{"id":23909,"date":"2018-05-01T20:36:13","date_gmt":"2018-05-01T20:36:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.legalgeek.co\/?p=23909"},"modified":"2018-05-01T20:36:13","modified_gmt":"2018-05-01T20:36:13","slug":"postcard-singapore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.legalgeek.co\/postcard-singapore\/","title":{"rendered":"Postcard from Singapore"},"content":{"rendered":"

With each postcard, Legal Geek speaks to members of the legal community from outside the #LegalTech heartlands. Our third postcard comes from Singapore, where Legal Geek is hosting a pitching competition on May 17 as part of our Around the World Tour with:<\/em><\/p>\n

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As the saying goes \u2018if something\u2019s worth doing, it\u2019s worth doing well.\u2019<\/p>\n

Singapore has decided that LegalTech is very much worth doing and is throwing the kitchen sink at doing it well.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Singapore decides to do something they put all their effort behind it,\u201d Chris Powell, explains to Legal Geek.<\/p>\n

\"ChrisChris Powell<\/strong>: Chris is a co-founder of Singapore-based start-up LegalFAB – a platform providing automation and monitoring for the entire contract lifecycle.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cAs an example let\u2019s take an event at the beginning of April called TechLaw.Fest. Attending the event were members of parliament, ministers even, so you realise that as a government initiative they are not just giving it lip service, they are putting their full support behind it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Powell is well placed to make such a call having worked in finance across Singapore and Hong Kong for the past 10 years before co-founding LegalFAB in 2017.<\/p>\n

Another industry figure well placed to assess the LegalTech scene is Luminance CEO Emily Foges whose company operate in 23 countries and opened their Singapore office in February.<\/p>\n

\"EmilyEmily Foges<\/strong>: Emily is the CEO of Luminance, an AI platform for due diligence, compliance, insurance or contract management. <\/em><\/p>\n

Her assessment is that the government\u2019s intention in supporting the LegalTech scene is to help Singapore become one of Asia\u2019s continental capitals for LegalTech.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really exciting time in Singapore. The government have worked out that they are rightly positioned to support the Asia-Pacific region as a hub for LegalTech, and law firms are jumping on board.\u201d<\/p>\n

A key manifestation of the government\u2019s involvement in the LegalTech scene has been the creation of FLIP (or the Future Law Innovation Programme to give it it\u2019s full title), by the Singapore Academy of Law.<\/p>\n

FLIP is a two-year pilot programme which launched in January and which aims to create a vibrant ecosystem for legal technology. So far, 25 companies have signed up to be involved including the likes of Dentons Rodyk, Zegal, and BNP Paribas.<\/p>\n

A crucial part of FLIP, as Manager Noemie Alintissar explains to Legal Geek, is simply providing a physical space for tech-enabled law firms and LegalTech start-ups to meet.<\/p>\n

\"NoemieNoemie Alintissar<\/strong>: Noemie joined the\u00a0Singapore Academy of Law in May 2017 as the Manager of FLIP. She has led the development of FLIP’s identity and purpose ever since.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we are seeing in Singapore is the emergence of a movement that wasn\u2019t really there a year ago, \u201csays Alintissar. \u201cOur role is to try and bring in an ecosystem that helps companies along their tech journey. We\u2019re not that different from Legal Geek, and I like to think we are at the heart of a lot of things that are happening in LegalTech over here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet there are the customary challenges in Singapore as anywhere else, and Alintissar is well aware of them.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.legalgeek.co\/event\/legal-geek-singapore-event\/<\/p>\n

\u201c80% of law firms in Singapore have 5 partners or less. And these little law firms don\u2019t have time to think about how to do things better, they have their head down trying to get the work that is coming in through the door done.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd whilst the top tier law firms are starting to wrap their heads around technology, I think you would be surprised at how mechanical their practices are when you compare them to a magic circle law firm in London.\u201d<\/p>\n

Powell agrees: \u201cThere are early adopters out there, but lawyers in Singapore do tend to be fairly averse to change so it\u2019s a matter of trying to say we don\u2019t want to take away lawyers jobs, just for you to compete better as a lawyers.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the mood music is changing and one of the key agents of change are the dynamic and innovative meet-ups hosted by FLIP.<\/p>\n

In its\u2019 first four months, FLIP has hosted the Singapore legs of the Global Legal Hackathon and the Global\u00a0Computational Law & Blockchain Festival, whilst Global Design Company IDEO and legal innovator Mark Cohen have both also hosted workshops there. And this month, Legal Geek will be stopping off to hold a stage of our Round the World Tour in collaboration with the Singapore Academy of Law. The event takes place on 17th<\/sup> May.<\/p>\n

The frequency of FLIP\u2019s events is impressive, and so too is the broad demographic of guests who typically attend, which Powell describes as \u201ca third being technologists, a third attorneys and the final third are in-house counsel – a good mix.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alintissar keenly adds that students also attend, as well as \u201cpeople who have nothing to do with the law\u201d \u2013 \u00a0which Legal Geek feels is a cast-iron sign of an interesting event.<\/p>\n

Legal Geek Conference<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n