Public Consultation on the Report of the Committee to Review the Regulatory Framework

16 OCT 2025

1.    The Committee to Review the Regulatory Framework for Law Practices and Collaborations in Singapore (the “Committee”) has published its report (the “Report”) detailing its views, perspectives and recommendations to further enhance Singapore’s regulatory framework for law practices and collaborations between them.

2.    The Ministry of Law welcomes the Report and will be carefully reviewing the recommendations. To assist with this review, the Ministry will be conducting an 8-week public consultation on the Committee’s recommendations that will run from 16 October 2025 to 10 December 2025.

Singapore’s Legal Services Sector

3.    Singapore’s legal services sector has achieved significant growth by positioning itself to capitalise on globalisation driving cross-border exchange of goods and services. This growth reflects greater demand for high-end legal services to support our banking, financial and other economic sectors. Asia is the world’s largest economic and trading region, responsible for more than half of the world’s GDP growth. The need for legal services will only continue to rise. The Singapore legal services sector must continue to keep pace.

4.    Since 1999, the Singapore government has introduced various policy initiatives and legislative changes to facilitate the entry of foreign law practices and foreign lawyers into the Singapore market. This has enhanced the diversity of Singapore’s legal service offerings and established Singapore as an international legal services hub.

The Committee

5.    The regulatory framework for the legal services sector was last reviewed in 2014. It is timely to conduct a review to evaluate the efficacy of the current regulatory framework. The Committee was given the following terms of reference:

  • Review the extent to which the current regulatory framework for law practices in Singapore and collaborations among them has met its original objectives; and

  • Recommend any changes to the regulatory framework, taking into account developments and trends in legal services and the future needs of Singapore.

6.    The Committee has made a total of 10 recommendations, which fall into four broad areas:

  • Criteria to enter into collaboration arrangements;

  • Requirements for foreign law practice entities and foreign-qualified lawyers to hold interests in Singapore law practices;

  • Lawyer composition in foreign law practice entities; and

  • Permitted areas of legal practice for licensed foreign law practices.

Public Consultation

7.    Members of the public are invited to share their views on the Committee’s recommendations. Interested parties may view the Committee’s report (Committee Report) and submit feedback in electronic form: Public Consultation Feedback.