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Deloitte Legal has entered into a partnership with U.K. entrepreneurship programme, Conception X, which works with PhD students to help them launch start-ups based on their research.

As part of the agreement, Deloitte Legal will become the exclusive legal and professional services partner for the programme.

According to Deloitte, enrolled students will be paired with mentors from across Deloitte Legal, Deloitte Ventures and other streams of the wider Deloitte accountancy firm, who will assist students in identifying application areas for nascent technology use. In return, Deloitte's experts will be able to gain access to new technology.

Conception X was launched in April last year as part of a collaboration between University College London's engineering faculty and Barclays' tech incubator, Eagle Labs. The nine-month programme works with teams to develop technological concepts across areas such as AI, quantum computing, blockchain and augmented reality.

In a statement, Chris Hardman, partner sponsor and lead for corporate and commercial law at Deloitte Legal, commented: "Combining students' deep technology expertise and problem solving skills with the vast industry knowledge of our legal and other professionals makes for a compelling collaboration.

"Together with Conception X, Deloitte Legal is looking to shape the future of law through research and development, working closely with the brightest minds in the country to create, grow and commercialise transformational solutions for the profession and beyond."

In December, Deloitte became the latest Big Four giant to launch its own legal technology incubator, Deloitte Legal Ventures, selecting 14 companies to join the first cohort of the program.

The move followed the launch of PwC's 10-week legaltech programme, 'Scale | LawTech', which was announced in May.