‘THE first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers,” says Dick the Butcher in one of the most memorable lines in Shakespeare’s Henry VI.

Some may be thinking of lawyers along such denigratory, though hopefully less extreme, lines especially with the full-blown impeachment drama playing out on national TV four times a week. Their flaws, missteps and oversights are revealed as much as their incisiveness, finesse and wit. Lawyers are, after all, very human.

But no matter how much is said of individual lawyers, the importance of the profession—hence its practitioners—cannot be disputed. For the land is ruled by laws and lawyers are its custodian, guardian and protector.

This is precisely illuminated in Shakespeare’s famous line, if not backhanded praise. Dick, a follower of the anarchist Jack Cade, says this in realization that, for their rebellion to succeed, they must first do away with the lawyers—not the army or the monarchy, but the lawyers.

This is, by no means, meant to unduly toot the legal profession’s horn; not at all. I only wish to point out that the gravity and exigency of the profession must be matched with the conscience and sense of responsibility of its practitioners. This was the essence of the Twelfth UP Law Centennial I delivered at the law school last week.

The UP College of Law celebrates its centenary, strangely enough, three years after the rest of the university, and even later than the Colleges of Agriculture, Fine Arts, Liberal Arts, Engineering, Medicine and Surgery and Veterinary Services.

George Malcolm, who would become the first UP Law dean, believed this was due to a prejudice against Filipinos’ suitability for the practice of law. Though the original charter of the university explicitly mandated the creation of a College of Law, the Board of Regents (BOR), led by then Secretary of Public Instruction Newton W. Gilbert, turned down the proposal.

Malcolm persevered, persuading the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) to offer a law curriculum in English beginning 1910. The enthusiastic public response probably changed the mind of the university BOR, and they passed on January 12, 1911, the enabling resolution providing for the establishment of the college. Finally, on July 11, 1911, the law school formally opened its doors to 109 freshmen and 29 sophomores, who transferred from YMCA.

UP Law has been pivotal in the nation’s development ever since, producing presidents, lawmakers, justices and public servants. The college has also produced notable leaders outside the legal profession: in the police, education, the arts, in a wide array of businesses and even religion. But history is not enough. The future beckons to the next generation of UP lawyers—and lawyers graduated by other schools—to do as distinguished alumni have done for country, for college and for themselves. This depends on a law school’s ability to evolve its teaching methods to meet the changing and mounting challenges facing the practice of the profession. This is the age of “Global Law Schools.” Studying abroad is increasingly becoming a component of mainstream curriculum. The great law schools of Harvard and Yale now put emphasis on their joint-degree programs, whether with other professional schools within the university or with those in different countries.

In contrast, the legal practice in the Philippines firmly discourages competition from foreign lawyers. Foreign legal scholars may not teach credited courses in Philippine law schools, let alone practice before our courts, as if we are afraid to pit our best legal minds with the best from around the world. On the other hand, our engineers, financial managers, doctors and other professionals compete successfully with their peers abroad.

The internationalization of the practice of law is, I believe, one of the biggest challenges facing the profession, especially in the Philippines. The UP College of Law, as a publicly supported school, should lead, rather than follow, in meeting these challenges, and in helping prepare Filipino lawyers for a more transnational practice.

At a time when our nation is shaken by social and legal problems, the lawyers are expected, nay commanded, to defend the critical climate of the rule of law. But ultimately, let us not judge law schools by the eloquence of the occasional practitioner in a moment of constitutional crisis.

Law schools are not established to create great men for great moments, but to make excellent everyday lawyers to protect good men in the ordinary course of law.

Those who, from that everyday but necessary vocation, rise to greatness will owe their eminence not from the school they attended, but from the conscience, values and the wisdom they acquire on their own. We hope to see them rise during this watershed in our nation’s history.

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