CAYETANO vs MONSOD

GR 100113 September 3, 1991

In 1991, Christian Monsod was appointed as the Chairman of the Commission on Elections. His
appointment was affirmed by the Commission on Appointments.
Monsods appointment was opposed by Renato Cayetano on the ground that he does not qualify
for he failed to meet the Constitutional requirement which provides that the chairman of the
COMELEC should have been engaged in the practice law for at least ten years.
Monsods track record as a lawyer:
1. Passed the bar in 1960 with a rating of 86.55%.
2. Immediately after passing, worked in his fathers law firm for one year.
3. Thereafter, until 1970, he went abroad where he had a degree in economics
and held various positions in various foreign corporations.
4. In 1970, he returned to the Philippines and held executive jobs for various
local corporations until 1986.
5. In 1986, he became a member of the Constitutional Commission.

ISSUE: Whether or not Monsod qualifies as chairman of the COMELEC. What constitutes practice of
law?
HELD: Yes.
Atty. Monsods past work experiences as a lawyer-economist, a lawyer-manager, a lawyerentrepreneur of industry, a lawyer-negotiator of contracts, and a lawyer-legislator of both the rich
and the poor verily more than satisfy the constitutional requirement that he has been
engaged in the practice of law for at least ten years.
As noted by various authorities, the practice of law is not limited to court appearances.
The members of the bench and bar and the informed laymen such as businessmen, know that in
most developed societies today, substantially more legal work is transacted in law offices than in
the courtrooms.
General practitioners of law who do both litigation and non-litigation work also know that in most
cases they find themselves spending more time doing what is loosely described as business
counseling than in trying cases.
In the course of a working day the average general practitioner wig engage in a number of legal
tasks, each involving different legal doctrines, legal skills, legal processes, legal institutions, clients,
and other interested parties.
Even the increasing numbers of lawyers in specialized practice wig usually perform at least some
legal services outside their specialty.
By no means will most of this work involve litigation, unless the lawyer is one of the relatively rare
types a litigator who specializes in this work to the exclusion of much else. Instead, the work will
require the lawyer to have mastered the full range of traditional lawyer skills of client counseling,
advice-giving, document drafting, and negotiation.