Singapore Ministry of Law to Launch Technology and Innovation Roadmap

Technology & Innovation Roadmap

Second Minister for Law Edwin Tong to announce Technology and Innovation Roadmap at TechLaw.Fest 2020

The Ministry of Law (MinLaw) will be launching a road map of plans to support Singapore’s legal industry in innovating and tackling tech challenges up to 2030.

The Technology and Innovation Roadmap (TIR) “identifies technologies that will impact and change legal services, and suggests various ways to support the development and adoption of such technologies”, said a MinLaw spokesman.

The TIR is scheduled to be launched by Second Minister for Law Edwin Tong on Friday, the final day of the five-day TechLaw.Fest 2020, an annual conference on law and tech that goes online this year.

Legal technology, or legaltech, employs information and communications technology tools to enable legal service providers to enhance productivity and deliver greater value to clients and access to the justice system.

Updated research due to be presented at TechLaw.Fest by legaltech firm Alpha Creates shows there are now 49 legaltech companies in Singapore – the third-highest number after Australia and India in the Asia-Pacific region. Last year, there were 25 such firms here.

A recent joint survey, Singapore’s Best Law Firms, by The Straits Times and German-based market and consumer data firm Statista, due for release later this year, also showed that some 63 per cent of 754 respondents said digitalisation is the development that will most influence their law firms in the years to come, way ahead of other factors such as globalisation or legislation. The question was one of several posed in the survey.

“There is consensus within the legal sector on the necessity and impact of technology. MinLaw has built on this foundation by partnering the sector to reduce the cost barriers to adopting specially curated technology solutions,” said the ministry’s spokesman.

Among other things, MinLaw has launched schemes such as Tech-Start for Law and Tech-celerate for Law, with partners such as The Law Society, over the past few years to help Singapore law practices adopt baseline technology as well as advanced solutions.

More details on the TIR will be released following the launch.  read more

Source: K.C. Vijayan | Singapore Law Watch