A major development for Singapore’s legal industry, the Ministry of Law (MinLaw) has launched a public consultation on a groundbreaking draft “Guide for Using Generative AI in the Legal Sector.” The consultation period runs from 1 to 30 September 2025, giving legal professionals, technology experts, and the wider public an opportunity to weigh in on how artificial intelligence should be responsibly and ethically integrated into legal practice.
This initiative comes as generative AI technologies, capable of autonomously generating text, summarising cases, drafting contracts, and even analysing complex legal documents—are rapidly transforming traditional workflows in law firms and corporate legal departments. While these technologies promise enhanced efficiency and productivity, they also raise important questions around accuracy, data privacy, professional accountability, and client trust.
The draft Guide aims to strike a balance between embracing innovation and upholding the highest ethical and professional standards in legal service delivery, positioning Singapore at the forefront of AI governance in the legal sector.
WHY THE GUIDE MATTERS?
As generative AI technologies, such as Large Language Models (LLMs), increasingly permeate professional sectors, their application in the legal industry brings both promise and challenges. Unlike traditional AI tools that primarily assist with document review or legal research, GenAI tools can autonomously generate new legal content, draft contracts, summarise complex cases, and even assist in predictive analytics. This marks a paradigm shift, enabling legal professionals to focus more on strategic and advisory roles.
However, GenAI’s non-deterministic nature raises critical concerns regarding accuracy, confidentiality, bias, and the risk of hallucination where the AI produces plausible yet fabricated content.
SCOPE AND PURPOSE OF THE DRAFT GUIDE
The draft Guide is explicitly non-binding and serves as a comprehensive reference for legal professionals in Singapore, including lawyers, in-house counsel, paralegals, and legal secretaries. It builds on the Infocomm Media Development Authority’s Model AI Governance Framework for GenAI and complements the Singapore Courts’ existing guidelines on AI use by court users.
The Guide emphasizes three core principles:
- Professional Ethics
- Confidentiality
- Transparency
Together, these principles form the foundation for the responsible use of GenAI in legal work.
Key Principles in Action
- Upholding Professional Ethics
The Guide underscores that legal professionals must never delegate their professional accountability to GenAI. While GenAI tools can generate draft documents or conduct preliminary research, the onus remains on the legal practitioner to verify all outputs. Legal professionals are advised to maintain a “lawyer-in-the-loop” approach, especially when using GenAI tools in unfamiliar subject areas where hallucination risks are higher.
Examples of responsible adoption include Clifford Chance’s firmwide implementation of Microsoft Copilot tools, and WongPartnership’s use of GenAI to assist in initial legal research, enhancing productivity while ensuring quality control.
- Ensuring Confidentiality
A standout concern is the potential exposure of client data. The Guide recommends stringent data classification protocols, the selection of enterprise-grade GenAI tools over free consumer applications, and contractual safeguards with tool providers to prevent input data from being used for model training.
Notably, Rajah & Tann Singapore LLP and WongPartnership have led by example, incorporating explicit contractual clauses requiring data encryption, deletion, and non-use of data for AI training. These firms also adopt data minimisation practices and require anonymisation of sensitive data prior to AI processing.
- Promoting Transparency
Transparency is positioned as pivotal for trust between lawyers and clients. The draft Guide encourages legal professionals to disclose GenAI usage in engagement letters, law firm websites, and direct client communications. Providing clients with clear explanations about the AI tools in use, their potential impact on service delivery, and offering opt-out options are best practices highlighted.
Firms such as KEL LLC proactively include GenAI clauses in client contracts, while R&T Singapore goes a step further by publishing their AI strategy publicly and establishing dedicated channels for client inquiries.
STEP-BY-STEP IMPLEMENTATION FRAMEWORK
The Guide offers a five-step implementation framework that firms can adopt:
- Develop an AI adoption framework – Establishing clear internal and external policies that guide GenAI tool usage and client communication.
- Diagnose and analyse needs – Mapping existing workflows to identify where GenAI can meaningfully enhance legal work, such as contract review or e-discovery.
- Identify and evaluate tools – Conducting due diligence on vendor reliability, data security, and performance accuracy, while ensuring alignment with firm-specific needs.
- Implementation and training – Running pilot programs, collecting user feedback, and refining prompt engineering techniques to optimise results.
- Continuous review and improvement – Regular assessment of technology performance, policy updates, and monitoring of emerging developments.
Illustrative case studies in the Annex provide insights into how firms like Dentons Rodyk and Allen & Gledhill LLP implement these steps, ensuring strategic, ethical, and secure integration of GenAI into their practices.
PUBLIC CONSULTATION: A COLLABORATIVE APPROACH
By inviting public feedback until the end of September, the Ministry of Law encourages active participation from legal professionals, technology developers, and the public at large. This inclusive approach reflects the Ministry’s understanding that responsible AI governance is not only about technological safeguards but also about aligning with sector-specific ethical and operational norms.
MinLaw hopes that the draft Guide will foster a culture of innovation while ensuring that Singapore’s legal sector remains globally competitive, trustworthy, and ethically sound.
CONCLUSION
As generative AI continues to advance, it is reshaping the very fabric of the legal profession. From automating document review to drafting legal memos, these technologies promise to increase efficiency, reduce costs, and enable lawyers to focus more on strategic advisory work. However, the rapid pace of AI adoption also brings complex challenges—ethical dilemmas, data privacy risks, the danger of biased or fabricated outputs, and questions of professional accountability.
Singapore’s Ministry of Law recognizes that the responsible integration of GenAI requires more than technical safeguards; it demands thoughtful governance, guided by the values of competence, transparency, and confidentiality. The public consultation on the draft Guide is an important opportunity for all stakeholders including legal practitioners, technology developers, academics, and concerned citizens to contribute to shaping these foundational policies.
By submitting feedback, participants can voice their perspectives on practical safeguards, propose new approaches to ethical challenges, or highlight emerging risks that the draft Guide may not yet address. Contributions can be submitted through the Ministry’s official consultation portal, available here, until 30 September 2025.
This collaborative approach ensures that Singapore’s regulatory framework remains adaptive, inclusive, and aligned with the evolving technological landscape. The decisions made today will not only determine how GenAI is used in legal practice but will also set a global benchmark for responsible AI governance in professional services.
Find the Draft here.