As part of ALB’s inaugural Asia Top Cybersecurity & Data Law Firm 2026 ranking, Dr Stanley Lai, SC (R) and Eugene Ho of Allen & Gledhill share how the firm’s cybersecurity and data protection practice pairs deep legal expertise with in-house AI tools like A&GEL to keep pace with fast-changing risks and regulations.
Allen & Gledhill has just been recognised as one of ALB Asia’s Top Cybersecurity and Data Protection law firms. From your perspective, what has the practice done differently over the past year that you think earned the firm that recognition?
We are delighted and grateful to be recognised in this esteemed list. To us, this is not the result of a single standout year, but the culmination of years of experience. We advised some of the largest organisations in the world, across a variety of data-related matters, drawing upon the Firms’ expertise across multiple practice groups.
Over the past year, we have continued to sharpen our core strength: providing holistic and customised service to our clients. Beyond keeping pace with legal and regulatory developments, we have focused on building long-term relationships and providing advice that is practical, responsive and commercially grounded. We believe this client-focused approach, together with the breadth of expertise across the Firm, is reflected in this recognition.
Cybersecurity and data protection is one of the fastest-moving areas of law — regulations shift, threat landscapes evolve, and enforcement priorities change almost constantly. How does your team stay ahead of that curve, and how does that translate into the advice you give clients?
We had been deeply involved in the space for years and we are constantly able to draw on the collective experience of various practice groups in the Firm to provide up-to-date and on-the-point advice.
This integrated approach allows us to pay close attention to regulatory guidance, industry best practices and emerging technology developments (e.g. cybersecurity and data protection risks relating to agentic AI) across multiple industries.
We’re seeing clients across industries — from financial services to healthcare to tech — face very different data protection challenges. How has your practice adapted to serve such a diverse client base, and are there sectors where you’re seeing particularly sharp growth in demand?
With a client base spanning a wide range of industries, we understand that our advice cannot take a one-size-fits-all approach. Each sector carries a distinct data profile and risk exposure, and our approach combines deep knowledge of Singapore law with real industry understanding, so that our advice is tailored to each client’s business.
The overall growth in demand is broad-based rather than concentrated in any one sector. Cybersecurity and data protection requirements and risk cuts across virtually every industry we serve, and we work very closely as a Firm to ensure that we are constantly adapting to meet the evolving needs of our clients.
AI is creating enormous data governance challenges — from training data provenance to automated decision-making to cross-border data flows. How is your practice building the expertise to advise clients on AI-related data and cybersecurity risks, and do you see this becoming a dominant part of the practice’s work?
We are fortunate to be trusted by clients at the outset of the current AI GPT growth in 2022, and work with clients who are seeking to deliver cutting-edge technology in a nascent space. Through our work in the space, we are able to develop and build expertise in this area – this requires us to be familiar with not just Singapore laws but also legal and technological developments around the world. We keep a close watch on developments in the space to ensure that our work reflects commercial and legal realities.
Looking two to three years ahead, how do you expect client needs in this space to evolve, and what is Allen & Gledhill doing now to make sure the practice is positioned to meet those needs — whether that’s in terms of talent, technology, or the shape of the advice you deliver?
We expect client needs to become increasingly sophisticated, moving beyond basic compliance to integrating cybersecurity and data protection into core business strategy. As AI adoption accelerates, clients will require deeper guidance on managing risks associated with emerging technologies, such as agentic AI and cross-border data flows, while ensuring robust governance frameworks are in place.
To meet these evolving needs, we are investing in both talent and technology. We are building a team that combines deep legal expertise with technological fluency, enabling us to provide advice that is not only legally sound but also commercially viable. On the technology front, we developed our own custom on-premise GenAI platform, A&GEL, which we are able to configure and govern it effectively. A&GEL is built on a custom large language model engine paired with a high-performance vector search engine, allowing for fast, contextual searches across vast repositories of legal documents. Its key capabilities include:
• Intelligent Contract Review: A&GEL extracts not just key clauses and obligations, but also identifies insights, risks, and gaps, enabling lawyers to perform systematic reviews across dozens of contracts in minutes rather than hours.
• Content Creation and Drafting: The platform supports precedent-based drafting of short to medium-form content, such as fee quotations and contractual clauses, significantly accelerating the creation of high-quality work products.
• Summarisation and Analysis: A&GEL can summarise lengthy legal documents, emails, and other material in moments, helping lawyers get up to speed on new files efficiently.
• Quality Assurance: By running customised checklists, A&GEL serves as a first-level check that improves consistency and mitigates human error, introducing new levels of verification that were previously impractical due to time constraints.
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