Report of Group 1

Group 1 Ll.B.
1 2011-2012 | Nature & Meaning of Legal Profession

Perspectives of Legal Education
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University of Negros Occidental-Recoletos
School of Law
Bacolod City

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Report of Group 1 on the Topics:
NATURE AND MEANING OF LEGAL PROFESSION
PERSPECTIVES OF LEGAL EDUCATION
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In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements
of the Course
LEGPRO 010

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ATTY. JAPHET T. MASCULINO
Professor

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Submitted by:

Yuri Jan D. Jarder
Jamie T. Geolingo
Richard C. Lao
Reena May T. Vidaurrazaga
Gabriel Sinco
Edwin V. de Nicolas
August 2011

Group 1 Ll.B. 1 2011-2012 | Nature & Meaning of Legal Profession
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NATURE AND MEANING OF LEGAL PROFESSION
I. Introduction
There is no question that in the Philippines, the most glamorous profession now is the
legal profession. To gain prestige, most people desire to have a lawyer in the family.
Families with the father and the mother who are lawyers require all if not most of their
children to pursue the law profession. For the law profession, among other professions, has
the broadest educational background for leadership in the community. Following the policy-
oriented approach, otherwise known as the Yale-Law Approach, initiated by Myres
MacDougall and Harold Laswell of the Yale Law School, the lawyer is looked up to by his
community for his ability to identify the goal values of society. He must be sufficiently
equipped to suggest solutions to the problems of society. The lawyer with his background in
the social sciences and legal principles for the social ordering of society is a natural leader of
the community. Most of the national and local leaders come from the legal profession. They
are leaders not only in politics but also in business and all kinds of human endeavour. The
top positions in the government and private enterprises are usually occupied by lawyers.
Even in the Armed Forces (and the Police), officers take up law courses for advantage in
promotions in rank.
As a private law practitioner all his acts involve public concerns. His pleadings and
memoranda in court are parts of public records. The documents he drafts duly notarized
become public documents. In fine all acts of a lawyer in the performance of his function involve
public matters.
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Prestigious as it is, it takes lot of efforts, expense and time to be admitted to this noble
profession. Thousands enrol in law schools annually and eventually obtain the degree of
bachelor of laws but very few are admitted to the bar. Generally, only between twenty to thirty
percent of those taking the bar examinations pass. A number of those who pass the written
examinations are not readily admitted due to questionable moral character which is vital
requisite in the admission to the profession.
The law student has to read volumes and volumes of textbooks, statutes and judicial
decisions. The moment he steps in any law school he must be prepared for a profession which
needs continuous study. After a four-year rigid study in the law school the would-be lawyer has
to undergo review courses to remind him of what he took up in detail in the courses and to
apply them in hypothetical cases usually asked in the bar examinations. What the bar
candidate writes down in answer to the test questions is what he has studied daily from first
year of his law course. The study of law is a serious commitment to the course of justice.
Although it is the most popular course now in the Philippines, the legal profession is the
most misunderstood and maligned by non-lawyers. In many states there have been vigorous
complaints against lawyers as a clan. Since the ancient times, Plato had warned against
lawyers in the commonwealth. Napoleon had an ingenious plan to starve lawyers by
legislation. In his visit to a fellow monarch, Peter the Great was asked if he had lawyers in his
Kingdom. In reply he said he has two and when he returns home he intends to have one of
them hung.
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Even at present time the law profession is criticized as business and not a profession.
Judge Sharswood had said that a horde of pettifogging, barratrous, custom-seeking, money-
making lawyer, is one of the greatest curse which any state or community can be visited.
Another criticism is that there are too many lawyers today. The Integrated Bar of the
Philippines has membership of 39,161 as of 2001. George Malcolm, the American jurist who
started the law school which became the University of the Philippines College of Law, said
that in one sense this may be correct. For there are so many lawyers who are parasites, not
ethical standard, who are a disgrace to the noble profession. What is needed is not the
greater quantity, but a fine quality of professional men and women who have sincere
understanding of the high requirements of the legal profession.
What had stressed more in the past is for the student to learn the law to be a successful
law practitioner and to be able to win his cases without moral regard for truth, honor or
ethical and moral norms.
Thus the Association of Law Schools, with the approval of the Supreme Court, has revised
the law curriculum by requiring law students to study more course on professional
responsibility.
Right from the start of the first semester in his first year, the law student takes up a
course on the legal profession to stress on him history and real meaning of the profession he
intends to aspire for. In the second semester of his first year, the law student takes up formal
course of legal ethics to impress on him the ethical and moral standards of the profession.
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In the third year the law student is taught legal counselling in relation to his professional
responsibilities as a lawyer. In the second semester of the third year the students made to
undertake a review of the courses he had taken by closely examining specific problem areas
which may confront lawyers and judges in the exercise of their profession.

A. Legal Profession
It has been said that a community cannot long endure without order and that order
cannot be attained without laws govern the conduct of individuals. For this reason, the
legal profession is a very vital element in nation building since there is no progress in a
country without a rule of law.
The Legal profession is a branch of the administration of justice whose main purpose is
to aid in the doing of justice according to law between state and the individual and
between man and man.
Legal profession has been regarded as one of the noblest, if not the noblest profession
in the world. In the Philippines, legal profession is impressed with public interest with the
end view towards the administration of justice. Unlike in business is concerned with
profits, law professions paramount concern is to obtain justice in the most efficient and
effective manner.
Societys diversified concept about legal profession notwithstanding, the fact remains
that the legal profession has a vital role to play in nation building and is therefore an
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indispensable element of our society. In the Philippines, law profession is a mission. A
mission to administer justice not only to those who have the capacity to obtain the services
of a lawyer but more importantly, to those deserving of justice but have less in life.

B. Legal Profession as a Subject
In view of criticism the legal profession has been facing now, prospective lawyers
should be indoctrinated as to the real essence, spirit and purpose of the legal profession.
Hence, law students are being introduced to the real concept of legal profession in their
very first semester in the law school.
From the time legal education began in the Philippines, the importance of teaching
the real nature, purpose and mission of the legal profession has not been given much
attention. The training law schools give their students has been said to be preponderantly
bar-oriented. The real goal of law schools to prepare students for the practice of law, to be
a responsible leader of the community and an effective administrator of justice assumes
only secondary importance.
Seriously considering the issue, a new law curriculum was approved by then
Department of Education Culture and Sports in 1989. Additional significant courses were
added in order to stress the moral responsibility expected of every lawyer. These are Legal
Profession, Legal Counselling and Problem Areas in Legal Ethics. These three subjects
introduce to a law student the ethical and moral obligations of a lawyer to the court, to his
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client, to his colleagues in the bar and to the society. The moment a law student enters his
first semester in the law school, the subject on legal profession is generally given to him.

C. Nature of an Attorney
An attorney, who is sometimes called an advocate or counsel, is one who aids in the
administration of justice. The term attorney is generally understood as having reference
to a class of persons who are by license constituted officers of courts of justice, and who are
empowered to appear and prosecute and/or defend someone and on whom peculiar
duties, responsibilities and liabilities are devolved by law in consequence. I has been said
that a person acting professionally in legal formalities, negotiations or proceedings, by
warrant or authority of his client, is an attorney at law within the usual meaning of the
term. An attorney may in short be defined as a person set apart by laws of the lands relating
to the high interest of property, liberty and life. An attorney at law is thus considered as
quasi-officer of the court subject to regulation. He is an inherent element in our judicial
system.
Although an attorney may also be defined as someone who is employed by a party in a
cause to manage the same for him, it has been held in a long line of cases that a lawyer is
above all an officer of the court. To become an officer of the court is not an easy task. As
an advocate of justice, he should be the defender of the oppressed. His talents in law
constitute active forces aimed at the administration of justice regardless of political, social,
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economic or religious stations in life of party-litigants. A lawyer, although employed by a
party in a cause to manage the same for him, is not part of the cause. He should dissociate
himself from the facts of the case and keep himself beyond the influences of the litigants
simply because his primary purpose is to stand by the truth.
Managing the cause of party litigant does not imply resort to foul tactics or outright
falsehoods to mislead the court and the public. His business is to carry on the practical and
formal parts of the suit, to the best of his ability, to help clarify matters, and proclaim what
is right.
But first of all, there should be an authority. The authority of an attorney commences
with his retainer. After he has been retained in a case, he has certain implied powers
therein. As a matter of fact, the presumption is that an attorney has authority to appear; if
the person he appears for does not disclaim his authority, he is deemed bound by the
attorneys actions or inactions.
As mentioned earlier, the first and foremost duty of a lawyer is the administration of
justice, and his duty to his client is subordinate to that. So that, as far as his relations with
his clients are concerned, he is duty bound to be true to the court and to his client; to
manage the business of his client with care, skill and integrity; to keep his client informed
as to the state of his business; to keep his secrets confided to him as such. It is however
important to note that an attorney is not an insurer of the result in a case in which he is
employed.
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Membership in the bar is an exacting responsibility. As quoted by one jurist, it is a
privilege burdened with conditions. It imposes, at the very least, the obligation of
attending with due zeal and diligence to a clients cause. Perhaps, it is worthy to note that
an attorney is not expected to know all the laws; he may not be disbarred for an honest
mistake or error.

D. Brief History of Legal Education
The sources of Philippine legal education are Spain, which gave the Roman Civil Law
and the Canon law and the United States, which forerunner of English common law in the
Philippines. Worthy to mention also is the Indo-Malayan influence which shared the Islamic
law in the Philippines. Not to be excluded is the fact that even prior to the Spanish regime
in the country, we already have our own codified law, and that is the Code of Kalantiao.
Legal Education in the Philippines formally began with the establishment of Faculty of
Civil Law at the University of Sto. Tomas in 1733. From 1734 to 18000, out of 3,360
students only 40 students graduated in its various law programs 29 in Bachelors of Civil
Law 8 in Licentiate in Civil Law and 3 in Doctor of Civil Law showing the rigid training in
these courses. In 1898, the Universidad Literia Filipinas was established in Malolos,
Bulacan and offered courses in law and notary public. It moved later to Tarlac. In 1899,
Don Felipe Calderon, author of the 1899 Malolos Constitution, founded the Escuela de
Derecho de Manila, which in 1924 was renamed Manila Law School.
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In 1910, the College of Law of the University of the Philippines opened with 50
Filipinos and American students. The First Dean was Justice Sherman Moreland of the
Philippine Supreme Court. He was later replace by George A. Malcolm, who also later on
became a justice of the Philippine Supreme Court.
Other law schools followed: Philippine Law School, 1915; University of Manila College
of Law, 1918; Far Eastern University Institute of Law, 1934; Southern College of Law, 1935;
Arellano Law College, 1938; and Francisco Law School, 1940.
In 1911, the only educational requirements for a law profession were a high school
degree as a pre-law and a three-year law course. Later, the pre-law requisite was
increased to two years of college studies in addition to a high school degree. In 1960, Sec.
6 of Rule 138 of the Rules of Court was amended by the Supreme Court increasing the pre-
law requisite to a four-year bachelors degree in arts and science and the law course to
four years of legal studies (bachelor of laws).
In 1964, R.A. No. 3870 created U.P. Law Center to conduct continuing legal education
programs, legal research and publications. R.A. No. 7662 or the Legal Education Act was
enacted in 1993 to emphasize on the areas of advocacy, counseling, problem solving,
decision making, ethics and nobility of legal profession, bench-bar partnership, social
commitment, selection of law students, quality of law schools, the law faculty as well as
the law curriculum. The legal education board was likewise created.

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II. Nature of Legal Profession
A. Practice of Law is a Profession
The term profession refers to a group of men pursuing a learned art as common
calling in the spirit of public service. A profession differs from a trade or business because
the primary purpose of the latter is economic gain or profit. While in a profession, gaining
profit is merely incidental.
The practice of law is a profession, a form of public trust, the performance of which is
entrusted only to those who are qualified and who possess good moral character. If the
respect of the people in the honor and integrity of legal profession is to be retained, both
lawyers and laymen must recognize and realize that the legal profession is a profession
not a trade, and that the basic ideal of the profession is to render public service and secure
justice to those who seek its aid. Since it is not a business, adequate compensation for
every services rendered should not be primordial concern of every lawyer, but rather it
should be the spirit of public service and administration of justice. Remember that law
profession is a branch of administration of justice and not a mere moneymaking trade.

B. Ideas Involved in a Profession
1. Organization
Lawyers organize as a profession thru bar associations, defined as an association of
persons practicing the profession of law formed and maintained to promote and uphold
the purposes and spirit of that profession.
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2. Learning
Professions are learned not only from the nature of the art professed but
historically have a cultural, and ideal side which furthers the exercise of that art.
Problems of human relations in society, of disease, etc. are to be dealt with by the
resources of cultivated intelligence. To carry on their tasks most effectively, they must
be more than resourceful craftsmen. They must be learned men.
3. Spirit of Public Service
Every Profession aims at the exercise of powers beneficial to mankind. The spirit of
public service in which the profession of law is a prerequisite of a sound administration
of justice.

C. A Privilege and a Right
Membership in the legal profession is a privilege granted by the state only to those
deserving individuals. It is in the nature of a franchise conferred only for merit which must
be earned by hard study, learning and good conduct. Not all persons who wants to join the
legal profession may be accepted and corollary to this, not all can practice law in the
Philippines. For one to be admitted in the practice of law and for a continued enjoyment
thereof, he must possess all the required qualifications needed in the profession among
which is the continued possession of good moral character. The practice of law is a
privilege accorded only to those who measure up to the exacting standards of mental and
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moral fitness. Good moral character is a condition which precedes admission to the Bar
and is not dispensed with upon the admission thereto. It is a continuing qualification which
all lawyers must possess. The members are in fact, enjoined to aid in guarding the Bar
against the admission of candidates unfit, unqualified and deficient in either moral
character or education.
The law as a profession precedes from the basic premise that membership in the
Bar is a privilege burdened with conditions and carries with it the responsibility to live up
to its exacting standards and honoured traditions.
Although the law profession is to a great extent a privilege, which may be withheld
or extended in the exercise of sound judicial discretion, yet it is also a right in a limited
sense. A lawyer cannot be prevented from practicing law except upon valid cause and only
after affording him due process. He cannot be prevented from appearing before any
judicial, quasi-judicial, or administrative tribunal as long as he is a member of the bar in
good and regular standing.
As an officer of the court, he enjoys the presumption of regularity in the
performance of his duties. He has the right to protest in a respectful manner anything
which he thinks is prejudicial to the orderly and expeditious administration of justice. He
has the right to stand up for his right or the right of his client even in the face of a hostile
court. These rights and/or privileges enjoyed by a lawyer are necessary not only for the
protection of his client but more importantly towards the speedy, inexpensive and orderly
administration of justice.

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D. Standards of the Legal Profession
Justice Vicente Mendoza in his speech
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maintained that like medicine and the
ministry, law is a service profession, and therefore, it must be measured by the standards
of those professions: its independence, its accessibility and its learning (citing Paul a.
Freund, The Legal Profession, Daedalus 35, 39 [1965]). He went on with the following
discussions:

I. Independence
A lawyers relation to his client entails ethical problems. Lawyers are not hired
guns out to do their clients bidding. They are professionals, who must accordingly
conduct themselves in a professional way. To be sure, a lawyer owes entire devotion
and loyalty to his client. But it is devotion and loyalty within the bounds of honor. As the
Code of Responsibility puts it, A lawyer must represent his client with zeal within the
bounds of the law. Justice Brandeis advice to young lawyers was that they should
have clients rather than be somebodys lawyer.
Indeed, the involvement of lawyers in their clients causes should not make them
oblivious to the cross currents of competing claims. What they should do is to get
immersed in their clients, cases but not to drown themselves into their clients cause
they must get involved in the cases, lest they become detached and coldly
dispassionate, but they must likewise learn to get out of the experience so to speak lest
they become bemused and sentimental.

1
Published in the Lawyers Review, April 30, 2001, p.1.
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II. Accessibility
How readily available are its services available to our people? By this, I do not
only mean the maintenance of legal aids clinics for indigent persons, important as this
aspect of the work of the organized bar. Just as deserving of legal aid are those persons
who are either financially capable of paying in full for the services of a lawyer or are
unable to pay in full but nonetheless cannot be considered indigent persons.
You may think it paradoxical that people who are financially able would need
help. The truth is that they often do not know whom to engage as counsel; what they
thus need is a reliable system of referral which a bar organization should be able to
provide. Very often, many a balikbayan needs referral service either because he has
lost contact with local people from having lived abroad so long, or because his problem
involves complex questions, such as estate planning and taxation.
In these instances, the bar should be able to aid the public in the selection of a
competent lawyer as part of its duty to make its services available. Legal services are
needed not only by indigent persons, but even by those who are able to pay their way
but do not know whom to engage as counsel.
Not only must legal services be available to all. Legal Services must be made
available at the earliest possible time, and not when a case was already in court. For just
as there is a need for preventive medicine, there is also a need for preventive legal
counselling so that parties will be saved from the trouble, the expense and the anxiety
of litigation. Such services can range from the drafting of contracts to the making of
wills.
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Finally, in discussing the availability of the bar, let us not forget another
challenge the readiness of its members to engage in public service. One proud
tradition of the bar in this country is that it has been the source of leadership in our
government. Despite the financial opportunities offered by private practice, many
lawyers have chosen government service, thus vindicating the legal profession as one
charged with public duties and responsibilities. Lawyers must be able to shuttle
between private practice and government service, enjoying not only the financial
privileges of the former but also the civic rewards brought about by the latter. Public
service, though admittedly short on monetary gains, poses a unique challenge to a
lawyers integrity as well as his competence and ability and offers psychic benefits that
go beyond pesos and centavos.

III. Learning
The Code of Professional Responsibility states that a lawyer must serve his
client with competence and diligence. But a bar to be able to discharge its public duties
and responsibilities must be a learned organization. The proliferation of legal materials
and the emergence of new specialties in law, brought about by the growing complexity
of our society, are a challenge to our commitment to excellence whether as members
of the practicing bar of the academic branch of the profession.
The foregoing criteria or standards of the legal profession given and discussed by
Mr. Justice Mendoza, may be too short of a discussion. Yet, it is a great challenge not
only to those who are aspiring to become members of the learned profession but also to
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those who are already part of it. As final words, he stressed that: The bar must be able
to communicate to the public its aims and purposes. It must be able to explain to lay
people the laws and regulations in clear, simple and understandable language so that
the public respect for the law will be fostered. This is an endeavor through which the
learning of the bar must be channelled.

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PERSPECTIVES OF LEGAL EDUCATION
I. The Curriculum
In an examination of the curriculum of law schools in general shows that courses
offered are all classifiable under the main branches of law with one or two perspective
courses thrown in. It will be noted of the curriculum is purely legal, a fact that finds its
justification in the principal purpose of legal training that is, to teach law. It is incumbent,
therefore, upon the legal educators to teach in the classroom, not only what the law is
but what it ought to be.
The students should always think in terms of the totality how one branch of law relates
with the others and how in turn, the science and art of law fits into the vast network of
society. In terms of the curriculum, it signifies the broadening of the curriculum to include
such subjects as economics, psychology, sociology, criminology, communications and
others.

II. The Lawyer and Legal Education
A. The Golden Age
Our legal education has stood us in good stead in the past, judging from the
performance of our predecessors. The accomplishment of the legal profession in the
formative years of our country, during the American occupation, was prodigious. It
succeeded in adapting the Roman-Spanish law to the spirit of a new age, to the
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American common law and to the conditions of an occupied nation. With little
precedent at hand, new substantive doctrines of law had to be fashioned. The genius of
the Philippine Bar was that it effected the transition by building as best it could on the
past, rather than by breaking with it and starting anew.
There is no other profession where it is acceptable to be a generalist to deal with
a wide range of facts, institutions and roles and, where it is acceptable to go into other
occupations. There is no profession that deals so intimately with the accumulation,
distribution and defense of power that draws in the other professions in the formation
of public policy, conflict resolution and national planning.

B. Traditional Law Schools
Traditional law schools were established to train technically competent lawyers.
This means that by the time a student graduates, he must have a good grasp of
important laws of the land, be able to speak write and comprehend legal languages and
understand legal concepts and modes of thought. Above all, the law graduate must
possess to a high degree the power of legal analysis and reasoning: in other words, the
ability to think like a lawyer.
The primary method of instruction in the classroom is by recitation- a system
found to be most effective in developing the student power of analysis, reasoning
ability, and facility of expression. Daily assignments on the codal provisions, court
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decisions, and standard authorities are given by the professor. The student is called
upon, to recite on the same to determine whether he has accomplished a proper and
correct assimilation of the law and philosophy underlying it.

C. Law School Admission Test
All Philippines law school should adopt some form of a law school admissions test
(LSAT). LSAT is a uniform objective examination designed to measure some of the
mental qualities which are needed for a successful law study. Within broad limits, the
LSAT is a useful predictor of success in law school. Questions on the LSAT are
formulated to gauge the individuals capacity to read, to understand, to reason logically
with a variety of verbal, quantitative and symbolic materials.

D. New Teaching Methods
All techniques of spoon-feeding or attempts to spare the student of original
research and self-study should be avoided. The teacher leads a student to critically
analyze and dissect legal principles and decisions for him through some degree of
recitation judiciously combined with Socratic question-answer-discussion method.
Socratic Method helps one develop crucial legal analytical skill, to accustom the
student to the lawyers adversary style of exchange, and to provide a forum in which
the student speaks in public. Clinical education is method similar to Socratic question-
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answer, discussion or role playing method. Its use depends on the way student
experience is organized. It is a way of capturing a body of knowledge and giving it
meaning.

III. The Integrated Bar and Legal Education

A. Education Objectives of the Integrated Bar
The education objectives of the Integrated Bar are: to encourage and foster legal
education; devise and maintain a program of continuing legal education for practicing
attorneys in order to elevate the standards of the profession throughout the country
and conduct campaigns to educate the people on their legal rights and obligations, on
the importance of preventive legal advice, and on the true functions of the Filipino
lawyers.
The first objective is stated in general terms and is all-embracing. The two
others, specifically referring to continuing legal education and legal education for the
people, in effect serve notice that the Integrated bar considers legal education as not
confined to lawyers or would-be lawyers but is also intended for non-lawyers.
In furtherance of these objectives the Integrated Bar proposes to distribute
educational and informational materials that are difficult to obtain in many of our
provinces and create law centers and establish law libraries for legal research.
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B. Essentiality of Knowledge of Law
Every citizen should know what law is, how it came into existence, what relation
its form bears to its substance, and how it gives to society its fiber and strength. The
knowledge of the law is not only desirable. It has become a necessity. The complexity
of modern society and the vital role the law plays in it makes law every persons
concern. It touches and regulates his life his acts and omission, his relationship, and
his property.
While the law defines and guarantees his rights it imposes on him certain
obligations. His ignorance of the law is no excuse for not complying with its
commands.

C. Three Levels of Legal Education
a. First Level - Legal Education of the People
The legal education of the people shall be part of the curricula in all schools
making no distinctions between primary or secondary school and those offering
higher education. It includes the study of the Constitution. Instruction could start
from the most rudimentary in the grade schools through lessons in civics and
government (which draw on the legal and government systems). A progress to
more advanced courses in the secondary schools and higher education should be
implemented.
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b. Second Level - Legal Education as Professional Training
The integrated bar has legitimate interest in the professional training that goes
in the making of a lawyer. For on the men and women receiving that training will
fall the primary responsibility of administering justice, running the government,
promulgating and enforcing the laws and providing leadership in society.
c. Third Level - Continuing Legal Education
To devise and maintain a program of continuing legal education for practicing
lawyers in order to elevate the standards of the profession in the country. Creating
law centers and establish law libraries for legal research shall form part of this
education.
Lawyers must indeed continue to grow in knowledge and competence. The
rapid changes in society demand that they not only comprehend their functions.
But more importantly discharge them with skill and thoroughness.

IV. Morality in Legal Education
Inherent honesty does not require an individual to refrain from undue
advertising to see that those engaged in the same activity are competent, nor demand
that the price of service be set with due regard to the ability of the client to pay thereof.
A law school cannot be exclusively a source of technical dexterity. It must likewise spare
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no effort to mold character. It implants devotions and abnegation that will last the
lifetime of its graduates who must from the very first be persuaded of the incomparable
gravity of their public and private mission.

V. Preparatory Bachelor of Arts and the Professional Legal Training
The characteristics of a lawyer include analytic skills, substantive legal
knowledge, basic working skills, familiarity with institutional environment, awareness of
total non-legal environment and good judgment.
Analytical skills
By analytical skills, I refer to these special capacities of the lawyer to distinguish
A from B, to separate the relevant from the irrelevant, to sort out a tangle into
manageable to sub-components, to examine a problem at will form close range or long
distance, and to surround a problem, surveying it from many different perspective.
Substantive Legal Knowledge
Every good lawyer knows some law, knows something of the general sea of
substantive doctrine in which he works. In comparison with the entire legal universe, no
lawyer of course, knows very much law outside the single field of sub-field in which he
has specialized. But every lawyer can locate himself and his clients problem on the
general map of substantive law.
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Basic Working Skills
The first class lawyer has at hand a bag of basic working skills. Most of his work
involves the amassment of information and the skillful use of the communication. The
first class lawyer knows how to write, how to use the library, how to be an advocate,
how to listen, how to draft, how to interrogate, and how to find out what he decides he
needs to know.
Familiarity with Institutional Environment
The first class lawyer is familiar with, and able to operate effectively in, the
institutional environment in which the problem arises. He must be able to deal with
people, to negotiate around a table, to stand to his feet in courtroom, and to unsnarl or
cut his way through the red tape of courts, administrative agencies, legislatures and
other legal institutional structures.
Awareness of the total Non-Legal Environment
The first class lawyer has the ability to comprehend the non-legal environment
of the problem at hand and to evaluate the impact that non-legal considerations will
have upon the outcome, and to perceive the ways in which the knowledge and insight of
the non-lawyers can be mobilized and brought to bear.

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Good Judgment
To be a truly competent lawyer, he must be a cultivated man. The best way to
prepare for the law is to come to the study of the law as a well-read person.
Studies in the arts and sciences should be pursued which will produce: habits of
thoroughness, intellectual curiosity and scholarship; a broad culture background and the
ability to organize materials and communicate the results orally and in writing.

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REFERENCES
1. Coquia, J. (2003). Legal Profession Readings and Materials (2
nd
ed.). Rex Bookstore, Inc.
2. Villareal, E. II (2002). Legal Profession. Rex Bookstore, Inc.
3. Woronoff, M. A. (2009). What Law Schools Should Teach Future Transactional Lawyers:
Perspective from Practice. Retrieved from http://ssrn.com/abstract=1430087

4. Republic Act 7662. Legal Education Reform Act of 1993. Retrieved from
http://laws.chanrobles.com/ph/ra/republicactno7662.html

5. Supreme Court of the Philippines. Bar Matter 850: Mandatory Continuing Legal Education.
Retrieved from http://www.chanrobles.com/supremecourtbarmatterno850revised.html

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