About the School of Law

The Ateneo Law School set its sights on the highest of academic standards immediately upon first opening its doors in June of 1936 and since that time over eight decades ago, our deliberately rigorous education in law has produced countless graduates who have excelled in the conscientious practice of the legal profession.

The curriculum of the Juris Doctor (JD) degree program of the Ateneo Law School, taught by accomplished and highly-qualified faculty members, is intentionally designed, and continuously reviewed, so as to adequately prepare our students for the annual licensure examinations for lawyers. In respect of this metric, that the Ateneo Law School’s instruction is an irrefragable success is easily demonstrable, for throughout its long history, we have, year in and year out, consistently achieved a high passing rate in the bar exams.

Beyond ensuring a successful hurdling of the bar exams, however, the JD program includes an internship requirement as well as a vast array of interesting and relevant elective subject options for our students intended to fortify each of them for their eventual engagement with the so-called “real world.” We seek to equip our graduates with more augmented knowledge and skills in identified areas of expertise, as we recognize that domestic and global trends in legal practice head towards specialization.

The Ateneo Law School likewise offers a Master of Laws (LLM) degree for both Philippine and foreign students under a program that is implemented under the same exacting academic standards for which the Ateneo Law School is known. Administered under our Graduate Legal Studies Institute, the current LLM program includes unique opportunities for students to spend a term or two abroad and enroll in subjects offered by—and even obtain graduate degrees from—foreign academic institutions, under existing collaborative arrangements.

That the Ateneo Law School has entered into cooperative programs with foreign law schools and intends to expand the same in the future, is in line with the thrust to involve the Ateneo Law School in global scholastic opportunities for our students and faculty in both the JD and LLM degree programs, cognizant of the growing inter-connectedness of the worldwide academic and professional communities.

Without shirking from its responsibilities to provide a holistic education in law at the highest academic standards, the Ateneo Law School will continue with as much zeal in carrying out our programs relating to personal value formation. To be sure, the Ateneo would not be in the business of legal education in the first place if the molding of character along Ignatian values were not an essential, integral component. For notwithstanding our students’ mastery of the law, the kind of lawyer they will be will depend on the kind of human beings our students become.

In addition to all of these, as an active member of society, the Ateneo Law School responsibly engages with the larger community through, among other ways, (i) legal services extended to indigent parties by our Legal Services Center, (ii) the human rights-based advocacies of our Human Rights Center, (iii) multifarious extension education programs in law carried out by the Institute for Continuing Legal Education, and (iv) in-depth legal research undertaken through the Chief Justice Claudio Teehankee Center for the Rule of Law.

There is indeed far more that the Ateneo Law School offers beyond a boilerplate legal education and I hope that after you have browsed through our website, supporting, and being a part of, our Ateneo Law School community is something we can interest you with.

JOSE MARIA G. HOFILEÑA