Legal Education in The Philippines - Notable Law Schools - Bar Performance - Bar Topnotchers

Bar Topnotchers

Bar topnotchers are bar examinees who garnered the highest bar exam grades in a particular year. Every year, the Supreme Court releases the bar top ten list. The list contains the names of bar examinees who obtained the ten highest grades. It is possible for more than ten examinees to place in the top ten because numerical ties in the computation of grades usually occur.

Schools which have produced bar topnotchers (1st placers) include:

• University of the Philippines College of Law - forty-nine (49) bar topnotchers
• Ateneo de Manila Law School - nineteen (19) bar topnotchers
• San Beda College of Law - seven (7) bar topnotchers
• Philippine Law School - seven (7) bar topnotchers
• University of Manila - six (6) bar topnotchers
• Far Eastern University Institute of Law - three (3) bar topnotchers
• University of Santo Tomas Faculty of Civil Law - three (3) bar topnotchers
• University of the Cordilleras (formerly Baguio Colleges Foundation) College of Law - two (2) bar topnotchers
• Manila Law College Foundation (formerly Escuela de Derecho de Manila) - one (1) bar topnotcher
• Manuel L. Quezon University College of Law - one (1) bar topnotcher
• Divine Word College - one (1) bar topnotcher
• University of the East College of Law - one (1) bar topnotcher
• San Sebastian College Institute of Law - one (1) bar topnotcher

Two bar examinees topped the bar exams without graduating from any Philippine law school:

• Jose Diokno - former Senator of the Philippines; 1st placer, 1945 bar exams
• Carolina C. Griño-Aquino - former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court; 1st placer, 1950 bar exams

In the past, non-law school graduates were allowed to take the bar. However, the Revised Rules of Court and Supreme Court Circulars allow only Philippine law graduates to take the bar, necessarily excluding non-law graduates and foreign law graduates from taking part in the exercise.