There are worse ways to make a quick $10,000. Last July, global information services company Wolters Kluwer launched a new award recognizing innovators in the field of legal education with a nifty cash incentive attached for luck. In November 2018, it announced it's two winners.

According to a press release, the Leading Edge Prize for Educational Innovation targets groups that “demonstrated a vision for improving outcomes and educational opportunities for law school students and new associates.”

OK, so maybe not a “quick” $10,000.

The award was announced during Wolters Kluwer's 5th Annual Leading Edge Conference, an invite-only event where leaders in the legal education field can get together and talk shop.

“The winners of the competition demonstrated a great deal of creativity to help solve some of the most significant challenges that the legal community is facing today,” said Vikram Savkar, a vice president and general manager at Wolters Kluwer in a press release announcing the award.

Still, the thing about creativity is that it rarely looks the same twice. While both teams may have ultimately shared a common goal, the roads they took to get there featured very different scenery.

The Pathways Project uses data from a selection of national law schools to identify factors that could be undermining performance both inside that setting and on the bar exam, focusing specifically on students from underrepresented communities.

Hosea Harvey and Gregory Parks—professors of law at Temple University and Wake Forest University, respectively—led the team and will use the Leading Edge cash to support the research and analysis costs associated with the project.

“Law schools have a responsibility to aim high, especially when it comes to the success of underrepresented law students,” Harvey said in the press release.

The next award-winning endeavor carries a much longer name—Expanding Access to Justice and Practical Legal Training—which makes sense when you consider that it actually includes two separate but interconnected nonprofit initiatives: Proboknow and Lowboknow.

Proboknow is a website that connects fresh-faced attorneys with seasoned mentors and clients in need of some pro bono assistance. Lowboknow, on the other hand, bridges the gap between solo practitioners/small firms and those who make too much money to qualify for free legal assistance but too little to afford the going rate for legal representation.

Both sites were co-founded by Scott Barnes and Chad Trainer, who are in the process of expanding the companies into Boston to increase networking opportunities with lawyers on the east coast.

“We're honored to have received the Leading Edge prize, and to have the opportunity to help expand practical legal education and access to justice at the same time,” Trainer said in the press release.