"Wala pong naka-graduate sa law school nang fresh"

Before one takes the bar, she has to go through a half-a-decade-long journey in law school and law schools are NOT at all the nicest places on earth, especially in the Philippines. In this jurisdiction, law school is the first phase of hazing to become a lawyer. The second and last phase is the bar examination.

Law students read every day. Despite all the effort, it is still not uncommon to expect episodes of inability to answer questions from professors and bouts of humiliation. From their first year to their third year, they have to read AT LEAST 45 TEXTBOOKS in eight different bar examination subjects: civil law, commercial law, criminal law, labor law, legal ethics, political law, remedial law and taxation.

Going through law school is a difficult experience. It demands too much time, too much effort, too much money and too much energy. But of course, it is also a place of dreams and endeavors. It is a place of passion, a hope for the future and love for justice.

On March 15, 2017, Christian Louie Lim responded to a photo posted by GMA News regarding top-paying industries for fresh graduates. He said, "Hindi totoo ito. Wala pong nakagraduate sa law school nang 'fresh'." [This is not true. Nobody gets out of law school fresh.]

It sounds funny but it cannot be more true than that.

Imagine having to read 9 to 10 textbooks in one semester and also having to read 20 to 30 (in other schools, up to 150 or 300) cases each of which has an average of 30 pages. In short, at least 500 pages of a textbook plus at least 600 pages of jurisprudence in one subject multiplied by the number of enrolled subjects in a semester (normally nine). That amounts to an astonishing total of AT LEAST 9,900 PAGES within a period of five months.

Who can stay fresh if you have to go through all of that? You may also want to read: [1] Bar exam flunkers deserve recognition too. [2] How long are SC cases? Why so many pages??? [3] 6 tips for law students to get things done this year.