Singapore Academy of Law

The Singapore Academy of Law (SAL) is a promotion and development agency for Singapore’s legal industry. Its vision is to make Singapore the legal hub of Asia.

SAL works with its stakeholders to set new precedents of excellence in Singapore law through developing thought leadership, world class infrastructure and legal solutions. Its 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.

Introduction

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 14,000 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.

Knowledge creation

The Singapore Academy of Law serves as a knowledge hub for the legal community, providing practitioners with world-class information and insights that underpin excellence in Singapore law. We acquire and curate knowledge and disseminate it through multiple platforms on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. Over the years, we have earned a strong reputation for offering comprehensive, up-to-date legal content. The suite of tools available in LawNet provides lawyers with an unmatched combination of information and services not available from any other single portal. Academy Publishing offers affordable legal materials to the legal profession; and creates an alternative avenue for the academics in our law schools to publish their writings and disseminate the laws of Singapore internationally. We offer free legal research and databases to thousands of users in Singapore and other Commonwealth countries including the UK, Australia and Hong Kong, as well as China and the US:

Its SingaporeLaw.sg website is a publicly-accessible collection of Singapore court judgments going back to the year 2000. Its rising popularity mirrors the increasing adoption of Singapore law in international legal contracts.

Journals Online provides instant access – at any time of the day, from anywhere in the world – to all journals and magazine content published by the Singapore Academy of Law.

Singapore Law Watch is a free daily legal news service for the law community in Singapore and abroad. Its legal editors monitor more than 30 sources to compile a website and a daily email service. We currently have over 9,000 daily email subscribers.

Catalysis of ideas

SAL provides the spark to ignite creative thinking and innovative solutions in the legal industry. Our Future Law Innovation Programme is an industry-wide programme to incubate the model for the delivery of legal services in the future economy along four dimensions – Technology, Business Model, Knowledge and Regulation. FLIP encourages technology adoption by the profession, test-beds a new innovation-centric business model for the future law, and seeks to germinate Singapore’s legal tech community. We are also creating a Virtual Community Platform which will extend FLIP activities to those who are not physically located in the co-working space, and hand-hold FLIP participants through a proven innovation process. Our Legal Technology Vision is a substantial blueprint to prepare the industry for the coming digital disruptions. This vision document pulls together the on-going efforts of SAL, the Ministry of Law, and the Law Society of Singapore to encourage the adoption of legal technology. SAL’s Innovation and Ideas Scheme goes a step further to bring good ideas to fruition by providing funding, guidance and a “light touch” oversight.

Capability Building

SAL helps our members build capabilities by equipping them with the tools and technology they need to stay on top of the many challenges they face in today’s fast-changing, globalised environment. Building capabilities – whether in narrow areas of the laws or broad-based leadership – is essential for law firms to sharpen their competitive edge and make the difference. SAL’s Legal Technology Vision is a call to action to all in the industry to become part of the disruption that faces the profession today. We will be stepping up efforts to have members, especially small and medium-sized law firms, adopt technology and explore innovative digital concepts in their work. Our Legal Industry Framework for Training and Education (LIFTED) programme is designed to help members identify and develop core and specialist competencies in their particular areas of practice. We work with industry stakeholders to tailor programmes to encourage development, experimentation and innovative thinking. Besides SAL-organised conferences, seminars and workshops, our Singapore International Dispute Resolution Academy offers education, research and consultancy services in dispute resolution and negotiation. Our training programmes go beyond education on the law. The SAL-INSEAD leadership programme is specifically designed to address business challenges faced by law partners and equip them to build sustainable law practices in this new age. Lawyers who have attained the requisite standards and performance are recognised through our specialist accreditation schemes, which certify their expertise and experience in a specialised area of law. The highest honour, the Senior Counsel appointments, are conferred on top-tier practitioners with professional integrity. SAL also gives out awards and scholarships to deserving law students and lawyers and sends them for overseas attachments.

Connecting community

The law does not operate in a silo; it affects everyone in society. As a promoter and developer of Singapore’s legal industry, SAL seeks to connect all in the legal community with one another and with the public. Through our activities, we facilitate the exchange of ideas and insights, expand the profession’s intellectual capital, and promote camaraderie within the legal community. We also connect our members to the knowledge they need to do their jobs well, through annual lectures, conferences, seminars, workshops and moot competitions. Major highlights include the SAL Distinguished Speaker Series and the Annual Lecture series.

Through the valuable connections we have fostered, public-private partnerships have emerged and thought leadership established in important areas of law and jurisprudence.

References

• The Singapore Academy of Law website:[1].