_edited_edited.png){kind=small}
future
lawyers
_edited.png)
FUTURE LAWYERS SINGAPORE
BEYOND THE BAR 2023
Saturday, December 2nd, 2023
9:00 am - 4:30 pm SGT
Singapore Management University Administration Building, Level 6 Function Room
EARLY BIRD: $40 $24 (40% off) until October 31st
_______
PRESENTS
* In partnership with SMU Yong Pung How School of Law and sponsored by SMU College of Integrative Studies.
PARTNERSHIP
Without the support from our partner and sponsors, we most definitely would not be where we are now!
Future Lawyers is privileged to be planning this conference in partnership with SMU Yong Pung How School of Law and is greatly appreciative for a generous sponsorship from SMU College of Integrative Studies.
SPEAKERS
THE FUTURE OF LAW
Rajesh Sreenivasan is a Partner and Head of the Technology, Media & Telecommunications Law Practice at Rajah & Tann Singapore LLP and the Coordinating Partner for the firms’ multidisciplinary and cross-practice Data and Digital Economy (DDE) Legal Services. He is a Director and Co-founder of Rajah & Tann Technologies Pte Ltd and Rajah & Tann Cybersecurity Pte Ltd which are the Legaltech arms of Rajah & Tann Asia. With over 20 years in practice, he has been universally recognised as the leading technology, media and telecoms lawyer in Singapore by all major professional ranking agencies and noted as one of the top TMT lawyers the Asia Pacific region. Rajesh has been at the forefront of legal, regulatory and policy matters relating to technology procurement, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, data protection, analytics and governance, telecommunications, electronic commerce, cloud computing, distributed ledger technologies, digital forensics and digital media in the region. He has since built a team of over 50 lawyers with significant depth.
​
Rajesh has been working together with R&T’s Financial Regulatory practice in addressing the fast maturing area of FinTech in legal and regulatory work spanning across DeFi to Virtual currency regulatory issues. Rajesh serves on the AI Tech committee of the Singapore Standards Council and on the Board of Experts of the Singapore Management University Centre for AI and Data Governance (CAIDG) and the National University of Singapore Centre for Technology, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence & the Law (TRAIL). On the corporate front, he sits on the Board of MediaCorp, Singapore’s national broadcaster.
Rajesh is the only Singapore lawyer serving on the Legal Advisory Group to the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) UK Centre for Digital Trade and Innovation. As an appointed member of the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) OECD project, he contributes actively to the multinational initiative by providing a representative deep dive into Singapore’s legislations on Artificial Intelligence and brainstorming on innovative best practices in complying with global regulatory guidelines. He is the co-author of the Hansard Banking Volume 12 (2022) on electronic banking issues and is a contributing author to “Law and Technology in Singapore”, Singapore Academy of Law (2022).​
PANEL 1: EVERYTHING LAW SCHOOL
%20-%20Abhishek%20Behera.jpg)
Abhishek Behera is a third-year law undergraduate student from the Singapore Management University. In law school, Abhishek is actively involved in student life and serves as the Vice President of the Bar (SMU Law Society). As the Vice President, he leads a team to look after the academic, holistic, and professional needs of law undergraduates. Additionally, Additionally, Abhishek has done a range of internships in local law firms such as Drew & Napier, Rajah & Tann, and Allen & Gledhill and international firms like Baker McKenzie.
Abhishek is also actively involved in mooting having participated locally in the Attorney-General’s Cup and internationally in the Nuremberg Moot Court. With a passion for oral and written advocacy and legal research, he intends to become a disputes lawyer, focusing on commercial litigation and international arbitration. He is also a die-hard fan of Arsenal and a cinephile.
Fahmy graduated from Singapore Management University with a Bachelor of Laws - Magna Cum Laude (with great distinction). Fahmy is experienced in a wide-spectrum of shipping and commodity trading matters, both contentious and transactional. He was also awarded a Distinction for Advanced Corporate Practice in his Singapore Bar exams. Fahmy is effectively bilingual, fluent in Malay and English.
MODERATOR
Michael is an Associate of Clyde & Co's Projects & Construction Practice. His practice areas primarily encompass commercial and construction arbitration and litigation. He graduated from the NUS Faculty of Law with an LL.B. (First Class Honours) in 2020. His journey to becoming a construction disputes lawyer was by no means one that he expected. It has taught him that being in the legal industry is never predictable, and we are all subject to the vicissitudes of life.
MODERATOR
Matthew is a Senior Assistant Director at the Ministry of Law (Legal Policy Group). He works on policy reforms and regular reviews of legislation relating to civil, family and community justice. In his work, he engages different stakeholders to co-create legislative solutions to meet Singapore's evolving needs and uphold the rule of law.
Matthew was previously a State Counsel at the Civil Division of the Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC), where he represented and advised public agencies in various areas such as tort, contract, land and administrative law, as well as advising on government transactions.
Matthew also briefly served as a Deputy Public Prosecutor at the Crime Division of the AGC, where he undertook prosecution work mainly in the realm of financial crimes and property offences.
Matthew Chong
PANEL 2: BEYOND THE BAR
Rachel Wong is a corporate lawyer focusing on early-stage companies and private M&A in Singapore. She is a Corporate Counsel at Eugene Thuraisingam LLP (“ET LLP”), the founder of Founders Doc and the co-founder of FD Mxmn (together with Founders Doc, the “FD Group”). To-date, the FD Group has served more than 100 early stage companies and Founders in Singapore, and been involved in more than 48 fundraising exercises.
In 2013, Rachel graduated with First Class Honours from King's College, London (LL.B.) and was called to the Singapore Bar in 2015. Prior to commencing work at ET LLP, she had practiced in top tier international and local law firms in the fields of Corporate M&A and Private Equity.
Leading up to March 2021, Rachel noticed that there was a gap in the market and ambitious early-stage founders could be better represented and supported in Southeast Asia. With this in mind, Founders Doc was born.
%20-%20A%20-%20Eu-Yen%20Tay.jpg)
Eu Yen is a lawyer who advises start-ups and businesses in consumer markets. Her specialist space is in food and entertainment. This now spreads from traditional models of such businesses to technological innovations in these areas. Eu Yen spent 15 years in the nightlife and restaurant business as CEO, Co- Founder and General Counsel. Back in private practice, her passion is marrying her commercial experience with her legal expertise to help businesses grow.
Mandi is a Senior Legal Counsel supporting the Cake Group, one of Southeast Asia's fastest growing digital assets innovators, across all verticals (retail, B2C, venture capital, and open-source blockchain R&D). Prior to joining the Cake Group, she first practiced as a litigator, then moved into in-house practice as a Legal Counsel in the asset management (private wealth) space.
Sam Padbidri is a one-of-a-kind music industry triple threat: lawyer, entrepreneur and charting artist. He's one of Southeast Asia's only music lawyers, is the Founder & CEO of a boutique IP consultancy (Solve Media), Co-Founder & CEO of a music tech startup (Beamco), and has garnered millions of streams both as a singer-songwriter and music producer including a recent debut at Formula 1 Singapore GP 2023.
Solve provides legal and strategic support across all cross-sections of Music, Media & Entertainment and Technology. Their clients across JAPAC consist of publicly listed entertainment companies, private equity firms, music-tech startups, digital media & technology platforms, innovation accelerators, labels, publishers, agencies and both independent & major label artists.
Beamco is an exciting upcoming mobile platform and music community connecting offline performances with online content, empowering artists to thrive off their art and fans to be rewarded for loyalty and passion.
MODERATOR
Assistant Professor of Law and Computer Science (Practice) Lim How Khang is the Director for the SMU Centre for Computational Law and the Programme Director for SMU’s Bachelor of Science (Computing & Law), a unique inter-disciplinary degree.
​
In keeping with his interdisciplinary background in law and computing, his research interests include computational law and smart contract technology, machine learning and natural language processing, legal informatics and legal analytics, artificial intelligence and the law, and legal technology innovation with a focus on access to justice.
​
At SMU, he currently teaches COR-LAW2215: Digital Intelligence for Lawyers; LAW4022: Digital Innovation for Access to Justice (SMU-X); LAW4055: Introduction to Large Language Models, GPT and Legal Technology; and the new course IS466: Digital Ethics for Responsible Computing.
INTIMATE NETWORKING SESSION
Stanley is Tessaract’s in-house legal counsel, as well as their Director, Client Success.
As a corporate lawyer armed with legal and financial know-how, Stanley is no stranger to connecting the dots between what a customer is asking for and the customer’s desired outcome. More importantly, he appreciates how an over-emphasis on technicalities can sometimes fog up the path to a solution.
Having taken on various roles in community-driven organisations and being passionate about underwater rugby, Stanley is no stranger to staying cool under pressure and remaining focused on scoring touchdowns.
Norvin is a tech and IP lawyer at Osborne Clarke Singapore. He is also a programmer completing his master’s degree in computer science at the University of Pennsylvania. In his free time, he works on Broken Bear, an AI teddy bear chatbot, at www.brokenbear.com and blogs on AI regulations at www.lawonai.com.
Maartje DE VISSER is an Associate Professor of Law at the Yong Pung How School of Law and College of Integrative Studies, Singapore Management University. She holds an LLB from Maastricht University (cum laude), completed the MJur at Oxford (with distinction) and took her PhD at Tilburg University (cum laude). Her research is centered around two broad themes: constitutional engagement by courts and non-judicial actors; and transnational judicial dialogues and networking. Maartje is the recipient of five Lee Kong Chian Fellowships for research excellence, and a member of the editorial board of the Hart Studies in Constitutional Theory Series as well as of the European Yearbook of Constitutional Law. She is the founding co-chair of the Singapore Chapter of ICON-S.
Daniel Seah is an Assistant Professor of Law (Education) at SMU. His journey into academia is unplanned. It evolved from experiences in practice, social services, and teaching adult learners which shaped his professional identity today as a teacher-scholar. At SMU, Daniel’s interests lie in advocating the benefits of legal literacy for all undergraduates. He teaches Digital Law & Technological Innovations; Singapore: Imagining the Next Fifty Years; Ethics & Social Responsibility; and Big Questions. Daniel’s recent research focuses on Universal Design for Interdisciplinary Learning and the legal implications of AI hallucinations.
Daniel Seah
Chang Zi Qian is the Founder of INTELLLEX, a venture backed Legal AI Startup. They build AI litigation research assistants and knowledge management systems. Visit scott.intelllex.com to experience their intelligence of their litigation research assistant.
Outside work, he has also been privileged to be invited to serve as a member on the Singapore Committee for Future Economy (Law and Accounting Work Group (https://goo.gl/b34DHZ) in 2016 and also as Singapore Management University School of Law, Law & Technology Advisory Council member in 2017.
He was named twice as one of the 100 Leaders of Tomorrow at the St Gallen Symposium (2011 & 2014) (http://www.stgallen-symposium.org/) and once as a Dragon 100 Young Leaders Leader (HK 2012) (www.dragonfoundation.net).
EVENT SCHEDULE
9:00 AM - 9:40 AM / Registration
9:45 AM - 9:55 AM / Opening Ceremony
10:00 AM - 10:50 AM / future of Law
11:00 AM - 12:00 PM / Panel 1: Everything Law School
12:00 PM - 1:30 PM / Lunch
1:30 PM - 2:30 PM / Panel 2: Beyond The Bar
2:45 PM - 3:15 PM / Exclusive Networking Session
2:45 PM - 4:15 PM / Networking with Booths
%20-%20Andrew%20Wong.png)
+ MORE TO COME...
4:20 PM - 4:30 PM / Closing Ceremony
[ For a more in-depth view of the schedule, click here. ]