LAWCĀT

LEARN LEGALEASE

Independent R&D , Product Strategy, Legal Tech • AI, UX/UI, Fullstack Development

Lawcāt, a play on the word “locate”, explores an adaptive approach to legal learning, combining bite-sized education, AI, active practice & wellbeing in one evolving learning environment.

I designed & developed the first working prototype in less than 10 days as my software engineering capstone, immediately after placing third in a 24-hour AI-Google Hackathon challenge.

<10 DAYS

concept → working prototype

AI-INTEGRATED

ChatGPT-API embedded into legal learning

END-TO-END

Strategy → Design → Development

The Challenge

Legal learning rarely starts where the learner is

A first-year student, an internationally trained lawyer entering a new jurisdiction and someone encountering law for the first-time bring radically different knowledge & needs.

My own experience studying & training in law in the UK before navigating Canadian accreditation exposed this gap.

Lawcāt asks: what if legal education adapted to the learner instead?

The concept was designed to support people across stages - from legal literacy to law school, professional practice & cross-jurisdiction qualification.

The Approach

Build around the learner, not the curriculum

(1) Start with what they know

Rather than beginning everyone at the same point, Lawcāt was conceived to adapt content, difficulty & learning pathways according to existing knowledge, jurisdiction & goals.

(2) Use AI with purpose

ChatGPT was integrated directly into the prototype to translate complex legal terminology into accessible definitions that learners could save for later.

The wider vision explored adaptive questioning, feedback & practical simulations, with AI supporting learning rather than replacing human judgment.

(3) Turn learning into practice

The prototype combined concise course material with saved terminology, quizzes & progress tools.

The broader concept extended this into gamified exercises for skills such as interviewing, critical thinking, drafting & advocacy.

(4) Design for sustainable learning

An integrated Pomodoro timer introduced focus periods, breaks & notifications directly into the learning experience.

Wellbeing shouldn’t sit outside the learning system.

The Prototype

Built from concept to working product in less than 10 days

The V1 prototype included:

Bite-Sized legal learning: sample NCA course material structured for focused study

AI terminology: ChatGPT-generated explanations of complex legal concepts

Saved knowledge: definitions persisted for future reference

Knowledge testing: dynamic quizzes reinforced comprehension

Focus tools: a configurable Pomodoro timer with pause functionality & notifications

Learner accounts: Google authentication, account settings & progress information

I built the application in React, using Firebase authentication and Firestore - a non-relational database I taught myself for the project after training primarily in SQL.

The Vision

From legal literacy to lifelong legal learning

Lawcāt was never intended to stop at exam preparation.

The larger vision was for one learning environment to evolve alongside its user:

LAYPERSON → STUDENT → PROFESSIONAL → NEW JURISDICTION → CONTINUOUS DEVELOPMENT

A learner moving from the UK to Canada, for example, wouldn’t need to start again. Lawcāt could identify what they already understand, surface jurisdictional differences & focus learning where it matters.

The prototype opened doors beyond the bootcamp. I pitched Lawcāt to leaders in legal education and innovation, including the CEO of Queen Mary University of London’s Innovation Centre, the Director of its Legal Advice Centre & a former Chief Scientific Officer at Barclays, before developing the concept further through the LawtechUK Builder Programme.