Technological innovation should strengthen, not undermine, legal practice
Even as GenAI becomes increasingly embedded in legal workflows, its use must be balanced with careful professional oversight
WE REFER to the article “Breaches of AI policy could be a sackable offence at some Singapore law firms” (BT, Oct 21), which highlights how firms are strengthening their policies for responsible use of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) – a sign of the profession’s growing maturity in adopting such tools.
Establishing clear internal policies and consequences for misuse is essential to help lawyers understand and comply with their professional responsibilities. The recent case involving a lawyer citing a hallucinated case is a timely reminder that verification is a matter of professional duty.
Maintaining client confidentiality is another key aspect, which can be safeguarded by choosing GenAI tools that meet appropriate data protection and security standards.
Equally important is training lawyers to use GenAI effectively, particularly in legal work where trust and accuracy are critical. Lawyers will need to learn how to create well-crafted prompts and develop a clear understanding of both the capabilities and limitations of these tools.
To support this, the Singapore Academy of Law has released an updated version of its prompt engineering guide that illustrates good practices, such as providing sufficient context and grounding responses in quality reference materials. By following these good practices, lawyers can more effectively use general-purpose GenAI tools in their legal work.
At the same time, legal practice remains a specialist field with its domain-specific legaltech solutions, such as specialist AI legal research tools. These tools are built on verified legal databases, specifically designed for legal research, and often incorporate safeguards such as output filters, to minimise the risk of hallucinations.
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Examples include platforms such as Legora, LexisNexis, Thomson Reuters, vLex, and the Singapore Academy of Law’s LawNet, which is tuned for Singapore law.
Even as GenAI becomes increasingly embedded in legal workflows and enhances efficiency, its use must be balanced with careful professional oversight.
We recognise that no level of engineering can make the technology entirely infallible. It is therefore a collective responsibility to ensure that technological innovation strengthens – rather than undermines – the core principles of legal practice, including precision, accountability and integrity.
YEONG ZEE KIN Chief executive Singapore Academy of Law
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