Be prepared to adapt to economic, legal changes

SMU's Commencement ceremony was held on its own campus for the first time, at its new School of Law building which opened earlier this year. The University's class of 2017 is its 14th and largest batch of graduates. More than 2,700 students are being conferred their degrees from Tuesday through Friday. Guest of Honour Minister for Law and Minister for Home Affairs Mr K. Shanmugam told 143 Bachelor of Laws graduates and 36 Juris Doctor graduates at the Opening Ceremony this year that law doesn't stand alone. It's an ancillary service. He told them to be aware of the changes in the world, and be prepared to adapt. SMU Chairman Ho Kwon Ping also told the graduates that they are starting careers at a time of "great change in the work landscape" with technological disruptions. "Just as fintech is starting to affect the work of thousands of financial analysts, legal research will be conducted by sophisticated search engines and artificial intelligence algorithms," he said. This leaves "the most creative, adaptive and forward-thinking legal minds with some borrowed time, to create an irreplaceable uniqueness about their own abilities", he said.