Weightmans takes part in Support48 to generate solutions to legal challenges arising from Ukraine conflict

A team of 21 Weightmans lawyers took part in a virtual ideas sprint hosted by LawSchool2.0, working to generate solutions to the legal challenges arising from the conflict in Ukraine. 

Support48 ran from 18th to 20th March, and saw eight teams look closely at the barriers and challenges faced by those fleeing Ukraine, and by the organisations and lawyers seeking to assist them. 

The sprint brought together a community of people wanting to put their skills to use to support those affected by the war. Throughout the challenge, participants were guided through the process of initial problem framing, and solution creation and adoption, with recorded talks from LawSchool 2.0's LegalTech Vacation Scheme, hosted last summer. 

Annabel Pemberton, Co-Founder of Law School 2.0, said: “I currently live and work in Prague, where many have Ukrainian friends. In times like this, sometimes it is the aggregated effort of many people that can make a difference. We hope through bringing skills together for Support48 and the next solution building phases, we can coordinate and spark change in such an awful situation.”

The Weightmans team worked around the clock to create ‘Instruction+’, a Neota-based tool to help immigration lawyers by reducing the time it takes to gather initial information for a person's claim.

When discussing the solution from Team Weightmans, CTO of Weightmans Stuart Whittle, said: “A great initiative by Law School 2.0 and it was fascinating working with a diverse group of people within our firm all of whom have very different experiences and ideas. We even had a former refugee share her perspective. I really hope that the ideas coming out of the weekend can be turned in to something that is actually useful and solving some of the real world problems that the Ukrainian refugees are experiencing right now.”

In addition to Weightmans’ solution, participants will now work with BRYTER, Addleshaw Goddard and Neota to turn their ideas into deployable solutions to help those who need it most.

While participants received a live demo of the functionalities of BRYTER during the challenge, the no-code legal technology startup will now assist teams in building their solutions over the coming weeks.