HEADLINE : Here's how A Messenger rose to become one of our best Paralegals
GSMH congratulates its very own Joan R. Zuniga for passing the University of the Philippines Law Center’s 25th Foundation Certificate Course of the Paralegal Training Program last December 14, 2022. The training was held online from September 24, 2022 to December 14, 2022, with the in-person graduation conducted last 1 December 17, 2022.
Joan, 38, had been a messenger at GSMH Law for nine years before she decided to accept the firm’s offer to sponsor her enrolment to the Paralegal Training Program last August 2022. She immediately enrolled in the paralegal course last September 2022. The course lasted for three months, with the trainees having to study three to four law subjects every week.
Joan says that the 25th round of the Paralegal Training Program was one of the biggest batches, with 219 students. “I had three fellow students who were based abroad, then the rest were from various provinces in the Philippines who mostly worked in government,” she says.
When asked about her experience, Joan said, “The professors won’t stop until you really learn. Before the training, I thought that it would be easy and relaxed, but I soon found out that if I didn’t do my best to study, I wouldn’t pass all the weekly quizzes. We would receive our weekly course material every Saturday then have a quiz on all those subjects the following Monday. I’m grateful that my professors were determined to keep teaching until all of their students mastered the material.”
Joan says that her favorite subject was legal ethics because, “I never really knew about all of that before. I loved learning about what’s right and wrong. Often, we don’t really think about that much.” She also enjoys environmental law, “I never knew that there were different laws that apply to water, land, and other resources.”
When asked whether her outlook has changed since completing the course, Joan says, “Before, when I was just working, I didn’t know anything about the things I learned in the Paralegal Training Program. Practical knowledge is different from what you can learn in a classroom. For example, with the Bureau of Internal Revenue (“BIR”), when you process Certificates of Registration (“COR”), my practical experience taught me that it wouldn’t be easy to get the COR. It all depended on the examiner, who may look for particular documents that you didn’t bring with you. But when we studied it, our professor gave us a list of documents that we needed to submit to the BIR to get a COR. That was all we really needed to give. They also taught us that we would only need to wait a certain number of days to get it. This was very different from my prior experience.”
Now about to celebrate her tenth year at GSMH Law this coming July 2023, Joan has finally added another notch on her belt and another weapon in her arsenal.
GSMH congratulates its very own Joan R. Zuniga for passing the University of the Philippines Law Center’s 25th Foundation Certificate Course of the Paralegal Training Program last December 14, 2022. The training was held online from September 24, 2022 to December 14, 2022, with the in-person graduation conducted last 1 December 17, 2022.
Joan, 38, had been a messenger at GSMH Law for nine years before she decided to accept the firm’s offer to sponsor her enrolment to the Paralegal Training Program last August 2022. She immediately enrolled in the paralegal course last September 2022. The course lasted for three months, with the trainees having to study three to four law subjects every week.
Joan says that the 25th round of the Paralegal Training Program was one of the biggest batches, with 219 students. “I had three fellow students who were based abroad, then the rest were from various provinces in the Philippines who mostly worked in government,” she says.
When asked about her experience, Joan said, “The professors won’t stop until you really learn. Before the training, I thought that it would be easy and relaxed, but I soon found out that if I didn’t do my best to study, I wouldn’t pass all the weekly quizzes. We would receive our weekly course material every Saturday then have a quiz on all those subjects the following Monday. I’m grateful that my professors were determined to keep teaching until all of their students mastered the material.”
Joan says that her favorite subject was legal ethics because, “I never really knew about all of that before. I loved learning about what’s right and wrong. Often, we don’t really think about that much.” She also enjoys environmental law, “I never knew that there were different laws that apply to water, land, and other resources.”
When asked whether her outlook has changed since completing the course, Joan says, “Before, when I was just working, I didn’t know anything about the things I learned in the Paralegal Training Program. Practical knowledge is different from what you can learn in a classroom. For example, with the Bureau of Internal Revenue (“BIR”), when you process Certificates of Registration (“COR”), my practical experience taught me that it wouldn’t be easy to get the COR. It all depended on the examiner, who may look for particular documents that you didn’t bring with you. But when we studied it, our professor gave us a list of documents that we needed to submit to the BIR to get a COR. That was all we really needed to give. They also taught us that we would only need to wait a certain number of days to get it. This was very different from my prior experience.”
Now about to celebrate her tenth year at GSMH Law this coming July 2023, Joan has finally added another notch on her belt and another weapon in her arsenal.
