Next for PH law schools: Anticorruption course
The Legal Education Board (LEB) has issued a memorandum introducing a new elective course on anticorruption laws that the country’s law schools may adopt to equip future legal professionals with skills to address what it described as a “deeply entrenched and systemic obstacle to democratic governance.”
“This elective course addresses the imperative for law schools to prepare future legal professionals with the critical analytical, normative, and institutional frameworks necessary to confront corruption,” the LEB said in Memorandum Order No. 41, series of 2025, made public on Dec. 5.
The elective, titled “Anti-Corruption Laws, Processes, and Institutions,” is designed to help form law students who may pursue careers in legal knowledge, public accountability, and institutional reform.
According to the LEB, law graduates who complete the course may explore various public sector roles, such as legal officer or graft investigator at the Office of the Ombudsman, audit litigation counsel at the Commission on Audit, or ethics and accountability officer at the Civil Service Commission.
Opportunities
Other possible career paths include judicial or quasijudicial functions, such as court attorney or researcher at the Sandiganbayan, prosecutor in the antigraft divisions of the Department of Justice, as well as policy and legislative work, including serving as a legislative staff officer specializing in anticorruption bills or a technical writer or analyst for institutional reform roadmaps.
Graduates may also pursue opportunities in international and multilateral engagements, including work as a legal associate in Uncac (United Nations Convention against Corruption) implementation bodies, or as private counsel for nongovernmental and watchdog organizations.
“Graduates may pursue career pathways rooted in grassroots legal empowerment and public accountability initiatives through legal counsel in legal clinics, legal trainer or facilitator for barangay officials, civil society leaders and community watchdogs on transparency laws, grievance mechanisms, and ethical governance,” the board added.
The memorandum includes a model syllabus that the LEB says is “recommendatory in nature.”
Both the elective course and syllabus are only recommendatory, it noted, and implementing legal education institutions or law schools may revise any component, including credit units, year level of offering, and course pre- or co-requisites.
