New requirements for Filipino law students who will graduate from foreign law schools and who intend to take the Philippine bar examinations

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SC sets added requirements for bar exams for Filipino graduates of foreign schools
By Rey Panaligan
Published August 13, 2019, 4:48 PM

The Supreme Court (SC) has added new requirements for Filipino law students who will graduate from foreign law schools and who intend to take the Philippine bar examinations.

Starting 2023 bar examinations, the SC said Filipinos who will graduate from foreign law schools must submit certifications “on completion of all courses leading to the degree of Bachelor of Laws or its equivalent degree, recognition or accreditation of the law school by the proper authority, and completion of all the fourth year subjects in the Bachelor of Laws academic program in a law school duly recognized by the Philippine Government.”

This is on top of an earlier requirement that they have to submit a certification that they completed satisfactorily the program on clinical legal education.
The prescribed courses in law schools are civil law, commercial law, remedial law, criminal law, public and private international law, political law, labor and social legislation, medical jurisprudence, taxation, and legal ethics, and clinical legal education program.

Among other things, the original text of Section 5 of Rule 138 on bar admission stated: “No applicant shall be admitted to the bar examinations unless he has satisfactorily completed the following courses in a law school or university duly recognized by the government: civil law, commercial law, remedial law, criminal law, public and private international law, political law, labor and social legislation, medical jurisprudence, taxation and legal ethics.”

The additional requirements were contained in its July 23, 2019 SC issuance as a revision to a resolution dated June 25, 2019 on the amendment to Rule 38 Section 5 in relation to the revision of Rule 138-A of the Rules of Court.
The June 25 amendment added “clinical legal education program” on the list of courses an applicant must satisfactorily complete before being admitted to the bar examinations.

The Revised Law Student Practice Rule in its June 25, 2019 amendment provides that starting next year, law students who have been certified to have completed their first year law courses can also engage in a limited practice of law under the supervision of a lawyer.

The new rule is a modification of Rule 138-A which provides that a law student “who has successfully completed his third year of the regular four-year prescribed law curriculum… may appear without compensation in any civil, criminal or administrative case before any trial court, tribunal, board or officer, to represent indigent clients accepted by the legal clinic of the law school.”

The SC said the amendment “ensures access to justice of the marginalized sectors, enhances learning opportunities of law students by instilling in them the value of legal professional social responsibility, and prepares them for the practice of law.”

It also said the amendment “addresses the need to institutionalize clinical legal education program in all law schools in order to enhance, improve, and streamline law student practice, and regulate their limited practice of law.”

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