United Kingdom Singapore Law Students’ Society
Monthly Newsletter Issue 5: March 2019
Editorsʼ Foreword Dear Members, This month’s newsletter theme is on the topic of ‘Legal Technology’, a recurrent theme in the legal and commercial industry. More specifically, we have covered aspects of Artificial Intelligence, the challenges faced and impacts of the use of legal technology in Singapore’s legal industry. It also serves as a microcosm of the theme ‘Law and Technology’ that will be covered at our Singapore Legal Forum 2019, slated on 24th August 2019. We would also like to welcome another addition to the editorial team, Ashley Chiang from University College London, who has contributed an article, covering in broad sketches, changing legal expectations for the next legal generation in Singapore. This is complimented by this month’s features section, which includes an exclusive interview with Mr Paul Neo, Chief Operating Officer and Founder of the Future Law Innovation Programme (‘FLIP’) in Singapore. We are grateful for Mr Neo’s insight regarding this pilot programme aimed at revolutionizing the legal industry in Singapore by adopting the use of Artificial Intelligence and legal technology. Be sure to give it a read! We wish everyone a happy and fruitful vacation! With Warmest Regards, The UKSLSS Editorial Committee 2018/2019 Edwin Teong (Editor-In-Chief) Shermaine Lim (Managing Editor) Ronald Lee (Deputy Editor) Kimberley Ng (Design Director and Resident Writer) Yu Jiaqi (Resident Writer) Ohana Naidu (Resident Writer) Ashley Chiang (Resident Writer)
Legal Tidbits
The Power of Artificial Intelligence By: Lee Jian Qing, Ronald, University of Bristol
Artificial intelligence (AI) has generated significant attention within the legal industry. The technological advancements in machine learning and natural language processing has created new ways for law firms to make their business more efficient. Although sceptics suggest that AI will be the bane of lawyers since it could replace them, it would be hasty to reach conclusions without considering that even in standard legal work, the need for human judgment remains in interpreting the data the AI processes. Current state of Artificial Intelligence AI software is improving rapidly in its ability to identify relevant phrases and clauses in documents. Furthermore, its capability is enhanced over time as more training examples become available. AI systems employ techniques of anomaly detection and pattern matching to find phrases that are similar to examples fed into it. AI programmers do not set out a series of algorithmic steps to achieve a prescribed end goal. Instead they “train” the system to reach the objective through a “neural network” which has the capacity to alter the weights of connections between the virtual neurons, so that more weight is given to pathways that trigger the desired outcome. In effect the controlling algorithms emerge through achieving the correct output which is the opposite with a conventional program. This ability to quickly complete routine tasks such as due diligence is the main selling point of AI and are increasingly adopted by leading law firms. In theory,
automation will cut legal bills but the financial results from the major international firms suggests otherwise. This could be due to the ability to tag items of interest in a mass of legal documentation at lightning speed does not necessarily lead to an improvement in productivity. Human expertise is still required to sieve through the outputs. Without these skills, the AI is little more than a word-search. A new category of AI Creating an AI system that could make decisions to perform tasks could greatly reduce the workload that law firms have to handle such as contract pre-screening. Generating a decision output from an AI system requires designing a system that deviates from conventional standards. The system needs to go through thousands of questions to extract a few core issues. For instance, ThoughtRiver, jointly developed by companies in UK and Singapore, asks thousands of questions to draw out knowledge on the issues that users are interested in. Will AI replace lawyers anytime soon?
Rest assured, it is unlikely that Artificial intelligence is going to replace lawyers anytime soon. However, it very much empowers the way we will work. From the daily activities of general counsels, to functions of a legal department’s work, and even potentially affecting the way in which organisations conduct business across jurisdictions. In all, computer-readable contracts undoubtedly can bring a multitude of benefits at every level.
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Legal Tidbits
Changing expectations for the next legal generation By: Ashley Chiang, University College London
With the increasing prevalence of revolutionary technological innovation, the presence of technology is one that cannot be ignored in the legal sector. In addition, the increasing competition from within and beyond the legal industry necessitates aspiring lawyers to move away from traditional legal work, and look towards capitalizing on technology to empower their legal work. Need for cross-disciplinary collaboration As technology continually shapes the nature of the legal industry, aspiring lawyers are required to readily collaborate with professionals from other industries. The Tech Law Fest 2018 by the Singapore Academy of Law showcased key technological advancements that will drive change within the legal industry, and most proposed models involved contributions from a wide range of professionals – such as computer scientists, business leaders and lawyers. This clearly signals a shift towards multi-disciplinary collaboration that aspiring lawyers will be required to embark on, in order to benefit from legal technology. Need for hybrid skill sets Beyond interdisciplinary collaboration, aspiring lawyers will need to adopt skill sets that span multiple industries – such as legal, technological and accounting expertise. The need for such hybrid skill sets is driven by technological advancements, as highlighted by the Report of the Emerging Legal Work Group (NALPReport), which reflected the increased demand for knowledge engineers and legal process analysts to work alongside lawyers.
In addition, an increasingly competitive market has driven other industry leaders to do their legal work in-house, instead of outsourcing to law firms. As a result, law firms are forced to expand their services beyond the legal sphere, in order to match firms from other industries. Hence, they are especially keen on aspiring lawyers that possess both legal and non-legal skill sets. Legal Technology: An Opportunity or Challenge? While the rise of legal technology certainly reflects increasing expectations for aspiring lawyers, such a phenomenon should be perceived as an opportunity instead of a challenge. Indeed, it is reassuring to know that most existing models involving legal technology seek to complement rather than compete with human capabilities. Ultimately, it is the client’s demands and competition from within and beyond the legal industry, that shape the expectations of future lawyers. Technology simply serves as a tool to better fulfill the client’s demands and achieve competitiveness. As such, aspiring lawyers should capitalize on this vehicle, in order to remain relevant in the increasingly competitive and ever evolving legal industry.
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Legal Tidbits
Tracking the legal tech revolution in Singapore By: Ohana Naidu, University College London
Legal technology, or ‘legal tech’, is technology that enables legal service providers to improve the value they are able to provide to people wishing to better understand or apply the law. These range from e-filing systems to smart contracts, document proofreading and legal research platforms. The Singapore Government has always been an active purveyor for the adoption of technology in legal practice. In fact, the initiatives taken by the public sector stand out as an indicator of the recognition of the impact of technology on legal practice and the adaptation of technology in Singapore’s legal sector. Early Initiatives taken by the Public Sector As early as 1990, the adoption of LawNet saw the transition of legal research onto an online platform. Being Singapore’s leading portal for legal research, it contains information regarding everything from case law to the registration of companies and businesses and conveyancing. Following that, the Singapore Courts launched the Technology Court, allowing complex cases to be presented with greater ease through the aid of multimedia tools. In 1997, the Courts also adopted the Electronic Filing System (EFS), enabling cases to be commended and documents filed completely online. While these initiatives may seem like incremental changes, they were surely significant in the long-term. Recognition of the impact of technology on the Legal Sector It is impossible to pinpoint the exact moment the “legal tech revolution” in Singapore commenced. However, the role
of the public sector in legal innovation cannot be ignored. Thus, statements from the public sector provide assistance in assessing the movement of the legal tech revolution in Singapore. In 2015, there was a notable amount of enthusiasm towards support legal technology when then Senior Minister of State Indranee Rajah indicated the government’s awareness of the impact of technology on the changing nature of legal practice globally and noted that steps were being taken to assess the scale of its impact on the future of legal services. Following that, Minister for Law K Shanmugam recognised the impact of technology on law firms and informed the Singapore Parliament that the Ministry was working to provide local firms with greater support in utilizing technology. At the same time, “Courts of the Future Taskforce” was formed, a strategic study that would form the foundation block of the Singapore Court’s approach towards the adoption of technology in court work. 15 key IT initiatives have been conceptualised, with the objectives of - developing self-help solutions for litigants, developing solutions for an efficient and effective justice system, and adopting the intelligent use of data. A key part of some of these initiatives relate to developing new capabilities for online dispute resolution and virtual hearings. Active Support for technology adoption The transition from the mere recognition of the impact of legal tech to the support of its active adoption is best observed through recent public legal sector initiatives. Such initiatives include setting up the Future Law Innovation Programme (“FLIP”), Tech Start for Law and the Baseline legal technology manual. FLIP is a two-year pilot programme aimed at building an ecosystem for legal technology by
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Legal Tidbits encouraging its adoption in legal practice and assisting legal technology start-ups. The programme comprises of three elements - a Legal Innovation Lab, a virtual collaboration platform (“LawNet Community”) and the first ever legal technology accelerator in Southeast Asia to groom promising legal technology start-ups. The Ministry of Law, the Law Society of Singapore and Spring Singapore have also commenced the Tech Start for Law initiate, a funding programme that assists local law firms in adopting technology. The programme provides up to 70% of funding support for the first-year cost of adopting selected technology products in areas such as practice management, online research and online marketing. Finally, the Baseline Legal Technology Manual is an online manual consisting of articles written by tech-savvy players in the legal industry, which cover “baseline” technologies, aiding law firms in improving the efficiency of their practices. They are intended as a “starting point for lawyers to understand baseline legal technology” and it is envisioned that the widespread adoption of a “baseline suite of legal technologies” will act as a springboard for future technological development. The Future of LegalTech in Singapore The legal tech revolution in Singapore has gone through two major stages, increasing the awareness on technology’s impact on legal practice and increasing support of active adoption of legal technology solutions. It is possible that the next stage will be a phase of consolidation, where the industry reviews and reassesses the progress of the adoption of technology and considers new ways to simplify legal work. Regardless, it is fairly certain that this phase will lead to widespread adoption of legal technology by both law firms and consumers of the legal service.
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Features
Paul Neo Chief Operating Officer and Founder of the Future Law Innovation Programme (‘FLIP’), Singapore Academy of Law (‘SAL’) By: Edwin Teong, University of Bristol
FLIP Programme Q1) What inspired you to initiate the FLIP programme? A: The legal industry has always been more insulated compared to other sectors like banking & finance, transportation and retail etc. All of these sectors have all been transformed by rapid technological advancement that disrupted traditional business models. But the impact took longer to reach the legal industry due to the protected nature of the sector, which, in turn, may have fed a culture of complacency. However, things have changed, and we can no longer ignore the impact of the digital disruption that is very much upon the legal services industry globally. Thus, to prepare our law firms and professionals to ride the wave of disruption and to seize opportunities in the future economy, a transformational programme to catalyse innovation and help reinvent the future of legal services was critically needed – and so the FLIP programme was born. Q2. What would you consider is the FLIP programme’s vision for Singapore’s legal industry in the next 10 years? A: FLIP takes a lot of its guidance from the Legal Technology Vision (‘LTV’) (which can be found on the SAL website). The LTV is a comprehensive white paper on what needs to be done to drive technological
adoption and creation in our legal industry. This paper was developed after consultation with judges, regulators, lawyers and industry experts. Its purpose is to set out a 5-year road map to foster an ecosystem in the legal industry capable of leveraging on technology to enhance practice. While it is a ‘call to action’, it remains a white paper and nothing can come out of it if it is not executed. Thus, you can think of FLIP as the platform that helps to implement the vision contained in the LTV. However, whilst the LTV is primarily a technological roadmap for Singapore’s legal industry, FLIP focuses on business model innovation, technopreneurship and the re-imagination of the business of law and future job roles in the legal industry. In this sense, the intention of FLIP is to achieve more than simply executing the LTV. Just think about transportation, more specifically the cab industry. First we had taxis and the traditional mode of consumption – physically hailing and subsequently, calling to book taxis. Then, Uber and Grab surfaced with mobile applications that revolutionised the industry. This same notion has surfaced in the legal industry in the form of A.I. and new forms of technology such as distributed ledger technology which is the technology governing blockchains comprising of databases consensually shared and synchronised digital data straddling sites, countries and institutions.
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However, we also need a business model to deliver the businesses to the clients. The law firm is a business too, which in this respect, is central to FLIP’s purpose, as with leveraging technology. Many lawyers mistake technology for innovation. However, technology is only a tool that has to be fit for purpose. The starting point of technological innovation is first having a business model. Lawyers are so busy in practice that they have no time to think about their practice – for example how to make it more efficient and how to grow the pie. Thus, there are 2 aspects to this – the productivity aspect – how we can best optimise productivity with the use of technology and the revenue growth aspect – harnessing technology to ensure actual revenue output, which is in turn boosted by the productivity aspect. Q3. Which aspect/(s) of the FLIP programme aids in breaking the silos of the traditional mindset in the legal industry? A: In respect of engineering a mindset change, we brought together lawyers from the legal industries from Rajah & Tann and one man firms in our legal innovation lab housed in a co-working space. By working together, they can think about how they work on their business model and the possibility of working in a co-working space, which provides the backend services that they require. Hiring a receptionist, subscription to Lawnet, incorporating a billing system and rental cost could potentially incur substantial amounts of cost. Yet, what if you can reduce these costs by having a co-working space? Showing lawyers how they can reduce costs through this plug and play fashion is the most direct and tangible way to changing the traditional mindset. Also, we show lawyers how they can lawyer in the new way. Now that e-submissions are permitted, we need to show them that it can be done, highlight how it can be done and the dangers of persisting in the old way.
order to achieve this, ‘peer-mongering’ is done. This involves asking a series of rhetorical questions directed at those who are still reluctant to embrace technology. In this era that emphasises the need for speed, if you persist on doing things the old way, would you be able to attract clients? If you continue doing it manually, how are you going to compete with firms who have automated services that can complete the same task more swiftly and efficiently than you? So through these instances of ‘peer-mongering’, we hope to break the silo of the traditional mindset. Q4. How would you evaluate the success of the FLIP programme? A: I would say it has been a successful first year. The conception for the FLIP programme began in 2017. It was officially launched in January 2018 as a 2-year pilot intended for completion in Dec 2019. In just one year, we exceeded the participation target for the entire 2-year pilot and had 52 entities comprising law firms, in-house legal departments, legal tech start-ups and other key players in the legal industry participating. We are very encouraged by the very enthusiastic response thus far. However, the issue that FLIP is tackling being inertia to harness the potential technology presents is not something that is static. They can be characterised as a ‘wicked problem’ in the words of Chief Justice, Sundaresh Menon. On this note, we are constantly improving the program. If something does not work, we pivot accordingly. We cannot rest on our laurels but hope to encourage more and higher quality participation as well. Q5. For the larger firms such as Rajah & Tann (in its acquisition of LegalComet) and Dentons Rodyk (partnership with XION.AI) which have pre-existing technological initiatives, how can the FLIP programme aid these firms? A: Actually, both firms found their partners through participating in FLIP! For example, Rajah and Tann met Legal Comet at last year’s Global Legal Hackathon organised by
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FLIP. One thing led to another and R&T eventually acquired Legal Comet and spawned Rajah & Tann Technologies (RTT). In this respect, FLIP helped to broker this marriage and delivered the baby! It was a similar story between Dentons Rodyk and Xion.AI and this is something that we would like to encourage more in FLIP. Q6. Could the same happen to small law firms? Yes, there are also small law firms which have met and formed legal tech start-ups through FLIP’s activities. For example, in this year’s Global Legal Hackathon that FLIP co-organised with Singtel, a one-man firm went on to form a legal tech start-up with his team-mates after the hackathon. This is an opportunity for the lawyers to tie up with the legal technology players and start-ups from the legal industry. Therefore, FLIP provides an avenue for these technological specialists to interact with lawyers. Q7. In your opinion, what are the main hurdles to clear before the FLIP programme can attain its objective of ‘developing an ecosystem where legal innovation can thrive’? A: I think the main hurdle is still mindset change. Despite all that we do, celebrating champions and encouraging people to think about the future, there will still be people who are either completely indifferent or feel this is something they do not have to deal with. There is this big inertia. One can still earn a living by the traditional method of lawyering today. As fast as the pace of technological development is, it is not so as to change things completely. However, things are changing rapidly and it is the future change that we should prepare for. CJ Menon has been an active advocate of being fully prepared and well equipped to deal with this change. For instance, in his recent
speeches, he has reiterated the need for the legal industry to be prepared for the disruptive nature of technological development. However, we are encouraged that more are increasingly aware of the issues. On that flip side of the coin, while they may intellectually they may understand the change, internally, they may not actually appreciate it, or the need to adapt. For example in the case of Artificial Intelligence, very few people would disagree with its utility, but not all have taken actions to utilise it. Q8. Given the rise in technology and the axiomatic increase in technological start-ups, how can FLIP further foster a cohesive culture for all legal technopreneurs? A: I think what we are doing right now is adequate. The people who have joined the programme are enjoying it. If possible, we like to expand F.L.I.P. and scale it up. Fostering this culture is not an issue as we have been doing quite well in the event. The FLIP activities are frequent and they are once a week. These activities include conferences, hackathons and forums, seminars and speed networking events. Some lawyers even think it may be too much.
Singapore’s progress in the legal technology sector Q1. How would you evaluate Singapore’s progress in the legal technology sector thus far? Why? A: I think Singapore has achieved great progress in the last 18 months especially with the unveiling of the LTV in 2017. We were late to the game compared to the more mature jurisdictions such as Eastern Europe, Australia and New Zealand. However, one advantage Singapore has is its governmental ability to unite key legal players in a relatively small area to come together to participate in FLIP. It is truly a coordinated effort and has helped to move things quickly.
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Q2. Besides internal collaboration to improve relations between law firms, legal technology start-ups, local law schools and the judiciary, do you believe the FLIP model can be extrapolated on a global scale to foster closer connectivity between judiciaries and legal networks worldwide? A: We have actually thought about it as we have been approached by certain overseas jurisdictions who are interested in what we are doing Singapore. At this stage, the FLIP staff team is still pretty small. We only have 2 full time staff working in the team and are still focused on working on the legal industry in Singapore. Having said that, we do believe innovation does not occur in a silo and are open to the idea of global coordination. We need to understand their needs and develop solutions that are relevant to them as well. By developing global solutions, we may derive intended and unintended benefits from that as well. Q3. What more can Singapore do to assist legal technology start-ups with modest funding and manpower? A: Singapore is actually very start-up friendly. This assistance is provided in a plethora of means. Firstly, the Tech Start for Law Programme which ended on 28 February 2018 provided Singapore law practices with a 70% funding support for costs incurred in the first year regarding adopting technology products for practice management, online research and online marketing. Secondly, Enterprise Singapore, a statutory board set up under the ambit of the Ministry of Trade and Development provides grants to eligible legal tech start-ups[4]. While there is always room for improvement, I am not sure if there is anything more to add to this. Where FLIP is concerned, we also play our part as a coordinator in the legal sector.
Careers beyond law Q1. Could you tell us a little more about your career path? You may be surprised to know that I am not legally trained. I am an engineer by training and received a scholarship to study engineering at MIT. I have 2 other masters in engineering, a masters in materials engineering from NUS and in smart structures engineering from NTU. After I fulfilled my bond with MINDEF, I spent 3 years in management consulting with the Boston Consulting Group (‘BCG’). This period of my career exposed me to the corporate world and its problems. I left BCG towards the end of 2010 to join the labour movement, NTUC, as the CEO of a new executive education subsidiary called Next U for 4 years. Singapore had just come out of the global financial crisis, which left many white-collar workers unemployed. The NTUC was facing the challenge of ensuring workers could upskill themselves to ensure they could be re-employed. Next U was tasked to bring best-in-class professional development programmes targeted at white-collar workers into Singapore to help equip them for re-employment. After my stint in NTUC, I joined the Singapore Academy of Law to become their Chief Operating Officer in mid-2014. SAL’s mandate had just been refreshed and expanded as an industry promotion and development agency by the Chief Justice at that time. Shortly after the creation of FLIP, I was also appointed as the Executive Director of SAL Ventures – a new subsidiary of SAL established to run FLIP and to support the development of ‘future law’-oriented enterprises through venture capital activities.
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Q2. Would there be any careers tips and advice you could share? A: Keep your options open. There are many career pathways to success. Today, the traditional path of joining as an associate and working your way up to being a partner in a law firm is not the only way. Just because you have graduated with a law degree doesn’t mean that you have to be a practicing lawyer. There are plenty of new alternative career paths to choose from. For example, Legal Design, which involves designing legal systems and services to ensure its efficiency and usability. Also, one can venture into legal project management, which entails lawyers helping clients to troubleshoot issues beyond black letter law. Clients appreciate it if you can look at an issue at all angles. If you can do that, you will most probably become a trusted advisor and not just someone who can interpret the law for them. Secondly, if you can understand coding and how it is approached, it helps a lot. You do not have to be a programmer, but it is useful to know how applications are created and how code is structured. On that note, keeping up to date on new technology like artificial intelligence and distributed ledger technology (the technology underpinning blockchain), for example, will also help you to unlock new opportunities in legal tech and to value-add to your clients and employers by helping them to re-imagine how legal services can be consumed and delivered.
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