THE Legal Service Commission - which recruits, promotes and disciplines legal service officers - has been expanded from six to nine members and now includes those from the private sector.

The changes, which took effect on Thursday, were first announced by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Law Professor S. Jayakumar in April last year.

Prof Jayakumar had said that there was a need to make the personnel management system more robust and responsive to new challenges in managing talent and personnel in the legal service.

The LSC needed to be restructured to include people with a wider range of experience, for instance, those who have worked in personnel management or know the workings of the legal profession.

Previously, the LSC comprised the Chief Justice, the Attorney-General, the chairman of the Public Service Commission (PSC), a Supreme Court judge nominated by the Chief Justice, and two PSC members nominated by the PSC chairman.

Now, Chief Justice Chan Sek Keong, Attorney-General Chao Hick Tin and PSC chairman Andrew G. K. Chew remain.

Six others have been appointed by President S. R. Nathan to be LSC members for a period of three years.

They are:

- Justice V. K. Rajah, who was managing partner of law firm Rajah & Tann before he was made a judge
-Justice Lee Seiu Kin, appointed an LSC member in 2006
-Mr Michael Lim Choo San, chairman of the Land Transport Authority, the National Healthcare Group and Nomura Singapore
-Dr Philip N Pillai, senior partner at law firm Shook Lin & Bok
-Mr Lucien Wong, managing partner of law firm Allen & Gledhill
-Mr Lee Tzu Yang. chairman of Shell companies in Singapore and vice-president, Asia Pacific, Shell Global Solutions