Alt + Counsel
Practical legal tech from Singapore. For practitioners who build.

Latest

04
Mar
What 7,308 Agent Runs Taught Me About Writing Better Skills

What 7,308 Agent Runs Taught Me About Writing Better Skills

SkillsBench tested 84 tasks across 7,308 agent runs and found curated skills boost performance by 16pp — but 19% of tasks got worse. It is a great backdrop to the things I have learnt too.
8 min read
24
Feb
Two Files, One Workflow. No Code. Just Cowork.

Two Files, One Workflow. No Code. Just Cowork.

I thought Cowork was a poor man's Claude Code. Building CoDraft changed that. Two text files in a folder — and when you open it in Cowork, you get a complete workflow. Here's how to build your own.
10 min read
16
Feb
Budget 2026 Tells Lawyers to Use AI. But Are We in the Driver's Seat?

Budget 2026 Tells Lawyers to Use AI. But Are We in the Driver's Seat?

PM Wong named legal as one of the first professions needing AI transition support in Budget 2026. The government is putting real money behind this - 400% tax deductions, free premium tools, Champions of AI programme. But is this adoption infrastructure, or does it keep lawyers in the passenger seat?
7 min read
09
Feb
So you want to Claude Cowork the Legal Plugin?: A Guide

So you want to Claude Cowork the Legal Plugin?: A Guide

Legal Tech panicked when Anthropic released their legal plugin, but missed the real story: it's open source and customizable. This hands-on guide shows you how to create jurisdiction-specific templates—like a Singapore PDPA DSAR response—and encode your own decision-making logic.
10 min read
05
Feb
My Voice Worked

My Voice Worked

This is a subscriber's only newsletter. There's a lot of ground to cover (Claude's
3 min read
22
Jan
Legal AI's Real Value: Autonomy, Not Automation

Legal AI's Real Value: Autonomy, Not Automation

Before AI, fear forced me to compromise. When a client's case didn't fit the template, I knew the optimal approach—but pursuing it meant hours of risk. AI didn't just save time. It gave me the autonomy to make the right decision, not just the safe one.
6 min read
15
Jan
I Build Infrastructure. Jamie Vibe Codes Tools. Here's What I'm Missing.

I Build Infrastructure. Jamie Vibe Codes Tools. Here's What I'm Missing.

Jamie Tso built 4 legal AI tools in 2-3 months using vibe coding. My redlines library took 3 years. The 30-90x velocity gap comes down to one question: am I building a tool or infrastructure? Most lawyers ask infrastructure questions for tool problems.
8 min read
08
Jan
My 2026 Legal AI Predictions (From the Trenches, Not the Boardroom)

My 2026 Legal AI Predictions (From the Trenches, Not the Boardroom)

Stanford predicts AI's measurement era, Forbes predicts transformation, Above the Law warns about hallucinations. Nobody's predicting what will actually happen for resource-constrained practitioners. Here are five testable predictions with public accountability.
8 min read
31
Dec
October 3 Changed Everything: How One $800 Fine Flipped Singapore's AI Coverage from Adoption to Accountability

October 3 Changed Everything: How One $800 Fine Flipped Singapore's AI Coverage from Adoption to Accountability

On October 3, 2025, a Singapore lawyer paid $800 after an AI hallucination reached court. That single sanction flipped legal coverage from 89% adoption focus to 82% accountability warnings in eight weeks.
12 min read
26
Dec
When Building Gets Cheap But Knowing Stays Expensive

When Building Gets Cheap But Knowing Stays Expensive

In 2024, I spent hours crafting a 3-page prompt to generate an M&A term sheet for a legal tech competition. The result was a 4-page HTML document with timeline diagrams, color-coded risk tables (red/yellow/green), and professional typography that no standard Word template could match.
6 min read