Some takeaways from the employment panel session at the SCCA - Singapore Corporate Counsel Association's Asia Pacific Legal Congress 2025 last week, for those of you who couldn't make it:¹

1️⃣ Disgruntled employees are getting more and more sophisticated, and employers underestimate them at their own peril. The traditional asymmetry of power is shifting, and when it comes to negotiating exits, employees often have the leverage to negotiate for more than what they are strictly entitled to under the law.²

2️⃣ The legal department alone cannot use contracts, regulations, and handbooks to solve employee-centric problems. You can have the best and most enlightened policies in the word, but it's ultimately people who implement policies, and to err is human.³ Often, it's a question of culture, and in-house counsel who want to stay relevant within their organisations should seriously consider how they can increase their influence on this front.

3️⃣ Non-compete clauses are increasingly tricky to navigate, and employers who view them as a magic bullet are setting themselves up for a rude awakening.⁴

All in all, it was fun! I caught up with old friends, made new friends, got to share some war stories, and managed to get a couple of laughs.⁵

Many thanks once again to:
- the good folks at the Singapore Academy of Law, including but not limited to Zee Kin Yeong, Balasakher Shunmugam, Y-Lyn Teh, Angeline Poon, Richard Bautista, and those working tirelessly behind the scenes without my knowledge;
- the busy folks at the SCCA - Singapore Corporate Counsel Association, including in particular Stanley Park and Renita Sophia Crasta. Congratulations on pulling off a fantastic event;
- the other folks who were instrumental with the outreach, but who prefer not to be named;
- the folks who chose to turn up for the panel instead of getting a headstart on lunch. I hope you found the discussion useful and sufficiently entertaining; and
- my fellow panelists, Zhao Yang Ng, Jason Chua Dong Wei, and Nicole Evangeline Poh. I couldn't have asked for a more energetic group to do this with.