Legal innovation gains traction as more law practices join FLIP
Singapore, 12 October 2018 – PwC Legal International Pte. Ltd. (a licensed Foreign Law Practice) in Singapore (PwC Legal) has joined the Singapore Academy of Law’s Future Law Innovation Programme (FLIP). FLIP was established to promote and encourage innovation and the adoption of technology in the provision of legal services.
Across the short eight months since its official launch in January earlier this year, the programme has seen significant interest. 23 entities had signed up to participate in the first FLIP cohort, comprising nine small and medium-sized law firms, three large law firms, two corporate counsel and nine legal tech companies. PwC Legal will join FLIP’s newest cohort of ten more entities alongside international law firms Linklaters and Clyde & Co, small local law firm Rajan Chettiar LLC, Malaysian law firm Halim Hong & Quek, as well as in-house teams and legal tech companies.
The new cohort brings with it opportunities for FLIP to expand its programmes to help its participants modernise their practice and build capacity for innovation, as well as explore new ways of delivering legal services such as looking at new revenue streams, business models and legal solutions.
As part of its relationship with FLIP, the PwC Legal team will be running monthly drop-in sessions to engage the FLIP community at FLIP’s Legal Innovation Lab in Collision 8, a co-working space on High Street. Through these drop-in sessions, the PwC Legal team hope to encourage knowledge sharing amongst participants from different academic and industry backgrounds.
Henry Goodwin, Partner leading the Digital & Technology practice at PwC Legal in Singapore, commented: “Through our participation in FLIP, we are looking forward to playing an active role in the development of the legal tech landscape in Singapore and across Asia. As the global professional services industry undergoes unprecedented changes, it’s great to see a diverse range of new legal tech solutions being developed locally with FLIP’s support.”
“We are pleased to see that FLIP has gained momentum over the course of this year,” said Mr Paul Neo, creator of FLIP and Chief Operating Officer of SAL. “It is a positive sign that the legal community is choosing to take advantage of the digital disruption currently facing the industry. We hope to be able to continue supporting the transformation of the legal ecosystem through FLIP’s programmes and look forward to working alongside organisations both within and beyond the legal sector to do so.”
FLIP has not only begun to gain traction in the local legal community, it has also stepped up efforts to reach out to the wider legal industry globally. FLIP aims to transform the legal industry and its ecosystem, in the APAC and beyond.
Singapore Management University School of Law has been appointed to lead a research to provide the legal industry with a road map to legal innovation trends in APAC today, and expectations for the future; State of Legal Innovation APAC industry report. The aim is to encourage dialogue and collaboration between APAC countries on legal innovation. The report (to be presented at the next FutureLaw Conference at Stanford Law School in April 2019) will contribute to the broadcasting of legal innovation efforts in APAC to a wider US and European audience.
FLIP will be launching upcoming programmes to place itself in the Asia Pacific region as the platform for legal innovations, via programmes such as the following:
SFF Innovation Lab Crawl
FLIP will participate in the Innovation Lab Crawl during the SFF2018 week on 15th of November from 9.30am to 2pm at Collision 8. More information about the Lab Craw at https://fintechfestival.sg/festival-line-up/innovation-lab-crawl/. During this event, FLIP will organize Ted Talks and Demos, based on the conference themes with focus on current topics relating to both the legal and financial sectors; being Blockchain and distributed ledger technology, Cybersecurity, and RegTech. There will be presentations from a tech firm or start-up, a law firm, and a general counsel at a financial institution, in TED style.
Legal Hackers APAC Retreat
Legal Hackers will be hosting their first APAC retreat on the 16th and 17th of November in Singapore. This will be an opportunity for the chapters in each country to come together, share what is happening in their respective jurisdictions, and exchange best practices. This is a similar event they organised for the European chapters earlier this year: http://legalhackers.eu/
About the Future Law Innovation Programme
FLIP is a two-year pilot programme by SAL to encourage the adoption of technology and drive innovation to create a vibrant ecosystem for legal technology. It is part of the Legal Technology Vision, a five-year road map by SAL for the digital transformation of Singapore’s legal sector. This vision, put together by representatives from the Judiciary, the Ministry of Law, Attorney-General’s Chambers and private sector lawyers is a call to action for lawyers to become part of the digital disruption that faces the legal industry today.
FLIP regularly runs legal tech-related events in the Legal Innovation Lab located at the Collision 8 co-working space across the road from the Supreme Court. More information on FLIP can be found at www.flip.org.sg.
About the Singapore Academy of Law
SAL is a promotion and development agency for Singapore’s legal industry. Our vision is to make Singapore the legal hub of Asia.
SAL works with our stakeholders to set new precedents of excellence in Singapore law through developing thought leadership, world class infrastructure and legal solutions. Our mandates are to build up the intellectual capital of the legal profession by enhancing legal knowledge, raise the international profile of Singapore law, promote Singapore as a centre for dispute resolution, and improve the standards and efficiency of legal practice through continuing professional development and the use of technology.
As a body established by statute, SAL also undertakes statutory functions such as stakeholding services and appointment of Senior Counsel, Commissioners for Oaths and Notaries Public.
SAL is led by a Senate headed by Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon, and comprising the Attorney-General, the Supreme Court Bench and key leaders of the various branches of the legal profession. It has more than 12,000 members, including the Bench, all persons who are called as advocates and solicitors of the Supreme Court (i.e. the Bar) or appointed as Legal Service Officers, corporate counsel, faculty members of the three local law schools (i.e. National University of Singapore, Singapore Management University and Singapore University of Social Sciences) and foreign lawyers in Singapore.
More information can be found at www.sal.org.sg.
About PwC Legal International Pte. Ltd. (a licensed Foreign Law Practice)
PwC Legal International Pte. Ltd. (a licensed Foreign Law Practice) in Singapore is a member firm of the PwC network, the world’s largest professional services network. The PwC Legal network of firms is the most geographically extensive legal network in the world, with over 3,500 lawyers in over 100 countries. The legal teams frequently work closely with professionals in other PwC disciplines to deliver integrated end-to-end solutions to solve clients’ business needs.
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