LDS Blog #2: From Proposals to Program - Creating the Legal Design Summit 2025
Legal Design Summit program is live! In this blog we pull back the curtain and share how we created the program - from our approach to what we learned along the way.
How we built the program
First, thank you to the brilliant team: Akvilė, Danielle, Katie, Marielle, Mia, Sade and Serena. For their collective effort over the last six months. It was a pleasure to work with a group of committed volunteers who, each in their own way, brought energy, creativity and curiosity to the process. Say hello and a big thank you when you see them in Helsinki! Building on the momentum of a remarkable 2023 Summit, we set out to do something bold for the fifth LDS: create an ambitious, advanced and future-looking program. To get there, we collaborated across the LDS team, embedded design thinking into our methods, and co-created with our community. Step-by-step, here’s how we built the program:
1. Brainstorming workshop
We kicked things off with a workshop with the LDS team to explore what our audiences needed and brainstorm possible themes. We mapped the legal design landscape through three lenses - the past, present, and future - and explored how those themes met the needs of different audiences, for example academics, practitioners, and participants new to the scene. One interesting thing we highlighted was the opportunity to create a stronger feedback loop between academic research and how legal design is being applied in practice. In addition to being good fun and a bit of an icebreaker for a new team, the workshop also gave us clear direction for the types of proposals we wanted to attract, highlighting themes from AI governance to access to justice to re-designing democracies. The workshop also identified opportunities for new content - this blog being one of them!
2. Call for speakers
We launched a public call for speaking proposals at the end of April 2025. This was open for one month and required submission of a Google form. The form included a series of questions, from motivations for speaking to a short summary of the proposal itself. We received over 70 proposals! The overall quality of the proposal was extremely high and we were impressed with the depth and breadth of the ideas and concepts. Thanks again to everyone who took the time to submit a proposal.
3. Reviewing proposals
To ensure fairness and quality, we designed a collaborative and robust review process. Every proposal was reviewed independently by at least two team members, using pre-agreed criteria and a shared scoring framework. We prioritised proposals that aligned with themes identified in the workshop and presented new, interesting, and original ideas. We welcomed proposals that were critical of legal design, as we highlighted this as an important intervention for the movement to continue building momentum. We dismissed proposals of a commercial nature. With 22 sessions to fill, we created an exhaustive shortlist of the top performing proposals. It took several brainstorming sessions to discuss the ideas and boil the number of proposals down. Making final decisions was definitely the hardest part of the process. In some cases, we noticed several strong proposals orbiting the same theme, so decided to combine their ideas into joint sessions.
4. Designing the program and confirming speakers
Once we had our shortlist, we started shaping the full program. We clustered the final set of proposals to find subtle narratives and identify themes that complemented each other. This was critical as we wanted to get the pacing and flow just right - making sure attendees would have a meaningful and engaging arc across the two days. Equally, we ensured a healthy balance between keynote speeches (20 mins) and fireside chats (30 mins), as well as coffee and lunch breaks. We confirmed the final speaker list at the end of May. Where we grouped proposals together, we scheduled calls to facilitate introductions, explain our rationale for creating joint sessions, and discuss their session. One team member commented that: “Creating fireside chats was one of our favorite parts of the process and we loved seeing speakers embrace the LDS spirit. One highlight was a panel meeting for the first time and immediately using a Miro board to find the common threads between their proposals and working collaboratively to brainstorm their session.”
What we created
We think we’ve created an exciting, innovative and diverse program. There are some familiar faces and, of course, returning legends. However, the majority of the program includes new people and perspectives ready to challenge and expand what legal design is and can be. Here’s the unfiltered breakdown across the two days:
- Day 1 is pure legal design, with a focus on its role and value across the profession. We’ll look at how legal design is shaping policy making, transforming legal services and grappling with generative AI - the sector’s biggest disruptor.
- Day 2 is about impact, and what legal design can do for people and the planet. The future of law is as much about social and nature value as it is about technology innovation, so sessions touch on big systemic issues, including sustainability, justice and education.
We also created something new: The LDS Gallery
We received so many incredible proposals this year, but unfortunately couldn’t fit everyone on the shortlist into the program. So we’re launching a new platform. A new space to showcase the important and inspirational work that the legal design community is shaping around the world. The gallery will be a digital exhibition, initially launched with a select group of contributors, with the aim of exhibiting legal design projects, experiences and case studies. The response so far has been very positive. When confirmed, one contributor said: “I’m excited by this new feature and truly appreciate the opportunity to showcase my work in this innovative format.” Our ambition is that the Gallery becomes the Louvre of Legal Design, and look forward to sharing the first iteration with you soon.
Final reflections - what we learned
- This was less about building an event schedule and more about writing the next chapter in the legal design story
- The quality, ambition and range of perspectives across the ecosystem is genuinely incredible and inspiring
- Embedding design thinking into our approach was our most valuable tool
Thanks again to everyone involved - see you in Helsinki in September!