The SmartLaw Assist scheme will provide law firms with 70 per cent subsidy in initial costs for an online knowledge database, which will help cut the time needed for legal research by up to 20 per cent, said Law Society President Gregory Vijayendran. The databases under the scheme, which will support an eligible firm's first-year subscription costs, are from the Singapore Academy of Law, Lexis Nexis or Thomson Reuters. Some $300,000 from the Law Society’s Education Fund has been set aside for this scheme.

Recognition scheme

Separately, Mr Vijayendran also launched the society's SmartLaw recognition scheme which means that law firms which have adopted a practice management or accounting software, an online knowledge management database and have an online presence will be able to use the SmartLaw logo on its website and marketing materials.

Tech start fund

The move follows just weeks after Global Legal Post reported on the $2.8 million Tech Start for Law programme being run by the Ministry of Law, the Law Society and Spring Singapore which provides funding support for law firms to adopt baseline technologies in practice management, online research and marketing.

Smart nation 

‘A smart nation needs smart lawyers... I hope that such technology will enable our small and medium-sized Singapore law practices to be even more efficient and profitable by allowing our lawyers to move up the value chain,' Mr Vijayendran was reported as saying in the Straits Times.