David N. Smith appointed as SMU law school Dean

(1) Professor Yeo Tiong Min joins SMU and appointed the university's first Yong Pung How Professor of Law.

(2) Former Bristol Law Dean and distinguished contracts and commercial law scholar Professor Michael P. Furmston joins SMU.

Singapore, 12 July 2007 – The Singapore Management University (SMU) is pleased to announce the appointment of former Vice-Dean of Harvard Law School David N. Smith (???) as the Dean of the new SMU School of Law. He will commence office on 1 August 2007, succeeding Interim Dean Associate Professor Low Kee Yang.

With an illustrious career in legal education, Dean Smith taught at Harvard Law School for more than 25 years, specializing in transnational corporations and foreign investment, and served as its Vice-Dean for 15 years from 1983 to 1998. He was instrumental in expanding the Harvard Law School's international programmes and oversaw the School's graduate programmes, in which many Asian legal scholars and leaders in private practice and government have been trained. He served on the faculty board of the Harvard Institute for International Development, for which he also served as a consultant for projects in a wide range of developing countries. Since the 1970s, Dean Smith has served as an advisor to more than 30 governments in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America, as well as the World Bank and the United Nations on matters relating to foreign investment policy, natural resources, negotiation, law reform and legal education. More recently, Dean Smith has served five years as Acting Dean of the School of Law and School of Creative Media at the City University of Hong Kong and later, Vice-Rector (Vice-President), Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Law at Macau University of Science and Technology. During his stints in Hong Kong and Macau, he instituted major reforms and new directions for both universities. Much of Dean Smith's teaching, programme development work and advisory work over the years have been at the intersection of law and business.

SMU is also pleased to announce the appointment of Professor Yeo Tiong Min (???) as the university's first Yong Pung How Professor of Law. The prestigious Yong Pung How Professorship of Law was made possible by a generous S$3 million endowed contribution by the Yong Shook Lin Trust. The gift aims to advance the research and teaching of law in SMU by appointing an acclaimed legal luminary who will lend his or her expertise to the development of a leading undergraduate law curriculum. Professor Yeo read law at the National University of Singapore (NUS) before pursuing his postgraduate studies at the University of Oxford . He has taught at the Faculty of Law at NUS for 17 years, establishing himself as a leading legal authority and scholar in private law concentrating on the conflict of laws and including equity, remedies, restitution and contract law. Professor Yeo's publications have been relied upon or cited many times by the judiciary in Singapore, England and Australia. His most representative publication is the well-known Choice of Law for Equitable Doctrines (Oxford Private International Law Series, 2004).

Distinguished contracts and commercial scholar in the Commonwealth, Professor Michael P. Furmston has also been appointed Professor of Law at SMU. 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 textbooks for students studying the law of contract more than 50 years after its first publication. A leading international authority today in the law of contract, Professor Furmston was educated at the University of Oxford and also taught at the University of Birmingham and Queen's University, Belfast . His experience in legal education spans across 50 years. He is also a member of the UNIDROIT (International Institute for the Unification of Private Law).

Said Professor Howard Hunter, President of SMU on the new appointments: “I am delighted to have assembled such an outstanding team of law faculty for the new School of Law which will certainly flourish as a strong community under the leadership of Dean Smith. The three new appointments provide a powerful synergy and combination – a bright young Singaporean professor educated at Oxford , a distinguished British legal authority in contract law and a former Harvard Law School vice-dean with experience in Asian universities. We are off to a good start. This provides a valuable opportunity to create a defining institution for the study of law in the 21st century. I would also like to recognize and thank Interim Dean Professor Low Kee Yang for his extraordinary leadership and achievements in the past year.”

Both Professor Yeo and Professor Furmston joined the SMU School of Law on 1 July 2007.

Please see Annex for their curriculum vitae.