UvA Faculty of Law opens incubator

Per January 2019 UvA opens a Law Hub: a co-creative teaching/research/entrepreneurship space. The Hub will house legal clinics, innovative businesses, start-ups and socially conscious organisations that work in close collaboration with the teaching programmes at the ALS.

The Law Hub is planned as a meeting place and co-creative space for students, researchers and legal professionals, and will provide a highly visible link between our faculty and society.

The legal clinics currently housed on the Roetersstraat will move to the Hub, thereby enhancing their reputation as the place to go in Amsterdam for low-threshold legal services. In addition to the legal clinics, diverse social organisations will take up residence in the Hub and collaborate with students (in Law Clinics and Law Labs in particular) to promote use of the law for achieving social goals and innovation. The Hub will serve as a breeding ground for legal start-ups and will be part of Amsterdam Venture Studios, a player on the market for start-up coaching.

Open Plan

Designer Tanja Buijs is currently cataloguing everyone’s wishes. Individual office spaces are planned for the participating organisations, but the so-called “common space” will leave ample room for interaction. There will be sunken seating in the middle of the space, in addition to standing tables, a variety of other seating arrangements including tête-à-têtes and acoustic seating, and a pantry.

Amsterdam Law Practice

The launch of the Law Hub is closely tied to the Amsterdam Law Practice, the programme for experiential education in the Master’s. The idea behind the ALP is that students work on solutions to problems facing – and build bridges to – society. The Law Hub represents cross-pollination at its best: students learn by doing and organisations at the Hub profit from the University’s knowledge and expertise.

Planning

Building activity on the Hub will start in October 2018, and it should be operational by the beginning of 2019.