[3] The School of Law was preceded by the Law Department, which was created in 2000 and part of the university's Lee Kong Chian School of Business which was created at the same time, and headed by Professor Andrew Phang (now Judge of Appeal, Supreme Court of Singapore).

[5][6] The school's first dean was Michael Furmston, a leading authority on contracts and commercial law in the Commonwealth.

The advisory board was previously chaired by former Judge of Appeal and Attorney-General VK Rajah SC;[12] Ang Cheng Hock took over in 2024.

Rajah, together with former Judge of Appeal Chao Hick Tin, are presently Distinguished Fellows.

[17] The Applied Research Centre for Intellectual Assets and the Law in Asia (ARCIALA), as well as the Centre for Cross-Border Commercial Law in Asia (CEBCLA), were launched in May 2015[18][19] and in June that year the school signed a sponsorship and training agreement with WongPartnership.

[21] The law school building relocated in December 2016 to Armenian Street,[22] though the premises were only officially opened in March 2017,[23] and in October 2017, a Pro Bono Centre was launched.

[26] In July that year it launched the LLM in Judicial Studies[27] and in September the Centre for AI and Data Governance (CAIDG).

[29] On 11 April 2021, SMU renamed the school to include former Chief Justice Yong Pung How's name as a recognition for his founding contributions to the university.

[32] To be admitted to the Bachelor of Laws (LLB) programme, applicants should have good passes in their respective GCE A-Level subjects and also at minimum an A or a B for H1 General Paper or H2 Knowledge and Inquiry.

In the 2015 University Admissions Exercise, both the 10th and 90th percentile had an Indicative Grade Profile (of 3H2/1H1 content-based subjects) of AAA/A.

Applicants must have completed at least three years of full-time undergraduate education and show proficiency in the English language.

Similar to all SMU undergraduates, six weeks of internship and 50 hours of community service are required for graduation.

Completion of the either the LLB or JD allows a student to proceed directly to Part B of the local bar examination and be called as a lawyer.