UNIVERSITY OF SAN JOSE - RECOLETOS

SCHOOL OF LAW

PRACTICUM V

Prof: Atty. Christian Fernandez

Name: Cates Torres Date: 28/9/21 Lecturer: Atty. Romeo Cisco Tenedora

INSIGHT PAPER on How To Interview a Client

One of the most difficult things that young lawyers face after getting out of law
school and into the profession is how to get the facts out of people. Contrary to belief,
not all of the people who enter law school have stellar interpersonal skills and
communication expertise. Among my classmates and schoolmates alone, and even
myself, have found difficulty in expression and articulation especially during recitations.
The focus of this seminar is to provide us, soon-to-be lawyers, with how to do what is
possibly the most important part of the work, and I found it very important to talk about
so as to give us an insight into the work that we are about to do for the rest of our lives.

Us law students have always been so used to being spoonfed with the facts and
the issues provided readily to us by the cases that are assigned or on the questions that
were asked during our exams but we have never developed the skill on how to get
these facts and issues coming from the sources itself. Atty. Tenedora opened the
seminar with the question of “Why must one conduct an interview?” and I find the
reason very similar to the way a law student must answer a question during an exam: it
is to know what we are going to deal with and how to pose the answer that would be
befitting to that of the question the issues currently present, as is in his presentation:
what one knows will determine how one goes about in handling the case. I also think
the question is not just limited to the practice but to the way of our life, in general, the
moment we enter this profession. Lawyering is not a 9 to 5 job where you can quit once
the offices close, it is something that you bring with you everywhere and every time and
I think that having that inquisitive disposition is important to prosper even outside the
office. Additionally, I believe that inquiry is a double-edged blade— one must be able to
extract information effectively and absorb such at the same rate. One’s demeanor and
attitude during the entire process is the whetstone by which the sword can be honed.
Atty. Tenedora was right in saying that as a lawyer, one must be ready to extract and
accept the facts as controverted by the person being in question and analyze the same
with the expertise that comes with the profession. The grits of this whetstone are then
made up of the lawyer’s intelligence quotient and emotional quotient. Although it is
important that a lawyer is knowledgeable in the field, being able to answer a legal
question in as fast as a snap of a finger, it is also important that a lawyer understands
the disposition of their client or the person they are interviewing. This is pretty evident
on Atty Tenedora, being that he did not limit himself to quotes and references from legal
sources but from various books and literary works. Still being in touch with the human
aspect of being a lawyer really sets one apart from all those who use the profession to
twist the world to bend into their own will.

Overall, the seminar was very insightful and it was entertaining enough to have
most of his words remain in the back of my mind as life lessons that will be useful to me
in the future and even today. I look forward to what other insights that the other
speakers may share in the coming future seminars.