[Photo1 - SMU School of Law Dean-designate Professor Yeo Tiong Min (left) with Deputy Dean-designate Professor David Llewelyn]
Singapore, 21 February 2012 (Tuesday) – The Singapore Management University (SMU) has appointed Professor Yeo Tiong Min S.C. (Hon) as Dean-designate of the School of Law. An eminent and respected figure in Singapore's legal fraternity, Professor Yeo was most recently appointed as Honorary Senior Counsel for his special knowledge of law and his contribution to the development of the law and the legal profession in Singapore. Professor Yeo will take over as Dean from Professor Michael Furmston from 1 July 2012 and lead the young law school in its next stage of development.
Professor David Llewelyn, who has been with SMU since August 2010, has also been appointed Deputy Dean-designate and will also take office from 1 July 2012.
SMU President Professor Arnoud De Meyer remarked that SMU School of Law is at a significant stage of its development. “We have produced our first batch of law graduates, most of whom are now beginning to serve out their training contracts or have been appointed as officers in the Singapore Legal Service. It is apt, therefore, for us to usher in new leadership to helm the School of Law and take it to a new level of excellence. We are happy to find that leadership in Professor Yeo and Professor Llewelyn – both of whom stand out as exceptional academics and passionate educators.”
SMU Provost and Deputy President (Academic Affairs), Professor Rajendra K. Srivastava said, “Both Professor Yeo and Professor Llewelyn are highly regarded experts in their respective fields of private international law and intellectual property. They come from very different yet complementary backgrounds that reflect particularly SMU's ethos of marrying theory with practice.”
He added, “Professor Yeo has been an outstanding academic for his entire career, so much so that he was the first person in Singapore to be appointed Senior Counsel for his contributions to the development of law in Singapore. Professor Llewelyn is not only a leading intellectual property scholar but also has vast experience and contacts from private practice. Individually, they lend tremendous credibility to the School's aspiration to be a leading law school in the region and globally. Together, they form a formidable team to chart the next stages of its development.”
On the appointment, Dean-designate of SMU School of Law, Professor Yeo, who is also the Yong Pung How Professor of Law, commented, “I am very honoured to have the opportunity to lead the law school in this significant phase of its development. The School owes a great debt of gratitude to Professor Michael Furmston for his leadership since its establishment and the 100% employment of the first graduating cohort is testament to that leadership. We will soon be seeking feedback from their employers and will tweak our curriculum to further enhance SMU's law programme.”
He added, “That we are a young law school allows us the dynamism to review and make on-going adjustments to our programme in a reasonably short time-frame. Not only does this bring greater value to employers, students also benefit because they are more prepared for the challenges of the real world.”
Deputy-dean designate, Professor Llewelyn started his teaching career in 1977 as Lecturer in Law at Reading University. He has combined private law practice with teaching at the London School of Economics; Queen Mary College, London University and King's College, London. He is one of the authors of Cornish, Llewelyn & Aplin and Kerly's Law of Trade Marks which are the leading texts used by students and lawyers both in the UK and Singapore, and are frequently cited in the High Court and Court of Appeal in Singapore. His recent business book Invisible Gold in Asia: Creating Wealth through Intellectual Property is the first attempt to explain to non-lawyers the importance of intellectual property in the business world of the 21 st century.
Sharing an observation from his extensive teaching experience, Professor Llewelyn said, “Having taught Asian students including many from Singapore since 1982, I have noticed significant changes over the years. These days, they are far more willing to participate actively and criticise constructively. Small-group teaching, as we have in SMU, also encourages students to put forward and defend their views in an open way. This bodes well for Singapore's legal scene going forward. Already, employers have told me that they like our graduates because they are particularly inquisitive and prepared to think laterally.”
SMU's first law Dean, Professor Michael Furmston, who has seen the first batch of SMU law students through to graduation, will continue to teach at SMU after stepping down. Professor Furmston will follow through a project that is dear to his heart but has been unable to commit his full attention owing to his responsibilities as Dean – the setting up of a Centre of Commercial Law, which will be beneficial both to Singapore in general and SMU in particular.
In appreciation, Professor Arnoud De Meyer said, “I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Professor Michael Furmston for his very effective leadership of the School of Law since its establishment in 2007. He has laid a firm foundation upon which the School's new and future leadership can build and further develop. That he will continue to be part of the SMU family is a privilege to the university and our law students. I look forward to his continuing contributions to the overall growth and development of SMU.”
[Photo2 - SMU School of Law Dean-designate Professor Yeo Tiong Min (left) with Deputy Dean-designate Professor David Llewelyn]
About Professor Yeo Tiong Min
Professor Yeo has been with SMU's School of Law since its inception in 2007, first as the Yong Pung How Professor of Law and later as the Associate Dean (Research) from 2009 to 2011. A respected figure in Singapore's legal scene, Professor Yeo's most recent achievement was his appointment as Honorary Senior Counsel for his special knowledge of law and his contribution to the development of the law and the legal profession in Singapore, which was announced by Chief Justice Chan Sek Keong at the opening of the legal year in January 2012.
Professor Yeo obtained his LLB in 1990 from the National University of Singapore, and Bachelor of Civil Law (a Masters degree) with first class honours from Worcester College, University of Oxford in 1992. He has been a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Oxford, where he earned his doctorate in 2002.
His research interests are primarily in private law, with a large concentration in the conflict of laws. His works have been published in Singapore, England, Australia and Japan and widely cited in leading texts in Singapore, England, Australia and the United States. They have been relied upon by first instance and appellate courts in Singapore, Australia, England, Hong Kong SAR and the Cayman Islands.
He has been actively involved in the Singapore legal community, having collaborated on many projects with various government departments and statutory bodies, including the Singapore Academy of Law and the Law Reform and Revision Division of the Attorney-General's Chambers. In 2008, he was conferred the Singapore Law Merit Award by the Singapore Academy of Law for outstanding contributions to promoting and advancing the development of Singapore Law. In 2011, he was appointed a Professorial Fellow of the Singapore Institute of Legal Education. In addition, he was awarded the Public Service Medal in 2011 in recognition of his contributions to the Singapore Academy of Law.
About Professor David Llewelyn
Professor David Llewelyn joined SMU in August 2010 as a Visiting Professor and was appointed Professor (Practice) in July 2011.
After graduating from Southampton University with an LLB Honours, Professor Llewelyn started his teaching career in 1977 as Lecturer in Law at Reading University prior to obtaining (like Professor Yeo) a Bachelor of Civil Law degree (first class) at Worcester College, Oxford. After a spell as a Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property Law in Munich, he has combined private law practice with teaching at the London School of Economics; Queen Mary College, London University and King's College London. Prior to his appointment as Professor of Intellectual Property Law at King's College London in 2006, he was Visiting Professor at Queen Mary College, London from 1992 to 2004, and at King's College London from 2004 to 2006. A solicitor of the Supreme Court of England & Wales, he was Partner and Head of Intellectual Property in the London office of international law firm White & Case from 1999 to 2010.
Professor Llewelyn's research interests include Commercialisation of Intellectual Property Rights, Comparative Trade Mark Law and Intellectual Property Law. He is joint author of the leading textbooks Cornish, Llewelyn & Aplin: Intellectual Property: Patents, Copyright Trade Marks and Allied Rights (7th edition, 2010) and Kerly's Law of Trade Marks & Trade Names (15th edition, 2011). His business book Invisible Gold in Asia: Creating Wealth through Intellectual Property was published by Marshall Cavendish in Singapore in 2010.
From 2004 to 2007, Prof Llewelyn was Director of the IP Academy Singapore and since then has been Deputy Chairman and External Director.
About the SMU School of Law
SMU School of Law proudly welcomed its first cohort of 116 students in August 2007. Taught by a dynamic faculty with postgraduate degrees from renowned universities such as Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Oxford, Cambridge, Bristol and London, the School aims to nurture its students to become excellent lawyers who will contribute significantly to society. Trained with the ability to contextualise legal expertise and to think across disciplines and geographical borders coupled with SMU's interactive pedagogy, SMU's law graduates are confident articulate and analytically agile.
The Law School offers a four-year full-time Bachelor of Laws programme, a five-year double-degree programme which combines law with either Accountancy, Business, Economics, Information Systems or Social Sciences, and a Master of Laws programme. The School has also launched a full-time graduate programme, the Juris Doctor Programme which can be completed within three years, and in some cases, accelerated for completion within two years.