Singapore, a haven for disruptive fintech firms, is aiming to shake up Asia's legal sector next.
The Lion City will host Southeast Asia's first legaltech accelerator from April. The city-state's initiative aims to groom legaltech startups as well as incubate new business models or services conceived by law firms.
Singapore's law academy has launched an innovation in law program first detailed last July that is meant to prepare the legal industry for technological disruption. Dubbed FLIP, which stands for Future Law Innovation Programme, the push is made up of a legal innovation lab and LawNet Community, a virtual collaboration platform which allows the legal community to network and access tech tools.
Glacial Mover
The third prong is a 100-day accelerator program, known as Accelerate, powered by Singapore-based corporate booster JFDI. It will provide startups with mentorship and seed funding from Singapore's development agency, Spring, and venture capitalists.
The legal industry has been a glacial mover when it comes to disruptive technology, though this is changing. Law firm Allen & Overy established Fuse, a tech innovation space based in their London offices seeking to disrupt in legaltech, regtech and dealtech.
