The Future of the Legal Profession:
Reunite and Embrace the Change
President of AIJA 2021/2022
Welcome AIJA friends and other representaTIVES of the legal profession!
I am honoured to invite you to the 60th AIJA’s Annual Congress which will be held in Singapore.
Our collective experience in recent pandemics of COVID-19 and its severe consequences has brought some unforeseen challenges and changes to our lives but also to our legal profession. Lockdowns and safety measures have forced lawyers into an overnight digitisation and transformation of the legal framework in many different aspects. We are now living in a new normal, with a different perspective, enriching and emerging new trends. There is an evolution, and we see the future reshaping our profession, management, sustainability, technology, and resilience. Again, AIJA is leading today’s lawyers to tomorrow’s leaders in a positive change, improvement, and transformation.
There is no better place to discuss the Future of the Legal Profession than the most future oriented city in the World: Singapore. The amazing Organising Committee, Academic Coordinators, AIJA Team and I will be waiting for you with wonderful offers that you and your law firm can benefit from.
Join us and reunite and embrace the changes in our profession!
See you in Singapore!
Anna Wyrzykowska
President of AIJA 2021/2022
Organising Committee
Innovative, accessible, multicultural, global, present, and future for the practice of law – all at once. This is Singapore. This is AIJA.
It is a great pleasure to invite you to Singapore for the 60th International Young Lawyers’ Congress.
Well reputed as a hub for Litigation and International, Arbitration, Banking & Finance, International Trade and Shipping, Singapore hosts the largest and most influential law firms in South East Asia. The city is also a well-chosen location for regional headquarters of several international law firms, multiple multinational companies, and their in-house legal teams. It is currently home to offices of nearly half of the top 100 law firms in the world.
Beyond the practice of law, Singapore’s appeal as a destination is unparalleled – with breath-taking venues for academic sessions and social events that mix grandiose views, technological marvels, and green spaces like nowhere else in the world, dining, entertainment, and heritage offerings. Visiting Singapore is visiting the future in real time and feeling how unique the experience is.
The 60th International Young Lawyers’ Congress will bring together AIJA delegates and friends from all over the world for the largest international event dedicated to international young lawyers, providing business and networking opportunities, while visiting one of the most fascinating cities in the world.
In organising this Congress, we would like to give back to AIJA for what AIJA has given to us over the years: the opportunity to develop an international professional network on the one hand, and the opportunity to make friends for life on the other.
We will make sure you enjoy and benefit from a genuine local experience during your stay in Singapore, starting with the Opening Ceremony on Tuesday at one of the Island’s iconic landmarks, the Home Hospitality dinner to taste authentic Singaporean food with local friends, a tropical Day Out and a blossoming Gala Dinner on Friday night.
We are looking forward to seeing you in Singapore in August 2022 for what will certainly be an unforgettable event and a great anniversary in the heart of South East Asia.
Academic Coordinators
The effect of COVID-19 on everyday life, the economy and our legal industry is unprecedented. As the world around us has changed irrevocably, lawyers cannot ignore our clients’ ever-shifting needs.
The challenges we face today create great opportunities to make a difference and get ahead of the pack in a transforming business. More than ever, we must strategically align technology, systems and processes in the interests of our stakeholders.
The mission of AIJA’s 60th Annual Congress will therefore be no less than to make all young lawyers ready to emerge as tomorrow’s leaders.
Office life — for both lawyers and their clients — has changed almost overnight. Businesses continue to struggle to strike an ideal balance between worker autonomy and collaboration in our post-pandemic reality, while striving to retain talent and foster diversity. Schooling, training or simply managing new talents, collaborators or a team has now shifted to a hybrid form, adapted to needs of each individuals.
Even before COVID-19, our fast-paced business world forced clients to innovate constantly to meet their customers’ (and shareholders’) needs. The pandemic has accelerated the pace of change, where clients must pivot or perish. So lawyers must help their clients navigate these uncharted paths, while preserving the core values of sustainability, diversity, and ethical progress.
Digitalisation continues to eradicate barriers by providing new tools to increase efficiencies in dealmaking, conflict prevention, and dispute resolution. But these changes also bring new challenges. These include the importance of data management, ’employee privacy rights and cybersecurity.
The Republic of Singapore serves as the perfect venue for exploring this brave new world of possibilities in our profession. The Economist aptly describes Singapore as “the best advertisement for technocracy: the political and expert components of the governing system there seem to have merged completely”.
Thanks to long-term planning that values meritocracy, private enterprise, and economic utility, Singapore has emerged as a future-oriented economic powerhouse with the third highest per capita income in the world.
Indeed, its reputation as Asia’s preeminent arbitration center, banking hub, export-oriented manufacturer, and cultural touchstone invites AIJA members to gather and ponder what the future holds in this post-COVID reality.