Speech by Minister for Law and Second Minister for Home Affairs Edwin Tong SC at the “The Next Charter: Shaping Singapore’s Legal Future Together” event

1. First, thank you very much for your presence today, and a really warm welcome to all of you to The Next Charter. We are very grateful for the turnout today. We were quite overwhelmed with the number of RSVPs that we received, and we are honoured by your presence.

2. As we heard from Raeza (emcee) earlier, this is the first time we are doing this – a gathering of the whole legal community at such scale. And we are doing it this year, in our Bicentennial year: 200 years since the foundation of our Rule of Law and our legal system was laid.

3. The 2nd Charter of Justice was introduced in 1826, and I think it would be fair to say that we have come a very long way in those 200 years – moulding, shaping and contextualising our legal system that we inherited many years ago, to serve the needs of Singapore and Singaporeans.

4. But today, we look ahead, and think about the next Charter.

5. As a legal profession, we stand at perhaps one of the most consequential crossroads in our history. It is critical that we think about what the profession should look like, not next year or the year after, but in 10, 20, 30 years’ time. And what we should do to get ourselves there, and the challenges along the way that we will have to confront.

6. When I was first came into practice, more than 30 years ago now, the half-life of a skill was more than 10 years. Today, it is around 4 years, and all of that is driven and will continue to be driven by rapid innovation and technological change.

7. At that time, 30-odd years ago, a lawyer’s tools would include a telex machine, a fax machine, stacks of paper bundles, and it also included a paginator. If you know what a paginator is, you are quite aged. And if you have used a paginator in the past, like me, you are very aged!

8. Technology for us in those days came in the form of a 286 computer. You remember that? I would turn it on, and then I would go downstairs to Lau Pa Sat to have a coffee. After I came back, it was still whirring. It had with a floppy disk drive. Emails had not yet been introduced. Of course, several years later, we had the Blackberry, and that was a game changer. Because of the Blackberry, not only did we have emails, we could also email someone from somewhere not at our desk, and that was a real game changer.

9. That was life back in the mid to late 1990s as a lawyer. Today, I think we are in the middle of a serious technological revolution, and there is no doubt that the next 30 years will move much faster than the last 30 years.

10. Everyone has a mobile phone, you heard Raeza earlier. Mobile phones took over a decade to reach a million users. ChatGPT? Took five days.

11. Technology, and in particular AI, therefore cannot be ignored in the next phase of change. Not just as a tech tool – a tool that you call up for research, for organising documents to replace your paginator, or for front-end or back-end legal work – but its impact on the way law firms will be run; the way in which we construct our business models; the way in which we attract talent, or maybe see shifts in talent patterns; workplace cultures – work from home, flexible hours; and also legal education.

12. There is no doubt that AI will have a profound and significant impact on our legal profession. But at the same time, I believe that AI will not replace the human lawyer, at least not for the foreseeable future. But the human who adopts and uses AI better, will replace the human who does not. Therefore, we have chosen today to focus on AI and technology, and its impact on the legal profession.

13. As you heard earlier, we will have an exciting panel of speakers later, from leading tech backgrounds. We chose them deliberately because they offer something different – different experiences, and they can share from different perspectives on the spectrum.

14. We have also invited, at the back of the room, partners from the legaltech industry to show off their latest products. They will do a show-and-tell, hands-on demo if you like, and also be in a position to offer trials to all of you, should you want.

What is our Vision for Singapore?

15. I will come back to this point on AI and tech a little later. But before I do, let’s first go back to some basics, and ask ourselves, as we look at confronting disruption, – what is our vision for the Singapore legal industry?

16. My vision is to have a first-class legal system powered by top-class legal profession, undergirded by the rule of law, and trusted by the world.

17. I hope to see a legal industry that remains relevant and attracts work to Singapore. I also want to see a legal profession where the brightest minds want to practise in Singapore, and where the best legal talent has every chance to be nurtured, grow and succeed, right here in Singapore.

18. I want to see legal professionals, whether you are a newly qualified young lawyer just starting out, or with a Post-Qualified Experience (PQE) of 40, to see law not merely as a job, but as a calling. A career that may be hard work, but still inspiring and motivating, and where it still remains a privilege to be called a Counsel – in every sense of the word.

19. I think we have done much to get to where we are today. We have done much together as a legal profession, and on that score, I am confident that even as we look at the disruptions, we will be able to navigate them from a position of strength.

20. By almost any measure, our legal system has ranked well.

21. Whether you look at Gallup’s Global Safety Report or Pew Research Centre’s Report or the World Justice Project – we rank highly in order and security, absence of corruption, regulatory enforcement, the civil justice system, as well as the criminal justice system.

22. All of this, nurtured and built up carefully over many years, has allowed us, in turn, to build a trusted professional services hub in Singapore, with the legal industry being a key part of that hub.

23. We remain highly connected to the world, as we must. We regularly work with the world’s best institutions, many of which are located right here in Singapore. The World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO), the International Association of Restructuring, Insolvency & Bankruptcy Professionals (INSOL), the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA), the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), and the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), to name a few.

24. They are present and they choose Singapore because they see the opportunities in this part of the world. They see Singapore’s position as a hub for the region, and there is deep trust and confidence in our legal system, which we can never take for granted.

25. We must therefore continue to develop our legal talent, and we are indeed proud to see many of our legal talent exported elsewhere, making a difference on the world stage. Singapore’s lawyers are leading firms in key common law jurisdictions like Hong Kong, New York and London.

26. In WIPO, we have Mr Daren Tang – the first Singaporean to lead a major United Nations (UN) agency. He has just been nominated for a second term just last month. He and his team have concluded landmark multilateral treaties – the WIPO Treaty on Intellectual Property, the Genetic Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge (GRATK), and the Riyadh Design Law Treaty (RDLT). These are the first treaties that WIPO has concluded in more than a decade. A WIPO that was led by a Singaporean.

27. Our people lead UN negotiations – the Singapore Convention on Mediation is one example with 59 signatories today and 20 contracting parties. Our Ambassador Rena Lee is known around the world for her leading role in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), leading to High Seas Treaty as well as BBNJ, and she is now being offered for election to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) - also another first for Singapore.

28. So, our legal profession, as a whole, punches above its weight. Let me share a few more statistics with you.

(1) Today, we have a strong Singapore core of 6,400 Singapore lawyers in practice. Over the last 10 years, that represents an increase of 26%.

(2) Since we opened up our legal space in 2000 – in the last 25 years – the number of foreign firms present in Singapore has more than doubled, and the number of foreign lawyers have more than quadrupled.

(3) We are amongst the most international hubs in Southeast Asia and in Asia, and amongst the best regarded as well. Many of our lawyers feature regularly in international rankings and accolades. Legal 500, as one example, says that Singapore is one of the top jurisdictions with the most number of firms to watch.

29. Taken together, the value of legal services generated by the local and foreign firms has grown eight-fold in this period of time.

30. At the same time, the number of Singapore-qualified in-house counsel has also more than doubled in the last 10 years. But this growth has not come at the expense of our local law firms. In-house counsel grew, even as the number of Singapore-qualified practitioners grew by 26%.

31. In-house counsel remains an integral part of the legal profession in Singapore – they support the growth of MNCs, as well as other businesses in Singapore. They help companies navigate regulatory landscapes, allowing them to invest with confidence in Singapore, and in turn, driving the growth of MNCs in Singapore, which today has grown to more than 7,000 located in Singapore. This in turn helps with job creation and a vibrant economy.

32. At the same time, as a leading jurisdiction, we will continually update our laws - keeping abreast of development, meeting evolving demands. We also introduced new legislation in novel areas, to deal with emerging areas, such as online harms and cyber scams developments and events that we perhaps have not had to grapple with in the past.

33. In the period of time since I have been at MinLaw, we passed 56 Bills - about seven to eight per year, or roughly one Bill every one to two Parliament sittings. Those are just the Bills that MinLaw oversees. There are other Bills which other ministries oversee.

34. So keeping our laws up to date, meeting demands of the market, making sure that we evolve to remain relevant is a key feature of the Singapore justice system.

35. At the same time, access to justice remains a key value ethos for us – to ensure the most vulnerable amongst us will always be assured of access to justice.

36. Over the years we have built up steadily the Criminal Legal Aid Scheme (CLAS), the Legal Aid Bureau (LAB), Pro Bono SG (PBSG), as well as most recently, the Public Defender’s Office (PDO). We have systematically institutionalised access to justice in Singapore.

37. Earlier this week in Parliament, we announced enhancements to our civil legal aid framework - raising the Per Capita Household Income (PCHI) threshold from $1,050 to $1,650, to allow more Singaporeans and Permanent Residents (PR) to be able to avail themselves of legal aid services.

38. In the immediate horizon, we can expect to see further legislative changes. They sharpen our approach across many areas of the law, and you can see in this slide some of the Bills that we can expect in the coming years.

39. We also expect to be building broader and stronger connections with overseas jurisdictions because being connected to the world is important for us. We engage continually in multilateral discussions and treaties with foreign counterparts. We intend also to continue to establish more agreements and Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to open up people-to-people connections. We will do so to strengthen partnerships, open up new markets for our law firms and lawyers, and broaden the horizon and experience options for lawyers.

40. There is, however, much more to be done if we want to sustain our vision, to keep at the forefront of the legal industry, and to keep relevant in other people’s mindshare. We will therefore continue to strengthen and to build on what we have achieved.

41. At the same time, we all know that we will be doing it in an era of tremendous uncertainty amidst a series of very significant deep disruptions to the legal industry.

42. Let me just briefly outline a few.

43. First, almost goes without saying, the state of global politics today. The world that’s fragmenting, headlines every day of one form or another. Intensifying fragmentation, sometimes happening by the week.

44. As a consequence, the rule of law is under pressure. According to World Justice Project, 68% of countries declined in the rule of law score in 2025. Once there is a decline, it becomes harder to predict, harder to find a rules-based system by which to resolve disputes.

45. Second, and more importantly, amidst the geopolitical tension, competition is stiffening, for Singapore. Other jurisdictions are organising themselves and strengthening as well.

(1) Take arbitration, for example, which we have built up over many decades. Other jurisdictions are reforming their laws. Arbitral institutions are updating their rules and finding ways to expand globally as well.

(2) Asian cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, and Dubai are slowly climbing up the rankings. Many are also building their own integrated dispute resolution centres, like Maxwell Chambers.

(3) In international restructuring and insolvency, Malaysia and the UAE have revamped their frameworks. China and India are also looking at making major moves.

(4) In IP, countries across Asia, the Middle East and Latin America are strengthening their regimes.

(5) India opened its legal market to foreign firms and lawyers on a reciprocal basis.

(6) All of these are some examples of the competition around us, ensuring that we ought not ever rest on our laurels and we always think forward, think about the next step, the next move that we need to make.

46. Third challenge, the social fabric of the legal profession is also changing quickly. What do I mean by that? We will have to confront changes in workplace attitudes, the demands on talents. Where do the best bright young students go? Do they come into the law? We also have to balance that against societal shifts, the way in which we see workplace adjustments, work life balance, working remotely and the like.

47. I thought I would share some interesting findings with you on these issues.

(1) 64% desire flexible working hours.

(2) 57% of employees would like flexible work arrangements.

(3) 49% of Singaporeans will consider quitting if their employers asked them to spend more time working in office. Among them, 69% of Gen Z vs. 44% Gen X.

(4) Gen Z prefer to stay in a job for an average of less than three years, or 2.9 years. They prioritise strong training and development opportunities, while Gen X look for financially healthy company. Looks like it is quite hard to start a business and a law firm!

48. But I want to say that these are not in themselves negative findings. They are not. They reflect the zeitgeist of today. They reflect the value system of today.

49. But what I think we need to think about from these findings is that they will have a consequential bearing on issues such as training for example.

50. Working from home or even flexible office hours will mean less face time with the senior practitioners in the office. Mentorship opportunities will decrease. If hearings are mainly on Zoom, we might lose the opportunity to hone our skills simply by observing what goes on in the Court room.

51. I recall that when I was a very junior lawyer, I used to learn the most by just watching the judge, the witness, my senior partner and the opposing counsel. Just watching them in court, watching the little twitches, the language they use, what document they choose to tender or submit. All of that can only be done in person, in the setting of a courtroom. So, I think we will have to think about how we re-evaluate training, law school curriculum as well as continuing legal education.

52. Finally, let me say a little bit about AI.

53. Yes, technology is changing our profession. AI is automating the routine tasks. Some numbers again: Up to 44% of legal tasks can be automated by AI and AI can do them faster, better.

54. Lawyers who thrive in the future will be those who can use AI well, as I said earlier. We need lawyers who are not only legally strong, but also digitally fluent. This means rethinking education and training.

55. With AI now able to perform many tasks faster — and in some cases better — we will have to ask ourselves a harder question : What should a law degree actually be teaching? The answer cannot simply be: “how to use AI tools.”

56. Instead, I think we need to double down on what AI cannot replicate - AI cannot build trust with clients. It cannot exercise moral judgement. It cannot advocate with wisdom. It is not accountable, at least in the traditional sense

57. This means training lawyers to develop ethical reasoning, empathetic client engagement, judgment in situations of real ambiguity, and sometimes, the moral courage to tell a client something they do not want to hear.

58. This is something we will examine closely under the Future of Legal Profession Committee, led by the Honourable Chief Justice and myself, which will be done in collaboration with the broader legal profession.

59. As we push for excellence and growth and we look at navigating all of these destructive forces, we must also recognise the pressures that have built up within the profession.

60. We must build a profession where people can have long, meaningful careers with purpose and they see the value in what they do and not burn out early. A sustainable legal sector isn’t just about revenue or rankings. It is one where young lawyers will see a future for themselves, where mid-level lawyers choose to stay, and senior lawyers choose to continue to mentor and inspire.

61. But I’ll be the first to admit — there’s no quick fix for this.

62. Simply easing the load for younger lawyers without rethinking the work practice and the workflow and how we structure that balance will only shift the burden to senior lawyers. That doesn’t solve the problem.

63. It is also not an answer to accept that exhaustion or burnout will be inevitable. We have to rethink how work is done. When people feel competent, empowered, and supported, they are more engaged, less overwhelmed, and more inspired to contribute.

64. But at the same time, with all of the disruptions that I have outlined very briefly, I think disruption will also not shrink our opportunities. It will merely reshape the opportunities that we will have.

65. The question was never whether the work would change. The question is who will be positioned to capture what comes next.

66. So today, as we discuss our vision for the legal industry - The Next Charter, and we talk about the disruptions, we thought that today we would put the focus squarely on AI because we see AI as perhaps the biggest disruptive force to the legal profession in various respects. As I said, not just front end or back end use of AI in the firms, but its impact on a whole range of other consequential matters. I see AI as a big challenge, and I think most of the room probably do as well, but I also see it as a big opportunity.

67. As Prime Minister said in his Budget Speech, this is now a national priority. We made it such because we believe that it will give us in Singapore a serious competitive advantage.

68. I think the same is true for the legal industry. So, it remains also a priority for MinLaw.

69. We will go all out to support firms in adopting AI. We are prepared to invest alongside you as you make that change. We will put meaningful support on the table to support the legal industry to make this change

70. But at the same time, you need to step forward and partner us. You need to think about the challenges that each of your firms will have. You will have a different challenge in a big, small, medium sized firm, sole proprietorship, or as in-house counsel. You will all have your different perspectives and there will be a spectrum but we are prepared to work with all of you.

71. Some will worry that simplification and digitisation of legal processes will reduce certain types of work.

72. That concern is understandable. The concern is always, will my roles no longer exist? Will I be marginalised? Will AI replace me? Yes, those concerns are there. But preserving inefficiencies just to preserve work is also not sustainable.

73. Clients will inevitably demand better. You will hear from the panel later on, who talked to many law firms, to many corporates about change management around AI. Clients will demand better, they will demand different.

74. Other jurisdictions will also innovate. As I briefly mentioned, they will innovate, they will improve, and they will enhance. We cannot afford to be left behind. We either move up the value chain, or we will be overtaken.

75. We know the urgency, and we have introduced initiatives to help the legal industry along.

76. Later today, at the end, you will see a short video clip on our newest technology programme called Legal Innovation and Future-Readiness Transformation (LIFT) Initiative. LIFT will support your firms in change management and transformation.

77. We know, from our past experience and research that transforming in the space of AI is not just about putting money on the table to adopt AI. It’s not just about financial resourcing, although that is important, because many smaller firms might well face the challenge of economies of scale, and that is a significant threshold to cross. But it is not just about buying the latest product, which you can do very easily. It is about the entire change management – how you run the back end, how you run the front end, how you train your lawyers to use it, and how you educate lawyers and how you interface with clients with the technology that you have.

78. So LIFT helps you to analyse your needs, understand and decide which product best suits the firm and the firm profile that you run, and partner you with a vendor and a provider, and partner with you throughout the process of change management.

79. Today, we will also be launching a Guide for using GenAI in the legal sector safely and responsibly. We thought long and hard about rules around the use of GenAI and decided that we do not want to hard code the rules at this point in time. If we hard coded at this point in time, it will invariably stifle innovation. It might drive innovators away and I do not think it is the right time, because we are far from the end of the journey when it comes to the evolution of technology. So, we have introduced a code that will set out the framework and the parameters for the use of GenAI.

80. So it is a dynamic, very fast-moving area. That’s why invited these experts speak at a fireside chat later. They will be in a unique position, as I said, to give us an insider’s viewpoint on tech and AI with some very hard truths about legal technology. I have asked them to excite you with what they say, but also to let you leave this room feeling a little bit anxious about AI, and I hope they find the right pitch later on.

81. We have also asked some of the leading tech vendors and offerings to be present, to showcase their technologies. We have arranged for them to be here to speak to you, to let you experience for yourself and for them to walk you through what they offer.

82. Each of them have a different value proposition and we thought it would be useful to widen your perspective, understand how advanced technologies are being deployed across industries, not just in the legal space and how organisations are using these products to redefine and rethink the way they work. I hope it sparks some imagination in all of you about what is possible

83. Let me now briefly conclude. In my few minutes here, what I hope you took away from my speech is that despite the disruptions that we face, that we will be facing head on, we have achieved much as a legal profession. We have done well. I think the best validation is perhaps the fact the external parties use our services. They trust our legal system. We have arbitrations that take place here, cases that are resolved here, which have not much of a connection to Singapore, but they come into Singapore because they trust our system.

84. But the future that we want to build in the Next Charter will demand more: vision, adaptation, innovation, and I think perhaps most importantly, collaboration, which is why we are here in this room today. A collaboration of the different professionals that undergird the legal profession in Singapore, whether you are in house counsel, local lawyers, foreign lawyers, academics, students, or those in related industries to the law, all of you are part of the legal profession.

85. If you keep doing what we are doing and we did not think about change, we did not think about adopting AI and we did not think about dealing with the disruptions, we will be alright for a while. We will still continue to grow steadily in the next few years.

86. But we are not just after short-term, incremental growth. We are aiming for the next quantum leap, the next breakthrough.

87. Just as what previous generations achieved with Changi Airport, NEWater, Jurong Island, Tuas Biomedical Park, some of our biggest infrastructures which have taken years, if not decades, to think about, to conceive and to build but they were visionary at the time that they were thought about.

88. What is the equivalent of our legal sector? What is that next bound that will set us apart?

89. I think we need to think boldly. Singapore is well positioned to seize these opportunities in this endeavour.

90. I close with an African proverb, which I like a lot and which I hope resonates with all of you because I think it sends a signal about how we can collaborate. It goes like this: If you want to go fast, you go alone, if we want to go far, we go together.

91. I believe that if we go together, we will not just go far – we will lead, we will build something that lasts. We will build something that continues through the Next Charter for us. Today is the start of that journey and I hope you see it as such.

92. We welcome everyone to share your thoughts, your ideas, and your suggestions. This is a QR code for you to leave your suggestions, your ideas, your fears, your anxieties, which we will take on board today and beyond today as we chart the next chapter of our legal profession.

93. Thank you very much.

Last updated on 6 March 2026