3 ASIAN LEGAL BUSINESS – JUNE 2024 WWW.LEGALBUSINESSONLINE.COM THE BRIEFING: YOUR MONTHLY NEED-TO-KNOW INDONESIA SET TO RATIFY CHANGES (Reuters) Indonesia is set to pass a revision to its constitutional court law, legislators have confirmed, ushering in changes that legal experts say will threaten the independence of the judiciary in the world’s thirdlargest democracy. The proposed amendment will reduce the tenure of justices from 15 to 10 years and require those who have served more than five years to obtain approval from appointing institutions to continue their tenure. Constitutional Court judges are appointed by the president, parliament and Supreme Court. The revision also includes changes to the composition of the ethics council that oversees the court, proposing the addition of the president, and members of the parliament and supreme court. The amendments have sparked strong criticism from some legal experts. “These changes will ruin the independence of the constitutional court,” said Bivitri Susanti, from Indonesia’s Jentera School of Law. “The intention is really to put the judiciary, the constitutional court, under the control of the House of Representatives and the president.” The parliament and government are expected to ratify it soon. TO CONTROVERSIAL TOP COURT 21% “EVERY TIME AN INTERNATIONAL LAWYER SEES ME AND TALKS TO ME - HE SAYS, ‘STILL TWO YEARS AWAY, RIGHT?’ THAT JOKE HAS BEEN GOING ON FOR TWENTY YEARS OR MORE.” QUOTE UNQUOTE IN THE NEWS Sullivan & Cromwell said that it has formed a new AI practice, as large firms compete to handle clients’ growing AI-related legal needs. The group would be headed by leaders of its IP and finance practices in Silicon Valley, New York, and London. Definely, a legaltech start-up backed by Google and Microsoft, has raised a $7 million Series A to develop its AI-powered software that aims to help lawyers understand and edit documents. The funding round was led by Octopus Ventures. Indian lawyer Cyril Shroff tells ET Circle that India’s continued refusal to open its legal market to foreign competition “has become a joke, internationally.” Some Singapore law firms are offering pay packages of up to S$10,000 ($7,400) per month for newly qualified lawyers amid fierce competition from international firms, corporations and start-ups for legal talent, The Business Times reported. Boutique firm TSMP Law is offering S$7,000 a month to lawyers just called to the Bar, which its joint managing partner Stefanie Yuen Thio described as “marketleading” pay, the newspaper said. “We are restructuring our pay scale to attract the best young legal talent,” Yuen Thio was quoted as saying. The pay raises come as Singapore’s tight border controls during the COVID-19 pandemic have exacerbated an existing shortage of junior legal professionals in the citystate, according to the report. Other law firms in Singapore are closely monitoring the situation as they face increasing competition not just from international rivals but also big corporations and start-ups that are prepared to pay top dollar. Drop in the number of registered foreign law firms in Hong Kong over the past four years, according to statistics from the Law Society. SG FIRMS HIKE JUNIOR LAWYER PAY TO BATTLE TALENT WAR: REPORT Proportion of U.S. legal professionals who are satisfied with their firm’s attendance policies, according to a Thomson Reuters Institute report. Some 29 percent were neutral. 57 PERCENT
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