Launch of Legal Technology Platform Initiative to Support LegalTech Adoption in SG’s Legal Industry

19 JUL 2022

19 Jul 2022 Posted in Press releases

  1. The Ministry of Law (“MinLaw”) launched the Legal Technology Platform Initiative (“LTPI”) today as part of efforts to support the legal industry in the digitalisation journey.
  1. The LTPI comprises the following:

a) The Legal Technology Platform;
b) The LTPI Funding Programme; and
c) Industry Engagement initiatives.

Legal Technology Platform

  1. A key component of the LTPI is the Legal Technology Platform (“LTP”), which aims to support law firms, in particular small and medium law practices (“SMPs”), that face resource constraints in identifying, procuring, adopting and maintaining legaltech tools.
  1. The LTP is a matter management and collaboration platform that is designed around legal workflows and can work independently or in concert with other legaltech tools.

a) Through the LTP, lawyers can view, track and manage the substantive (e.g. document drafts, legal research, team discussions and client instructions) and administrative aspects (e.g. time spent and billing information) of their matters in a consolidated view. This streamlines day-to-day workflow and frees up time for lawyers to focus on substantive matters.

b) The LTP is integrated with legaltech tools that are already commonly used by Singapore law firms, such as practice management system (“PMS”), document management system (“DMS”) and communication tools. Firms can access the core features of these legaltech tools through the LTP, if they have these tools, thereby reducing the need to toggle between different platforms.

The key features of the LTP are listed in the Annex.

  1. While the primary target group of the LTP is the SMPs, other law firms and in-house counsel teams in Singapore can also adopt the LTP.
  1. The LTP is co-developed by MinLaw (supported by GovTech) and its LTP technology partner, Lupl, with significant input from the legal industry. In the development process, over 100 lawyers from diverse practice areas were consulted to identify features that Singapore law firms will find useful in the LTP.

LTPI Funding Programme

  1. MinLaw, with support from Enterprise Singapore and the Infocomm Media Development Authority, will provide funding support to help defray the initial costs of Singapore law firms, especially the SMPs, in adopting the LTP and legaltech tools integrated with it.
  1. Successful applicants may receive funding support of up to 70 per cent via the Productivity Solutions Grant (PSG) for up to two years when they adopt the LTP and legaltech tools integrated with it. This is up from the one year of funding support provided for the Tech Start for Law (2017) and Tech-celerate for Law (2019) programmes. This enhancement was made after feedback from law firms.
  1. The subscription cost of the LTP, without funding support, is $69 per user per month. With funding support, eligible law firms will only need to pay $21 per user per month. This would lower the cost of adopting LTP significantly.

Industry Engagement Initiatives

  1. This is only the start of the journey. The LTP will continue to be improved, with added features, and enhanced connectivity with online systems that lawyers and law firms deal with regularly, such as eLitigation and LawNet.
  1. MinLaw has set up the Industry Engagement and Advisory Group (IEAG) to test and provide feedback on the LTP and further improvements to the LTP, and to support the adoption of LTP. The IEAG currently comprises 10 lawyers, primarily from SMPs, with a range of practice areas.
  1. MinLaw will also work with the Law Society of Singapore to organise a series of outreach and training events to provide more information about the LTPI to lawyers.
  1. More information, including on subscribing for the LTP, is available at https://ltpi.mlaw.gov.sg. Interested law firms can find out more and apply for the support via https://www.businessgrants.gov.sg starting from 4 August 2022.

MINISTRY OF LAW
19 JULY 2022

ANNEX

Annex - Key Features of the Legal Technology Platform

Last updated on 19 Jul 2022