What convinced this large law firm to be one of the earliest adopters of Lexis+ in the region

A commitment to excellence and care for its colleagues, clients, and community accurately describes Rajah & Tann Asia's legacy; the same is true for its Singaporean counterpart.

Founded in 1976 to pursue social justice through law, Rajah & Tann Singapore LLP (Rajah & Tann) is now one of the Big Four's full-service firms in the country and a founding member of Rajah & Tann Asia, a network of legal practices boasting over 970 fee earners across 10 countries. 

Beyond this, they are known for being early technology adopters and were one of the first large law firms to adopt Lexis+ in the region.

"In a technology-driven, 'always-on' professional world, clients now expect legal services to be immediately accessible at all times, while their legal and regulatory questions are becoming increasingly complex," Rajesh Sreenivasan, Head of Technology, Media & Telecommunications at the firm shared in an interview for the RELX 2023 Annual Report.

"Rajah & Tann's ambition is to be unrivalled in its responsiveness to client demands while continuously seeking new opportunities to deepen its foothold in Asia."

The firm also acknowledges that this vision must be pursued sustainably without compromising its values of fairness, integrity, generosity, and compassion — especially toward the well-being of its colleagues. Rajah & Tann firmly believes that leveraging technology in the delivery of legal services is necessary to meet both client expectations and the needs of its team members.

Rajesh adds that the firm has incorporated a set of guidelines on the use of generative AI for legal work, which lists the dos and don't of using generative AI in conducting legal research, contract drafting, document review and due diligence, as well as writing letters. (Image by Rajah & Tann)

Delivering high-quality legal services to clients with professionalism, efficiency, and integrity

Whether it is the rise of AI-powered solutions or the rapid pace at which the world evolves, there's never been a better time for law firms to answer the question of what it takes to run their business effectively. For Rajesh, an effective law firm is one whose partners, lawyers, and professional support team are "driven and committed to delivering high-quality legal services to its clients with professionalism, efficiency, and integrity."

"In the current world where a boundless wealth of information is available at everyone's fingertips, the law firm should embrace innovation and technology by adopting new tools and methods that can enhance its productivity, quality, and competitiveness," he shares. 

"This is why Rajah & Tann is on a constant lookout for ways and means to leverage technology and AI to automate and optimise its workflows, processes, and operations. This allows our lawyers and professional support team to work efficiently, as well as to generate new insights and opportunities for our stakeholders and clients."

Soo Seong Theng, the firm's Regional Director of Knowledge Management agrees, stressing the importance and benefits of professional development. "It is important that a law firm equips its employees with learning skills, namely, the ability to acquire new knowledge or skills through various methods and sources. We encourage our lawyers and professional support teams to be curious and have an open mind to acquire new skills and knowledge (digital or otherwise) to better our work and adapt to changes in our work processes and roles," she shares.

But change at Rajah & Tann comes with its fair of challenges. 

"We had to overcome the initial resistance and scepticism that some of [our lawyers] had towards new technology and gather successful use cases in the firm to show them the benefits and value of using these tools for their work. We also had to provide adequate and ongoing training and support to ensure they are comfortable and confident using the tools and can leverage them to their full potential," Rajesh recalls.

"Another challenge we faced was risk management, especially with generative AI tools that can produce legal content or advice based on natural language inputs. We had to ensure that the tools are reliable and accurate, and that they comply with the ethical and professional standards of the legal profession."

"Henchman also offers added features to help our lawyers review and compare a clause they are working on against the firm's template clause and provide AI-based recommendations on drafting changes to ensure it is aligned with the template clause. This saves our M&A lawyers a good amount of time navigating, reviewing and drafting contracts." (Image by Rajah & Tann)

Enter Lexis+ Singapore

Lexis+ Singapore stands out with its unique combination of market-leading AI search technology, large proprietary content sets, and superior data visualisation features. Launched in June 2023, it introduced case digests of Singapore Supreme Court judgments for the first time. This innovative platform is designed to reduce the time lawyers spend on legal research, while maintaining the accuracy and quality of the research output. 

"We estimate that Lexis+ has made our legal research at least 10 to 20% more efficient based on how easy we're able to identify and focus on the materials relevant to our research, allowing us more time to focus on analysing the outcome of our legal research," Rajesh shares in the 2023 report.

Now, lawyers at the firm can use the all-in-one ecosystem of integrated legal solutions as the integrated legal solutions as the first of call when conducting case law research. 

According to the Head of Technology, Media & Telecommunications, the platform's user-friendly features have made legal research "less stressful." Lawyers can browse through the sections of the materials containing the search terms without having to open each search result, making it much easier to filter, identify, and zoom in on the materials likely to be useful for their research.

Rajah & Tann host training for lawyers to familiarise themselves with the useful features of Lexis+ and information about the platform is also made available on the firm's Intranet. (Image by Rajah & Tann)

Plus, the benefits are not limited to fee-earners: the Knowledge Management team can spend less time training lawyers on using the system. 

The innovative "Search Tree" feature, for example, is particularly appreciated among younger lawyers. It replaces the need to memorise and deploy traditional Boolean search techniques — a method of symbolic logic developed by George Boole, a 19th-century English mathematician. Boolean operators, such as AND, OR, and NOT, combine words and phrases to limit, broaden, or define a search query. 

This faster uptake in usage means a quicker return on investment on the firm's subscription to Lexis+. "The pace of legal practice has accelerated in recent years, influenced by client expectations for prompt and accessible legal services and the rapidly evolving legal and regulatory landscape. Rajah & Tann is constantly assessing and deploying technological solutions and innovations to help our lawyers work more efficiently to keep up with this pace while maintaining a healthier work-life harmony," Rajesh shares.

**

Lexis+® Singapore is a premium all-in-one ecosystem of integrated legal solutions, complete with superior research, practical guidance and gold standard drafting tools. For more information about Lexis+ and its suite of solutions, click here to learn more and reach out to us through the form below for a free demo.