INSPIRATIONAL SPEECH OF
ATTY. MANUEL J. LASERNA JR. GIVEN BEFORE THE SPECIAL REUNION OF A SELECT GROUP OF
THE ALUMNI OF THE INSTITUTE OF LAW OF FAR EASTERN UNIVERSITY SPONSORED BY THE FEU
LAW STUDENT COUNCIL HELD ON JULY 12, 2013, Friday, AT 6:00-11:00 PM AT THE
ABERDEEN COURT, QUEZON AVENUE, QUEZON CITY.
I.
MY MEMORABLE
YEARS AT THE FAR EASTERN UNIVERSITY (FEU)
In 1984, when I took the
Bar Examinations, I was 30 years old.
Amidst the burdens of
fatherhood and professional work, I studied law at the FEU Institute of Law,
with courage and hope, under the inspirational guidance of the late Dean
Neptali Gonzales, who later served as Senate President, and his distinguished
Faculty of Law.
Since the formation of the
FEU Institute of Law before World War II, the FEU Faculty of Law has always
been composed of prominent jurists, legal scholars and law practitioners.
In the 198os, I was fortunate
to be mentored by Dean Neptali Gonzales, Court of Appeals Presiding Justice Oscar
Victoriano, Court of Appeals Associate Justice Oscar Herrera, Sandiganbayan
Presiding Justice Manuel Pamaran, Sandiganbayan Associate Justice Balajadia, Justice
Secretary Raul Gonzales, Dean Antonio Abad, Dean Ed Vincent Albano, and other exemplary
legal minds.
In the history of the
Philippine Bar Examinations, 1984 was the first time that the University of the
Philippines did not land in the Top Ten. The Ateneo College of Law garnered 7
slots in the Top Ten in 1984, including the No. 1 and the No. 2 slots.
We should note with pride that
in the 1971 Bar Examinations, the FEU Institute of Law garnered 6 slots in the
Top Ten, including the No. 1 slot. The excellent 1971 track record of the FEU Institute
of Law was broken only in 1984 -- that is, after 13 years -- by the
Ateneo College of Law when it garnered 7 slots in the Top Ten.
To the entire FEU
Community, the 1984 Bar Examinations was memorable because the FEU Institute of
Law garnered the No. 3 slot in the Top Ten, thus, enhancing the reputation of the
FEU Institute of Law as a reputable academic and practical training ground for
future lawyers and jurists.
Upon my admission to the
Philippine Bar in 1985, having placed Third in the Top Ten of the 1984 Bar
Examinations, I was invited by Dean Neptali Gonzales and Assistant Dean Antonio
Abad, to teach at the FEU Institute of Law.
I readily accepted the
invitation as an opportunity to serve my alma mater.
It might interest you to
know that I spent my high school years from 1967 to 1971 at the Secondary
Laboratory School of FEU.
FEU formed my adolescence
and taught me how to achieve my dreams as a young man.
I was separated from FEU
from 1971 to 1975 when I took up AB Journalism at the University of the
Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City.
From 1980 to 1984, I
returned to FEU to study law.
I was a scholar of a
private organization where I was working as a department manager.
From 1985 to 2006, or for
21 years, I taught at the FEU Institute of Law, except for a brief leave of
absence in the early 1990s due to the demands of my corporate work and private law
practice.
When took up my Master of
Laws degree at the Graduate School of the University of Santo Tomas from 1998
to 2000, as a scholar of the FEU Educational Foundation, I taught at the FEU
Institute of Law at the same time.
In 2006, I resigned from
the faculty of the FEU Institute of Law to take care of my failing health and to
give more time to my children, my private law practice, and my local Bar
activities in the southern district of Metro Manila.
All in all, I spent 30
years under the academic wings and the intellectual and moral training of the FEU
Community.
Indeed, the FEU Community formed
my mind and my character as a person, citizen, and legal practitioner.
II.
TO THE LAW
STUDENTS OF THE FEU INSTITUTE OF LAW
Having been requested by
the President of the Student Council of the FEU Institute of Law to inspire the
FEU law students who are attending the event tonight, I can only emphasize one
thing:
There is no substitute for hard work,
preparation, and a burning desire to succeed.
As students of the FEU
Institute of Law, you must be prepared:
·
to sacrifice your
leisure time in favor of your rigorous legal study,
·
to stick to your
academic mission and strategic priorities as students of law,
·
to cut
unnecessary social activities that may waste your time as productive law students,
·
to invest your
personal savings in current editions of recommended law textbooks and bar
reviewers,
·
to develop your modest
personal law library this early little by little, including a personal digital
database of useful laws and jurisprudence,
·
to use modern legal
technology and the Internet to improve your legal research and to expand your
legal horizons,
·
to practice the
art of effective legal writing,
·
to improve both your
legal reasoning and your common-sensical or pragmatic reasoning,
·
to practice the
art of critical thinking by questioning the letter and the spirit of all the laws,
cases and textbooks that you read and by questioning the theories and
assumptions in the lectures and conclusions of your professors,
·
to update
yourselves on current domestic and cross-border legal issues and developments
by regularly visiting reputable local and foreign law websites,
·
to improve your
reading speed and comprehension by constant reading and writing,
·
to develop your
leadership and your sense of volunteerism and good citizenship by engaging in
extra-curricular activities, humanitarian outreach, and free legal clinics that
will benefit your law school and the community,
·
and, most important
of all, to achieve inner peace and
genuine happiness by learning to
balance your student life, professional life, family life, and spiritual
life.
III.
TO BE A GOOD
LAWYER, ONE MUST FIRST BE A GOOD PERSON.
In my almost 30 years of
private law practice, I have learned that an enlightened and happy person is
not defined by his work, profession, wealth, connections, and public image.
Your professional title as
an attorney does not define who you are and does not determine your essence as
a person.
You are, first and
foremost, a human being -- a person.
To be a good lawyer, one
must first be a good person, that is, he must first be a good spouse, a good
parent to his children, a good child to
his parents, a good friend, a good neighbor, a good citizen, and a good seeker
of truth and justice.
An enlightened person’s three-fold
goals should be: to avoid evil, to do good, and to purify the mind.
When you become private
law practitioners in the future, you would
realize that, although raising b business capital and collecting attorney’s
fees are important duties because without them your law office would not survive
in the competitive legal market, nonetheless, you must learn to discipline your
mind to be detached from the
enticements of greed and to live a
modest life without hatred and envy, purifying your mind of impurities that may
destroy your inner peace and equanimity and that may obstruct your liberation
as pilgrims in this lifetime.
In closing, we, the FEU
law alumni, hope you all the best. May
you all be happy! Thank you.
Atty. MANUEL J. LASERNA
JR.
Former Professor of Law,
FEU Inst. of Law
LL.B. Class 1984, FEU
Inst. of Law
Partner, Laserna
Cueva-Mercader Law Offices
mjlasernajr@gmail.com
http://www.twitter.com/mjlasernajr
http://www.facebook.com/attylaserna
Office Tel. No. 8725443
& 8462539
