From 13 – 15 March 2026, Bucerius MLB student Kaitlin Bakken took part in the three-day LWOW Sprint event held at the NOVA School of Business and Economics in beautiful Carcavelos, Portugal. During 3 intense and challenging days, participants were assigned to talented and multidisciplinary teams composed of a mix of intergenerational legal and business professionals, academics, and law/business school students from around the world.
The teams were sponsored by corporate legal departments, law firms or law/legal tech companies and worked together to solve real business-of-law problems or social responsibility challenges.
The Law Without Walls Sprint 2026 was taught with the innovative and now established 3-4-5 method (3 Phases-48 Hacking Hours-5 Stages) and included collaboration exercises, intensive hacking as well as a mini-composium. Kaitlin spoke to us about her experience.
What attracted you to participate in Law Without Walls?
I was attracted to Law Without Walls because it brings together students and professionals from legal, business and technological backgrounds and offers a genuinely international and interdisciplinary experience. The opportunity to work in intergenerational teams and tackle complex, real‑world problems was particularly engaging.
I was especially interested in the focus on legal design, innovation and creative problem‑solving, and in learning how to approach problems more thoughtfully before moving to solutions. Bringing this learning to life during the in‑person Sprint at NOVA Law School in Carcavelos, Portugal made the experience especially engaging and memorable.
What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when thinking about your LWOW experience?
Intense – LWOW was an intense, immersive and high energy experience, in the best possible way. We were pushed to think differently, sit with uncertainty and to work closely with people from different professional and cultural backgrounds. It felt much closer to a real in‑house or commercial environment than anything I had experienced in traditional legal education, and that’s what made it so memorable.
How intensive was the preparation for the pitches?
LWOW was a true sprint. Contrary to what you might expect, most of our time was spent really delving into the problem question, rather than working on the pitch. This ultimately helped us formulate a strong solution, by really understanding the problem. The preparation for the pitches was intense because we had such a short time to pull it all together.
For the students, the preparation really began weeks before the sprint, during the pre‑sprint learning phase, where we learnt about the innovation and legal design process. However, once we were in the in‑person sprint, everything accelerated. Ideas evolved rapidly, expectations shifted, and we had to constantly balance clarity, innovation, and practicality. It was challenging but very rewarding.
Tell us more about your LWOW Sprint challenge.
Our Sprint challenge, sponsored by iManage and called “Lost in Translation,” focused on the gap between what legal technology can do and how it’s actually used in practice. The challenge went beyond technology itself and really looked at behaviour, incentives, trust, and adoption within legal organisations.
We were working with real stakeholders and real constraints, which made the problem feel very grounded. As someone with experience in private practice and an interest in legal innovation, I found it particularly engaging. Our solution, iManage Pulse, aimed to make the value of legal technology visible and measurable so that adoption could be driven strategically from the top, while still respecting how lawyers actually work.
What inspired you most during this tournament?
What inspired me most was the power of genuine collaboration when people are willing to challenge each other constructively. The best ideas didn’t come from one person or one discipline – they emerged through discussion, disagreement and reframing the problem together.
It really reinforced my belief that lawyers can be creative and that innovation happens when you create space for different perspectives. That insight feels especially relevant for an in‑house role, where influence, communication, and collaboration are just as important as legal expertise.
Will you stay in touch with your team members?
Definitely. One of the most valuable aspects of LWOW was the network. Going through such an intense, collaborative experience creates genuine professional relationships and the tightness of the LWOW community really showed, with many returning for their third, fourth or fifth sprint.
It is a network I value both personally and professionally, and one I look forward to staying connected with into the future.
