More than 100 people attended a Singapore Corporate Counsel Association (SCCA) webinar on how legal departments can navigate the increasing exposure to risks and complex global matters on a stretched budget.
The SCCA webinar on 9 November titled, “Legal Operation Trends and Spend Management for Legal Departments”, delved into how legal departments could embrace 2023 with the right budget, spend management framework, and select the right technologies that address their challenges.
In collaboration with Thomson Reuters, the webinar generally covered legal operations and tech trends in Asia, with expert panellists.
The panellists comprised Adeline Chin and Brian Tang, co-chairs of the Asia Pacific Legal Innovation and Technology Association; Peggy Lim, head of legal, wider Asia region at consumer healthcare company Haleon; and Thomson Reuters’ legal solutions adviser Omar Mahmud, solutions consultant Thomas Chuang and senior proposition manager Samantha Hilton.
“The key to finding a worthwhile investment in solutions, tech or non-tech, is to first find the fundamental pain points to be resolved,” said Chin.
“Technology and innovation are enablers to problem-solving, heightened efficiency and an improved organisational culture. Strategic talent management when deploying any enabler saves time and costs, while optimising efficacy and mitigating product or process utility atrophy.”
Tang added that the key takeaway from the panel discussion was that legal departments in the Asia-Pacific need to incorporate more legaltech and innovation to enable them to do more with less.
“It is essentially a digital transformation journey for each department, but they are not alone,” said Tang. “They can tap legal ops, law firms, consultants and even law schools to walk with them on their respective journeys.”
Lim argued that there are many tech solutions on the market, but to achieve successful implementation of the chosen tech solution, it is critical to have a clear understanding of what is the issue one is seeking to solve and the related current process or workflow and the people involved.
“Businesses should optimise these and invest properly in the change management plan needed to support and deliver a successful implementation of any identified solution,” said Lim.
Chuang saw that every legal transformation journey needs to involve more than just lawyers. “Lawyers must be able to depend on allies across the business and industry, from technologists, to consultants and operations team members in order to ensure that the right solutions are being adopted around the right processes and implemented in the right way,” said Chuang.
