The Realities of LegalTech and Strategies for Singapore Law Firms
Headline-grabbing articles like “Machines are going to replace lawyers” or “Robo-lawyers are here to take your jobs” have become du jour in the legal industry. In the midst of the buzz and hype around LegalTech, it is important for us to have an educated discourse on the realities of LegalTech and to explore strategies for law firms.
The LegalTech market is estimated to be a $15.9 billion industry selling solutions to both corporate legal departments and law firms. Some industry observers and commentators have been quick to prophesize the end of law firms as LegalTech firms take centre stage. As has been the case historically, I see the business of law going through its natural evolution cycle as LegalTech is being integrated into practices across the globe.
Singapore law firms as we know today have evolved from sole traders to partnerships as firms transitioned from time telling to clock building enterprises. Competition in the legal market has also evolved law firm management teams’ strategic efforts from building expertise (as practice groups became the norm) to scale (geographic expansion to globalisation), sector specialisation (as industry specialisation became a competitive advantage) and now, business models diversification (expertise-driven law firm, labour-driven NewLaw firm and technology-driven LegalTech firm). [read more]
Source: Eric Chin – The Singapore Law Gazette