Innovation Competition

The competition is now closed for 2023

About our Innovation Competition

Slaughter and May is dedicated to delivering the highest possible standards when serving our clients. This means ensuring that we are using new technologies, re-designing processes and adopting agile resourcing models when appropriate. The result is that the practice of law at Slaughter and May, and across the legal market, is changing, with new challenges revealing themselves all the time.

We invite future lawyers to join us in re-thinking legal service delivery by answering one of the following questions:

  1. An innovative culture is key to supporting advances in legal service delivery and technology adoption. How can law firms create and encourage such a culture?
  2. What opportunities does hybrid working present for collaboration between law firms and their clients? How can law firms learn from the move to hybrid working to innovate in other areas of legal service delivery?

The competition is now closed for 2023.

2023 Winning entry

The winner of the Innovation Competition 2023 is Modupe Allen, whose video game featured a fictional law firm, in which an employee learns from their colleagues about how to encourage an innovative culture.

Click here to see the winning entry. Please note that the link is to a video walkthrough of the game due to browser restrictions.

See our press release for information on the top four entries.

Background

Innovation is at the heart of Slaughter and May’s culture. We have a reputation for excellence that has been achieved thanks to the entrepreneurial spirit of our lawyers who constantly strive to deliver the best possible service for our clients. Today this might involve deploying an artificial intelligence powered contract review tool during the due diligence phase of an acquisition or using design thinking to reshape the way in which we deliver our output to the client.

We encourage all our employees and partners to get involved in our innovation initiatives (such as joining our Innovation Network and attending innovation training). The Slaughter and May Innovation Competition is intended to help students develop their creative thinking skills by considering what the future might look like for our lawyers and what the next big disruption might be.

The rules of the competition are set out below.

Eligibility

To enter, you must be enrolled as a current student at an educational institution on the deadline for submission of entries. Both full-time and part-time, law and non-law, undergraduate and post-graduate students (including Graduate Diploma in Law and Legal Practice Course students) are eligible to enter.

Competition Questions

Applicants are asked to submit a response to one of the following questions:

  1. An innovative culture is key to support advances in legal service delivery and technology adoption. How can law firms create and encourage such a culture?
  2. What opportunities does hybrid working present for collaboration between law firms and their clients? How can law firms learn from the move to hybrid working to innovate in other areas of legal service delivery?

We welcome your response in any format you deem appropriate (for example video, podcast, blog post, infographic, animation).

Entries should:

  • Display an understanding of the issues facing law firms in the city.
  • Be imaginative, creative and original in approach.
  • Be clear and concise.
  • Demonstrate attention to detail.
Prizes

A panel of members of our Innovation Network will judge the competition. The winners will receive the following prizes:

First prize:           

£1,000 and work experience*

Second prize:

£500

Third prize:

£250

*The first prize-winner will also have the opportunity to take part in a work placement within the Knowledge & Innovation team at Slaughter and May. To qualify for the work placement you will be required to demonstrate that you have the right to work in the UK. Individuals who cannot provide evidence of their right to work in the UK will only be eligible for the monetary prize.

Apply

The competition is now closed for 2023.

Additional rules

Slaughter and May has the right to publish or reproduce at any time all or part of any entries submitted. Slaughter and May reserve the right to delete or omit from any published article anything that in their absolute discretion should not be published on editorial or legal grounds.

The decision of the judging panel will be final. The result of the competition will be announced on our website.

The entry must be the sole creation and original work of the entrant.

Only one entry per person is allowed.

Contact

Please email [email protected] if you have questions about the competition.