Singapore TechLaw.Fest 2025: A Festival of Firsts

TechLaw.Fest 2025 was a peek into the future of law and technology.

TechLaw.Fest 2025 was not just another conference. It was a milestone, a celebration of ten editions of the intersection between law and technology. What began humbly in 2011 as a specialist e-litigation forum in Singapore has, in over a decade, grown into a global platform that has drawn more than 24,000 participants from across the world.

The 2025 edition, held on 10–11 September 2025 at Marina Bay Sands, Singapore, was its most ambitious yet:

But numbers only hinted at the true spirit of the festival. What made TechLaw.Fest distinctive was not simply its reach, but its unique ability to bring together lawyers, judges, policymakers, technologists, academics, students, and entrepreneurs in a single conversation. It was a place where ideas collided, partnerships were forged, and exhibitors could showcase solutions to audiences ready to engage.

Co-organised by the Singapore Ministry of Law and Singapore Academy of Law, TLF also brought together speakers from the Singapore Courts, and regulators and policymakers from the republic’s Ministry of Digital Development and Information, Infocomm Media Development Authority, Monetary Authority of Singapore and various agencies under the Ministry of Law.

The 2025 Theme: Reimagining Legal in the Digital Age

The chosen theme for 2025, Reimagining Legal in the Digital Age captured the urgency of the moment. The digital transformation of the legal sector is no longer on the horizon; it is here. Artificial intelligence has moved beyond prototypes into live deployments. Cybersecurity has shifted from a technical concern to a boardroom imperative. Digital trade and cross-border disputes are rewriting the rules of commerce.

The breadth of sessions reflected this reality. AI adoption and governance, online safety, dispute resolution, digital economy agreements, judicial innovation, youth engagement — all were given prominence. For exhibitors, this diversity meant exposure to multiple communities at once: law firms seeking workflow tools, regulators evaluating compliance platforms, universities exploring training curricula, and corporates looking for risk management solutions.

This report only covers a portion of the 81 panel sessions.

Opening Voices

As always, the conference’s opening voices set the tone for the sessions to come. Singapore High Court Judge, Justice Aidan Xu, in his opening remarks, looked back at the journey from 2018 to 2025 and celebrated TLF’s evolution into a truly global platform. He urged the community to ensure that innovation remains ethical, inclusive, and oriented toward access to justice.

Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Law and Social & Family Development Eric Chua followed with a call to responsibility in AI adoption. He reminded the legal community that AI is a tool, not a substitute. Generative AI may be able to draft documents or analyse cases, but it cannot replace the professional judgment and ethical duty of lawyers. His comments resonated with exhibitors developing AI-powered tools: their products were not being evaluated in a vacuum, but in a broader conversation about responsible innovation.

One of the conference’s most talked-about announcements came from Singapore High Court Judge, Justice Kwek Mean Luck, who unveiled LawNet 4.0 – Singapore’s leading legal research platform enhanced with generative AI. By combining cutting-edge AI with curated, authoritative data, Singapore has set a benchmark for how legal research platforms should evolve. For exhibitors, this announcement was a signal: AI is moving from experimental pilots to core national infrastructure.

Keynote Addresses: Trust as Infrastructure

Singapore’s Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon reflected on the profound challenges of embedding AI into justice systems — from ensuring transparency in automated decision-making to maintaining the legitimacy of judicial institutions. United Kingdom’s Information Commissioner John Edwards emphasised the role of data protection and regulatory frameworks in sustaining public trust.

Their shared message — “trust is infrastructure” — became one of the festival’s defining phrases. Without transparency, accountability, and governance, technology cannot scale responsibly. For exhibitors, this was an important reminder: the tools showcased at TLF are not merely evaluated on features, but on how well they embody trustworthiness, defensibility, and ethical design.

AI, Lawyering, and the Future of Work

The one theme that permeated TechLaw.Fest 2025 was artificial intelligence. But unlike many tech conferences where AI is spoken of as distant hype, at TLF it was discussed as a lived reality — already shaping how lawyers, judges, educators, and clients work. Across two days, participants explored how AI is being deployed, governed, and integrated into the fabric of legal practice.

The predominant message was clear: when used responsibly, AI can expand the reach of lawyers, not shrink it. Yet the panels also warned against complacency. Technology is not enough; adoption must be measurable, defensible, and governed.

• The two-part discussion titled The Machines Are Not Taking Over made a deliberate statement. Far from displacing professionals, AI is augmenting them. Experts presented hard data from real-world deployments: technology-assisted review (TAR 2.0) systems combined with generative AI tools are now reaching recall rates above 90% in litigation discovery, while cutting costs and turnaround times dramatically.
• The session, Digital Lawyering – Transforming Legal Service Delivery with AI Across APAC, saw the release of the 2025 State of Legal Innovation in the Asia-Pacific (SOLIA) Report by the Asia-Pacific Legal Innovation & Technology Association (ALITA). This refreshed 4^th edition of the Report included a survey of law firm and legal department users of LegalTech and AI across APAC, conducted by ALITA in collaboration with LexisNexis, and enabled direct comparisons between the legaltech ecosystems of different jurisdictions.

TechLaw.Fest’s discussions were not just about theory, but provided structure:

• AI’s Impact on the Legal Profession outlined a comprehensive approach to AI integration stressing structured training across three professional levels, strategic product selection, and proactive management of emerging challenges.
• Smarter Lawyering: Leveraging AI to Deliver Better Solutions brought together in-house counsel and law firms to share how AI was being deployed at scale.
• AI Playbooks for World-Class Legal Teams introduced frameworks that attendees could adopt: success criteria for pilots, risk registers to monitor unintended consequences, and disclosure templates for client communications.
• Strategic Management of AI tackled the concern of hallucination head-on. Experts emphasised practical safeguards: model selection, curated training data, layered human-in-the-loop review, and ongoing monitoring.

This set the stage for education:

• One of the most popular hands-on sessions, Unlocking the Power of Prompt Engineering, trained lawyers to use techniques ranging from zero-shot prompting to chain-of-thought reasoning, giving them tactical skills they could apply immediately.
• The session Raising the Bar with Gen AI: Educators Speak convened deans, bar examiners, and trainers to debate how to balance AI literacy with traditional skills of reasoning and ethics.

The ripple effects of AI extend beyond tools into the business model of law itself:

• The End of the Hour? Smarter Billing Strategies for the Modern Law Firm explored whether AI will hasten the decline of the billable hour.
• Sessions like Managing the Machine: Shaping the Future Legal Workforce centred on the real-world challenges of implementing AI in law firms, balancing innovation with governance, and finding ways to integrate technology without losing the identity and value lawyers bring.

Justice, Courts, and Regulation

If AI is transforming the daily work of lawyers, its impact on justice systems and regulation is even more profound.

Speakers explored how Gen AI and related technologies can expand access to justice, especially in jurisdictions where litigants often represent themselves:

• In AI Improving Access to Justice, the panel examined how Gen AI can meaningfully increase access to justice.
• The State Courts: Scaling Access to Justice Using Technology highlighted the rollout of digital case management systems, online filing tools, and remote hearing infrastructure.
• Tech Empowering Justice: Inside the Supreme Court pulled back the curtain on AI-assisted judicial tools, data analytics for case management, and digital services for self-represented litigants.

Panels confronted the critical question of how to embed trust into AI and digital regulation:

• Embedding Trust in AI – Governance Framework for Responsible AI Deployment and Generative AI and the Legal Profession: Towards Ethical and Effective Adoption both asked how we ensure AI adoption remains transparent, accountable, and aligned with professional ethics.
• One of the most insightful sessions was From East to West: Navigating the Global AI Regulatory Landscape that took place in Mandarin. Experts contrasted the approaches taken in US, Europe, and China.

Cybersecurity was another urgent focus:

• Foundations of Cybersecurity Law emphasised that legal obligations are shifting from reactive breach responses to preventive duties.
• Decoding Digital Infrastructure Regulations in Asia led discussions with on how Asia’s digital infrastructure regulations are adapting to the twin pressures of sustainability and data sovereignty.
• In Navigating Asia’s Online Safety Regulations regulators and platforms debated responsibilities for moderating harmful content, protecting youth, and preventing harassment.
• Use of AI in Anti-Scams and Anti-Money Laundering emphasised that fighting financial crime requires a societal approach involving government agencies, banks, technology companies, and community organisations working together.

Dispute Resolution, Arbitration, and Cross-Border Challenges

In the digital economy, disputes have become global, technical, and complex. TechLaw.Fest 2025 shone a spotlight on how technology is reshaping litigation, arbitration, and cross-border regulatory challenges.

• Litigation, Regulation, and the Future of Digital Assets in Asia examined how courts are grappling with the classification of cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, and tokens.
• In Navigating Cross-Border Disputes in the Video Game Industry, the judiciary, lawyers, and industry players debated how intellectual property laws and dispute resolution regimes apply to the video game industry.
• The provocative session Arbitrating Algorithms in the Age of AI focused on how arbitration can adapt in the digital era, particularly with the rise of AI.

TechLaw.Fest 2025 also engaged deeply with global perspectives and trade:

• Perhaps most striking was Quantum Leap: From Lab to Law – Navigating the Commercialisation of Disruptive Tech. Experts warned that quantum computing could, within decades, break widely used encryption standards. The legal sector, which depends on confidentiality and secure communication, cannot afford to wait. Policymakers and vendors alike must begin planning for post-quantum decryption.
• Cross Winds in Global Tech Trade examined how US tariffs, export controls, and AI sovereignty policies are reshaping the international landscape.
• From the UK to Singapore: Harnessing Digital Partnerships in Trade and Law showcased how bilateral agreements are driving collaboration. The moderator of this panel was His Majesty’s Trade Commissioner (HMTC) for Asia Pacific, British High Commission Singapore, Martin Kent.
• Few debates drew as much attention as Copyright in a Generative Age. With generative AI now capable of producing art, music, and text at scale, questions of copyright infringement and liability are multiplying.

Tours, Side Events, and Workshops

TechLaw.Fest 2025 was more than plenary sessions and keynotes. It was an immersive experience, designed to take participants out of conference rooms and into the spaces where technology and law are being lived. For attendees, these tours, workshops, and side events offered a rare chance to witness solutions in action, network in smaller circles, and engage with like-minded delegates.

A unique hallmark of TechLaw.Fest is its pre-conference Day 0 of visits and tours to organisations of legal interest. Delegates stepped behind the curtain to see innovation in practice:

• A&O Shearman’s Fuse and Innovation Journey shared on the 8-year journey of Fuse, a program which helps both start-ups and established companies to develop and implement LegalTech into employees’ daily lives to create more efficient working processes by simplifying technology in law.
• Robes, Rules & Robots: How We Built Legal AI in a Regulated World at Doctor Anywhere discussed the role of technology and AI in the medical industry and how AI agents are used by the legal and business teams.
• Suzhou Industrial Park International Business Cooperation Centre Tour: Participants learned about this Singapore-based centre’s role in supporting over 160 Chinese companies in sectors such as green development, biomedical sciences, and electronics.
• TikTok Transparency & Accountability Centre Tour – Beyond the “For You” Feed provided a rare behind-the-scenes look at how TikTok moderates content and enforces its Community Guidelines
• Smart Nation Cityscape & Singapore City Gallery Tour showcased how Singapore integrates data, design, and policy into urban planning under its Smart Nation initiative.

Exhibitors, Sponsors, and Looking Ahead to 2026

If TechLaw.Fest 2025 was remarkable for its ideas, it was the exhibitors and sponsors who gave the festival its heartbeat. Across the exhibition halls and in their hosted sessions, exhibitors transformed TLF from a legal forum into a global marketplace of innovation. Their launches, demos, and partnerships ensured that the festival was not just about discussing the future — it was about experiencing it.

TLF 2025 was not only about products — it was also about alliances. Law firms and technology vendors announced new collaborations, signalling that the profession’s future will be built on hybrid partnerships.

Looking Ahead to TechLaw.Fest 2026

The story does not end in 2025. Plans are already underway for TechLaw.Fest 2026, and the ambitions are bigger than ever:

• Expanded showcase zones will highlight startups, corporates, and multinationals side by side, making it easier for delegates to explore the full spectrum of innovation.
• Immersive engagement formats — from hands-on demos to curated industry tours — will offer exhibitors deeper, more meaningful client connections.
• Broader global participation will bring new voices from emerging markets, enriching conversations on AI governance, cybersecurity, dispute resolution, and digital trade.
• Youth engagement will continue to grow, providing exhibitors with the opportunity to inspire and connect with the next generation of legal and tech professionals.