Staying ahead of the curve: How Tan Rajah and Cheah strives to innovate for perfection

Tan Rajah & Cheah ("TRC") is a proud home-grown Singapore firm founded on the bedrock of a gentleman's handshake between three close friends: Mr. CC Tan, Dr. AP Rajah and Mr. Cheah Heng Sin. 

Established in 1947, TRC has produced luminaries who have served as Speaker of Parliament, Ambassadors, Law Society Presidents and judges over the last 77 years.

As a medium-sized law practice, TRC is dextrous enough to dedicate the necessary resources for its clients and provide its services with personalised attention. Plus, lawyers at TRC are known for their strong foundation in the law, wealth of experience, commercial savvy, and technical expertise.

Beyond this, the firm has built a renowned and sought-after dispute resolution practice — led by Senior Partner Mr. Chelva Rajah and Managing Partner Mr. Imran H Khwaja. The firm's lawyers have advocated before the Singapore Courts at every level and before international arbitral tribunals.

And the results say it all.

TRC's recent accolades include being named as the "Recommended Firm" for Family and Matrimonial, Commercial and Transactions, Insolvency, and White-Collar Crime by Benchmark Litigation: Asia Pacific, "Leading Firm" by The Legal 500: Asia Pacific, and "Recommended Firm" for White Collar Crime by Doyles Guide.

“The listing by Doyles Guide stands out for me because it’s compiled first on the back of initial peer reviews, so I think recognition from peers in the industry is very heartening,” shares Megan Chia, a Partner at the firm.

“For me, it would be the Legal 500 Asia Pacific. As a firm that primarily focuses on dispute resolution, I think this ranking speaks of our firm’s strength in dispute resolution,” shares Donny Tan, an Associate, as he explains about his favourite accolades of the firm in recent memory.

An example of a hearing happening in an e-Court room at TRC. Image by TRC

E-discovery, e-Court rooms, and document management systems: A glimpse of innovation at TRC

"TRC has constantly worked on the premise that we cannot just keep pace with technology; we must stay ahead of the curve," Megan and Donny share.

One of TRC's first forays into legal technology was advising on and deploying e-discovery into its dispute matters as early as 2010, introduced by Supreme Court Practice Direction No. 3 of 2009. It has also shifted from on-premise servers to incorporating cloud-based solutions.

"One significant change following the COVID-19 pandemic was the transition to asynchronous and virtual hearings. These have not only endured the pandemic, but these have also now become the norm," says Megan and Donny.

TRC's Document Management System provides substantial savings to clients by transforming their practice to a far less paper-intensive one, reducing a large part of its disbursements and promoting a greener practice.

When it comes to the rapid advancement in Artificial Intelligence, TRC expects to have sufficient knowledge to evaluate the best tool for its clients. Lawyers are kept abreast through active participation in dialogues conducted by the Singapore Judiciary's Office of Transformation and Innovation, as well as conferences like TechLaw.Fest organised by the Singapore Academy of Law.

Above all, what sets TRC apart from others is its dedication to exploring new solutions to complement its contentious and non-contentious work.

TRC has adopted the Lexis Advance platform since it was introduced in Singapore. Image by TRC.

‘LexisNexis’s solutions have been integral to our legal research’

TRC has been an avid user of the solutions deployed by LexisNexis, according to Megan and Donny. Having adopted the Lexis Advance platform since it was introduced in Singapore, the firm has recently added Lexis+® Singapore to its stable of research tools — providing lawyers at TRC with a unique blend of cross-jurisdictional case law and publications on substantive and procedural issues.

"The comprehensiveness of the resources available, coupled with the user-friendly interface, enables LexisNexis's solutions to truly function as a one-stop solution for legal research," Megan and Donny commented.

One feature that stood out to the duo was Search Tree on Lexis+® Singapore. Given the complexity of legal claims that can often involve multiple legal issues, the Search Tree feature enables the user to quickly identify the resources most relevant to the case at hand.

"It allows us to refine the parameters and help us to narrow in and also zoom into the exact terms that we are looking at, which ultimately reduces our research time," Donny explains.

As for Megan, her favourite features about Lexis+® Singapore would be the Annotated Laws of Singapore.

"It's not something new and one of the previous iterations, but it's continuing to grow. Instead of doing research in several phases [and] looking at particular statutes by searching through words that match the statute, we do it the other way around where everything is compiled around the statutory provisions, which I find really convenient," she shares.

TRC has always been a firm that takes a very hands-on approach in driving its continuing professional development, Donny shares. Image by TRC

The challenges of embracing change within legal practice

"As far as legal technology is concerned, the basic requirement is just to keep pace [with technology] and ensure our clients are never disadvantaged," Megan explains.

"But I think what has changed as of late is that there are many, many products that we can consider on the markets, and we are always going to look out to see how legal tech can enhance or magnify what we do."

Likewise, Donny — who is relatively new to the firm — shares a similar sentiment. The dispute resolution lawyer describes his approach of employing legal technology to "complement" and "amplify" his experience.

"TRC has consistently been a firm that actively drives its lawyers’ continuing professional development," he shares, recalling how his Managing Partner circulated an email encouraging those practising family law to attend a particular family law conference.

That said, the biggest barrier to entry TRC faced when it came to picking the ideal piece of legal technology to adopt was how the firm could best integrate it without driving up costs for its clients.

With client confidentiality remaining a cornerstone of any legal practice, TRC also has an unwavering commitment to assess and mitigate any risks associated with the use of new technology, ensuring that clients' data is always protected to the highest standards.

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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 request for a free demo.