Hackathons

In July 2024, more than 100 law firm partners, legal department leaders, and industry experts joined forces in our “Moments to Movements Hackathon” at the NYU School of Law Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging. 

Over five months, these leaders worked together in small teams – with guidance from in-house team leaders and DEI experts – to offer sustainable and scalable solutions to the following Hackathon challenges:

• Community: How can we defend and fortify DEI across the profession and in each organization to withstand downturns, leadership changes, anti-DEI rhetoric, and other headwinds?
• Inclusive Talent Systems: How can we improve workplace practices and processes to ensure fair and equal access to high-quality work, sponsors, and business/clients to level the playing field for all talent, including historically underrepresented lawyers?

   

The team’s solutions were pitched live to a panel of influential judges and an audience of 200+ leaders and evaluated on their potential for impact, adoption, and progress measurement.The solutions ranged from apps that empower individuals to take ownership and action for advancing inclusivity in law to tools for ensuring equitable distribution of high-visibility, quality work for career advancement. The solutions also included refreshed approaches for sponsorship opportunities that deepen business connections between in-house lawyers and their outside counsel firms.

Diversity Lab will further develop the winning idea and pilot it with participating law firms and legal departments.