SUSS CONVOCATION 2024:
SPEECH BY MR YEONG ZEE KIN,
CHIEF EXECUTIVE, SINGAPORE ACADEMY OF LAW
9 OCTOBER 2024
1 Ms Wee Ai Ning, Member, SUSS Board of Trustees
Prof Leslie Chew SC, Dean, School of Law, SUSS
Distinguished guests
Parents and above all, graduating class of 2024,
2 Thank you very much for inviting me, I am very honoured to be here today.
3 This graduation ceremony is a milestone for the young people gathered here today. And for the families and friends who have been a source of love and support, I am sure you are all very proud of their achievement.
4 I want to congratulate the graduands of the class of 2024. You have worked hard and overcome personal challenges, but I hope that you had fun along the way and made lifelong friends.
5 I am humbled at the prospect of sharing advice on achieving success as you step into the working world. Dean Leslie Chew had suggested three topics that are related to the work that I do as Chief Executive of the Singapore Academy of Law: first, the impact of digitalisation on professional services, especially lawyers; consequently, the need for life-long learning as the second point; and ending off with an exhortation to serve the community.
6 But I have never been good at following instructions, so my apologies first to Leslie for going off script. I have asked myself what important lessons I had learnt since my graduation, and I have crystallised three that I wish to share today:
-
- Be ahead of the curve
- Embrace change
- Focus on creating impact
I hope these lessons will be helpful to you as you step into an exciting new world.
Be ahead of the curve
7 I graduated from NUS Law in 1997. I come from a humble background with no connections to anyone in the legal sector. I chose law because medical school was too expensive and – having come through the pure science stream – I had had enough of science and engineering. But life has a funny way of keeping you tethered to your roots, as my career eventually focused on areas of law that are heavy on science and technology.
8 The 1990s was a period of rapid technological advances. We transitioned from command-line interfaces to graphical user interfaces: that is to say, from DOS to Windows. We got access to the Internet when SingTel launched Singapore’s first public internet service in 1994. This supercharged everyone’s interest in technology, including mine.
9 During my National Service, I was downgraded to a clerk as a result of an injury. This was perhaps one of the most boring — but sought-after — vocations in the NS. I decided to use my time to learn about computers. I knew that given the buzz in the tech industry, I needed to know tech. Back in the mid-1990s, only 36% of Singapore households had computers. I was fortunate to have one at home.
10 But interest alone was not enough. I hung around Funan on weekends, reading computer books in its bookstores. I spent my time taking apart the home PC and reassembling it; reinstalling the operating system each time and experimenting with different programs and games. I spent way too much time playing the DOS version of Tetris and Civilisation. I have fond memories of my first PC: a 386 IBM-compatible running Digital Research Labs’s DOS; it would be a couple more years before I got my hands on Windows 3.1, a 14.4K modem and downloaded the first proper web browser, Mosaic — these may sound like foreign terms to you, but they were very much the ‘it’ gadgets of the day.
11 My training in computers was entirely self-taught but it laid an important foundation for what would shape the next stage of my career. This illustrates my first lesson: the importance of being ahead of the curve.
12 I joined the Legal Service after graduating from NUS Law and started life as a Deputy Public Prosecutor. Staying ahead of the curve allowed me to volunteer and work on IT projects in the Attorney-General Chambers (AGC) and this set me up to, later in life, eventually run IT departments. A lawyer with tech knowledge was rare in those days; there was just a handful of us, and that gave us the opportunity to be involved in exciting projects and cases that shaped legal practice in Singapore.
13 During my earliest years as a prosecutor – I went to the library for my legal research. But I ended up building LawNet, a legal research portal that enabled lawyers to conduct this same research from their desktops. When I filed my papers to be called to the Bar, I queued up, hardcopies in hand, to pay my filing fees. I ended up building the system that allowed lawyers to file documents electronically.
14 That was the age of the Internet and those advances in technology took place over a relatively short span of time. Class of 2024, you are graduating amidst a new wave of technological change that is taking the world by storm: Artificial Intelligence. As you find your new roles in the working world, you may be wondering how to stay ahead of the curve in this rapidly evolving landscape.
15 It’s not just about knowing AI—it’s about applying it to solve real-world problems. To you in the audience, believe me when I say that you should not fear technological job displacement because of AI. Your jobs will not be taken away by AI. But there is something much more frightening: your job will be taken away by your competitor who knows AI! Staying ahead of the curve has never been more important. But do it once, and you have confidence to do it again. It is AI today, but it will be some other technology in a few years’ time.
Stepping out of the familiar
16 For continued relevance, you need not only to pick up new skills, but also to embrace change. The next lesson I want to share is: Do not be afraid to step out of familiar territory. The best way to deal with disruption is to disrupt yourself.
17 In 2002, after about five years as a prosecutor, I thought I should leave the Legal Service to try my hand at private practice. I was about to submit my resignation when I was asked if I would like to run LawNet. It meant a secondment to the Singapore Academy of Law, a much smaller outfit compared to the AGC.
18 The prospect of working on what you would term a start-up today was both daunting and exciting. But stepping out of my comfort zone into LawNet was one of the best decisions I made in my career. We had a small team of about six; and there was only one other lawyer. We had to cover all bases: software development, service availability, team building, user management, managing revenue and costs; and I even went back to law school to teach undergrads how to conduct keyword searches. Through this early experience, I picked up management skills. Today, LawNet has grown into an indispensable research tool for over 75% of the legal profession.
19 Ten years ago, another opportunity to step out of familiar territory and stay ahead of the curve presented itself. I joined the Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC). Personal data protection was a new area of law, and it gave me an opportunity to be a pioneer in that space. Again, it entailed picking up new skills – not just a new area of law, but also a new area of technology: AI and data analytics. I emerged from my experience with expertise also in AI ethics, governance and regulation, and picked up public policy experience to boot.
20 Each transition required embracing change, a conscious decision to choose disruption, and the application of life-long learning. But by doing so, the new skills and the experience that I have picked up ensured that while technology may disrupt extant practices, it never disrupted my career. I hope my experience in the intersection of technology and law will inspire some of you in the audience who are pursuing careers in science, technology and humanities.
Focus on creating impact
21 The last lesson that I want to share is: There is no point in working for money. Before the parents in the audience accuse me of influencing their children to abandon their goals of making it big and achieving material success, let me explain. Early in my life, I realised that if I wanted to measure my success by the size of my bank account, I would always lose to those who were born into well-to-do families. And over the years, I feel that it is more important to work for impact – figure out what you are good at and passionate about and use your time and talents to maximise your impact in what you enjoy doing.
22 Today, you will leave this hall with a degree. How are you, the Class of 2024, likely to touch other people’s lives? This was an easy choice for me. I spent 2 years in private practice but that did not give me the satisfaction that public service did. I returned to Legal Service, and I worked on digitalisation projects that shaped legal practice, and on data policies that supported the digital economy. It is easier for someone in the public sector to identify how our efforts will improve lives and livelihoods.
23 Some of you will pursue a career in the private sector. This does not mean that you cannot give back to the community. There are many ways in which we can do this. Donations, volunteering and working on charitable projects are not the only options. They are, in a way, the easy options. Your sacrifice is bounded by time or the size of your donation.
24 Here is a greater challenge. Find ways to give back to the community in your workplace as well. If you look, you can identify opportunities to have an impact wherever you are. Doing good could well be that you create an environment where people who work with you can thrive, or even surpass you. Or you create products and services that enrich the lives of others, and not just your shareholders. Measure your success not by the number of hours or days of contribution to the community or the dollars and cents that you make. Measure them instead by the good you leave behind, once you exit the stage. Above all, keep your enthusiasm and never be afraid to try. You will inevitably make mistakes, but you will also become more resilient.
25 Keep learning, embrace change and be impactful. These are some of the things that have helped me in my life. You are the protagonist in your own story. Go ahead and choose your own adventures.
Conclusion
26 Congratulations and thank you.
