Singapore Debuts GPT-Legal Q&A on LawNet, Natural-Language Research Starts with Contract Law

AI-Driven Legal Research Launches on LawNet in Singapore

A new AI-driven search tool is now live on LawNet, giving Singapore practitioners a faster way to get to relevant authorities. Built with the Singapore Academy of Law, it lets you ask questions in plain language and receive context-aware answers drawn from trusted sources. This could lift a major research burden for the more than three-quarters of local lawyers who use LawNet.

The model is trained on Singapore's legal corpus: judgments, the Singapore Law Reports, statutes, and academic texts. The GPT-Legal Q&A tool was introduced at TechLaw.Fest on September 11 at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre and officiated by Justice Kwek Mean Luck. An earlier GPT-Legal release in 2024 generated summaries for over 15,000 unreported judgments, streamlining first-pass review.

How it helps your practice

• Ask in natural language; get grounded responses referencing LawNet sources.
• Use it to complement keyword search and accelerate issue-spotting.
• Initial scope: contract law, with a staged rollout to family and criminal law.
• Outcome: less time on initial research, more time on analysis and client strategy.

What the Judiciary highlighted

Justice Kwek said, "This is a transformative feature. The new capability allows attorneys to engage in natural language queries about legal research, garnering AI-generated responses that are grounded in LawNet's extensive repository." He added, "This system is designed to augment traditional keyword searches by fostering a more intuitive and responsive research experience."

He noted that the rollout will be phased, starting with contract law, given the scope of development and testing needed to meet practice requirements.

Agentic AI for corporate secretaries

The Infocomm Media Development Authority has also built an agentic AI demonstrator for the Singapore Academy of Law to support corporate secretaries with AGM planning. The system can coordinate schedules across directors to surface viable time slots and manage routine secretarial workflows. This reduces admin cycles so professionals can focus on higher-value advisory work.

Practical considerations

• Use the Q&A tool to frame issues quickly, then verify with cited sources on LawNet.
• Set internal guidance on prompts, confidentiality, and final review before advice goes out.
• Track usage and outcomes to refine your research SOPs.

Learn more

Explore the Singapore Academy of Law and IMDA for related initiatives. If you're upskilling your team on AI for legal workflows, see curated options at Complete AI Training.