Holland & Knight Builds First Idea from Innovation Hackathon

Litigation attorney Sydney Alexander and software developer Brandon Torres were interviewed by a Law360 article talking about their winning idea for Holland & Knight's 2022 "hackathon." Last year was the first edition of this competition in which attorneys across all practice teams brainstorm innovative solutions for their work problems. The winner was a web-based task and time management application called OneDeck. In addition to Ms. Alexander and Mr. Torres, winning team members included attorneys Leizl Hinajon, John Oliver and Steve Levitt. Software developer Ziggy Williamson and information technology director John Barney also served as advisers

"As an associate, you're managing multiple partners' cases at once, and you do one day working with one partner and the next working with another," Ms. Alexander said. "I wanted one platform, or one-stop shop, instead of looking at a calendar to look what upcoming deadlines on each day were needed to be my priority or focus."

The firm is currently evaluating whether a software with the same features as OneDeck is already in the market to purchase or if the innovation team can develop it in-house or hire another company to do it.

"The challenging part of software development is trying to get all these different tools to work in one place, but since we didn't have to go that far, developing the prototype was very easy as it was very visual as opposed to actually functioning," Mr. Torres said.

READ: Holland & Knight Builds First Idea from Innovation Hackathon (Subscription Required)