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Where is legal technology in Singapore today?

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.

Asia-Pacific Legal Innovation and Technology Association launches the region’s first community-based legal innovation and technology awards

By Josh Lee

On 10th August 2021

In Events, Law Firms, Legal Innovation

Reading time: 3 minutes

Today, the Asia-Pacific Legal Innovation and Technology Association (ALITA) launched the ALITA SOLIA Awards 2021, the Asia-Pacific’s first set of community-based legal innovation and technology awards. Powered by industry stalwarts such as Linklaters, the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium (CLOC), Clifford Chance, the Singapore Academy of Law and Prophet.ru, the finals of the Awards will be held on 24 September 2021 – the closing day of TechLaw.Fest 2021.

TechLaw.Fest 2020 Cyber Edition – A virtually transformative conference experience

By Josh Lee

On 23rd July 2021

In Access to Justice, Artificial Intelligence, Automation, Blockchain, Contracts, Data Privacy, Dispute Resolution, Events, Law Firms, Lawyers, Legal Hackers, Legal Innovation, People, Policy, Regulations

Reading time: 11 minutes

By Josh Lee | Edited by Elizaveta Shesterneva

Supported by: Lenon Ong, Utsav Rakshit, Benjamin Peck, Ong Chin Ngee, Tristan Koh

“In a year when a certain pesky virus turned the world upside down, how can a conference engage, encapsulate and elaborate upon all of the disruption seen in one year?”

This must have been the key question on the minds of the planners of TechLaw.Fest 2020, as they went about organising Asia’s largest law and technology conference. What followed was a signature conference held with a virtually (pun intended) uniquely signature.

In this article, LawTech.Asia will take our readers on a quick recap of TechLaw.Fest 2020, as we look forward to another exciting edition of TechLaw.Fest in 2021. LawTech.Asia is grateful for our ongoing strategic media partnership with the Singapore Academy of Law (“SAL”), and for the opportunity to be a media partner for TechLaw.Fest once again.

Invitation: HKU LITE LawTech and RegTech Sandbox Student Virtual Showcase 2021

By Josh Lee

On 29th April 2021

In Automation, Events, Law Firms, Lawyers, Legal Hackers, Legal Innovation

Reading time: 2 minutes

Written by Josh Lee Kok Thong

LawTech.Asia is proud to be a partner of the HKU LITE Lab’s LawTech and RegTech Sandbox Student Virtual Showcase 2021.

To be held on 3 May 2021 at 6pm HKT, the University of Hong Kong’s (“HKU“) Law, Innovation, Technology and Entrepreneurship Lab (“LITE Lab“) invites industry players and students to learn more about how future legal professionals are co-designing proof-of-concepts with legal, compliance and operations professionals to create self-help, triage and document automation solutions for real-world issues.

Legal and compliance departments are increasingly expected to “do more with less” and work “faster, cheaper, better”. As studies like LITE Lab’s report in conjunction with the Association of Corporate Counsel and Eversheds on Illuminating the New Normal: Asia Pacific Counsel in a Time of Unprecedented Change (2020) confirms, however, many in-house lawyers and compliance officers face limited budgets and limited time to learn and implement new tech platforms. Some, alas, are also tech averse.

LITE Lab launched its Lawtech & Regtech Sandbox to allow students to be part of the solution and at the same time develop hands-on experiential and interdisciplinary skills solving real world problems. LITE Lab has been contributing towards the talent development of Hong Kong’s international legal and financial hub status, and is working on innovative collaborations with Hong Kong-based teams of leading companies and financial institutions such as HSBC, FedEx Express, Goodman and Angelhub. LITE Lab’s students are also developing impactful access to justice lawtech tools to assist our ordinary and disadvantaged communities.

LITE Lab counts organisations such as Association of Corporate Counsel Hong Kong, Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, Fintech Association of Hong Kong, Asia Pacific Legal Innovation and Technology Association (“ALITA“) and the Asian Academy of International Law as its supporting organisations, and it looks forward to viewers joining in on 3 May (Monday) via Zoom to witness the growth of the Lawtech and Regtech community in Hong Kong and beyond, together.

Interested participants should register using the button below.

Invitation: HKU LITE Lab Access-to-Justice Virtual Student Showcase 2021

By Josh Lee

On 20th April 2021

In Access to Justice, Automation, Events, Law Firms, Lawyers, Legal Hackers, Legal Innovation

Reading time: 2 minutes

Written by Josh Lee Kok Thong

LawTech.Asia is proud to be a partner of the HKU LITE Lab’s Access-to-Justice Lawtech Virtual Student Showcase.

To be held on 21 April 2021 at 6pm HKT, the University of Hong Kong’s (“HKU“) Law, Innovation, Technology and Entrepreneurship Lab (“LITE Lab“) cordially invites industry players and students to learn more about what it is doing to better serve under-resourced impactful organisations in Hong Kong, including co-designing and creating proof-of-concepts in collaboration with Hong Kong NGOs to improve access to justice (“A2J“).

In past years, the LITE Lab@HKU student team EC Bank addressing employment compensation were the Georgetown University Iron Tech Lawyer Invitational 2020 winners, and have since set up Litex as a natural language processing (“NLP“) lawtech startup. LITE Lab’s inaugural A2J lawtech virtual student showcase, with an esteemed panel of invited judges, will decide which of this year’s undergraduate student teams will represent HKU with their projects co-designed with impactful NGOs Equal Justice, Justice Centre and SoCO to assist victims of human trafficking, refugees/ asylum seekers and low income housing tenants utilising document automation, search engines and computer vision.

The A2J Lawtech Student Virtual Showcase will also feature other LITE Lab@HKU supported student initiatives, including A2J lawtech projects created both within and outside the LITE Lab course curriculum that assist with issues such as social and environmental impact measurement, unrepresented litigants, divorce court forms and wills.

The event counts organisations such as Asian Charity Services, PILNet, Pro Bono Hong Kong, the Asia Pacific Legal Innovation and Technology Association (“ALITA“) and Legal Hackers Hong Kong as its supporting organisations, and welcomes participants to join in on 21 April 2021 (Wednesday) via Zoom as it seeks to grow the A2J Lawtech community in Hong Kong and beyond.

Interested participants should register using the button below.