What is Legal Profession?

The Legal Profession as defined simply is the vocation that is based on expertise in the
law and in its applications. The legal profession has always had an ambiguous social position.
Leading lawyers have usually been socially prominent and respectedthe sections of the
profession so favoured varying with the general structure of the law in the particular community.1

The legal profession is a very diverse profession that represents many aspects of society. Some of
these lawyers are the General Practice, Labor, Corporate, Criminal, Environment, Human Rights,
Family, Fiscal, Prosecutor, Judge, Justice, etc.

History of the Legal Profession

The earliest vocation that could be best described as a lawyer were the orators of
ancient Athens. These orators worked for free as there were rules governing the pleading of the
cases that served as obstacles for these orators to be formally called professionals. First, there
was a rule that individuals were supposed to plead their own cases, which was soon bypassed by
the increasing tendency of individuals to ask a "friend" for assistance. Second, a more serious
obstacle, which the Athenian orators never completely overcame, was the rule that no one could
take a fee to plead the cause of another. This law was widely disregarded in practice, but was
never abolished, which meant that orators could never present themselves as legal professionals
or experts.2
If the definition is narrowed to those who could practice the legal profession openly and legally,
then the first lawyers would have to be the orators of ancient Rome which were the advocates
and juris consults. 3 There apparently wasnt much money to be made in its initial era as the fee
had a cap on it. It was mostly just a hobby by wealthy intellectual amateurs who were more
versed in rhetorics rather than the actual laws. During these era of the Roman Republic,
lawyers are unregulated until their regulation by Emperor Claudius.
1 Charles Van Doren: The Encyclopdia Britannica, Encyclopdia Britannica, Inc.
2 Robert J. Bonner, Lawyers and Litigants in Ancient Athens: The Genesis of the
Legal Profession (New York: Benjamin Blom, 1927), 202.
3 Crook, 90. Crook cites Tacitus, Annals VI, 5 and 7 for this point. For more
information about the complex political affair that forced Emperor Claudius to
decide this issue, see The Annals of Tacitus, Book VI (Franklin Center, PA: The
Franklin Library, 1982), 208.

During the Middle Ages, paralleling the collapse of the Roman Empire in the west, the legal
profession essentially disappears. Within the Church, a body of men pursued the study of Canon
Law, but practice in civil law was rare, if it existed at all. By the mid-thirteenth century, the legal
profession begins to reemerge. In England, the Magna Carta effectively shifts power and
authority away from the monarchy and into the hands of a larger number of people. By the
beginnings of the Protestant Reformation, as a greater number of political states begin to evolve
away from control of the Church, a more thoroughly structured concept of the legal profession
begins to appear and oaths and ethical expectations, educational requirements, and fee controls
were implemented, although there was no universal standard.

What is the current state of Legal Profession in the

Philippines?
A primary requirement for the legal profession in the Philippines is a degree in law school and
the licensure exam called the Philippine Bar Examination. Law degree programs are considered
professional/post-baccalaureate programs in the Philippines. As such, admission to law schools
requires the completion of a bachelor's degree, with a sufficient number of credits or units in
certain subject areas. The Philippine legal education is supervised by the Legal Education Board
rather than the Commission on Higher Education (CHED). According to the 1987 constitution,
the Supreme Court the sole power to admit individuals to the practice of law in the Philippines.
This power is exercised through a Bar Examination Committee, an ad hoc academic group
tasked to formulate questions, administer proceedings, grade examinations, rank candidates, and
release the results of the Philippine Bar Examination.4 To be eligible to take the national bar
exam, a candidate must be a Filipino citizen, at least twenty-one years of age, and holder of a
bachelor's degree and a law degree obtained from a government recognized law school in the
Philippines. Graduates of law schools from other countries must obtain a law degree from the
Philippines to qualify for the Philippine Bar.5

The first school to offer legal education was the University of Santo Tomas that established its
Faculties of Canon Law and Civil Law in 1733. In 1899, after the Malolos Constitution was
ratified, the Universidad Literia de Filipinas was established in Malolos, Bulacan. It offered Law
as well as Medicine, Surgery and Notary Public. In 1899, Felipe Caldern founded the Escuela

4 Section 5, Article VIII, The Philippine Constitution, 1987.

5 Section 2, 5-6; Rule 138, Revised Rules of Court

de Derecho de Manila and adopted the name Manila Law College in 1924. The University of the
Philippines opened its College of Law in 1910.6

Currently, the legal system used in the Philippines is mixed. We have the roman civil law
inherited from our Spanish colonizers, the Anglo-American common law derived from the
American colonizers and the Islamic Shariah law from our Muslim brothers down in the south.
Essentially, the Philippines follows more the civil law legal system since the country was
colonized by the Spaniards by more than 300 years.

In the past, lawyers held a strong position in the government and its three branches. Out if
the 16 presidents we had, 8 were lawyers. The legislative assembly is usually dominated and
monopolized by legal practitioners, specifically lawyers. This would make sense as the primary
work of the legislative branch of the government is to legislate or make/modify laws for the
benefit of the nation. As the election in the Philippines evolved throughout the years to become
more of a popularity contest, less and less of lawyers could enter the congress and the senate.
Thankfully, the Judiciary is still safe from being penetrated by amateurs.

6 Jorge Coquia. The Legal Profession. Rex Book Store, 1993.