Legal design research sits at the intersection of law, design, and real-world practice. This in-between position creates friction: between disciplines, between academic traditions, and between theory and practice. What counts as “knowledge” in legal design? Who gets to speak for the field? And what gets lost when practice remains invisible in academic conversations?
In this episode of Legal Design Thinking IRL, I’m joined by Nina Toivonen, doctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki, to talk openly about what it’s actually like to research legal design and publish scientific articles across disciplines. The conversation is inspired by our recently co-authored research paper on contract design as a learning path for proactive and sustainable contracting — but this live is not a presentation of the paper. Instead, it’s a behind-the-scenes look at the frictions that arise when legal design moves between practice and academia.
We discuss how different academic fields (law and design) shape what is considered valid knowledge, why legal design writing can feel both lighter and riskier than traditional legal scholarship, and how practitioner experience is often treated with hesitation in academic publishing. We also explore the gap between academic and practitioner conversations, the risk of over-simplification and over-abstraction in legal design, and why case studies and real-life examples are essential for the development of the field.
Watch the episode to learn more about:
- Legal design research and interdisciplinary publishing
- What counts as knowledge in legal design
- The tension between theory and practice in legal innovation
- Why making legal design practice visible matters
- How frameworks like the Double Diamond and experiential learning can support learning in contract design
Watch now and join the conversation on legal design research in friction.