Bill Passed to Allow Conditional Fee Agreements, Expand Foreign Lawyers’ Representation

In a drive to strengthen Singapore’s position as an international dispute resolution hub, the Ministry of Law (“MinLaw“) has been continuously updating Singapore’s legal regime. This has borne fruit, with Singapore being selected in 2021 as the most preferred seat of arbitration in the world for the first time, while its exports of legal services exceeded S$0.9 billion in 2020.

As part of Singapore’s continuing efforts to stay competitive and current, the Legal Profession (Amendment) Bill (“Bill“) was passed by Parliament on 12 January 2022. The Bill principally sets out two key amendments to the Legal Profession Act:

1. Introduction of a framework for conditional fee agreements (“CFAs“), commonly known as “no win no fee” or “no win less fee” agreements; and
2. Refining the scope of representation of foreign lawyers in the Singapore International Commercial Court (“SICC“), thus facilitating collaboration between local and foreign lawyers.

In this Update, we elaborate on these two developments.