By Atty. Eduardo T. Reyes III
News swirled from tweets and posts that the results of the 2022 Bar exams which were rolled out last November 2022 will be out anytime soon. Social media has been abuzz with the scheduled oath-taking and signing of the roll of attorneys this coming May, which are requirements for successful bar examinees to comply with, to become full-fledged lawyers.
As everything about the release of the successful bar takers is being held in suspended animation, this columnist could almost feel the anxiety and stress building up on the part of the bar examinees.
Did I make the list or not?
The list could only be a list of names in the eyes of many, but such list holds the future of the bar takers.
The bar is both symbolic and real.
It is a symbol of formal entry into the legal profession. The law is held in high esteem because of the difficulty of one becoming a lawyer.
The bar is also real in the sense that it is like a “no entry” sign for those not meant to become lawyers.
Yet, this columnist being a law professor, mentor of new lawyers, and father to a young lawyer, his heart goes out to all the bar examinees.
And if only he can make a “rain dance” to further the rain fall of lawyers passing the bar, he would do so.
But he cannot.
Instead, this columnist will quote himself last year when he wrote an article dedicated to the bar takers of that year, wishing them good luck and hoping that many bar examinees will make it.
Here is an excerpt of the article entitled “The Rain on Bar Exam Day” which was published in this paper on February 5, 2022:
“The challenges were mounting. In their anxious minds, the examinees might have asked: how long can I stay healthy? Or sane?
Patience. This is one virtue which is essential to every lawyer. The law is not perfect. But it meets perfection when a patient and conscientious interpretation is congealed by the lawyer handling the case. True, it is the magistrates who hand down decisions that make jurisprudence; but it is the lawyer that starts from scratch. He/ she gathers the dust and molds it into a legal theory. In turn, the legal theory becomes case law when the Supreme Court gives it a nod.
Raindrop by raindrop. One case at a time. Lawyers are key in creating the social construct. The exams are not without meaning. Indeed, this is the society we live in. We need the synergy in terms of our relationship with the State even as we need harmony among fellow members in society.
Yet the legal profession can be glamorous. Most lawyers are called “rainmakers”. I agree. But not in terms of avarice or gain. I would rather that we dance with the law in tune with its music and not its noise. We touch people’s lives like gentle raindrops in the summer of their lives. The pandemic no doubt had made many people’s lives a seeming endless summer that awaits the rain”.
(The author is the senior partner of ET Reyes III & Associates– a law firm based in Iloilo City. He is a litigation attorney, a law professor and a law book author. His website is etriiilaw.com).
