The Legal Education Board, or known widely by its abbreviation LEB, is an independent

government agency A government or state agency, sometimes an appointed commission, is a permanent or semi-permanent organization in the machinery of government that is responsible for the oversight and administration of specific functions, such as an administrati ...

responsible for the regulation of the

legal education Legal education is the education of individuals in the principles, practices, and theory of law. It may be undertaken for several reasons, including to provide the knowledge and skills necessary for admission to legal practice in a particular ...

in the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

. The agency was created on December 23, 1993 through the enactment of Republic Act No. 7662 or the Legal Education Act of 1993. Currently, the Board is chaired by Emerson B. Aquende.

History

Prior to the creation of the Board, the legal education in the Philippines was largely left unsupervised. However, on December 23, 1993, Republic Act No. 7662, or the Legal Education Reform Act of 1993 through the authorship of Senator

Edgardo Angara Edgardo Javier Angara (, September 24, 1934 – May 13, 2018) was a Filipino politician who served as the President of the Senate of the Philippines from 1993 to 1995. He was a Senator from 1987 to 1998 and then served as Secretary of Agricult ...

, was created into law. Despite of the creation of the Board, it only became operational after 16 years. In 2009, through the efforts of Senator Angara, the Board was given its first operational budget of 10 million pesos. In the same year, former

Court of Appeals A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much ...

Hilarion Aquino was appointed as its first Chairman. His term was supposedly to end on 2014, but had to occupy his post for two years in a holdover capacity. In 2016, Aquino was replaced by Emerson Aquende, former Law Dean of

University of Santo Tomas–Legazpi The University of Santo Tomas–Legazpi, also referred to by its acronym UST–Legazpi or USTL,is a private, Catholic basic and higher education institution run and owned by the Philippine Dominican Province of the Order of Preachers (OP) in ...

(formerly known as Aquinas University of Legazpi). On December 29, 2016, the Legal Education Board issued a memorandum order mandating all aspiring law school students to take the Philippine Law School Admission Test (PhilSAT). The first examination took place in April 2017 across seven key cities in the Philippines.

Developments

The following were the major changes to the legal education made by the Board since 2009: * Migration of the basic law degree from Bachelor of Laws to thesis and non-thesis Juris Doctor degrees. * For purposes of classification, ranking and promotion in non-law degrees or courses, Juris Doctor and Bachelor of Laws degrees were classified as equivalent to professional graduate degrees, regardless if the holder has bar eligibility. Previously, a law degree with bar eligibility was only treated as equivalent to a master's degree.

Composition

The Board is composed of a Chairman, who must preferably a former justice of the

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

or of the Court of Appeals, and four other regular members, each representing the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, Philippine Association of Law Schools, the ranks of active law practitioners and the law students' sector. A representative from the Commission of Higher Education shall also serve as an ''ex officio'' member of the Board. With the exception of the representative of the law students' sector, the Chairman and regular members of the Board must be natural-born citizen of the Philippines and members of the Philippine Bar, who have been engaged for at least ten years in the practice of law, as well as in the teaching of law in a duly authorized or recognized law school.

PhiLSAT

The Philippine Law School Admission Test, or more popularly known by its acronym PhiLSAT, is a one day standardized aptitude test that was designed to evaluate the academic capability of a person to pursue the potential in the study of law in the Philippines. The standardized test was created pursuant to LEB Memorandum Order No. 7, series of 2016. The tests covers four subtests, namely: communications and language proficiency, critical thinking, verbal reasoning, and quantitative reasoning. The test was first implemented in 1970; it was later reintroduced in 2017 and is given twice a year, on April and on September. In 2017, two petitions were filed before the

: a petition challenging the constitutionality of the Legal Education Board, and the second was a petition challenging the powers of the Board to administer a standardized national test and creating such test as a requirement for law school admission. Oral arguments were held on March 5 and 12, 2019. On March 18, 2019, the Supreme Court issued a

temporary restraining order An injunction is a legal and equitable remedy in the form of a special court order that compels a party to do or refrain from specific acts. ("The court of appeals ... has exclusive jurisdiction to enjoin, set aside, suspend (in whole or in par ...

for the implementation of PhiLSAT. The order further conditionally allowed those who have not taken PhiLSAT for the academic year of 2018-2019, those did not pass the tests in the previous years, those honor graduates with no exemption certificates or with expired exemption certificates to enroll as incoming law students for the upcoming academic year. The said order was effective immediately and shall continue until further orders from the said high court.

References

External links