This virtual competition, presented in partnership with Lagniappe Law Lab and LSNTAP, offers selected teams funded build access and hands-on support. Applications open today.

 

VANCOUVER, BC – September 21, 2026 — LawDroid today announced the LawDroid Hackathon, a virtual, global, open-source competition presented in partnership with Lagniappe Law Lab and the Legal Services National Technology Assistance Project (LSNTAP). The hackathon challenges the people working closest to the access-to-justice crisis to design and build technology that helps close it. Applications open today.

 

Lagniappe Law Lab helps Louisiana’s civil justice community scale its impact, while LSNTAP helps legal aid organizations improve client services through technology. Together with LawDroid, they are seeking ideas from people who see the justice gap up close. The hackathon is geared toward individuals and organizations working in access to justice, though anyone with a thoughtful idea for courts, legal aid, or those they serve may apply.

The need is well documented. LSC’s 2022 Justice Gap Report found that low-income Americans did not receive any or enough legal help for 92% of their civil legal problems. Globally, the World Justice Project’s 2025 Rule of Law Index ranks the United States 112th out of 143 countries for accessibility and affordability of civil justice—a drop of more than 40 places since 2015.

The hackathon began with an idea from Sateesh Nori, Chief Legal Futurist at LawDroid. “This hackathon is a way to unlock the ideas and experience of those who are on the ground for access to justice, and turn them into solutions,” Nori said. 

This is not a race to write the most code or a contest for polished products. Applicants need only a clear problem and a point of view. Ideas might make courts easier to navigate, extend the reach of legal aid, or prioritize plain language—and the best idea may be one no one has imagined yet. LawDroid will review ideas first, then invite selected teams to build. Teams may apply together by submitting a single application that names their organization or team.

 “The true democratization of prototyping through AI tools is a paradigm shift for access to justice,” said Amanda Brown, Executive Director at Lagniappe Law Lab. “With these tools, anyone who deeply understands a problem—and fundamentally believes things don’t have to be the way they’ve always been—can raise the floor for all of us.”

The effort also arrives as the sector calls for more experimentation. LSC’s 2024–2025 Technology Summit Report recommends that LSC lead responsible AI innovation by promoting experimentation, collaboration, and shared tools across the access to justice community, and that it support the modernization of self-help tools for self-represented litigants. The LawDroid Hackathon, in which every project will be open-sourced, aligns with both priorities. 

The hackathon is the latest step in LawDroid’s follow-through on “The Year to Build,” the theme of the LawDroid AI Conference 2026 in April, alongside the free, open-source Legal Aid Plugin and the A2JRAG research developed with Scheree Gilchrist, Chief Innovation Officer at Legal Aid of North Carolina.

 “We’re not watching from the sidelines,” said Tom Martin, CEO & Founder of LawDroid. “We’re in the game with legal aid, courts, and A2J advocates, building with them, not just for them, because none of us can do this alone.”

 Participation is fully virtual, so teams anywhere in the world can take part. Ideas are due by October 21. Selected teams will be announced on October 28 and will begin a funded build phase on October 30, receiving LawDroid-funded Replit build access and direct support from the LawDroid team, Amanda Brown, and Shellie Reid as they turn an idea on a page into a working demo. Teams will submit working prototypes and video pitches/demos by January 22, 2027. Judges will review the submissions and choose three finalists, who will present live in the first week of February. The judges will then name a Winner, Runner-Up, and Honorable Mention, each of whom will receive a commemorative award, public recognition, and bragging rights. Dates are currently planned, and selected teams will receive final details directly.

 The judges are Tom Martin, CEO & Founder of LawDroid; Sateesh Nori, Chief Legal Futurist at LawDroid; David Gray, Business Director at LawDroid; Amanda Brown, Executive Director at Lagniappe Law Lab; and Shellie Reid, Program Manager at LSNTAP. Additional judges may be named before selections.

 All hackathon projects will be open-sourced, so courts, legal aid organizations, developers, and others can learn from, adapt, and build upon the work. The goal is bigger than a single competition: to create technology that continues to improve access to justice long after the hackathon ends.

 “Today’s low code and no code tools mean that the old hackathon model needed to be updated,” said Shellie Reid, Program Manager at LSNTAP. “I can’t wait to see what the community creates.”

 In the push to close the justice gap, the real win is bigger than any single award. It belongs to the clients and communities counting on us to deliver meaningful access to justice.

 

Learn more and apply at https://lawdroidhackathon.com/.

 

About LawDroid
LawDroid is a justice tech company powering AI solutions for legal aid organizations, court systems, and government agencies, helping expand access to justice through responsible AI, open technology, and innovation. Widely known for generative AI, voice agents, legal information assistants, client intake, document automation, and implementation consulting, LawDroid enables justice-focused organizations to serve more people with limited resources while guiding communities from legal problems to actionable solutions.

LawDroid also contributes to the broader access-to-justice community through open-source tools like the Legal Aid Plugin and research initiatives like A2JRAG, designed to expand the reach of legal AI to organizations and people most often overlooked by mainstream legal technology. For more than 10 years, LawDroid has partnered with organizations on the front lines of access to justice, helping expand impact and empower underserved communities across the United States.

 

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Media Contact:

David Gray

Director, Business & Strategy

david@lawdroid.com