Decoding the Law: Career Navigation Guides Lawyers Out of Professional Fog

This article was first published on 20 July 2026 in the Singapore Mandarin broadsheet, Lianhe Zaobao.

SLW obtained permission to reproduce the article to give the legal community a broader view of legal reports for various news syndicates.

Singapore's legal profession is facing increasingly severe pressure from talent attrition. Lawyers at different career stages are navigating multiple challenges, including the growing complexity of legal matters, changes in working models due to generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), and heightened international competition.

These factors have led to an increase in mental health issues among lawyers and deepened the industry's concerns about talent attrition.

This issue of 说法识法（Decoding the Law） delves into the "Lexplorer" career navigation programme launched by the Singapore Academy of Law (SAL), exploring how it starts from individual career development to help lawyers recalibrate their career directions and build more meaningful, sustainable legal careers. Two lawyers also share how they stepped out of their professional fog and found new directions.

Launched last year, the "Lexplorer" career navigation programme has received an enthusiastic response, with its various sessions consistently well-subscribed. This not only reflects the quality of the programme but also highlights the legal profession's urgent need for career development support.

The Singapore Academy of Law (SAL) told Lianhe Zaobao that this is the first integrated career navigation programme in the local legal sector, designed for both practising and in-house lawyers at every stage of their career. The programme helps lawyers build more meaningful and sustainable careers through self-help career development tools, group coaching workshops, and one-on-one career coaching.

Surveys show that of the more than 90 participants, 90% reported greater self-understanding, 80% gained clarity on their purpose as a legal professional, and the average score for the programme's overall usefulness and engagement was 4.44 out of 5. Some participants exclaimed, "I found my purpose!", while others lamented that this kind of career navigation is very common in other industries like tech, but has long been lacking in the legal sector.

Systemic Structural Issues Exist in the Legal Work System

The Law Society of Singapore earlier published the Legal Profession Sustainability Study, pointing out that lawyer attrition does not stem from a lack of individual resilience, but rather from structural problems within the legal work system.

However, some legal professionals reflected that while systemic reform is important, many causes of attrition are also deeply personal. For instance, lawyers may struggle to align their career development with their own strengths, values, and interests, and they lack structured career planning.

Lexplorer was launched against this exact backdrop. The programme comprises three main parts: self-help career development tools, group coaching workshops, and one-on-one career coaching, with the latter being a distinctive feature of the programme.

The one-on-one career coaching is conducted by senior lawyers from various fields within the legal industry acting as career coaches. They volunteered to step up to provide coaching for their peers. SAL partnered with the Skills and Workforce Development Agency（SWDA）to equip them with professional career coaching training.

SAL points out that career coaches are different from mentors. Mentors primarily draw on their personal experiences to advise; career coaches, however, use professional guidance and questioning to facilitate individuals to find their own answers. This approach is particularly suitable for legal professionals, as their career development is often deeply personal and context-specific.

The active participation of respected senior legal practitioners also reflects the legal industry's shared emphasis on talent development, demonstrating a consensus to drive the sustainable development of the profession.

In addition, lawyers can tap on two digital self-help tools to plan their career development, including the "LX Career Planner" which helps map career trajectories, and the "LIFTED Skills Audit Tool" which helps assess the gaps between current competencies and career goals.

As for the group coaching workshops, themes are designed for different target audiences, including "From Self-Insight to Career Strategy" for all lawyers, "The Decisions You’ll Make in your First 5 Years (That will shape the next 20)" specifically for junior legal professionals, and "The Confident Middle – Redefining Success for Women in Law" for mid-career female lawyers. The workshops have been consistently well-subscribed since their launch, indicating the legal profession's acute demand for this kind of structured career development support.

From "Survival Mode" to a Fresh Start: Two Lawyers Recalibrate Their Directions Through Career Planning

Facing a crossroads in their professional development, two female lawyers did not rush to switch career tracks. Instead, they tapped on the "Lexplorer" career navigation programme and professional coaching to rediscover their strengths, values, and goals, thereby finding development directions better suited for themselves.

Istyana Ibrahim, who has 15 years of experience in the legal industry, and Angie Ng, who has been in practice for four years, are at different stages of their careers, yet both have benefited from the programme. Both shared that Lexplorer helped clarify their career directions, giving them greater confidence to plan for the future.

Istyana recently transitioned to the Ministry of Law, taking on the role of Acting Head of the Maintenance Enforcement Department, where she leads a 23-person team.

She shared that although she genuinely enjoyed solving legal problems for individual clients, there was always an inner pull to pursue work with a broader impact. Lexplorer gave her a clearer understanding of why she ultimately moved towards legal policy and its operationalisation, helping her renew her sense of purpose at work.

One-on-One Professional Guidance Helps Uncover Unconscious Thoughts

In the 1-on-1 coaching programme that Istyana participated in, her coach, Aurill Kam, also has a background spanning both private practice and the public sector. Istyana noted that this shared background allowed them to dive straight into discussions without spending time explaining the legal industry's context. They could candidly discuss the trade-offs between different career choices, allowing her to gain clarity on her future plans much faster.

What struck her most was how the coach built on previous conversations to guide her, rather than starting from scratch each time, and even helped her see thoughts she had not consciously recognised in herself.

"One of the greatest takeaways was that I finally gained clarity on the options I had already decided to rule out." She said that being able to clearly articulate why she was closing certain doors, rather than leaving them vaguely ajar, meant she no longer needed to repeatedly agonise over them, allowing her to plan forward with greater confidence.

Using Digital Tools for Self-Reflection to Clarify Core Values and Directions

Another participant, Angie Ng, who currently works at Ella Cheong LLC, examined her career goals through the digital self-help resources and tools provided by the programme.

She believes that one reason for talent attrition in the legal profession is that many lawyers operate in "survival mode" for long periods—constantly busy reacting to deadlines and client demands, lacking the time to stop and reflect on whether their career development still aligns with their values and goals.

She said the most valuable aspect of Lexplorer was that it provided a space for reflection, allowing her to re-examine her career direction before burnout or dissatisfaction turned into an impulsive decision to leave.

Using the LX Career Planner and other self-help resources, she systematically reviewed her strengths, values, work preferences, and career goals. She also gained a clearer understanding that what truly energises her is intellectually challenging work that offers greater autonomy and involves meaningful problem-solving.

She also discovered that she is better suited to smaller, more highly specialised boutique law firms. In such settings, she can take on more responsibility and engage more deeply with clients and legal issues, without having to navigate the multiple layers and administrative procedures typical of larger organisations.

Lexplorer also changed her perspective on legal career development. In the past, she always thought that private practice, in-house work, and academia were separate and independent career paths. Now, she has started thinking about how to combine legal practice with legal writing, publishing, or teaching, exploring a more flexible development model.

Angie said the programme did not push her to leave the legal profession, nor did it prompt her to make a drastic career pivot. Instead, it helped her more clearly distinguish between the work that genuinely engages her and the aspects that merely bring unnecessary drain, ultimately helping her find a sustainable way to continue growing within the legal field.

Source: Lianhe Zaobao © SPH Media Limited. Permission required for reproduction.

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