What is your academic and professional background?
I’m a Dutch law student pursuing an LLM in International Technology Law. Alongside my studies, I work at Moonlit - Intelligence for Justice , an Amsterdam-based legal-tech startup, where I explore new use cases for AI in legal research and handle Moonlit's compliance. I’m especially interested in tools that can genuinely improve how lawyers reason, write, and deliver advice.
Why did you choose to participate in the AI, Legal Tech and Operations summer program?
I’ve been very curious about the intersection of AI and law for a few years, and I wanted to participate in a summer program where I would meet like-minded people and learn more about legal tech. AI, Legal Tech & Operations felt like the perfect fit.
In addition to wanting to learn more about history, theory and context, I wanted to understand how innovation actually happens in legal work. After seeing the courses and program, it was an easy yes!
How did the Berlin Study Trip contribute to the learning experience in the program?
The Berlin trip landed in week two, and built on the first two weeks of foundations on the complexity of law, legal workflows, and how to think about AI in legal. Especially, our visit to Flightright showed very clearly how a focused use case (flight delay claims) plus a hybrid model (AI/ML-driven tools alongside lawyers) can help consumers exercise their rights.
The whole study trip connected the classroom to practice, and of course, we looked forward to having a night out in Berlin.
You participated in the first summer program hackathon this year. Can you tell us about the experience?
The hackathon was the highlight of the program for me. I was responsible for tech in our team and we built 'Simplify', a tool that helps small business owners make sense of local rules and regulations. After Daniel Katz’s session on natural-language coding with Claude Code, we were able to turn our idea into a working prototype over the two days.
In our demo, a founder uploaded a business plan (a small brewery in Argentina), and Simplify produced a short report with the likely steps, costs, and timeline to get compliant, then linked them to a lawyer in that niche. The hackathon really pulled the whole course together: take a real problem, think of a solution, and build something useful with the team, great experience!
How was studying in such a diverse group beneficial to the learning experience?
Studying in such a diverse group was a large contributor of the experience as a whole for me. I was the youngest of the 30 participants, which was honestly a great position to be in. I've learned a lot from people who were (way) more experienced and received a lot of great advice.
Early on I met a peer, who, like me, was interested in using AI for coding and creating simple micro-solutions, so we started building and learned a lot by trial and error. Because everybody was so diverse in this group (different countries, age, careers and experience), all that diversity made us equal. I learned more in these three weeks than I could've hoped for.
What new knowledge are you going to put into practice?
There are three things I learned that I've put straight into practice. First, we learned to identify the exact tasks in a legal workflow that tech can improve, and then use automation and AI to take the routine parts off a lawyer’s plate.
Building on this new knowledge, the vibe coding approach showed me how to spin up a small prototype quickly instead of just talking about ideas. And third, from multiple courses, I learned a better way to think about legal innovation: start with the user, co-design with lawyers, test small, and build what they actually need, not what I assume they want.
What is the most interesting thing you learned academically and personally during the summer program?
Academically, I left with a much clearer picture of why Europe regulates AI the way it does. The regulation-focused courses built on my LLM foundation and sharpened my sense of what’s possible, and how to work with EU rules when trying to innovate in legal practice.
Personally, Valérie Saintot's class on imaginative thinking stuck with me: don’t manage what you already know, manage what you don’t, Valérie called this “ignorance management.” That mindset now guides how I scope use cases, ask better questions, and decide what to learn next.
Who would you recommend the program to?
To anyone who has even the slightest interest in legal technology and innovation in the legal profession. It’s for people who not only want to learn but also want to put new knowledge into practice. Law students, lawyers, operations people, developers and anyone who’s curious about innovation in a fast-moving, exciting field.
The combination of courses by highly experienced academics and professionals, the company visits in Berlin, and the diversity of the group all contribute to gaining an indispensable, complete perspective of the global legal tech landscape. In addition, Hamburg is a beautiful city with endless possibilities, which made the program even more enjoyable.
Is there anything else you would like to share with future international students at Bucerius?
Once you join Bucerius, you join a huge, welcoming network of open-minded people from law firms, legal-tech startups, companies, and universities around the world. If you’re curious and want to meet like-minded people, you’ll get a lot out of it.
The campus is beautiful, the program is organised very well, and the city of Hamburg is great. I'd participate again in an instance!
Jonne, thank you for the interview.
