At long last, the Philippine Supreme Court has taken initial steps, though very much delayed, on my three-year old 2006 letter-petition addressed to former Supreme Court Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban to create a special or ad hoc Supreme Court committee to conduct clinical studies and make recommendations on the ethical (and practical) issue of LAWYER ADVERTISING, in light of the proliferation in Philippine major newspapers of various advertisements placed by foreign lawyers doing business in the Philippines as alleged immigration and labor consultants, a good pretext to indirectly violate existing rules of the Philippine Supreme Court prohibiting lawyer advertising and solicitation.
Quoted in full below is the recent resolution, dated June 23, 2009, issued by the Supreme Court which I received this week.
The matter is officially docketed as A.M. No. 06-10-20-SC (Re: Proliferation of Mass Media Advertisements of Foreign Lawyers Doing Business in the Philippines).
The resolution ordered the Supreme Court Chief Attorney to submit his Comment thereon within 30 days, for further study by the Supreme Court.
It will be noted that in my 2000 Ll. M. thesis (as a graduate studies fellow of the Far Eastern University Educational Foundation at the Graduate School of the University of Santo Tomas, Manila), major parts of which I had posted on this blog two years ago, I had extensively discussed and compared existing US jurisprudence on lawyer advertising in relation to the constitutional concept of the “freedom of commercial speech”, a legal principle that is very much accepted and respected in USA.
My personal position is that, subject to certain restrictions by the Philippine Supreme Court in consultation with the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, the Philippine Bar Association, the Las Pinas City Bar Association (which I founded in 2001), and other major local voluntary bar association in the Philippines, pursuant to the concept of the “freedom of commercial speech”, the current prohibition on lawyer advertising in the mass media should be liberalized to allow such advertising at least in national and local newspapers and in professional, sectoral, business, and civic journals, so long as the content and presentation of such advertising are truthful, accurate, decent, and dignified, the contours of which should be well defined in the specific rules and regulations to be issued by the Philippine Supreme Court on the matter.
As of now, Philippine ethical rules for Filipino lawyers allow only business cards, listings in lawyers’ directories in the yellow pages of phonebooks, law association journals, and the like, and complimentary greetings in business and non-business souvenir programs as very limited forms of lawyer advertising.
I think it is time for the Filipino public to be granted a more comprehensive and open access to verifiable and reliable consumer information and data about the legal services sector, e.g., identities, experience, accreditations, and professional pricings or fees of excellent, competent, skilled, ethical and accessible lawyers and providers of legal services in the Philippines to the Filipino public in making sound and economic decisions as consumers of legal services and legal products for the protection of their life, liberty and property.
I am aware, though, that many old and conservative justices in the Supreme Court and many senior and tradition-conscious members of the Philippine Bar will absolutely and vehemently oppose any form of lawyer advertising in any and all mass media on the theory that would reduce and debase the noble legal profession into an ordinary commercial and profit-oriented sector. Such a fear is baseless and unfounded if we study and consider deeply the American experience on the mater, as discussed in my 2000 masteral studies.
Republic of the Philippines
Supreme Court
Manila
Sirs/Mesdames:
Quoted hereunder, for your information, is a resolution of the Court En Banc dated June 23, 2009
“A.M. No. 06-10-20-SC (Re: proliferation of Mass Media Advertisements of Foreign Lawyers Doing Business in the Philippines). The Court Resolved to REFER the following documents to the OFFICE OF THE CHIEF ATTORNEY for comment thereon within thirty (30) days from notice hereof:
(a) 1st Endorsement dated October 12, 2006 of Chief Justice Artemio V. Panganiban, referring the letter dated September 27, 2006 of Atty. Manuel J. Laserna, Jr., director, Las Pinas City Bar Association, Inc.; and
(b) Aforesaid Letter of Atty. Laserna, Jr., requesting for the creation of an ad hoc committee to address the proliferation of mass media advertisements of foreign lawyers in the Philippines, for the reasons stated in his letter.” Carpio Morales, J., on leave (44)
Very truly yours,
MA. LUISA D. VILLARAMA
Clerk of Court
LAS PINAS CITY BAR ASSOCIATION (LPBA), INC.
Unit 15, Star Arcade, C.V. Starr Avenue
Philamlife Village, Las Pinas City 1743, Philippines
Tel/Fax: (632) 8725443 & 8742539; Mobile: (0 63 920) 326 8824
Email: lcmlaw@gmail.com,
Website: http://groups.msn.com/laspinascitybarassociation
September 27, 2006
Personal Delivery
Hon. ARTEMIO PANGANIBAN
Chief Justice
Philippine Supreme Court
Manila
RE : LAWYER ADVERTISING BY FOREIGN LAWYERS
DOING BUSINESS IN THE PHILIPPINES
M A B U H A Y :
I am writing as an officer of the Las Pinas City Bar Association (LPBA), Inc. and the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) – Pasay Paranaque Las Pinas Muntinlupa (PPLM) Chapter, and as a private legal practitioner, Filipino citizen, and professor of law (FEU).
This refers to the proliferation of lawyer advertising by foreign lawyers doing business in the Philippines either as so-called “visa consultants” on US and Canadian migrations and/or as “private practising immigration lawyers” for immigration cases of Filipinos who wish to migrate to USA and Canada or of Filipinos now based in USA, Canada and elsewhere with pending or potential visa and immigration-related cases in such countries.
Attached, as examples, are two (2) such lawyer advertisements which appeared on the same Page A10 of the Philippine Daily Inquirer today, September 27, 2006, i.e., Reeves and Associates (USA) and The Law Offices of Ted Laguatan and Associates (USA), a copy of which is attached, for your perusal and reference.
Filipino lawyers who are duly licensed to practise law in the Philippines, as members in good standing of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP), are prohibited by the 1988 Code of Professional Responsibility and existing Legal Ethics-related jurisprudence from engaging in any form of direct and indirect or public and private lawyer advertising of any form and hue whatsoever in and via the mass media (except for the routine business/calling cards and routine law lists in reputable law journals).
Yet foreign lawyers who aggressively engage in the business of providing immigration and visa-related legal and semi-legal consultations and allied services to Filipinos here and abroad freely and openly place mass media advertisements, directly and publicly selling their legal, semi-legal and paralegal services to their Filipino markets, in the process, creating the discriminatory and scandalous impression that such foreign lawyers (some, if not most, of whom are of Filipino descent), are a privileged class of lawyers and are beyond the ambit, control, supervision, direction and disciplinary powers of the Philippine Supreme Court in re: lawyer advertising violations.
I find the situation to be seriously and morally anomalous, irregular and unacceptable.
The Philippine Supreme Court should adopt its official stand on the matter and should publicly declare its collective position and ruling thereon after the conducting necessary legal, sociological, technical, and clinical studies on the matter.
WHEREFORE, premises considered, I respectfully pray that this issue be referred by your good self to the Supreme Court En Banc and that the Supreme Court En Banc create a special or ad hoc committee (composed of representatives from the Supreme Court, the Law Academe, the IBP, the voluntary local Bar Associations, the law-related NGOs, and the Mass Media Sector) to investigate the aforecited situation, conduct clinical and legal studies related thereto, and submit its official report and recommendations to the Supreme Court En Banc, copy furnished the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, the Las Pinas City Bar Association (LPBA), Inc., and other voluntary local Bar Associations in the Philippines, preferably within six (6) months from the commencement of its formal committee meetings.
May your day be blessed, happy, and liberated. Thank you.
Sincerely.
Atty. MANUEL J. LASERNA JR., AB, LLB, LLM
Founding Pres. LPBA, 2001-03
Director, LPBA, 2005-07
Vice Pres., IBP PPLM Chapter, 2005-07
Prof. Of Law, FEU, June 1985-Oct. 2006
Cc: IBP National Office (fax)
IBP PPLM Chapter Office (fax)
LPBA Board (fax)
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