The Innovation Challenge '22 was the ultimate opportunity for colleagues from all departments and offices to solve a real business challenge through co-creation and technology. Supported by technology experts from Microsoft, Avanade and Thomson Reuters, and internal innovation advisers and legal engineers, all teams worked in a three-day pressure cooker at the heart of Amsterdam to build their own prototype solutions.

After pitching their solutions to a jury of in- and external experts on stage at the iconic Zuiderkerk, the winning team was chosen. Team digital legal project management won the Innovation Award ’22, as well as funding and support to further build and launch their solution in the firm.  

Watch the video below to see the highlights from this year’s Innovation Challenge.  


Digital legal project management 


The winning team of Belgian and Dutch colleagues built a sustainable solution to improve digital legal project management for clients and colleagues, that can be integrated into the existing Microsoft Teams platform. The solution improves project management, specifically transactions, between and across practice groups and home markets. On top of that, the solution is built to improve the user experience by providing clear overviews of transaction and litigation processes, reducing email traffic and synchronising Microsoft Teams and iManage. “Thanks to the hard work of our team, digital legal project management within our firm will be revolutionised. Valuable time will be saved and client relationships will be vastly improved. We are beyond excited”, says Jan-Willem van Rooij, Partner at Loyens & Loeff and sponsor of the winning team. 

The first-ever Loyens & Loeff hackathon 


How to better create valuable solutions that will help both our clients and our colleagues sustainably than putting all our people at the heart of innovation? That was the starting point of organising the first-ever Loyens & Loeff hackathon; the first law and tax hackathon in continental Europe. 

Six business challenges, that when solved would benefit our clients and the firm long-term, were carefully selected. All colleagues were invited to form a team and apply to solve one of the six challenges. Eventually six finalist teams who could compete in the hackathon were chosen. “The involvement of our dedicated Technology & Innovation department and ecosystem partners Microsoft, Avanade, Thomson Reuters and Litera ensured for an event of co-creation, learning and fun, with desirable, viable and impactful solutions as a result”, concludes Bram Linnartz, Managing Partner at Loyens & Loeff. 

What’s next 


The digital legal project management team will start to build their solution immediately. The other five prototype solutions also have real potential to improve our client services and make internal processes more efficient, which is why the Technology & Innovation department is investigating how they can be brought to life in the near future too.