'Back to law school' for 2,500 PAO lawyers October 10 to 14
About 2,500 lawyers of the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) are set to hold a five-day convention in October for their Mandatory Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) to keep abreast with law and jurisprudence, and enhance their legal services to the poor and the underprivileged.
PAO Chief Persida V. Rueda Acosta said the MCLE is set October 10 to 14 at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) in Pasay City.
PAO’s MCLE was postponed in 2020 because of the lockdowns imposed by the government due to Covid-19 pandemic.
Acosta said in her Facebook post: “Halos 2,500 pong abogado ang magkikita-kita sa PICC para po dumalo sa limang araw na pag-aaral na muli, pagbabalik sa mga asignatura sa law school (Around 2,500 PAO lawyers will be going to the PICC to attend the five-day law school refreshers).”
“Sana po matuloy na ito kasi noong 2020 po ay nagka-lockdown kaya hindi po namin naisakatuparan (I hope it pushes through because it was postponed in 2020 because of the lockdown),” she pointed out.
She said the five-day MCLE convention is part of PAO’s “capacity building and empowerment.”
“Ito pong capacity building and empowerment ay parameters ng social development. Ang social justice ay isa pong component ng social development (Capacity building and empowerment are parameters of social development. Social justice is one of the components of social development),” she explained.
“Kaya po napakahalaga na palakasin ang kakayanan, ang talino, ang galing ng ating mga abogado sa buong kapuluan (This is the reason why it is important to strengthen the abilities, intelligence and skills of our lawyers nationwide),” she added.
Under the rule on MCLE which is mandatory for all lawyers in the country, members of the legal profession are required every three years to complete at 36 hours of continuing legal education activities approved by the Supreme Court (SC).
Of the required 36 hours, at least six hours should be devoted to legal ethics, four hours to trial and pretrial skills, five hours to alternative dispute resolution, nine (9) hours to updates on substantive and procedural laws and jurisprudence, four hours to legal writing and oral advocacy, two hours to international law and international conventions, and six hours to such subjects as may be prescribed by the MCLE committee constituted by the SC.