Singapore's Ministry of Law (MinLaw) has selected a 12-member steering committee to guide the development of its third law school.

The school, to be located at the Singapore Institute of Management's SIM University, was approved earlier this year in response to a perceived shortage of lawyers in the region, particularly those specialising in family and criminal law.

The steering committee includes legal professionals from the private and public sectors, including the senior partner at RHTLaw Taylor Wessing Subhas Anandan, and is chaired by Singapore's senior minister of state for education and law Indranee Rajah.

It is expected to provide strategic direction for the school on matters such as the educational philosophy, admissions criteria and curriculum, and will be supported by a nine-member working group which will make recommendations on the development of the curricular framework.

It will be the first privately-funded law school in Singapore, offering training in all key areas such as contract law, company law, tort law, property law and trusts law.

The curriculum is also expected to include the study of complementary subjects such as psychology, accounting and forensics, whilst work experience and exposure to pro bono efforts will be an integral part of the course.

"The third law school will seek to provide a strong foundation in all core law subjects," said Rajah.

"A strong emphasis on multi-disciplinary and applied learning will be another unique feature of this school."

With reportedly just 200 law graduates per year, Singapore has long been concerned with a shortage of lawyers, and in May this year a committee on the supply of lawyers chaired by Justice VK Rajah made recommendations to the government to establish a new law school.

Legal training is currently offered at just two universities, the National University of Singapore and Singapore Management University, both of which are state-funded.

A growth in Singapore lawyers might be also seen as increasingly important as MinLaw takes further steps to open up the country's legal market to foreign outfits.

Whilst 10 international law firms now have local or Qualifying Foreign Law Practice (QFLP) licences, and are thus thought to be eyeing more Singapore law capability, other firms are understood to be mulling plans for local joint venture arrangements.