Agami Summit 2019: Over 300 “change makers” convene to contemplate the future of law and justice

The Agami Summit, 2019 was conducted at the Bangalore International Center (BIC) on November 29 and 30. This year, the theme of the summit was to touch, feel and shape the “Future of Systems of Law and Justice.”.Over the two days, the Agami community engaged with the biggest innovation opportunities in the field today. Dedicated sessions were held on the topics of prison reform, dispute resolution, affordable legal services, data-driven solutions and legal tech entrepreneurship, among many others..The two-day Agami Summit saw a crowd of over 300+ entrepreneurs and change makers interacting with each other. There were over 30 sessions held, including keynotes, exhibitions, innovator showcases, workshops, panels, presentations, quizzes..On this year’s summit, Agami co-founder Supriya Sankaran stated,.“The Agami Summit this year intended to create a common platform to make ideas that serve justice and represent optimistic voices from across sectors visible. By bringing changemakers from legal technology, civil society, law firms, media, art and design and government, and curating spaces for authentic dialogues, the Agami Summit sought to expand horizons of thinking and reframe how we approach wicked and old problems plaguing our systems of law and justice. All so that we commit to radical and not incremental change.”.At the summit, Agami announced that from next year onwards, the Agami Citizenship Prize would be renamed as the Shamnad Basheer Prize for Citizenship. The award will come with a cash prize of at least Rs. 10 lakh..Notably, for the first time in India, an attempt was made to bring about a change in the present prison system at the summit named Of People, Prisons and Wellbeing. 70 persons, including prison administrators, released prisoners, jailors and many others participated..Another session held at the summit centered on Online Dispute Resolution (ODR). Various e-commerce leaders, grassroots networks, global pioneers addressed the community and gave their insights on the topic. Further, a paper in a relation to the topic – ODR Opportunities in India – was also released at the Summit..Telling Stories of What Works was a panel discussion of senior voices in the media who discussed the dire need today for journalism that goes beyond problems to solutions and possibilities. This session was moderated by journalist Faye D’Souza..India’s first ever Justice-Tech Pop Up served as a space for entrepreneurs and innovators to demonstrate their innovative solutions for systems of law and justice. Some of the projects presented included Landryt, LUCI, JRTC Intern, LegalMind, Safecity etc..Also present at the summit was a Dataroom, in which data related to the justice delivery system was harvested, visualised and displayed. The data on offer explored issues such as gender imbalance in the judiciary, how law firms can use data to make better decisions around workflows and tech investments, how crime and punishment in Indian entertainment is perceived by the public, etc..The summit also brought together people from within and outside the legal profession to contemplate the various possibilities on how to make legal services affordable to all..Earlier, Agami had launched multiple initiatives such as the Agami Prize. The winners of Agami Data for Justice Challenge were declared in October this year.