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TechLaw.Fest 2024: Be Ready for Tomorrow

On 1st September 2025

In Artificial Intelligence, Internet Governance, Law Firms, Lawyers, Legal Hackers, Legal Innovation, Policy, Regulations

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.

Unlocking Innovation: Hong Kong’s Legal Technology Landscape

By Josh Lee

On 3rd September 2024

In Access to Justice, Artificial Intelligence, Automation, Data Privacy, Dispute Resolution, Interviews, Law Firms, Lawyers, Legal Hackers, Legal Innovation, Legal Technology in Hong Kong

Reading time: 22 minutes

Written by Yiap Siew Fong | Edited by Josh Lee Kok Thong

May 2024 was a particularly eventful month for legal technology in Hong Kong. It marked the return of the FT Innovative Lawyers Asia-Pacific Awards (“FT Awards”) to Hong Kong, showcasing the latest achievements in legal innovation throughout the region. The Hong Kong chapter of Asia-Pacific Legal Innovation and Technology Association (“ALITA”) also hosted a digital innovation roundtable in collaboration with the Law, Innovation, Technology and Entrepreneurship Lab at the University of Hong Kong’s Faculty of Law (“LITE Lab@HKU”). Earlier that month, a panel session at Hong Kong Mediation Week titled “Bots v Humans? The Future of Mediation” examined the implications and potential of AI in relation to the field of dispute resolution and mediation. These recent events provide an opportune context to examine the current state of the legal technology landscape in Hong Kong.

TechLaw.Fest 2023: This Is What’s Next

By Josh Lee

On 8th November 2023

In Access to Justice, Artificial Intelligence, Data Privacy, Events, Immersive Technology / Metaverse, Internet Governance, Law Firms, Lawyers, Legal Hackers, Legal Innovation, Policy, Regulations

Reading time: 12 minutes

Written by Hannah Loo Yuet Ying and Leong Tzi An (Zaine) | Edited by Josh Lee Kok Thong

The theme of this year’s TechLaw.Fest is ‘This is What’s Next”’. I thought this is very apt in the realm of law and technology. Both are forward-looking, and multi-faceted that we constantly, even in practice, ask ourselves ‘what’s next’.
Second Minister for Law and Minister for Community, Culture and Youth Edwin Tong S.C.
Opening Remarks at TechLaw.Fest 2023

Introduction

Since the last edition of TechLaw.Fest in 2022, technology has developed at a rapid pace. It is now trite to say that technology touches every aspect of our lives. It has transformed, and continues to transform, how people work, interact and, play. This is not only embodied in the rise of large language models (“LLMs”) and generative AI applications such as ChatGPT, but also questions about the future of cryptocurrency, immersive technologies, and online safety. Amidst rapid technological developments on multiple fronts, it is important to have robust conversations on the workings of these technologies and their impact – positive or negative – on people and society.

As one of Asia’s largest law and technology conferences, TechLaw.Fest is an important forum bringing together industry leaders, government, legal professionals, technologists, academics, and civil society to have these robust conversations. As the first fully physical rendition of the event since 2019, TechLaw.Fest 2023 brought together thought leaders from various domains to answer “what’s next” in the vast field of law and technology. This article aims to bring a glimpse into the key insights and themes discussed across both days of Singapore’s signature law and technology conference.

Third ALITA Awards at TechLaw.Fest in Singapore on 21 – 22 September 2023

By Josh Lee

On 26th July 2023

In Access to Justice, Events, Legal Hackers, Legal Innovation

Reading time: < 1 minute

Nominations for the 3^rd ALITA Awards 2023 are now open, and the winners will once again be announced and presented at TechLawFest, Asia’s leading and tech conference. TechLaw.Fest 2023 will take place at Suntec Singapore Convention and Exhibition Centre on 21 and 22 September 2023.

The ALITA Awards were launched by the Asia Pacific Legal Innovation & Technology Association to give voice and recognition to outstanding legal innovators across the Asia-Pacific legal technology and legal innovation ecosystem.

This year, there will be 6 legal innovator categories, with a new award for outstanding in-house and operations innovators. This will add to the existing awards for outstanding legal innovator law firm, solution provider and legal entrant organisations, as well as an outstanding individual and legal innovation / technology project for good.

As in the past, the three finalists from each category selected by the esteemed panel of international judges will be featured at TechLawFest and will be eligible for the People’s Choice Award based on a popular online vote.

Past nominations and winners have been legal innovators from across the region, including Australia, Hong Kong SAR, India and Singapore.

Nominations close at midnight on 25 August 2023 (GMT+8). For more details on the ALITA Awards and the nomination form, please visit: https://alita.legal/alita-awards-2023.

For more information (including sponsorship opportunities), please contact ALITA Co-chairs:

Brian Tang (bwtang@hku.hk )
Adeline Chin (adeline@chamberslab.com )

This article was adapted from a press release provided by the Asia-Pacific Legal Innovation and Technology Association.

Where is legal technology in Singapore today?

By Josh Lee

On 27th April 2023

In Law Firms, Lawyers, Legal Innovation, Legal Technology in Singapore

Reading time: 13 minutes

Written by Josh Lee Kok Thong

Introduction

Where is legal technology in Singapore today? For many who have followed the development of the sector here, this question is more than merely factual. At its core, it is a reflection on the past, present and future of Singapore’s legal technology sector, and traces the development of Singapore’s legal technology landscape.

This article explores this evolutionary arc. First, it describes the development of the legal technology industry from 2016 to 2020, which saw significant and growing interest, demand and dynamism in the use of technology in Singapore’s legal industry. Second, it examines what the legal technology sector looks like today, and two key phenomena that have defined this era: the COVID-19 pandemic and growing institutionalisation of the sector. Third, it looks at the implications of the present state of Singapore’s legal technology industry. Fourth, it suggests areas that Singapore’s legal technology sector can explore to infuse greater interest, innovation and investment into the ecosystem.

This article also hopes to highlight the two key groups of players to Singapore’s legal technology landscape: established institutional actors, such as the government and its various agencies, as well as large law firms and legal technology companies; and “ground-up actors”: local legal technology start-ups, informal and/or non-profit bodies set up by legal technology enthusiasts, student groups in law schools, global legal technology movements, and more. Over the course of the article, it is submitted that greater collaboration between both sets of players is encouraged for the success of Singapore’s legal technology ecosystem. For Singapore’s legal technology sector to reach its renaissance, such collaboration needs to be carefully developed and nurtured.