SC Justices Speak at PALS Annual Convention
February 15, 2024
Supreme Court Associate Justice Mario V. Lopez presents the salient points of the forthcoming 2024 Bar Examinations to the participants of the Philippine Association of Law Schools 2024 Annual Convention, held February 8 to 10, 2024, in Cagayan de Oro City. Justice Lopez is the Chairperson of the 2024 Bar Examinations. (Courtesy of the Office of Associate Justice Mario V. Lopez)
Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Marvic M.V.F. Leonen (second from right) shakes the hand of Philippine Association of Law Schools President Dean Gemy Lito L. Festin during the first day of the Philippine Association of Law Schools 2024 Annual Convention, held February 8 to 10, 2024, at Limketkai Luxe Hotel in Cagayan de Oro City. (Courtesy of the Office of Associate Justice Mario V. Lopez)
Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice (SAJ) Marvic M.V.F. Leonen and Associate Justice Mario V. Lopez, Chairperson of the 2024 Bar Examinations, graced the first day of the three-day Philippine Association of Law Schools (PALS) 2024 Annual Convention, held from February 8 to 10, 2024 at the Limketkai Luxe Hotel in Cagayan de Oro City.
In his keynote address before the deans, faculty members, and representatives of 125 law schools nationwide, SAJ Leonen spoke on the law and the politics of language and artificial intelligence, and the challenges that these present for Philippine law schools. SAJ Leonen was the Chairperson of the 2020/21 Bar Examinations, the first ever digitalized and regionalized Bar Examinations in the country.
Justice Lopez, for his part, presented to the participants the salient points of the upcoming 2024 Bar Examinations in his lecture titled “A Glimpse of the Future of Bar Examinations.”
He discussed the Bar reforms of the Supreme Court under its Strategic Plan for Judicial Innovations 2022-2027, or the SPJI. Highlighting the Judiciary’s efforts at eradicating Bar-centricity of the country’s legal education system, he put into focus the prioritization of skills training and ethical responsibility in future lawyers; the automation of the Bar Examinations processes such as registration and certification through the BARISTA online platform of the Court; and the Revised Model Law Curriculum.
Justice Lopez emphasized that the goal of this year’s Bar Examinations is “to produce fundamentally ready and potentially capable lawyers” through the continuation of the digitalized and regionalized conduct of the exams with a condensed schedule and multiple examiners. He shared that the 2024 Bar Examinations questions “will evince analytical and problem-solving abilities, strong sense of ethics, professionalism, empathy for clients, and commitment to public service as minimum benchmarks for admission to the practice of law.”
He also revealed that this year’s examinations will apply a general formula to test the legal knowledge of the examinees as well as their values and ethics in correlation with the Code of Professional Responsibility and Accountability. The 2024 Bar Examinations Chairperson said that examinees are expected to answer the questions in three tiers: by stating a conclusion; by citing a legal basis using law and jurisprudence; and by providing an argument that will show their reasoning skills through deductive, inductive, and abductive approaches.
Addressing the members of the academe present, Justice Lopez, who taught law prior to his appointment to the Supreme Court, emphasized: “Lawyering is the noblest profession. But higher than lawyering is teaching law. You are in the highest echelon of lawyering! Without you, we will never have good and competent lawyers.”
The 2024 Bar Examinations (#BarNiJLo2024, #MostValuableLaban, #MarVeLousBar) will be held on September 8, 11, and 15, 2024. (Courtesy of the Office of Associate Justice Mario V. Lopez)
Senior Associate Justice Marvic M.V.F. Leonen poses for posterity with the officers of the Philippine Association of Law Schools (PALS) on the first day the PALS 2024 Annual Convention, at Limketkai Luxe Hotel in Cagayan De Oro City. Senior Associate Justice Leonen spoke on the law and the politics of language and artificial intelligence, and the challenges these pose for Philippine law schools. (Courtesy of the Office of Associate Justice Mario V. Lopez)
Supreme Court Associate Justice Mario V. Lopez, Chairperson of the 2024 Bar Examinations, shares with the participants of the Philippine Association of Law Schools (PALS) 2024 Annual Convention the salient features of the forthcoming examinations. Justice Lopez emphasized that goal of the 2024 Bar Examinations is “to produce fundamentally ready and potentially capable lawyers” through the continuation of the digitalized and regionalized conduct of the exams with a condensed schedule and multiple examiners. (Courtesy of the Office of Associate Justice Mario V. Lopez)