The Hong Kong representative team at the Global Legal Hackathon finals, held in New York in April, was one of the two winners of the public service category.

Decoding Law’s entry was supported by Asia Capital Markets Institute and Thomson Reuters, with supporting organisations FinTech Association of Hong Kong, HKU Faculty of Law, Cyberport, WHub, InvestHK, Korum Legal and Association of Corporate Counsel – Hong Kong.

The final round featured 14 teams narrowed down from an estimated 5,000 participants from 22 countries across the world. Decoding Law, a tool that helps understand statutory language, and the RightsNow team from New York won the public service award. 

The Hong Kong access-to-justice solution was created over a weekend by a team of law students from the University of Hong Kong Hong and the Chinese University of Hong Kong, together with software developers, data scientists and AI researchers, at Hong Kong’s first LegalTech and RegTech hackathon. 

“Decoding Law is an inspiring idea, enabling lay people to cut through legalese and understand the law and its implications for themselves, where and when they need assistance. This service should be available in every jurisdiction,” said George Beaton, co-author of Remaking Law Firms: How and Why, who was one of the judges.