Innovation in Singapore

Professor Richard Susskind CBE KC (Hon) is author of ‘How to Think About AI: A Guide for the Perplexed’, a speaker and independent adviser to international professional firms, general counsel, judiciaries, and national governments. His main area of expertise is the future of legal service, with particular reference to the impact of information technology. He has specialised in legal technology since the early 1980s and his views have influenced a generation of lawyers and legal technologists around the world.

He has written numerous books, including Expert Systems in Law (Oxford, 1987), The Future of Law (Oxford, 1996), Transforming the Law (Oxford, 2000), The End of Lawyers? (Oxford 2008), Tomorrow’s Lawyers (Oxford, 2013), and (co-author, Daniel Susskind). The Future of the Professions (Oxford, 2015). He has written around 150 columns as a columnist for The Times and he is Founding Editor of the International Journal of Law and Information Technology. His work has been translated into 12 languages.

Richard is President of the Society for Computers and Law and, since 1998, he has been IT Adviser to the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales. From 2003 until 2008, he was Chair of the UK’s Advisory Panel on Public Sector Information (a non-departmental public body set up by the Cabinet Office in 2003, and now part of the Ministry of Justice). He is Chair of the Advisory Board, and Visiting Professor in Internet Studies, at the Oxford Internet Institute in the University of Oxford. Richard is also Chair of the Online Dispute Resolution Group of the Civil Justice Council of England and Wales, Special Adviser to the Canadian Bar Association, and IT Adviser to the Jersey Legal Information Board

Richard has been widely recognized by the legal industry, he is an Honorary Professor at the Law School in University College London, Emeritus Law Professor at Gresham College in London, and a part-time law professor at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow.

Richard has a first class honours degree in law from Glasgow University and a doctorate in law and computers from Balliol College, Oxford. He is a Fellow of the British Computer Society and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He was awarded an OBE in the Millennium New Year’s Honours List by Her Majesty the Queen for services to IT in the Law and to the Administration of Justice.

As Chief Transformation and Innovation Officer (Judiciary) at the Supreme Court, Ken Hwee looks after the transformation, digitalisation, innovation and technology plans of the Supreme Court, the State Courts and the Family Justice Courts. He has also been involved in related law reform work like the COVID-19 (Temporary Measures) Act 2020 and the Courts (Civil and Criminal Justice) Reform Act 2021. He manages the Courts of the Future workplan for the Judiciary.

Before taking on this role, Ken Hwee was the Chief Prosecutor in charge of the Financial and Technology Crime Division of the Attorney-General’s Chambers. FTCD handled white-collar crime cases in Singapore, including cheating, criminal breach of trust, corruption, cybercrime, money-laundering and terrorism financing, and Securities and Futures Act and Companies Act offences.

Ken Hwee has also been a Senior State Counsel advising on Public International Law and a Senior Assistant Registrar in the Supreme Court. As State Counsel he also assisted in the development of key legislation like the Electronic Transactions Act 1998 and the Internet Code of Practice 1996 and various iterations of the Computer Misuse Act.

He has held appointments as Chief Information Officer at the Attorney-General’s Chambers and at the Supreme Court. He has been involved in legal technology in Singapore since 1990.

Liam helps general counsel and law firm leaders improve effectiveness and efficiency. In 2011 he launched Elevate as a law company to provide consulting, technology, and services to law departments and law firms. Liam was previously the Founder, President, and CEO of Integreon, a global LPO, which he led from a startup in 2001 to annual sales of $150 million by 2011, before he sold to private equity investors. Prior to Integreon, he was the Founder, President, and COO of a pioneering VC-backed Web 1.0 virtual data room legal tech company, which he sold to a public company in 2001. Liam is a frequent speaker at legal conferences and regularly publishes articles about trends in the legal sector. He is also an active investor in emerging legal technologies and an executive coach for founders of startups.

Jennifer Lim Wei Zhen graduated from the National University of Singapore, Faculty of Law in 2017, and is presently an Associate at one of the leading law firms in Singapore.

Growing up designing websites and dabbling with HTML, she sees legal technology as a perfect marriage of both her loves: technology and the law. She took up a module on Artificial Intelligence and the law, and wrote a paper on the patentability of the blockchain.

Having worked with different communities such as migrant workers as the past president of the NUS Pro Bono Group, Jennifer dreams of a future where legal technology can help create greater access to justice.