43 ASIAN LEGAL BUSINESS – JULY 2024 WWW.LEGALBUSINESSONLINE.COM BROUGHT TO YOU BY RAJAH & TANN A conversation with Patrick Ang, Managing Partner, Rajah & Tann Singapore With the firm sweeping 6 Firm of the Year awards, how does Rajah & Tann Singapore remain at the forefront, and what sets it apart from its competitors? Regional powerhouse with multi-disciplinary offering We have established a strong regional presence in Southeast Asia through Rajah & Tann Asia (“RTA”). With offices across 10 countries in Southeast Asia and China, we are a full-service firm with over 1,000 fee-earners. Led by experienced local lawyers, all offices are capable of handling the entire spectrum of legal services, with many accorded regional and domestic awards by industry publications. Collectively, RTA has the most ranked practices, countries, and lawyers in Southeast Asia, and can handle the most complicated regional and cross-border matters. Commitment to innovation and excellence The firm has invested substantially in legal technology and innovation and continues to do so. We established our legal tech subsidiaries, Rajah & Tann Technologies (“RTT”) and Rajah & Tann Cybersecurity (“RTC”), which provide e-discovery and digital forensics services, cybersecurity services, contract lifecycle management, and cloud-based e-learning solutions to clients. In 2023, we set up our Data and Digital Economy (“DDE”) group. In this differentiated offering, our lawyers and allied professionals from RTT and RTC collaborate to offer a full spectrum of DDE services to help our clients address their legal, business and technical needs in this digital world. For instance, we worked with RTT to develop an award-winning automated AML screening platform for property developers allowing them to conduct AML checks on prospective buyers in a fast, secure and cost-effective manner to comply with Singapore’s AML rules. The firm’s recognition as TMT Law Firm of the Year highlights its capabilities in this rapidly evolving field. What are the innovative practices or technologies that Rajah & Tann Singapore has adopted to stay ahead in the legal field? As a firm that embraces change and innovation, we have pioneered the adoption and implementation of emerging technologies, such as Gen AI. Acknowledging AI’s potential to assist in managing large legal data loads, we saw an opportunity when Microsoft announced Copilot, its AI-powered productivity tool, becoming the first Southeast Asian enterprise to acquire and deploy the solution. The use of such legal tech solutions Through the Foundation, we have been innovative in addressing service gaps and have collaborated with the National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre and other charities to hold pro bono legal clinics for charitable organisational needs. We are also the Advisory Partner to Amplifier (a collaboration between Philanthropy Asia Alliance and the Centre for Impact Investing and Practices) to support impact-focused start-ups aiming for positive disruption. Observing how in-house counsel desire to serve but are hindered due to the requirement of practising licenses only available at registered law firms, we started the first collaborative agreement with a Fortune 500 client to provide pro bono legal services to selected charities, NPOs and their beneficiaries, and we hope this will be the start of more opportunities with other in-house teams. How does the firm nurture and develop talent to ensure the highest quality of legal service? We have a dedicated Learning & Development arm, Rajah & Tann Academy, which drives the professional training and education of our lawyers and staff in our network. We established the RTA Regional Lawyer Development Framework focussing on the development of specific skills, competencies, and legal knowledge that lawyers would require at various levels of their legal careers. We also emphasise the importance of leadership grooming and renewal to inspire the next generation to lead, sustain and grow the firm’s legacy, ensuring the longevity of the firm to thrive and evolve. In a considerably bold move, we strategically reorganised our Executive Committee and management team such that most of them are in their 40s, giving our younger partners a longer runway to nurture those below them to ensure a pipeline of successors. Representing a new generation of leaders, they expand and enhance our service offerings, deepen key client relationships, and bring the firm to even greater heights. Since the appointments, our rankings have improved, with more junior partners being recognised in legal directories. To reinforce our focus on grooming the next generation, we have substantially increased our spending to send associates to overseas conferences, marketing trips and overseas secondments to our regional offices – work incentives which were previously only available to partners. has allowed our lawyers to continue delivering high-quality legal services in a more effective and efficient way. We have also been working on our own localised version of a Large Language Model trained on litigation and court related documents called “Ask Mohan!” (named after our Senior Chief Court Clerk). In addition, we are trialling Gracenote, which aims to help accelerate the adoption of legal gen AI across legal, risk and compliance domain. The firm has also made available solutions such as Lexis+, a service using AI search technology, reducing the time needed for our lawyers to conduct legal research while maintaining the accuracy and quality of the research output; and Henchman, a contract drafting solution, which helps our M&A and capital markets lawyers search for relevant clauses in our centralised knowhow database and contracts that they have previously worked on, reducing the time required for drafting a contract. How does Rajah & Tann Singapore engage with the community to uphold its corporate social responsibilities? The Rajah & Tann Foundation is responsible for co-ordinating and driving our giving and social causes. The Foundation champions a wide range of charitable causes, structured upon three pillars: Charitable Giving, Pro Bono Legal Work and Community Outreach. Patrick Ang Managing Partner of Rajah & Tann Singapore, and Vice-Chairman of Rajah & Tann Asia T: (65) 6232 0400 E: patrick.ang@rajahtann.com Rajah & Tann Singapore LLP 9 Straits View #06-07 Marina One West Tower Singapore 018937 T: (65) 6535 3600 E: info@rajahtannasia.com W: www.rajahtannasia.com
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