Where a change in the business structure of your law practice requires a new UEN (e.g. from limited liability partnership to company), you will need to terminate your existing licence and apply for a new licence.

Both applications (for the termination and for the new law practice) should be concurrently submitted in advance. You can propose a future start date for the new law practice and a future termination date for the existing law practice. The licence of your existing law practice will continue to be valid until the termination date. To ensure continuity in your law practice's operations, please factor in the various processing time required when proposing the prospective start and end dates in the application forms.

Where there is no change in UEN, e.g. when a Singapore law practice ("SLP") changes from a sole proprietorship to partnership or vice versa (i.e. it remains a "law firm" as defined under the Legal Profession Act ("LPA")), it does not need to apply for a new licence. However, it should submit an application via LSRA e-Services to update the particulars of the business structure of the SLP.

Where a SLP partnership is becoming a sole proprietorship, it should take note of requirements under rule 8(1)(c) of the Legal Profession (Law Practice Entities) Rules 2015 in relation to the name of the law firm, and seek any necessary approvals via the update application. SLPs should also take note of the requirements under sections 157 and 159 of the LPA, where applicable.

Where there are registered lawyers in your law practice, their Certificates of Registration with your existing law practice will automatically lapse on the last day of validity of the licence. The new law practice will be required to apply for a new Certificate of Registration for the lawyers. The applications can be made as soon as the licence for the new law practice has been issued.

For questions relating to accountant's report under SLPs, please approach the Law Society of Singapore.