Singapore's legal sector has taken steps to stay relevant, said Law Minister K. Shanmugam yesterday, including being a thought leader in ASEAN and building itself as a legal hub. The local universities such as SMU and NUS have centres which conduct research and produce papers on commercial law-related topics around the region. For instance, SMU School of Law has a Centre for Cross-Border Commercial Law in Asia, and an applied research centre for intellectual assets and law in Asia.