Disrupting Law is a legal startup competition/hackathon for university students organised by The Legal Forecast students from law, business and technology.

Uni SA hosted the South Australian leg of the competition over the weekend of 10-11 August. The event saw students split into teams and partner with academic and industry mentors to develop innovative solutions to current legal problems. The event culminated in a high-octane ‘pitch night’ on the Sunday where the teams delivered their amazing ideas to a panel of esteemed judges in legal, start-up and tech industries.

Adelaide Law School was one of the mentoring institutions, and academic staff members Anna Olijnyk, Mark Brady, Alex Reilly and Mark Giancaspro worked with their assigned team to help them develop and refine their interesting new project. The group designed a phone app with interactive, regional dialect-specific map of SA containing information and support contacts for those living in the state’s remote indigenous communities.

The app was specifically designed to address concerns with traditional support services identified by those living in remote indigenous communities (desire to avoid face-to-face discussions, more accessible and less confusing help resources etc.). The app would accommodate recordings from SA’s 30 or so Aboriginal communities and provide universally understood symbology to convey meaning and link to more detailed information and support services. The app featured easy ‘press to call’ features and had a basic flowing layout for simple navigation. The group named the app after an indigenous word for ‘friend’.

The judging panel crowned them winners, particularly commending the group’s thorough design and funding strategies. The team will now move on to the national event later this year, with details to come in September.