The Supreme Court (SC) and the Legal Education Board (LEB) will conduct starting Thursday, Dec. 1, a three-day Clinical Legal Education Summit in Taguig City to tackle legal aid needs of communities and services rendered by law clinics in the country.
The Revised Law Student Practice Rule requires all law schools to establish a clinical legal education program (CLEP) and law clinics nationwide.
The SC’s public information office (PIO) said the CLEP and the law clinics are mandated on the need to ensure access to justice of the marginalized sector and enhancing legal education by inculcating in law students the value of legal professional social responsibility and preparing them for the practice of law, through experiential education.
It said the summit “will discuss the legal aid needs of the communities and services rendered by law clinics in the country, the potential impact of the Revised Law Student Practice Rule in addressing access to justice issues, as well as theories and principles in clinical legal education such as experiential learning, clinical pedagogy, professional ethics, and skills building for law student practitioners.”
At the same time, the PIO said the summit will “serve as forum for law schools to share their experiences, challenges, and best practices in designing, developing, and implementing their CLEP in accordance with the requirements of the Revised Law Student Practice Rule, and explore mechanisms to expand the programs of law clinics in the Philippines.”
Chief Justice Alexander G. Gesmundo will give the keynote address on the first day of the summit, while Senior Associate Justice Marvic M.V.F. Leonen will also deliver a message as chairperson of the SC’s Oversight Committee on the Revised Rule 138-A (Revised Law Student Practice Rule).
On Dec. 2, SC Associate Justice Maria Filomena D. Singh will give a presentation on “CLEP and Preparing the Ethical Lawyer.” Justice Singh will also provide the closing message during the CLEP Awards and Fellowship Night on the same day.
The PIO said the summit is organized by the LEB in partnership of the SC, the Philippine Association of Law Schools, and Association of Law Students of the Philippines, with the support of The Asia Foundation and the United States Department of State Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs.
The LEB was created in 1993 under Republic Act No. 7662 “to uplift the standards of legal education in order to prepare law students for advocacy, counselling, problem-solving, and decision-making, to infuse in them the ethics of the legal profession.”
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