Category: Law Practice Management
Legal Technology: The GC Conundrum
The General Counsel (GC) is changing from a legal expert and risk mitigator to a business enabler. The best of this new breed of GCs are agile, on the ground, close to the business, and engaged up-front with their organization’s design and technology teams, enabling them […]
Asia’s changing legal market and the strategies to adapt: An interview with Eric Chin of Alpha Creates
Asia’s legal market is changing and who better to know what strategies firms might deploy to adapt to these changes than Melbourne-based Eric Chin, who helped co-found Alpha Creates in January of 2019. A long-time strategic advisor to the legal services sector, Eric also coined the term […]
Legal Entity Management – Beyond Compliance
Introduction Recently corporations, regulators and the public have been embroiled in fierce debates about CO² emissions, money laundering, and the OECD’s BEPS initiatives. All of these have involved risk to the reputations of hitherto highly respected organizations. Now entity management compliance is coming into the public […]
Law business structures – challenges in ASEAN
In 2014, the IBA commissioned a mammoth report on Global Cross Border Legal Services that comprehensively covers information about over 90 countries and 160 jurisdictions on the regulation of domestic and cross-border legal practice. What the report confirms is the transformation of legal practice, and thus […]
Book Review: “SMARTER Law: Transforming busy lawyers into business leaders” – by Trevor Faure
“I cannot say this too strongly: Do not compare yourself to others. Be true to who you are, and continue to learn with all your might.” Daisaku Ikeda, Buddhist Philosopher, as quoted by Trevor Faure. Trevor Faure, self-defined as ‘part-translator-part-interlocutor’ between the legal and performance improvement […]
Legal Roles & Opportunities Across Asia in 2019
As global growth rates look sluggish in 2019 with the well-documented slowdown in growth brought about by the Sino-US trade war, leading executive search business Aquis Search has announced in its latest set of salary survey & guides published in January this year, that despite some […]
Lawyers are from Mars: Marketing People are from Mercury OR the importance of cognitive diversity in law firms
“We always did feel the same we just saw it from a different point of view. Tangled up in blue.” Bob Dylan In preparation for taking on a new marketing and business development role at an international law firm (this was after I accepted the position […]
Barriers to funding arbitration in Hong Kong dismantled
Hong Kong’s lawmakers kicked off the process of permitting the third-party funding of arbitration as far back as 2013, even then recognising the anachronistic nature of the prohibition. It has taken nearly six years for us to reach this point, but from February 1st the funding […]
Elevate Acquires Cognatio Law, Launching Operations in Hong Kong
Flexible lawyering provider Cognatio extends Elevate’s global capabilities in Asia Pacific market. Law company Elevate today announced it has acquired Cognatio Law, a Hong Kong-based flexible lawyering and legal consulting business serving in-house legal and compliance teams as well as law firms across Asia Pacific. Cognatio […]
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and the Asia-Pacific Legal Industry
The Financial Times Innovative Lawyers report for the Asia-Pacific region substantiates a “sense of growing maturity among the region’s law firms”. It goes without saying that major projects in the corporate world, particularly projects including parties external to the Asia-Pacific, call for legal expertise. As a […]
Law As A Process: How Process Design Defines Value, Delivers Efficiency, and Drives Business Strategy
KorumLegal’s proprietary Korum Process Methodology (KPM) focuses on helping law departments “do more with less” by applying the best practices of Lean, Six-Sigma, and Agile methods to the delivery of legal services in the APAC region. Legal process management approach in North America vs APAC Legal […]
The significance of Artificial Intelligence in unlocking innovation for legal practice
Almost all over the world, scholars believe that future business growth will happen only if data is being used intelligently. The handling of significant volumes of data, the requirement of extra resources and the need of speed to conduct business has all helped increased the demand […]
Litigation Funding in Asia – Where are we now?
Last year saw a swathe of reforms and proposed reforms in Asia in relation to litigation and arbitration funding. In January 2017, Singapore’s parliament passed the Civil Law Amendment Act and the Civil Law (Third Party Funding) Regulations 2017. Hot on Singapore’s heels, in June 2017, […]
Legal Procurement Conference APAC 2018 set for Sydney on 24 July 2018
Hosted by the Buying Legal Council and Lawcadia, the event is a powerful platform for buyers and sellers of legal services to network and learn, share best practices, launch new initiatives, get motivated, and inspire the legal industry as a whole. The conference encourages dialogue, discussion and formal and […]
Driving innovation in the legal industry
Introduction Emerging technologies are creating significant waves of disruption impacting economies, industries and societies across the globe. Companies are struggling to keep pace with technological developments, whether maintaining agile business environments to leverage advanced technologies or creating the right risk and compliance strategies to plan and […]
Why Legal Practices Should Embrace Technology
Technology has changed virtually every industry, including the legal profession. New technology, cutting edge apps and software, and automation have all helped reduce expenses and drastically increased productivity. However many people are still hesitant to completely embrace technology, including legal professionals. Here are a few reasons […]
Reed Smith and Resource Law Managing Partners explain the strategy behind their Singapore alliance
Reed Smith formed an alliance with Singapore’s Resource Law in 2016 to strengthen its local expertise and client offering of a one-stop-shop service, and to help it stand out amid a highly competitive environment for both international and local firms in Singapore. The alliance has also allowed the firm […]
Today’s Lawyers Need Technology Training
Introduction Back in November, a group of people gathered in Hong Kong to brainstorm on using block chain technology in legal transactions. They discussed ethereum and cybersecurity, before debating the benefits and dangers of Artificial Intelligence (AI). These weren’t computer programmers looking to create a new […]
Asian law firms prominent at Israel’s 4th Foreign Law Firms conference
Israel’s 4th annual foreign law firms conference took place on February 26 in Tel Aviv. Organized by Robus Legal Marketing in association with the Tel-Aviv District of the Israel Bar Association, the conference brought together over 400 attorneys, with over 130 representatives from law firms around […]
Stefanie Yuen Thio of Singapore’s TSMP Law explains how to build a successful boutique legal practice
Stefanie Yuen Thio is Joint Managing Director of TSMP Law Corporation in Singapore, leads the firm’s M&A and corporate practice and co-manages the firm. TSMP is regarded as one of Singapore’s handful of “go to” independent firms for cutting edge Wall Street work and was named SE Asia’s […]
Innovating in-house legal in Asia Pacific
Peter Connor is Founder and CEO of AlternativelyLegal. The Australia-based former in-house counsel conducts ‘Everything But The Law’TM innovation sessions for in house lawyers throughout the Asia-Pacific region. He recently delivered the keynote speech at the InHouse Community Annual Congress in Hong Kong to over 600 attendees on the evolution of the […]
What makes Sports Law unique? An interview with Richard Wee
Richard Wee joined Kuala Lumpur-based MahWengKwai & Associates in 2016, where he established the firms Sports Law Practice Group. Now head of Richard Wee Chambers, Wee is recognized locally and regionally for pioneering this niche, in this Q&A with Asia Law Portal he describes what makes […]
5 Ways Big Data is Changing Legal Practice
Innovation buzz words like “analytics” “AI” and “big data” have been getting a lot of coverage recently, but how are they affecting the bottom line for law firms? Below are 5 ways that big data can build law firm value: Business Development Everyone wants to know what […]
Key takeaways from the 2nd Singapore Law Firm Management Forum
The Second Regional Law Firm Management Forum took place Friday November 3, 2017, at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Singapore. This year’s Forum focused on how non-legal professional in law firms can become critical contributors to firm strategies. Andrew Barnes, President of Forum sponsor Australasian Legal Practice […]
The Great Legal Reformation: Notes from the Field
The beginning of the Great Legal Reformation lacks the precision of Martin Luther nailing his 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church, but upheaval in legal services delivery most certainly accelerated and gained strength with the financial crisis of 2008. Since that time, legal […]
Lawyers: 5 Steps to Overcome Procrastination
Many lawyers admit that procrastination is a problem. If one can begin by admitting that it is difficult to manage time — this is a good beginning. Ben confessed. “Sure, I admit that I procrastinate in my law practice. When I am working on something difficult, […]
Second Regional Law Firm Management Forum set for Singapore, Nov 3, 2017
The Australasian Legal Practice Management Association (ALPMA), along with the Law Council’s Australian Law Management Group, held its inaugural Regional Law Firm Management Forum in Singapore late last year. The Second Regional Law Firm Management Forum is now set to take place Friday November 3, 2017, […]
An Entity-Driven Approach to Legal Services
A crowded legal marketplace requires law firms to do more than just provide quality legal services If the propriators of Asian businesses from 1917 were to board a time machine (likely built by Elon Musk) and travel to 2017 they would be astounded by the massive […]
Artificial Intelligence (AI): A new-frontier in legal services competition in Asia
In a news release issued last week – leading international NewLaw firm Axiom announced “the market launch of AxiomAI – a program that leverages Artificial Intelligence (AI) to improve the efficiency and quality of contracts work. As part of AxiomAI, Axiom will accelerate the use of […]
What is Driving Change in Asia’s Legal Profession?
The famous American jurist Clarence Darrow once said, “The trouble with law is lawyers.” And, when it comes to changing the way lawyers and law firms operate, some of the speakers and panellists at the Legal Inno’ Tech Forum, which took place in Hong Kong in […]
When will the legal industry have its Napster moment?
“I like to think (it has to be!), Of a cybemetric ecology, Where we are free of our labors, And joined back to nature, Returned to our mammal brothers and sisters, And all watched over By machines of loving grace.” Thus wrote the beat poet Richard Brautigan in 1967. He was definitely […]
The Impact of third party funding on Hong Kong as a centre for International Arbitration
As recently as 14th June 2017, Hong Kong became the latest jurisdiction to permit third-party funding in international arbitration by passing legislation to amend the Arbitration Ordinance (Cap. 609). The amendment is likely to take effect later this year, giving time for a code of conduct […]
NewLaw shows progress in Association of Corporate Counsel Australia 2017 Benchmarks and Leading Practices Report
The Association of Corporate Counsel Australia recently launched the 2017 Benchmarks and Leading Practices Report, an in-depth and extensive study of trends in the Australian and New Zealand (ANZ) in-house legal profession. The report also features 13 general counsels as best practice case studies and 4 […]
Legal Innovation and Tech Forum to take place in Hong Kong, June 8, 2017
Leaders in legal technology from around the world are poised to gather in Hong Kong for the Legal Inno’ Tech Forum. The Forum will take place at ESPACE in Central Hong Kong on Thursday, June 8, 2017 between 2 pm and 5:30 pm. The backdrop for this […]
The International Bar Association’s 2017 Annual Conference will take place October 8-13 in Sydney, Australia
The International Bar Association’s 2017 Annual Conference will take place October 8-13 in Sydney, Australia. Notably, the conference takes place as the IBA celebrates its’ 70th anniversary. Widely regarded as the central event of the international legal community’s calendar — IBA’s Annual Conference — as the […]
Legal services disruption in India: Risks and opportunities
For those lawyers and legal services sector professionals about to gather in Mumbai for IDEX Legal’s Asia Law Firm Management Congress (ALFMC) April 20th – thoughts of legal market liberalization and change hastened by technology are taking center-stage. But what do these things mean? And what […]
First ever Asia Law Firm Management Congress to take place in Mumbai, April 20, 2017
The first ever Asia Law Firm Management Congress (ALFMC) will take place in Mumbai, April 20, 2017. Presented by ThomsonReuters and curated by IDEX Legal. The St Regis Hotel will be the conference venue. As LegallyIndia has detailed — the event will bring together lawyers from leading […]
Malaysia’s Chief Justice and Bar President express support for NewLaw
Chief Justice Tun Arifin Zakaria said allowing more tasks to be done online – from online filing for criminal matters and appeals to online bidding on auctions – would improve accessibility and better serve the public. “The E-bidding system will make the process more transparent and […]
How LOD – Lawyers on Demand is changing the dynamics of NewLaw in Asia
In the first multi-continent merger of its kind, NewLaw leading firms LOD – Lawyers on Demand and AdventBalance joined together in October, 2016 under the joint name and brand LOD – Lawyers on Demand. As LOD – Lawyers on Demand detailed at the time, “the deal…saw the creation […]
4 takeaways from the recent Singapore Law Firm Management Forum
The Regional Law Firm Management Forum took place September 29, 2016 in Singapore. The Australasian Law Practice Management Association (ALPMA) and the Law Council of Australia’s Law Management Group jointly conducted the conference themed: “Change: Technology Enables, People Deliver”. As Andrew Barnes, President of ALPMA, […]