Past Events

Taboos and the art of “Speak Up”

Event Overview

This is the first session of a series on transparency and “speak up” and managing in a company. Looking at the culture around transparency and speak up and managing the whistleblower in the initial stages of the process.

“In conversation with Kirsten Trott and Catherine Wu - shining the light on the culture of speak up”

This conversation will focus on:

• Voice and cultural intelligence in the APAC region
• The psychology of “speak up” and issues around raising concerns in organizations
• Research on the “phycology of voice” and applications of principles in the context of voice in organizations in different countries/cultures and managing key stakeholders and teams/leadership.

During this conversation, we will help to identify the taboos around speaking up and the different cultural nuances through stories and an interactive dialogue by our two fabulous facilitators. They will take us on a journey, and a deep dive into the culture of “speak up” within organizations. Numerous learnings and practical tips will be shared to help the legal community better support their respective organizations and employees.

Through some story-telling and sharing of what are the taboos and impediments of speak up in corporations drawing on Kirsten’s experiences in-house, some in this situation and how this can blend in with managing a whistle-blower or someone speaking up about issues of concern.

Learning Outcomes

• Understand address and tackle these issues and help in daily support provided by in house counsel to key stakeholders in an organization and identify some key watch-outs and get some tips and tools to be better equipped to tackle such issues.
• Identify and be aware and how to partner with other key stakeholders
• Identify what the legal and compliance issues are.

There will be an opportunity to raise questions with our speakers to gain further insights and perspectives on speak up issues and surrounding taboos.

Speakers

Dr. Catherine Peyrols Wu is a global leadership and talent development consultant. She has worked with Fortune 500 companies, universities and government bodies to design and facilitate programs in the areas of intercultural competence and career management.

Her research on cultural intelligence in multicultural teams has been presented at international conferences including the Academy of Management Meeting, the Society of Industrial and Organizational Psychology, the International Conference of Applied Psychology and the International Association of Cross-Cultural Psychology, and published in the peer-review journals Applied Psychology.

She has worked with a variety of organizations such as Volvo, SAP, ConocoPhillips, Orange, DHL, Volkswagen, Aramark, Gemalto, Nokia, Lining, Novonordisk, Adamas, Oracle, the Thai Management Association, KEDGE-Shanghai Jiaotong University MBA and the British Embassy in Beijing. Previously, she has taught in MBA courses at the Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management in Beijing and La Rochelle Business School in France.

Dr. Wu is originally from France and has lived in Asia for the past 15 years. She is currently a lecturer with the Nanyang Business School at Nanyang Technological University Singapore, where she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on cultural intelligence. Dr. Wu holds a PhD in organizational behaviors specializing in cultural intelligence from the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and a master’s in management from KEDGE Business School in France.

Kirsten Trott, is the Head of Compliance for HBF, an Australian Private Health Insurance provider. She has extensive experience in making whistleblowing work for organizations and in dealing with some of the difficult issues that arise in whistleblowing matters. 

As the global lead for whistleblowing at Standard Chartered Bank, in which she designed and implemented whistleblowing arrangements that complied with UK Financial Services regulations across 63 countries, she has been at the coalface of making whistleblowing work within a large, culturally complex and highly regulated company. As the Deputy Director of Public Concern at Work (now called Protect), the UK based global thought leader on whistleblowing, she identified and developed whistleblowing best practice through her work advising organizations across all sectors on whistleblowing. She also gave legal and practical advice to hundreds of whistle-blowers from across all sectors and levels of seniority, giving her a unique insight into the whistle-blower’s experience and psyche, which she continues to draw on.  In her role as founder and principal consultant at Moken Consulting, she advised companies to move beyond compliance and to get their whistleblowing systems working in practice.

Digital Transformation in times of COVID-19: How Lawyers facilitate change?

Event Overview

Until recently, corporate legal teams and law firms often focused on the risks associated with new technologies and digitization altogether. However, digital transformation is taking hold in the legal industry and the scale of technology adoption on businesses is becoming more apparent – now more than ever before – right from collaboration platforms to cloud-based services and cybersecurity solutions. It has become the lifeline of all businesses irrespective of their size or industry sector.

In this webinar, we will be joined by legal experts from various sectors to discuss:

• How lawyers are changing from risk mitigators to business enablers over the last three years and how this transformation has accelerated in times of Covid-19;
• Transformational projects adopted to streamline legal operations and specific business areas; and
• How lawyers re-adjust to the new way of work and life.

Chair

Adrian leads Linklaters’ Singapore-based TMT practice in Asia, specializing in data privacy and technology transactions. He has more than 13 years’ experience advising clients across the Asia Pacific region on commercial and regulatory issues involving their use of technology.

As businesses have increasingly focused on using data as a strategic asset, Adrian has worked with large conglomerates and corporates on projects to aggregate and more effectively use their data assets as part of their digital transformation process, including on data migration (such as migration to regional cloud hosting solutions) and advising on data breach issues. Adrian’s experience stretches from advising on the application of privacy laws to business operations and data flows, to the impact of implementing new technologies such as cloud computing.

Panelists

Tomasz started his career as in Poland as an entrepreneur, turned consultant, and after working across multiple industries and 16 countries, now he serves as Chief Transformation and Digital Officer at AXA Insurance.

He is a geek at heart. From the moment he wrote his first application and created the first website at the age of 12, he got fascinated with the opportunities that technology creates around us. Since then he decided to help create, build and grow businesses and organizations that harness the potential of technology compounded with strategy and customer focus to deliver true impact and realize what’s possible in the digital age.

Agnieszka leads the provision of legal advice to SC Ventures, the digital innovation unit of Standard Chartered Bank (SCB). SC Ventures manages strategic investment in fintech companies and other start-ups, promotes intrapreneurship in the Bank, and oversees the developing disruptive business models.

Agnieszka has extensive experience in banking systems, products, operations, and digitization issues. She advises on the creation and legal structuring of new business models at the intersection of technology and finance. Prior to joining SCB, Agnieszka held various roles at HSBC and the law firm, DLA Piper, in London and in Brussels.

Jarom Britton leads the Microsoft commercial legal team's efforts driving the digital transformation of customers in Asia, with a particular focus on health, education, and public-sector entities. He also speaks regularly on the legal, regulatory, and ethical impacts of leading-edge technology trends. Prior to moving in-house, Jarom worked at some of the world's largest law firms in New York and Singapore, where he managed complex international corporate finance transactions, including several record-setting and award-winning IPOs and Islamic finance deals.

Originally from Vancouver, Canada, Jarom is admitted to the New York bar and earned law degrees in both common law and civil law from McGill University in Montreal, specializing in commercial negotiation. He also holds a degree in economics and psychology from the University of Western Ontario. He lives in Singapore with his wife and 8-year-old daughter and enjoys food, travel, and the outdoors.

Seker has previously worked as a judicial associate with the District and Supreme Court (NSW), an associate with the Attorney-General's Department (NSW), senior legal counsel Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), head legal for Amicorp Group, and associate director for Rothschild & Co. Seker currently works as a senior legal counsel for Ant Group handling global projects as lead counsel out of the Singapore office.

He is qualified to practice law in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore as well as England & Wales. Seker holds degrees in Law & Quantitative Economics. He has also gone on to complete post-graduate qualifications in international tax management and executive leadership. He is a co-founder of two different cryptographic asset businesses which have gone on to become commercially viable.

Creating a robust Anti-fraud environment: Getting it right.

EVENT OVERVIEW:

For organizations, creating a robust anti-fraud environment should be a journey, and one of the key components to creating such an environment is by performing fraud risk assessments. EY speakers will share some of the leading and emerging practices on building a robust anti-fraud framework and share examples to highlight why some succeed and others fail.

According to an EY survey, only 34% of respondents were very confident that their third parties demonstrate integrity in the work they do. Are the traditional methods of third-party due diligence adding value to the management? How can in-house counsel and compliance leaders leverage technology for global third-party risk management?

LEARNING OUTCOME:

To achieve a robust anti-fraud environment, in-house counsels and compliance leaders should perform fraud risk assessments on a continuous basis and leverage technology to manage risks, including those from third parties. For this to be successful, in-house counsels and compliance leaders need to work closely with enterprise stakeholders.

In this session, Stacy Chai and Saket Bhartia from EY Forensics team will share some of the leading and emerging practices on building a robust anti-fraud framework and highlight examples to discuss why some succeed and others fail.

SPEAKERS:

Stacy has over 19 years of experience in the areas of accounting, auditing and forensic accounting; and has specialized in investigations, anti-corruption and litigation support work in the last 12 years. She has been leading forensic investigations across ASEAN into, among others, fraudulent acts, Singapore Exchange listing rules, financial irregularities, conflict of interest, breach of fiduciary duties, corrupt practices, and money laundering.

Stacy has worked closely with regulators and enforcement agencies in Singapore, and her work has also been used for criminal prosecution. Stacy regularly provides training on integrity, fraud and corruption and related legal aspects to EY clients and has also trained new recruits of regulatory and enforcement agencies. She is a frequent speaker at conferences on fraud matters and guest lectures on the topic of Fraud and Ethics at one of Singapore’s universities. She was also interviewed on one of Singapore’s radio stations on corporate fraud.

Saket has over 20 years of experience in fraud risk assessments, investigations, anti-bribery and corruption reviews and dispute advisory. Saket has led investigations that were either multijurisdictional, regulatory non-compliance or complex in nature, including financial statement fraud, siphoning of funds, embezzlement, asset misappropriation, bribery and corruption issues, code of conduct violations, etc. In addition, he has assisted several global and local clients in setting up strong compliance and governance frameworks.

The Lawyer and Legal Automation

EVENT OVERVIEW:

Market conditions, pressure on costs and external spending, doing more whilst having your budget frozen or squeezed, maintaining quality, and facilitating self-service by the business are all factors driving digitalisation.

In-house legal teams are expected to be savvy in using LegalTech and resourcing models, with an underlying mandate to be strategic and cost-efficient. In-house teams expect law firms on their panel to embed innovation, technologies, and new modes of resourcing in their service delivery – at the same time as reducing costs and improving client experience.

The Wolters Kluwer Future Ready Lawyer Survey listed the top challenges for in-house legal teams in 2020 as reducing and controlling costs, automating routine tasks, and leveraging technology, with 82% expecting the law firms that they work with to leverage technology. Whilst, most law firms report that they have made insignificant progress in adopting technology to improve client services and to keep pace with clients’ changing needs.

Attend this webinar organized by Clarilis in conjunction with SCCA, to understand how the adoption of LegalTech (with a focus on drafting automation) is key for lawyers to increase their efficiency. Hear an interactive discussion on closing the gaps in expectations, priorities, and capabilities within and between law firms and corporate legal departments.

There will also be an opportunity to see use cases of document automation within legal departments, via a demonstration of Clarilis, at the end of the session. Including a 10 mins Q&A to hear the challenges faced by the audience in selecting and implementing LegalTech.

LEARNING OUTCOMES:

Lawyers will learn how the adoption of LegalTech with a focus on drafting automation is key to increase their efficiency. There will be a beneficial discussion about closing the gaps in expectations, priorities, and capabilities within and between law firms and corporate legal departments.

SPEAKER PROFILES:

James is CEO of Clarilis, an intelligent drafting platform. Before Clarilis, James was a corporate tax lawyer at Slaughter and May.  He also founded one of the first Alternative Business Structure (ABS) law firms.

The market leading CLARILIS drafting platform offers huge opportunities to drive operational efficiencies and enhance service delivery for law firms and in-house legal teams, not just in time saved in the drafting process, but also in terms of quality, consistency and risk mitigation.

Clarilis’ PSL-led automation team is dedicated to the implementation of automation projects.  The unique combination of the CLARILIS™ platform and the experience of the Clarilis team allows Clarilis to implement and deliver fully managed automation projects that provide a solid ROI.

Jonathan is a partner at Withers KhattarWong, the Singapore office of international law firm Withersworldwide. Jonathan is a member of the Withers Tech team and has assisted tech companies in setting up in Singapore. He has particular expertise in 3 broad areas: Franchise & Licensing; Media & Entertainment; and Technology. He frequently advises media and tech companies on the creation and protection of media content and digital assets as well as the use of such content and assets on new digital platforms. His work ranges from the identification and protection of his clients’ IP assets, including processing and analysis of data, to the commercialization of their IP assets through partnerships, distributions, collaborations and licensing.

Sue Lynn holds an LL.B. and LL.M. from the University of London, and is called to the Bar of England and Wales. She is currently a non‐practising Advocate and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Singapore, and is the General Counsel and Company Secretary of a mainboard listed company in the Singapore Exchange. Sue Lynn started off in the litigation department of a local law firm before going inhouse in 1998. She is an Associate Mediator accredited by the Singapore Mediation Centre (SMC), and is a volunteer Mediator in the State Courts, and also conducts training when called upon by SMC. Sue Lynn was previously a founding member and VP of the Singapore Corporate Counsel Association that started in 2002.

Ezra Tay has substantial fintech experience and was previously General Counsel at Capital Match, a peer-to-peer lending and invoice financing platform based in Singapore. He was also Legal and Compliance Counsel at CXA Group, an insur-tech startup based in Singapore. Tay’s professional experience spans across fintech to banks such as Credit Suisse and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. Tay holds a Masters of Law from the National University of Singapore and a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Southampton.

Feedback on the Copyright (Excluded Works) Order

Note: This event has been rescheduled on 7th Oct 2020, 11 am

Event Overview

MinLaw and IPOS are seeking feedback as part of a public consultation exercise on the Copyright (Excluded Works) Order (“the EWO”).

The Singapore Corporate Counsel Association Limited along with BR Law is inviting its in-house counsel members and friends to participate in this consultation exercise to voice your options and opinions.

The EWO sets out situations where users are permitted to circumvent technological protection measures (“TPMs”), to enable legitimate uses of copyrighted works. TPMs are technologies or devices that restrict the access or use of copyrighted works, for instance by preventing users from making unauthorised copies of a protected work.

Since TPMs can inadvertently prevent legitimate uses, the exceptions in the EWO help protect users of copyrighted works. However, the EWO needs to be periodically renewed. As part of the process, MinLaw and IPOS are seeking feedback on whether the existing exceptions in the current EWO are still relevant and should be retained, and whether new exceptions are needed.

Further information and updates may be found at the public consultation page, visit here.

Download the Public Consultaion PDF here

Speaker Profile

Dharma specializes in commercial matters involving intellectual property and technology, as well as privacy compliance. He also serves on the Law Society of Singapore's Information Technology Committee. He has assisted clients on complex technology procurement, including adoption of enterprise-level IT systems, and deployment of integrated systems for external users. Dharma is active in the emerging technologies space and advised on blockchain and smart contracts regulation for the Singapore arm of a global study conducted by the European Commission. Dharma has experience working with a variety of clients, from startups and investors to listed companies and MNCs.

Build or Buy? Making the Right Investment for Your Legal Department

Event Overview:

How do you make the decision? General Counsel and Legal Operations Managers need a clear investment strategy on the best allocation of resources (internal or budget) to solve problems long-term.

Join Thomson Reuters on 23 September for a practical discussion on how to determine whether you should invest in building or buying a technology solution for your legal department. Business specialists will discuss what ‘building’ a solution with internal resources really looks like, the pros and cons of ‘buying’, and how to make an informed business decision on the right investment strategy.

Learning Points:

• Business case for investment: Research from a 2020 Baker Gilmour (and Chief Executive Magazine) *survey found that only 61% of public company CEOs and 40 percent of private company CEOs view their GC as strategic business partners. Investment to optimize the legal departments operations should be a key focus for GCs in order to reflect the value of the legal department to the wider business.

• Scoping solutions: From 2015 there’s been a **boom in legal technology providers in Australia alone, which indicates there are plenty of options, but this has also made it more difficult to identify the right solution fit. Functionality and key business-critical considerations should create a blueprint for assessing technology.

• Investment strategy: In making the investment decision to buy it’s critical to have a 5-year outlook for the solution. Scalability, flexibility, security, integrations, and innovation should all be key factors in assessing vendors or internal solutions and their suitability to your legal department’s needs.

• Weighing up risks: It is easy for IT projects to blow their budget. While the financial risk to ‘buying’ may be reduced, the operational and internal reputational damage caused by poorly implemented, or not fit-for-purpose solutions can be great.

• Hidden costs: Whether building or buying there are inherent hidden costs to consider as part of the investment decision that has a material impact on the viability of the investment strategy.

Speaker Profiles:

Optimizing your MS 365 environment to streamline the way you work

EVENT OVERVIEW: 

The budgetary impacts of Covid-19 mean that many planned Legal Tech purchases are being delayed. Fortunately for those of us who use MS 365, Microsoft has provided a handful of tools that can make a huge difference to the everyday workflows of lawyers, they just haven’t been very good at telling us!

Graeme Grovum from Alpha Creates will take us through some of the ways that MS 365 can be configured to optimize our working environments. Topics will include:
- Using MS Add-ins to create email templates and clause banks
- Setting up MS Teams as your practice management hub
- Using SharePoint in Teams as a document management system
- Using Planner to create, allocate and manage tasks and projects
- Using MS forms to collect client feedback

SPEAKER:

Graeme Grovum, a principal at the legal strategy, innovation & technology consultancy Alpha Creates, is a legal technologist who leverages deep understanding of legal process and love of new technologies to deliver exceptional results in unexpected ways. 

Climate change through a finance and liability lens – What do directors, officers and in-house counsel need to know?

EVENT OVERVIEW:

Regulatory and investor expectations on climate change risk governance, assessment and disclosure continue to ratchet upwards in FY20, while sustainable finance markets continue to grow apace – often well in advance of associated regulations and standards. So why is climate change a material risk for Singaporean companies, and what are the emerging liability exposures that we should now consider?
In a session that will provide both an introductory overview and advanced insights, MinterEllison's Head of Climate Risk Governance Sarah Barker will cover issues including:

• The evolution of climate change from an 'ethical', 'environmental' issue to one that presents material financial risks (and opportunities)
• International regulatory developments – including net-zero emissions, prudential stress testing, and the EU's proposed capital regulatory reforms
• The significant uplift in investor expectations
• Directors' duties and disclosure – international insights from Australia, the UK and Canada – and a preview of the Singaporean 'Chan Opinion'

LEARNING OUTCOMES:

• An understanding of the evolution of climate change from an 'ethical', 'environmental' issue to one that presents material financial risks (and opportunities)
• An understanding of contemporary developments on corporate governance with regard to climate change – heightened regulatory and investor expectations
• An understanding of what the international trends signal for corporate governance and directors' duties in Singapore

SPEAKER PROFILE:

Sarah Barker leads the climate and sustainability risk governance team at MinterEllison and is a director of one of Australia's largest pension funds, the Victorian state government's $30 billion Emergency Services & State Super. She has more than two decades' experience as a corporate lawyer and is regarded as one of the world's foremost experts on climate change liability risks.

Sarah's leadership in the field of climate change-related risk and liability is internationally recognized and has been called upon by governments and institutions from the Bank of England to the OECD and United Nations PRI. 

She teaches as part of the Cambridge University's Institute for Sustainability Leadership (convened by EY) and is an academic visitor at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at Oxford University.  She is a member of the Steering Committee of the Australian Sustainable Finance Initiative, the only lawyer amongst a committee comprising senior executives from the Australian banking, finance, and insurance sectors.

Sarah was the instructing solicitor on a brief to Mr. Noel Hutley SC that is widely cited as the authoritative exposition on directors' duties with regard to climate change risk in Australia (including by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, Australian Securities & Investments Commission and the Reserve Bank of Australia). 

She brings an overtly practical, governance-focused perspective to her advice from her own experience as a director on the board of government- and private-sector boards.  In addition to her role as a non-executive director of Emergency Services & State Super, she has recently completed two terms on the board of the Responsible Investment Association Australasia and has been actively involved as an examiner, lecturer and course materials author for the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

COVID-19: Legal and Practical considerations for in-house counsel to navigate Insolvency Risks

Event Overview:

Clyde & Co Clasis Singapore and KPMG Singapore come together to discuss the legal and practical considerations for in-house counsel to navigate insolvency risks that have arisen due to the COVID-19 situation.

Experts Prakash Pillai (Partner, Restructuring and Insolvency practice Clyde & Co Clasis Singapore) and Junxiang Koh (Legal Director, Clasis LLC, Singapore) along with Owen Hawkes (Partner, KPMG Forensic, Dispute Advisory Services, KPMG in Singapore) will delve into the following:

• Heightened insolvency risk posed by COVID-19 – what does it mean for counterparties
• Temporary measures announced by the Singapore Government and impact on the insolvency regime
• Directors' duties and risk of insolvent trading
• Challenges for creditors, judicial managers and liquidators in investigating potential fraud during and after the COVID-19 pandemic

Speaker Profiles:

Prakash Pillai leads the Insolvency and Restructuring and Commercial Litigation practices of the firm. Prakash’s experience includes top tier insolvency, related contentious work, and litigation in the marine and trade and commodities sectors. He has advised and acted for trading houses, liquidators, companies and insolvency professionals in complex local and regional insolvencies, focusing mainly on the contentious aspects, including trade and commodities’ disputes, financial investigations into suspected fraud, tracing and recovery of assets, and claims against directors of the insolvent company and/or third parties. 

Prakash also specializes in litigation and international commercial arbitration. As a Director of Clasis LLC, he frequently represents clients in commercial litigation matters before the Singapore High Court and Court of Appeal of Singapore. His clients include oil majors, insurance companies, and trading houses.

Described as “measured and strategic” by Chambers Asia Pacific, leading industry journals such as Chambers Global, Chambers Asia Pacific and Global Arbitration Review and Legal 500 have commended his knowledge and expertise consistently.

Junxiang is a Legal Director at Clasis LLC, Singapore. Junxiang practices in the fields of insolvency and commercial dispute resolution and is engaged in both Singapore litigation as well as international arbitration. He has particular experience in shareholder disputes, corporate fraud investigations, and corporate insolvencies and restructuring.

 He has an in-depth knowledge of Singapore insolvency laws and has acted for liquidators, scheme managers, judicial managers, and receivers from all the Big 4 accounting firms in all aspects of corporate restructuring, both contentious and non-contentious. He has also has extensive experience acting for secured and unsecured creditors of insolvent companies, both before and during the insolvency proceedings, particularly in the marine, trade and commodities industries.

Owen is a Partner in KPMG’s Forensic practice with 20 years of investigation and regulatory litigation experience. He has qualified and practiced both as an accountant and a lawyer. Prior to joining KPMG in Singapore, Owen practiced as a barrister for eight years, six of which was at the British Government’s Serious Fraud Office – the United Kingdom’s lead agency on financial crime and international corruption. Owen joined KPMG Forensic in 2007.”

Go paperless: Streamline legal processes for a 100% digital experience

Overview:

With the workplace redefined by the pandemic and rising expectations for businesses to offer services digitally, how can the processes of generating, approving and signing of legal documents be automated and digitized, while ensuring security and strict compliance?

Join Gibson Tan, Regional Lead for Adobe Sign in Southeast Asia as he covers recent trends that have seen an increase in companies from all industries, embrace or accelerate digital transformation. Learn how automated legal workflows can turn manual, repetitive legal processes from NDA executions to trademark reviews into a 100% digital experience. And know what the two types of electronic signatures are, and when they should be used.

Finally, hear from Marianne Low, Head of Legal for Adobe Southeast Asia, as she shares how the Adobe legal team streamlined their document workflows to reduce risk, end-to-end contract completion time, and costs.

Speaker Profiles:

Gibson help organizations drive their business faster and deliver superior customer experiences, on any devices by making paper-based and signing processes, 100% digital.  He helps his customers make sense of their technology space and guide them to achieve success for their transformation projects.

Gibson has a deep personal interest in process improvements and seeks to optimize daily activities so as to devote more time to meaningful aspects of life. He pursues and invest in his passion through his roles as an SBACC-certified Practising Management Consultant (PMC) and a startup investor/founder/mentor.

Marianne oversees Adobe’s transactions and advises on all issues that may impact Adobe’s regional business, including data protection laws, cross-border data flows, licensing agreements, industry regulations, public policy, license compliance, and intellectual property.

Prior to joining Adobe, Marianne served as a sales attorney in AIA, NCS (Singtel) and Diebold Nixdorf, and has over 14 years of experience in providing advice on technology licensing matters, across various sectors (public sector, financial institutions, telecommunications).

Work aside, she unwinds by going swimming and dedicates most of her free time to her favorite art form – dance.