November Events
Sophia Thurston ·
Find our November events here!
OpenJustice is partnering on HSG’s first legal hackathon (Nov 7–8)
The University of St. Gallen is hosting its first-ever Legal Hackathon on November 7–8, and OpenJustice is one of the event partners alongside Stanford CodeX, HSG’s Law & Tech Lab, the Legal Design & Code Lab, and the Future Society Hub.
The format is 24 hours of building AI-powered tools for real legal problems in teams of up to 4. Sponsors set the challenges, with tracks covering contract analysis, legal research, access to justice, legal design, efficient processes, and regulatory intelligence. Some of those should look very familiar around here!
Good to know:
- Free, with all meals included
- You don’t need to code: teams need legal, technical, and design skills
- Only 100 spots, first come, first served
- Open to University of St. Gallen students only
If you’re at HSG or know someone who is, send them this! https://www.legalhackathons.org/
AI for Access Hackathon
Powercoders x Tech & Beyond event in Bern (Nov 20–21)
Another legal-AI-adjacent hackathon is coming up in Switzerland. Powercoders, a non-profit that helps refugees and migrants get into tech, is celebrating its 10th anniversary with the AI for Access Hackathon, co-hosted with Tech & Beyond.
The theme is “access” in two senses: AI that opens up access to things like healthcare, law, education, and work for everyone, and AI tools that let domain experts build working prototypes without needing to code.
That second point is the big one: no coding required. The whole event is built around domain experts, designers, and students pairing up with AI tools like Claude, Cursor, and Lovable, with “AI Sherpas” on hand to help you build. Legal folks, this is your hackathon too.
One of the example challenges is Access Law, which is about making legal questions understandable for everyday people, covering tenant law, labour law, and insurance. Domain mentors from law will also be on site. You can bring your own idea too, as long as you submit it as a challenge ahead of time.
The details:
- Stadtkloster Frieden, Bern
- Friday evening kickoff + a 10-hour hack day on Saturday
- Free, with catering included
- Teams of 3–5; come solo and find a team Friday night
- Prize pool of up to CHF 8,000
- Bilingual (German & English)
- Only 100 spots
Unlike the St. Gallen hackathon, this one isn’t limited to students at a particular school. If you’re in or near Switzerland, it’s worth grabbing a spot: https://hackathon.powercoders.org/en/