Discovering legal design: 5 easy ways

Legal design has gained attention in recent years. It refers to the use of design in the legal domain to create user-centred legal solutions. In this post, we will discuss five ways to learn what legal design is. Learning something new can be challenging, but there are often easy ways to get started. Regarding legal design, numerous resources are available to help you learn about the field and explore its possibilities. By taking advantage of these resources, you can quickly start your legal design journey and unlock the potential to transform the legal industry.

1. Discover examples of Legal Design projects

There are many examples of legal design projects available on the internet that can help us understand what legal design is and how it can be applied. For instance, the Stanford Legal Design Lab has numerous projects on its website (https://law.stanford.edu/organizations/pages/legal-design-lab/) that showcase the use of design thinking and principles in the legal industry to create user-centred legal solutions. They bring researchers in Law, design and technology together to pursue legal innovation.

The executive director of the lab, Margaret Hagan, offers excellent insights on legal design on her website (https://www.margarethagan.com) as well as a book prototype freely accessible online where she describes the keys to bring law and design together (https://lawbydesign.co).

2. Listen to podcasts

Podcasts are an excellent way to learn about legal design, and there are many great ones to choose from. For example, the Legal Design Podcast (https://legaldesignpodcast.com), hosted by Henna Tolvanen and Nina Toivonen, develops the subject through discussion and aims to “offer anyone interested in legal design a chance to learn with us”. Podcasts are a great way to hear from experts in the field and stay up to date with the latest trends and best practices in legal design.

3. Attend Legal Design Conferences and events

Attending legal design conferences and events is an excellent way to stay up to date with the latest trends and best practices in the field. These events bring together legal professionals, designers, and technologists to present and share their experiences and insights. Attending these events gives you a deeper understanding of legal design and its potential. Additionally, you can meet, ask questions and network with other passionate in the legal design community.

In Belgium, the Legal Design Roundtable is organised every year by UCLouvan (Louvain-la-Neuve & Saint-Louis) with the support of the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union. The 2023 edition was held last February. Stay tuned for next year’s!

4. Read legal design books and articles

There are several books and articles written about legal design that can help you understand the concept better including : 

• “Doing Sociolegal Research in Design Mode” by Amanda Perry-Kessaris (Routledge) https://www.routledge.com/Doing-Sociolegal-Research-in-Design-Mode/Perry-Kessaris/p/book/9780367177652

• “Legal Design. Integrating Business, Design and Legal Thinking with Technology” by Marcelo Corrales Compagnucci, Helena Haapio, Margaret Hagan and Michael Doherty (Edward Elgar) https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/legal-design-9781839107252.html

• “Design in Legal Education” by Emily Albon and Amanda Perry-Kessaris (Routledge) https://www.routledge.com/Design-in-Legal-Education/Allbon-Perry-Kessaris/p/book/9780367075798

• “The Rise of Legal Design” (Special Issue MIT Press Direct) https://direct.mit.edu/desi/issue/36/3

• “Visual Law and Legal Design: Questions and Tentative Answers” by Colette R. Brunschwig https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3795332

• "Legal Design for Practice, Activism, Policy and Research" by Amanda Perry-Kessaris https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3295671

• With authors made in UCLouvain, we suggest “Legal Design Perspectives: Theoretical and Practical Insights from the Field” by Rossana Ducato and Alain Strowel (https://www.ledipublishing.com/book/9788855265669/legal-design-perspectives/)

5. Follow legal design experts on social media

You are already following this account, so you are on the right track! Following legal design experts on social media is an excellent way to discover new trends and practices in legal design. Experts share their experiences and insights on various social media platforms. If you're going to hang out on your phone, you might as well learn something new.

Legal design is an exciting field that has the potential to transform the legal industry. Books, articles, podcasts, and the work of legal design communities provide valuable insights and resources on the subject and offer a better understanding of legal design and its potential to transform the legal industry. Those five ways are the easy way in. Still, there are many more, like joining legal design communities, taking online courses, participating in legal design challenges or hackathons, discovering legal design tools, and so on …

Incorporating legal design principles into legal practice can create innovative legal solutions that are user-centred and aesthetically improve the understanding of complicated subjects. These five ways to discover what legal design is will help you get started on your legal design journey.