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TechLaw.Fest 2025: Redefining Legal in the Digital Age

Reading time: 11 minutes

Written by Josh Lee Kok Thong and Elizabeth Thomas

To all but perhaps the most casual tech observer, the annual TechLaw.Fest conference is now a staple of Singapore’s law and technology events calendar. (Even if people do sometimes bungle the name – if one were given a dollar for every variant of “TechLaw.Fest” out there, one could buy himself a nice lunch). Few people, however, can recall the conference’s humbler roots: it first began as the “International Conference on Electronic Litigation” in 2011, and only evolved into the TechLaw.Fest we know (and love) in 2015. 

Nevertheless, over its past 10 iterations, TechLaw.Fest has built a name for delving into two simple but complex notions: novelty (what is new or just over the horizon) and foreseeability (what new impacts can we foresee on the world of law and technology). Thematically, the 10th edition of TechLaw.Fest opens perhaps a third dimension – one of re-definition – as TechLaw.Fest 2025 called upon delegates to “redefine legal in the digital age”. 

Every year, it is LawTech.Asia’s privilege to be selected as Media Partner to TechLaw.Fest. In this article, as the legal community gears up once more for TechLaw.Fest 2026 season (expected to be in a few months), we seek to re-capture the highlights of “Asia’s premier forum on all things concerning law and technology”, and bring our readers once more the insights, energy and imagination of TechLaw.Fest 2025. 

TechLaw.Fest 2025 Quick Chats: Commissioner John Edwards, Information Commissioner, United Kingdom’s Information Commissioner’s Office

Reading time: 8 minutes

Written by Elizabeth Thomas and Josh Lee Kok Thong

TechLaw.Fest 2025 (“TLF”) took place from 10 to 11 September 2025, bringing together participants from around the world to engage in leading-edge conversations at the intersection of law, technology, and business. This year, LawTech.Asia had the unique privilege of interviewing John Edwards, Information Commissioner at the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (“UK ICO”). Commissioner Edwards also delivered a keynote address on the second day of TechLaw.Fest 2025, titled “Trust as Infrastructure: Can Regulation Be the Foundation for Responsible Innovation?”.

Drawing from his distinguished career in public service and private practice, Commissioner Edwards offered valuable perspectives on a range of pressing issues, including the regulation of emerging technologies, the geopolitical dimensions of artificial intelligence, and the evolving role of legal professionals in a rapidly changing landscape. Our discussion focused on the future of AI governance, cross-border legal complexities, and the pivotal contribution of young legal minds to shaping the future of law and technology.

Peng Huijuan: An Adaptive Framework for Regulating AI Inspired by Evolutionary Economics

Reading time: 7 minutes

Written by: Peng Huijuan

Introduction

Artificial intelligence (“AI“) has become a transformative force across a range of industries, including healthcare, finance, education, transportation, and entertainment. Its ability to analyse large datasets, automate complex processes, and enhance decision-making has revolutionised these sectors. However, the rapid pace of AI development has outpaced the capacity of existing legal frameworks to provide effective regulation, leading to significant regulatory gaps and uncertainties. These gaps not only hinder innovation but also fail to address critical societal concerns, including privacy, ethical use, and accountability (Calo, 2017). This regulatory lag, often referred to as the “pacing problem,” describes the growing disconnect between the rapid progression of emerging technologies and the slower evolution of the legal and ethical frameworks required to govern them (Marchant, 2011). 

Traditional regulatory approaches, typically rigid and slow to adapt, are ill-suited to rapidly evolving technologies like AI. As a result, there is an urgent need for a novel regulatory paradigm that can keep pace with technological advancements while preserving legal certainty and protecting societal interests. This paper introduces the Evolved AI Regulation Framework (“EARF“), an adaptive regulatory model inspired by evolutionary economics. EARF integrates the principles of variation, selection, and retention with inclusive stakeholder engagement, ethical alignment, and global coordination. By adopting this adaptive approach, the EARF aims to create a regulatory environment that evolves alongside with AI technologies, fostering innovation while safeguarding public interests and societal values.

LawTech.Asia: Media Partner for TechLaw.Fest 2025!

Reading time: 2 minutes

For law, technology and policy aficionados, it’s that time of the year again. TechLaw.Fest is back!

Now in its 10th edition, TechLaw.Fest 2025 – themed “Reimagining Legal in the Digital Age” – will be taking place on 10 and 11 September 2025 at the Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Centre in Singapore. As the focal point once more for leading thinkers, leaders and pioneers in law and technology, Asia’s premier law and technology conference is expected to draw over 2,000 attendees from over 40 countries.

TechLaw.Fest 2024: Be Ready for Tomorrow

Reading time: 9 minutes

Written by Hannah Nadia, Daniel Koh and Wei Lin Tan | Edited by Josh Lee Kok Thong

Introduction

In the 2023 edition of Techlaw.Fest, LawTech.Asia posed the question: what’s next for law and technology? The 2024 edition of TechLaw.Fest gave us our answer: Artificial Intelligence (“AI”). 

The theme for TechLaw.Fest 2024 – “Be Ready for Tomorrow” – is a nod towards current anxieties over AI’s disruptive potential for the legal industry, as well as how AI is changing the way we think about legal issues. The theme aptly urges legal practitioners to set their sails and map ahead for the incoming wave of opportunities and challenges unleashed by new AI technologies

At the heart of TechLaw.Fest 2024 were four key topics: (1) AI in law; (2) global AI regulations and AI governance; (3) deepfakes and misinformation; and (4) inclusivity. TechLaw.Fest 2024 also saw several significant announcements, such as the launch of the Copilot for SG Law Firms module for the Legal Technology Platform (“LTP”) by the Ministry of Law, Lupl and Microsoft, and the launch of the Singapore Academy of Law’s and Microsoft’s Prompt Engineering Guide for Lawyers. We even saw a splash of pizzazz, with the 2024 Asia-Pacific Legal Innovation & Technology Association (“ALITA”) Awards demonstrating the best of legal technology in the region. 

In this article, as the legal community gears up for TechLaw.Fest 2025 (happening on 10 and 11 September 2025), we seek to re-capture the highlights of Singapore’s signature law and technology conference in 2024, and provide a glimpse of the themes and insights shared by the expert panellists. 

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