chance, on the theme of trusting AI in high-stakes legal domains. Speakers came from law firms, legal AI providers, tech firms, policy and the public sector, and academia. All free of charge and open to all.
We also introduced a research competition, enabling one student a funded one-month placement at Stanford liftlab. In doing so, Hack the Law is becoming an open space not only for fast-minded builders but also for thought leaders and research-oriented students working at the cutting edge of what comes next.
On the hackathon itself, we introduced a popular vote, giving the community a say in the outcome—reflecting the collaborative spirit that sits at the heart of what we do.
We welcomed over 300 participants travelling from 24 countries.
Beyond the hackathon
The LLM x Law Hackathon is just one of many activities at King’s Entrepreneurship Lab. Visit kingselab.org to learn more about our entrepreneurial initiatives in Cambridge.
