Dentons partners with UiPath and Proservartner in the FT Innovative Lawyers – Global Legal Hackathon Challenge to assist charities and not-for-profits during COVID-19

London—Dentons, the world's largest law firm, has partnered with UiPath, the leading enterprise Robotic Process Automation (RPA) software company, and Proservartner to develop a solution to assist the not-for-profit and charitable sectors during the COVID-19 pandemic. The project forms part of the Financial Times (FT) Innovative Lawyers – Global Legal Hackathon Challenge, which ran online from 27 April to 22 May.

Organised by Global Legal Hackathon, and supported by FT Innovative Lawyers, the hackathon aims to bring together legal professionals, software developers, designers and businesspeople to develop solutions to the urgent legal, business, government and social problems facing the world caused by the coronavirus crisis. 

The Dentons, UiPath and Proservartner team have developed "Helping Hand", a technology-driven tool to resolve challenges facing the not-for-profit and charitable sectors. Helping Hand helps to solve the main issues affecting charities in light of COVID-19 - namely access to information, access to volunteers and access to donations. It does this by providing charities with free licences for automation software (including, email filing, invoice processing, and legal information) and digital platforms for engaging volunteers. For more information, please view the project gallery here. 

Andy Lucas, London-based partner and UK head of Dentons' Technology, Media and Telecoms (TMT) department, said, "We're excited to apply our product development skills to expand our relationship with UiPath and Proservartner to create an efficient, technology-driven tool, which will enable charities and not-for-profits around the world to unlock resources in an efficient and actionable manner. Harnessing the power of technology is critical to enable organisations to navigate through these challenging times, and we wanted to set out to help the not-for-profit and charitable sectors, which have leaner resources and beneficiaries and need support more than ever."

Martin Fanning, London-based partner and UK TMT sector head, said, "From discussions with a number of charities, we have identified the key challenges that COVID-19 poses to them to be: access to information; access to volunteers; and access to donations. The Dentons, UiPath and Proservartner team have been developing a volunteering marketplace to connect charities with what they need in order to resolve these three access challenges in an era of social distancing and financial hardship."

Ioana Vieru, Global Legal Corporate VP at UiPath, said, “We are thrilled and proud to be part of this amazing team, which has created in the past couple of weeks a solution built on our platform that is fully tailored to the current needs of NGOs. At the same time, this is a valuable tool for volunteers who might want to contribute but find it hard to grapple with mobility challenges. What makes the product unique is that although it was tailored to connect and accommodate the challenges faced by NGOs and volunteers, the concept can be used in any other area, is scalable and can be deployed globally. All in all, it is a remarkable example of how RPA can enable anyone to transform a crisis situation into a success story.”

Rakesh Sangani, Proservartner Founder and Chief Executive, said, "In these challenging times, where the most vulnerable require all of our support, we are excited to have worked with Dentons and UiPath in combining legal knowhow, product excellence and our process and technology capability, to develop an automation led solution which will benefit not for profit sectors. In a short timeframe the multidisciplinary team has built a unique marketplace leveraging next gen technology that simply provides a "helping hand" – through connecting those that want to give their time and support to good causes, to those that need that assistance! The prospect of creating this new way of operating for not for profit organisations, can reduce costs, generate more donations and ultimately focus staff on the tasks that matter."

About Dentons

Dentons is the world's largest law firm, delivering quality and value to clients around the globe. Dentons is a leader on the Acritas Global Elite Brand Index, a BTI Client Service 30 Award winner and recognized by prominent business and legal publications for its innovations in client service, including founding Nextlaw Enterprise, Dentons’ wholly owned subsidiary of innovation, advisory and technology operating units. Dentons' polycentric approach, commitment to inclusion and diversity and world-class talent challenge the status quo to advance client interests in the communities in which we live and work. www.dentons.com.