First edition of student challenge Shake the Law

With a view to encouraging the emergence of young talent, Gide launched, under the impetus of its Gide 255 team, the “Shake the Law” challenge dedicated to law and innovation, in partnership with business magazine Challenges. The creativity and commitment of the candidates, as well as the unwavering involvement of the jury, composed of players active in the innovative economy, made their mark on this first edition. 

Lookback on the major stages of “Shake the Law”

Candidates had one month (from 8 January to 8 February 2020) to set up a multidisciplinary two-person team and send in their application, which included their CV and a two-minute video on the topic “Your team for law & innovation: why you make a difference”.

The jury, made up of Hélène Boulet-Supau (FabWorkplace), François Bracq (Google France), Arnaud Caudoux (BPI France), Sarah-Diane Eck (Surprise, France Digitale), Pierre-Henri de Menthon (Challenges),  Franck Guiader (Gide 255) and Stéphane Puel (Gide), then selected four teams they wished to see in action:

• Team 1 | Timothée Le Page (Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne – HEC Paris) & Simon Abad (Prép’ENA Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne – ENS)
   
• Team 2 | Laura Broto & Eléonore Champierre de Villeneuve (EDHEC – UCL)
   
• Team 3 | Elsa Le Guen (HEC Paris – Sciences Po Paris) & Paul-Emile Dugnat (Polytechnique – HEC Paris)
   
• Team 4 | Guillaume Poupot (Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne – HEC Paris) & Lucas Lescou (Arts et Métiers engineering school)•

The final of the first edition of Shake The Law took place on 22 June 2020. The eight candidates, hailing from varied higher education curricula, worked on “European Commission, Digital Age and Artificial Intelligence“. They all brilliantly defended their ideas for 15 minutes before the jury, and two teams eventually emerged:

• Team Elsa Le Guen & Paul-Emile Dugnat, winner of the challenge, takes EUR 6,000 in prize money and an internship at Gide. They give their feedback on the challenge here (in French)
   
• Team Laura Broto & Eléonore Champierre de Villeneuve wins second prize and joins Gide on an internship. Read the written version of their presentation here (in French) 

“The Shake the Law challenge was the opportunity to think of future talent and the firm of tomorrow. Candidates from different universities and fields of specialisation worked together on a complex topic and showed that the law and innovation go hand in hand. They are the voice of a new generation that is fully involved in innovation. We would like to heartily thank the members of our jury who helped select the best teams from among prestigious profiles.” Stéphane Puel, Gide Managing Partner

“We are delighted with this first edition and the quality of the pitches we were lucky enough to witness. The candidates quickly grasped the topic. The surprising ideas they came up with were drawn from their complementary backgrounds in engineering, law and business, and were testament to their high level of maturity. This demonstrates that innovation in the practice of the law is essential, and that the new generation of legal players is well and truly here!” Franck Guiader, Head of Gide 255.

Feedback on the challenge: 

• “Students (X, HEC, Sciences Po) find a way to save AI in Europe”: read the column in Challenges (in French)
• “Law: two students of HEC win the law & innovation competition “Shake the Law””: read the article in L’Etudiant (in French)