Legal tech around the World: Singapore

Singapore is a smart place. Nowhere in the world has the internet of things had such an impact as in Singapore - the frontrunner at the IMD Smart Cities Index. Cameras, sensors and digital technologies are used everywhere to automate the cityscape, improve the provision and optimise for efficiency. A visit on the state-run website Smart Nation Singapore reveals a broad range of initiatives such as a one-stop digital healthcare portal called HealthHub and extensive use of autonomous vehicles to increase the mobility for the elderly and the disabled. Meanwhile, the government of Singapore has launched multiple initiatives to encourage digital innovation and support the entrepreneurial environment.

Part of the story is that the excessive use of technology also enables the authorities to surveil their citizens, especially since 80 % of the population lives in state-owned homes. Except for London, Atlanta and the largest Chinese cities, Singapore is the most surveilled city on Earth. Consequently, the use of technology may have an flip side that is worth mentioning when there are limited privacy restrictions.

Despite that, tech-friendly Singapore a very interesting case for legal tech and the small nation has been subject to much attention due to the government’s dedicated support of legal tech.

As almost everywhere else, there is a call for change in the Singaporean market. The volume of legal tech startups is expanding, their applications and concepts get more developed and the law firms become more mature for implementation. According to some reports, Singapore is emerging as a global hub for legal tech despite others noting that the Singapore law firms are still in the early stages of responding to the disruptive forces of technology.

The cause of the hype is that Singapore has launched some great initiatives lately. One of the greatest examples is the Future Law Innovation Programme that is set up by the Singapore Academy of Law and supported by the government to drive innovation and encourage the adoption of legal technologies across the legal sector. Also, the Singapore Ministry of Law and the Law Society have launched programmes to “tech-celerate” the market. This $3.68m legal tech programme pays up to 70% to law firms of the first year’s cost of a new application. This shows that the Singapore government’s commitment to developing a smart nation also has an influence on the legal tech market.

According to, Jerrold Soh who is a lecturer at Singapore Management University, Singapore has been influenced by the digital success in the fintech market. “Singapore has quite a progressive kind of regulatory fintech experimentation (...) And a lot of the work and development happening in that space impacts our legal services sector as well, including core technologies like blockchains, smart contracts and so on,” he told Forum Magazine at the end of last year.

The future for legal tech in Singapore is certainly worth following, but already now, there are some interesting legal tech providers on the market.

Legal tech in Singapore

‍Intellex
A knowledge platform for law. They offer a holistic knowledge management system that can categorise your internal know-how and bridge connections between silos.

Codelex
A legal tech company focused on augmentation, enhancement & streamlining of legal practice. They are incorporated in Mongolia and Singapore and have their core team based in Ulaanbaatar, Singapore and Tokyo. They offer a variety of products such as a law practice management software, a lawyer-to-lawyer legal document marketplace and an Al-assisted contract drafting tool.

SingaporeLegalAdvice.com.
A legal platform and market place that includes a digital learning centre on Singapore law and a service to help legal consumers find legal services. They also offer an accessible library with frequently used legal templates and a digital service to make wills.

FLIP (Future Law Innovation Programme)
An innovation-driven ecosystem that draws together law professionals, technologists, government bodies and investors to incubate new business models of delivering legal services in the future economy. They also organise GLIDE which is a legal tech accelerator programme that aims to discover legal tech solutions for courts, law firms, in-house counsel and other legal professionals in Singapore.

LexKnights
An automated business contracts platform that accelerates agreements and reduces paperwork. With their service, legal consumers can create and e-sign legally binding contracts and have them reviewed.

Centenal
A company that provides a digital operation and compliance solution. They offer a customer compliance management platform where you can automate your reporting, consolidate data and increase the productivity of a compliance team.

Tessaract
A practice- and case management platform for accounting firms and law firm. It is designed to manage end-to-end interactions with clients and keep track of the internal workflow.

Willcraft

An online drafting platform that offers online Wills and Power of Attorneys and does also automated checks to ensure validity. Their services are offered in both English and Mandarin.

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