CHINA: Rein in the Robots
BY Hu Yangxiaoxiao 胡阳潇潇 |When it comes to generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI), China is leading the world in both regulation formulation and judicial practice.
PRIVATE EQUITY: PE’s Bright Spot
BY Sarah Wong |With China sputtering out of global investors’ sights, buyout firms sitting atop a record amount of unused capital increasingly turned to Southeast Asia.
SPACE LAW: Final Frontier
BY Nimitt Dixit |Government-led efforts to improve regulatory and financial barriers in India's space sector are rapidly creating an important new market for the country's law firms, which are looking at increased work for their M&A, private capital investment, project finance, intellectual property and technology lawyers.
RANKINGS: ALB Employer of Choice 2024
BY Sarah Wong |Around a year ago, law firms were already grappling with the challenge of keeping their members, particularly the younger generation, engaged, motivated, and committed. However, the advent of a groundbreaking new technology, in the form of generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI), has added another significant variable, presenting both risks and opportunities.
AI: Different strokes
BY Sarah Wong, Hu Yangxiaoxiao 胡阳潇潇, Nimitt Dixit |As the transformative era of Gen AI continues to redefine creativity, it is also igniting debates on copyright laws and ethical boundaries. And as legal battles over intellectual property intensify, courts in different jurisdictions are taking unique approaches to the larger questions surrounding ownership of art and content created by this new technology.
INDONESIA: Arrested Development
BY Nimitt Dixit |When Indonesia established a carbon trading mechanism last year, the move was welcomed across the board. However, a lack of strong implementing regulations, regulatory uncertainty, and insufficient business incentives have combined to ensure slow-going for the country's carbon trading market.
BRIEFS: China’s Ageing Population Set To Increase Opportunities for Legal Work
BY Sarah Wong |China is grappling with an escalating demographic crisis. In 2023, the senior population has ballooned by 30 million in the world’s second-largest economy, taking the total size of the elderly class to 300 million – almost a fifth of the country’s population.
EXPLAINER: TikTok Set To Restart E-Commerce in Indonesia, but Doubts Persist
BY Sarah Wong |TikTok has been engulfed in regulatory whirlwinds across the world, which have put a dent in its global ambitions. In the United States, the popular social media app owned by ByteDance faces a ban in the United States unless its Beijing-based parent company divests its U.S. operations, and in Indonesia, TikTok had to temporarily quit its e-commerce business as its shopping arm ran into a slew of obstacles.
Q&A: ‘We have long seen the importance of having on-the-ground legal experts’
BY Sarah Wong |Over the past few months, Singapore’s Allen & Gledhill has declared its intention to keep expanding regionally through the opening of a rep office in Shanghai and the launch of a new alliance in Indonesia.
BRIEFS: Regulatory Hurdles Drive Korean Firms To Hire More Judges, In-House Lawyers
BY Sarah Wong |Government lawyers and in-house counsel are stereotypically known for having an easier life than private practice lawyers, with greater perks and better work-life balance. But lately, the South Korean legal market has witnessed a rise in “moving private,” a trend that has seen judges, government lawyers and corporate counsel left for private practice.
FORUM: Small and AI-Ready
BY Sarah Wong |Generative AI is ushering in a new era of productivity, and Big Law firms have taken the lead in adopting this groundbreaking technology within the legal industry. However, small and medium-sized law firms are also making efforts to leverage the benefits of Generative AI while closely monitoring potential risks. These firms share with ALB the steps they are taking to efficiently embrace AI and harness its capabilities.
MIDDLE EAST: One Country, One Law
BY Nimitt Dixit |The codification of contract and civil principles under the Civil Transaction Law is a historic first for Saudi Arabia. Lawyers in the country believe the law will create a sophisticated and internationalised legal market, as more global capital pours in.