MAGDANGAL M.

DE LEON
Associate Justice, Court of Appeals
Chair, Department of Remedial Law, PHILJA

Justice Magdangal M. de Leon is a product of the

Philippine public school system. He obtained his Foreign
Service degree in the University of the Philippines where
he was a College Scholar and became Secretary
General of the U.P. Foreign Service Corps, aside from
being selected as member of the Phi Kappa Phi
International Honor Society and Pi Gamma Mu
International Social Science Honor Society. He
graduated from the UP College of Law in 1972, where
he was among the top ten in his batch. After a few
years in private practice, starting with the law firm of the prominent trial lawyer,
Crispin Baizas, he entered government service in 1976 as a Research Attorney
in the Office of the Solicitor General, the law firm of the government and its
officials. Rising from the ranks, he was appointed Assistant Solicitor General by
President Aquino in 1991. In 2004, he was appointed Associate Justice of the
Court of Appeals by President Arroyo.

Presently, he is a faculty member and bar reviewer at the Ateneo Law

School, teaching remedial law subjects. He is the new Chairman of the Philippine
Judicial Academy (PHILJA) Remedial Law Department. Also, he is a member of
the Supreme Court Sub-Committee on the Revision of the Rules of Civil
Procedure.. He was an examiner for Remedial Law in the 2009 bar
examinations. Recently, he served as member of the Screening Committee for
Second Level Courts in connection with the 2009 Awards for Judicial Excellence.
Aside from being a PHILJA lecturer, he is also an active Mandatory Continuing
Legal Education (MCLE) lecturer and has traveled to San Francisco and Los
Angeles, California for that purpose. In the international scene, he is a member of
the International Consultants Group, Rules and Principles of Transnational Civil
Procedure, sponsored by the American Law Institute.

Among other distinctions, he is a recipient of the 2008 UP Centennial

Distinguished Alumnus Award for championing justice and the judiciary; 2008
Ulirang Ama Awardee for Law and Judiciary; 2007 Outstanding Jurist Award from
the Consumers Union of the Philippines; and 2007 Presiding Justice Award for
Outstanding performance, notably in case disposal;

Cognizant of the Constitutional right of litigants to a speedy disposition of

their cases (Art. III, Sec. 16), he was able to attain zero number of cases
submitted for decision in September 2006, just two (2) years and seven (7)
months from his appointment.