Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Marvic Leonen urged newly minted lawyers to resist complacency and strive to become better public servants, reminding them that the legal profession carries a continuing mission to make justice accessible, especially to the marginalized.

Leonen made the call during the General Assembly and the inauguration of the 2020–2021 Bar Examinations historical marker at the University of Makati (UMak) on 19 January.

Addressing law students, graduates, and 2025 Bar passers, he emphasized that passing the Bar should not be a point of comfort but a beginning of greater responsibility.

Quoting a Latin maxim attributed to philosopher Baruch Spinoza — “Omnia praeclara tam difficilia quam rara sunt” (All excellent things are as difficult as they are rare) — Leonen challenged the new lawyers to surpass the generation before them. 

“Be better than us. Do not succumb to comfort,” he said, citing current societal challenges as proof that the legal profession must continue to evolve and do more.

UMak was among the 29 local testing centers nationwide that piloted the first fully digitalized and regionalized Bar Examinations in 2020–2021, a landmark reform led by Leonen as Bar Chairperson. 

The model was later adopted nationwide and institutionalized by the Supreme Court En Banc as the standard mode of admission to the legal profession under the 2025 Amendments to Rule 138 of the Rules of Court.

Recounting his experience during the pandemic-era Bar examinations, Leonen said the country’s public health crisis forced the Court to rethink long-standing practices. 

He described the situation as a “blessing in disguise,” noting that without the pandemic, the full localization and digitization of the Bar exams might not have been realized.

Drawing from his experience at Columbia Law School, Leonen explained how secure exam software that blocked other computer programs was adapted for the Philippine Bar. 

He added that decentralizing testing centers spared examinees from far-flung provinces the burden of traveling to Manila, making the process more inclusive and accessible.

These reforms, he said, form part of the Supreme Court’s Strategic Plan for Judicial Innovations 2022–2027, which envisions a modernized, technology-driven judiciary. 

Preparations for the 2020–2021 Bar exams required more than 60 contingency plans, including scenarios involving natural disasters, power outages, security threats, and COVID-19 outbreaks.

Leonen stressed that the success of the reforms was a collective effort involving the Chief Justice, the members of the Court, the Judiciary, the legal profession, academic institutions, and local governments. He commended UMak and the Makati City government for their support in hosting the historic examinations.

“The historical markers that we inaugurate today should serve as reminders of what sincere, passionate, and collective effort can achieve,” Leonen said.

He also highlighted how technology-driven reforms in the Bar examinations are now influencing court operations, including the rollout of eCourts, paperless filings, and artificial intelligence-powered voice-to-text transcription. 

These innovations, he said, are designed to speed up proceedings and extend judicial services to geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas, citing pilot videoconferencing initiatives in places like Tawi-Tawi.

Looking ahead, Leonen said he draws inspiration from the idea of a future Bar applicant from a modest background who will one day take the examination digitally, without questioning the hardships of the past. 

“They may not remember how these reforms began,” he said, “but we will know it was because people worked together.”