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The Singapore Management University School of Law (SMU School of Law) is one of the six schools of Singapore Management University, and Singapore’s second law school. The school is headed by Professor Yeo Tiong Min, Singapore’s first Honorary Senior Counsel. The Advisory Board is chaired by Lucien Wong, Chairman and Senior Partner of Allen & Gledhill LLP. The School offers a 4-year undergraduate single Law degree programme, and a 5-year double degree programme combining the Law degree programme with SMU’s existing non-law programmes of Accountancy, Business, Economics, Information Systems, and Social Sciences. Further, the School has recently launched a full-time 2 to 3 year graduate programme called the Juris Doctor (J.D.) Programme. The school also offers an LL.M., with specialisations in Commercial Law, Dispute Resolution, and Islamic Law & Finance. The School started to admit students in Academic Year (AY) 2007.

The SMU School of Law took in 90 students in AY2007, reaching a steady-state intake of 120 from AY2008 onwards. It is likely that the School would revise its annual intake of undergraduates upwards to 180 undergraduates annually in the next three to five years, starting from AY2013.

Admission to the law programme is competitive. About 700 applicants out of 1,000 applicants who apply each year are shortlisted for an interview and a written test, with only about 120 admitted each year. In 2012, 115 places were taken up in the School of Law.

History
The Law School was preceded by the Law Department, which was created in 2000, and headed by Professor Andrew Phang. A full-fledged law school was established in 2007 following the encouragement of the Singapore Government, which had, during a major review, discovered a shortage of qualified legal personnel in Singapore. The school's first dean was Professor Michael Furmston, a foremost authority on contracts and commercial law in the Commonwealth. He headed the school from its inception in 2007 to 2012.

Milestones
2007 2008
 * 5 January: SMU Law School is officially launched
 * 1 August: Professor Michael Furmston is appointed as the school’s first Dean
 * 13 August: SMU welcomes pioneer batch of 116 law students
 * 30–31 January: SMU’s first Inaugural Law Play
 * 18 March: SMU launches SMU Doctor of Jurisprudence (JD) programme
 * 30 April: SMU’s Law School sets up Centre for Dispute Resolution
 * 26 October: SMU Law School signs a Memorandum of Understanding with the New York State Bar Association to partner for U.S. Internships, Exchange Programmes and Knowledge Sharing
 * First agreement between a U.S. Bar Association and a Singapore Law School

2009
 * 19 May: SMU launches LLM (Master of Laws) programme
 * 16 June: 1st batch of law students clinch practice training contracts three months before graduation
 * 30 July: 1st Juris Doctor cohort graduates
 * 13 November: 1st batch of law (LLB) students graduates

2011
 * 19 May: SMU launches LLM (Master of Laws) programme
 * 16 June: 1st batch of law students clinch practice training contracts three months before graduation
 * 30 July: 1st Juris Doctor cohort graduates
 * 13 November: 1st batch of law (LLB) students graduates

2012
 * 21 February: Professor Yeo Tiong Min (1st Honorary Senior Counsel) takes over as Dean of SMU School of Law
 * 28 September: 2nd Inaugural Law Play
 * 17 December: SMU wins 6 of the 8 local competitions opened to both law schools in a year

2013
 * 7 March: Singapore Management University (SMU) has become the first Asian university to join the ranks of top European Universities as part of the THEMIS network.
 * 11 April: SMU wins 2nd position in the international rounds of the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition.

The Dean
Professor Michael Furmston was the founding dean of the School of Law in August 2007. The former Oxford Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Bristol is best known for his book, Cheshire, Fifoot & Furmston on Contract which remains one of the leading treatises on contract law more than 50 years after its first publication. Professor David N. Smith was initially appointed as the founding dean, but was unable to do so due to “unanticipated personal reasons”. As of June 2013, Professor Michael Furmston has stepped down as the Dean with Professor Yeo Tiong Min taking over the Deanship as of present.

The Advisory Board
The Advisory Board features a wide range of professionals to the School of Law in order to provide all-encompassing and comprehensive advisory assistance to the school. This includes Supreme Court judges, senior litigators, corporate lawyers, managing partners of law firms and partners of foreign law firms. The Advisory Board is currently chaired by Mr Lucien Wong.

Entry requirements
Given that SMU Law is one of SMU’s most competitive school, applicants should have good passes in their respective GCE A-Level subjects. Specifically, the minimum requirement for a law applicant is an A or a B for H1 General Paper or Knowledge Inquiry. SMU releases Indicative Grade Profiles periodically for potential candidates. In the 2012 University Admissions Exercise, both the 10th and 90th percentile had an Indicative Grade Profile (of 3H2/1H1 content-based subjects) of AAA/A.

Potential candidates would be called down for a group interview, with a short written test thereafter.

Curriculum
The Bachelor of Laws (LL.B) programme is a 4-year programme. Students are required to complete a total of 36 course units and an internship programme. These include 5 compulsory course units from the University Core, 19 compulsory course units from the Law Core, a selected 7 course units from Law Electives and 5 other course units from Law-related Courses like Financial Accounting and Finance For Law.

Graduation requirements
Aside from fulfilling the required curriculum, all SMU students are required to complete compulsory courses from the Finishing Touch programme; a series of required Career Preparation & Enrichment workshops to prepare students for internships, job applications and necessary skills for future career success. Further, students must complete a 10-week Internship Attachment and 80 hours of Community Service in order to graduate.

J.D. Programme
Introduced in 2009, the SMU Doctor of Jurisprudence programme was kickstarted as an additional route for persons who already have a degree in another discipline or a law degree from another jurisprudence to become qualified persons of the Singapore legal profession.

Entry Requirements
Applicants have to complete at least three years of full-time undergraduate education. For non-law graduates or a law graduate from a civil country or a non-gazetted common law university, applicants must have at least a Cum Laude or Second Class Upper Honours degree qualifications. Further, Applicants must show proficiency in the English language. A TOEFL/IELTS/SAT 1 test is required if the applicant’s undergraduate degree was not conducted in English.

Curriculum and Graduation Requirements
SMU's J.D. curriculum comprises of a mix of compulsory law courses and law electives. Similar to the all SMU undergraduates, 6 weeks of law internship and 50 hours of community service are required for graduation. Students are required to complete a total of 25 Credit Units of law courses, following the same academic calendar as the generic Bachelor of Laws programme. Although students are expected to complete the programme within 3 years, the programme may be accelerated for completion in 2 to 2.5 years (subject to approval).

Master of Laws (LLM)
The SMU Master of Laws provide opportunities for persons aspiring to be legal specialists in the field of Commercial Law, Dispute Resolution and Islamic Law & Finance. Applicants must have a good LLB or JD degree and at least 2 years' of professional legal working experience. Those without a basic law degree but who have substantial knowledge of and exposure to law may be considered for admission on a case-by-case basis. Proficiency in the English language must be shown.

It is a one-year programme. where participants read a total of 8 courses. This includes 2 prescribed courses, 4 specialisation courses and 2 free electives. However, completion of this programme does not entail qualification to take the Singapore Bar.

Asian Peace-Building and Rule of Law
The Asian Peace-building and Rule of Law Programme (APRL) serves as a focal point for coordinating cutting-edge socio-legal research on the ‘rule of law’ at SMU School of Law. To this end, APRL conducts seminars, carries out and supervises innovative scholarly research, and leads direct impact transitional justice initiatives in post-conflict Asian countries. APRL has had the privilege of working with leading law schools, including Yale Law School and Berkeley Law School.

The SMU Pedagogy
SMU School of Law adopts a seminar-style teaching approach, similar to that in US law schools. This requires students to put in a substantial amount of pre-class preparatory reading and thinking, and to participate actively during class. The high level of engagement and interactive classroom pedagogy is aimed at enriching and deepening students’ learning, thinking and mastery of a subject, thereby producing confident and articulate graduates.

In line with this focus on student participation, a holistic approach will be adopted for course assessment. Significant emphasis will be given to class participation and presentations, with the weightage of written examinations kept to a maximum of 50%.

The Bar: SMU Law Society
The SMU Law Society, known as “The Bar”, is the student representative body of the SMU School of Law.

The Management Committee



Pro Bono Club
Established in 2008, SMU Pro Bono Club's mission is to provide opportunities for SMU law students to assist lawyers and in helping indigents. Regular initiatives include legal clinics with the Law Society of Singapore and Singapore Council of Women’s Organizations (SCWO), vacation attachments with the Pro Bono Services Office, and the University Court Friends (UCF) scheme with the Subordinate Courts.

Moot Court Club
Established in 2007, SMU Moot Court Club was formed to facilitate the development of mooting in SMU School of Law. During the course of the semester, the club helps to organise various domestic moot competitions that are open to all law students.

International Relations Club
The SMU Law International Relations Club strives to forge and strengthen ties between SMU law students and the international law student community. Club activities include scintillating legal discourse, moots and even Mock UN conferences, allowing both conservative progressive opinions to develop at an international level as we weave legal theories in a forum of ideas to create a tapestry of intellectual thought.

SMU Law Athletes Club (SMULA)
SMU Law Athletes (SMULA) was officially made a sub-club of the Bar in 2012. Some of the highlights for SMULA this year include: the Captain’s Ball League; exploratory runs around the city; conducting multiple sports clinics; and tasting gold in the inter-faculty category of SMUX AdRace 2012, a gruelling 40km overnight adventure race.

Criminal Law Club
The Club was founded in early 2012 by a group of students passionate about giving SMU students opportunities to learn more about the criminal law practice. As many students do not have much exposure to this area of law apart from class, few have a proper idea of what criminal law in practice is like.

Night Bike
Law Night Bike is an annual event where law students ride on their bikes and cruise down the nighttime roads of Singapore. This event is popular amongst all law batches and has facilitated both intra and inter-batch bonding.

Law Musical
SMU School of Law's Law Musicals are written, composed and directed by students and alumni of SMU School of Law.

The Little Mermaid 2010
SMU School of Law’s modern musical interpretation is an entertaining and heart-warming adaptation about acceptance, letting go and the redeeming power of love. Sprinkled with original song and dance sequences and colloquialisms you can identify with, The Little Mermaid: A Law School Musical will bring you on a dive deep into the mystical depths of Oceanus this September as you relive your childhood fairytale, this time with an added law twist!

Never/Land 2012
Held in celebration of the 5th year anniversary of the SMU School of Law, Never| Land is a suitably heart-warming yet thought-provoking coming-of-age story about courage, acceptance and growing up. With Wendy as the protagonist, this musical an adaptation of the classic children's tale Peter Pan.

Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition
The Jessup is the largest and most prestigious moot competition in the world, named after Philip Jessup and organised by the International Law Students Association. It is a simulation of a fictional dispute between countries before the International Court of Justice.

Harry Elias-SMU Moot Tournament
The Harry Elias-SMU Moot Tournament is jointly organised by Harry Elias Partnership and SMU School of Law. It was opened to NUS Faculty of Law for the first time in 2011, attracting close to 60 participants.

The LAWASIA International Moot Competition
LAWASIA is an international organisation of lawyers’ associations, individual lawyers, judges, legal academics, and others which focuses on the interests and concerns of the legal profession in the Asia Pacific region. This competition acknowledges the importance of mooting for a comprehensive legal education due to its competitive and individualistic nature, providing a learning experience in an international environment.

Sitting and retired Judges of eminence and integrity are involved in the judging of the Competition. Also, senior members of the Bar and general counsels from industry are invited as judges of the Moot.

B.A. Mallal Moot
The Mallal Moot is the oldest and most prestigious domestic moot in NUS, which was opened to SMU students in 2010.

Asia Cup Moot
The Asia Cup is an annual moot court competition held in Tokyo, Japan jointly organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan and the International Law Students Exchange Council. The moot problem typically contains issues pertaining to public international law, international humanitarian law and international human rights.

Monroe E. Price Media Law Moot Court Competition
Established in 2008, the Monroe E. Price Moot is an annual moot competition. It was created and continues to be organised by the Program in Comparative Media Law and Policy at the University of Oxford, and is named after the program's founding director, Monroe E. Price. The international rounds are held at the University of Oxford, while national and regional rounds were introduced in 2010 and have since taken place in the Americas, Middle East, Southeast Europe, and South Asia.

Willem C. Vis Moot
The Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot is one of the most prestigious international moot court competitions for law students in the world. Since 1994, it has been held annually in Vienna, Austria attracting more than 300 law schools from all around the world and spurring the creation of more than twenty pre-moots each year before the actual rounds are held in Vienna.

Attorney-General’s Cup
The Attorney-General’s Cup is a mooting competition organised by the National University of Singapore Criminal Justice Club, with the support of the Attorney-General’s Chambers and the SMU Moot Club. This competition as conceived by Professor Walter Woon from NUS Faculty of Law. This mooting competition aspires to inspire young advocates to be passionate about criminal law advocacy.

WongPartnership International Commercial Arbitration Moot
This moot is sponsored by WongPartnership LLP, and opened to both SMU School of Law and NUS Faculty of Law students.

The Advocacy Cup
The Advocacy Cup is the primary trial advocacy competition for local law students, originated in NUS. The 2013 Advocacy Cup was judged by former Chief Justice Chan Sek Keong, Hri Kumar SC from Drew & Napier LLC, and Professor Jeffrey Pinsler SC.

Sitting and retired Judges of eminence and integrity are involved in the judging of the Competition. Also, senior members of the Bar and general counsels from industry are invited as judges of the Moot.

Other Competitions
2013
 * The Rodyk Challenge: 1st Place
 * Red Cross International Humanitarian Moot: Quarter-finalist
 * Willem C. Vis (East) International Commercial Arbitration Moots (Hong Kong): Qualified for Pan-Asian Rounds

2011
 * The Rodyk Challenge: 1st Place and Best Individual Performance

2010
 * ICC International Commercial Mediation Competition: 10th out of 44 Law Schools
 * Smartsettle One Competition at Cyberweek 2010: 1st Place; 5th Place and 7th Place
 * Monroe E. Price International Media Law Moot Court Competition: 1st Place and Best Memorial
 * William C. Vis (East) Internationals Commercial Arbitration Moot: Honourable Mention of Memorial
 * 8th International Humanitarian Law Moot 2010: Top 5 Teams and Best Memorial

2009
 * The Living Courthouse Essay Competition: Won all Top 3 prizes
 * Smartsettle One Competition at Cyberweek 2009: 2nd Place
 * Beijing ALSA Mooting Competition: 2nd Place