Philippines
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CJ Gesmundo: 'Lawyering is public
service, administration of justice'
CJ Gesmundo: 'Lawyering is public service, administration of justice'
Chief Justice Alexander G. Gesmundo on Friday, Sept. 2, said the ultimate goal of lawyering “has always been, and will always be, public service and the administration of justice.”
Gesmundo also told the first batch of law students of the newly inaugurated Aurora State College of Technology’s (ASCOT) College of Law in Baler, Aurora province that lawyering “is a service to others in need of justice, and a service to others in search of truth.”
The Chief Justice was guest of honor during the inauguration.
He reiterated the Supreme Court’s (SC) challenge to law schools “to make legal education more attuned to the times and the needs of society.”
He said the SC has started re-orienting legal education with the promulgation of the Revised Law Student Practice Rule, which was created to attain the two-fold objective of geographically expanding access to justice and producing competent and practice-ready lawyers.
He noted that the Legal Education Board has since implemented the Revised Model Curriculum which shifts the focus of legal education from merely passing the Bar exams or being “Bar-centric” to “practice-readiness” or ensuring that law students are fully equipped with the knowledge and skills required of lawyers.
“I am glad to learn that the ASCOT College of Law is also geared towards producing lawyers who will have a heart of service for the Filipino people,” he said.
“Indeed, this is a propitious time to open a law school. We are at the crossroads of innovation and tradition, of technology and convention. And what better school to open a college of law than one with a good foundation in technology,” he added.
The SC’s public information office (PIO) said that ASCOT, the only government-funded state college in the province of Aurora, has been granted by the Legal Education Board a permit to operate the first law school in Aurora.”
Also in Aurora province on Friday, Sept. 2, Chief Justice Gesmundo led the inauguration of the Halls of Justice of Baler.
In his message to judges and court personnel, Gesmundo expressed hp that the Halls of Justice will give the court officials and personnel a structure sufficient to serve their needs.
With the Chief Justice during the inauguration, aside from trial court officials and personnel, were SC PIO Chief Brian Keith F. Hosaka and Baler Regional Trial Court Judge Enrico Voltaire P. Rivera.