Hugh Carlson, Three Crowns’ CEO, has together with Dr. Megan Ma have co-authored an essay in Global Arbitration Review titled “Lessons on AI from the Hackathon.” Hugh and Dr. Ma address two converging trends, scaling laws and vibe-coding tools, that are beginning to challenge international arbitration’s longstanding “moat” separating it from technological disruption. They consider what these forces portend through the lens of the inaugural GAR-LCIA [LINK] Hackathon, concluding that deep professional judgment—long the defining feature of elite practice—is becoming more, not less, valuable as the underlying technology accelerates.
Read the essay here: https://globalarbitrationreview.com/article/lessons-ai-the-hackathon
To learn more about AI and innovation at Three Crowns, visit here: https://www.threecrownsllp.com/ai-legal-innovation/
ABOUT HUGH CARLSON
Hugh Carlson is the Chief Executive Officer of Three Crowns. Since joining the firm at its launch in 2014, he has helped build it from a small boutique into one of the world’s premier dispute resolution practices – now ranked second in the world. He also serves as the firm’s General Counsel.
Hugh places special emphasis on innovation, informed by his background as a software engineer. Under his leadership, Three Crowns is now widely recognized as a leader in legal AI. Microsoft has described the firm as an “AI-powered company … bending the curve on innovation” for its deployment of AI tools across legal and business functions. With Stanford’s Legal Innovation through Frontier Technology Lab (liftlab), Hugh has co-led the development of Atelier, an AI-powered cross-examination training platform. The tool was awarded the Financial Times Innovative Lawyers award for best training innovation in 2025. Hugh is co-founder of Generative Legal, an invite-only legal AI conference attended by industry leaders.
As counsel, Hugh has represented large multinationals and sovereigns in their complex, high-stakes disputes. He has been described by clients and peers in Lexology Index as “absolutely phenomenal,” “a great strategist,” and “integral to the success of Three Crowns,” and has repeatedly been recognized in Lawdragon’s “Global Litigation 500” and Super Lawyers as a leading litigator. He has taught international arbitration at Harvard Law School since 2019, where he also co-founded the International Arbitration Workshop, and taught at Georgetown Law prior to that.
Hugh advises early-stage legal technology and information security companies on product strategy and market positioning, with this exposure informing his technical leadership at Three Crowns. He regularly speaks about the legal industry, AI, and dispute resolution at leading forums, including The Economist’s General Counsel Summit, London International Disputes Week, Stanford Law School, and Yale Law School.
Hugh holds degrees from Georgetown Law, UCLA, and the University of London, and completed the Wharton Global CEO Program. He is admitted to practice in New York and the District of Columbia. He holds the leading credential in information security, the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP).