2022 Regional Law Firm Management Forum: Singapore

Scene Setting

Introduction & Welcome

What’s been happening? Join with our MC, Eric Chin, and Premier Partner, BigHand, to recap on the COVID pause and set the scene for the day ahead. Eric remains at the forefront of NewLaw research and market analysis and will share his snapshot view of the region today.

The Client’s Perspective

The changing landscape for in-house counsel, and its consequent impact on external legal providers.

Clients and firms adapted during COVID but, really, everyone had to. How do we balance the new expectations of lawyers who demand the benefits of flexibility and remote working if the clients (yes, those who pay the bills) need them on site and in person just like they are? Where is the line? Has it swung back to pre-COVD levels (or will it ever)? Co-President of Singapore Corporate Counsel Association Renita Sophia Crasta will shed a light on how the client’s world has changed.

Future of Work

The changing landscape for in-house counsel, and its consequent impact on external legal providers.

Work from home. Remote working. Flexible working. Full time office contact expectation. As much as we might be tired of these terms describing our working lives, they are here to stay. Coming out of the pandemic, our people are looking to redefine where and how we work, firms have adopted different strategies to create enticing working space to enable our people to work at their best. This discussion, led by Chen Tang from Unispace, will expand your awareness of how future office strategies are evolving.

Partner Remuneration

Setting a common understanding to achieve greater transparency.

The changing employee remuneration and law firm landscape triggers a revisit of partner compensation models across firms, not just in monetary terms but also in retention and attraction of partner level talent. Many of the underlying measures and expectations remain in place, and remain a cornerstone of compensation models, but new factors need to be programmed into partnership remuneration structures to sustain firm partnerships into the future. As co-author of the newly released The Partner Remuneration Handbook, Ray D’Cruz will share his insights for firms to develop a fundamentally sound, and consistent, partner remuneration framework.

Employer Brand

Attraction & Retention: More than just the lure of $$$.

Retention of staff has always been more economical than the search, convince, recruit cycle. In a hyper-competitive market whose key participants have had their work rules reinvented it is often no longer enough to just offer a little more salary.Smart firms are building compelling attraction frameworks that dive much deeper than the remuneration package.What are the key factors challenging what we have always thought to be the basics in retaining or attracting lawyers?Grant Herbert, from Lawyers Becoming Leaders, will facilitate a discussion where Jessica Deery (Horizon), Jung Foo (Pullman Morrison) and Surene Virabhak (Legal Labs) will share their insights to connect the ‘now’ with the ‘how’ of talent attraction and retention in the new normal.

Financial Management

Financial discipline: more acute than ever?

The legal profession is highly regulated. This fact drives the discipline needed in finance offices in law firms of all sizes and in all jurisdictions. As everything else circling around the profession is changing, or under pressure to change, the finance functions within firms do not have that freedom of choice. We ask a panel of finance professionals their views on what fundamental financial disciplines remain true and where will the post-COVID enhancements come from.

People Driving Change

People & Change: Can we have one without the other?

Hierarchies in firms still exist: partners, lawyers, assistants and administration. The dynamics are not the same post-COVID however. Employees driving when and where they will work has forced adjustment, often reactive, across law firms everywhere. Our panel will consider how firms can take back the driver’s seat and work with their people to set a strategic pathway to accommodate the changing expectations of clients, markets, employees and communities. Understanding and acceptance, and mutual listening, are at the core of a new phase of organisational strategies. Lawyers Becoming Leaders’ Grant Herbert will be joined by Sue-Ann Wilson (Clyde & Co) and Roy Ang (Withersworldwide) to consider how long held strategy setting ‘habits’ are making way for a post-COVID collaborative approach to future planning.

Technology, The Enabler

Future Proofing your firm. Tech delivered through COVID, but what is next?

The Legal Tech market has helped law firms navigate through circuit breakers and lockdowns across the globe. The pandemic-induced consumption of technology forced firms to adapt quickly whilst ensuring cyber risk and related exposures were mitigated.Firms lived a real-life strategic re-think of how they made purchasing and implementation decisions. Hear from Cherilyn Tan, CEO and Founder at Tessaract on the universal challenges and enablers that will further accelerate digital transformation at law firms.