Post Bar-tum Depression and Anxiety

November 12, 2005

Whether they admit it or not, all lawyers have gone through it - a mixture of dread, panic, depression, anxiety, fear, regret and self-loathing that lasts the moment they hand in their last Bar bluebook until the results come out.  After all, the bar determines whether the past 4 or 5 (and for some, even more) years have been in vain.  Among ourselves, we share stories of people who broke down, zoned out and gone crazy with the stress.  And then there are those who seemed not to suffer, or learned how to suffer in silence, or worse, become insufferable for their over-confidence. 

One of our graduates currently on this vigil describes it like this:

i think the bar scarred me for life and i can only get over it once i’m sure i passed. til then, i’ll continue begging for a miracle. if you’ve read harry potter, the bar was like a dementor that sucked my happy thoughts…it left me empty and always in fear. graduates like me who had just taken the bar are of lowest in rank in the law world… we’re neither here nor there. we need to take everything — including the stinkiest crap — to muster enough good karma to get at least 75%. needless to say, we are at the mercy of the fates. hahaha! drama ba?

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HLSAAP November Fellowship Cocktails

The Harvard Law School Alumni Association of the Philippines is inviting all HLS alumni (SJD, LLM, ITP, PIL, etc.) to attend its November Fellowship Cocktails which will be held at the SGV Executive Lounge, SGV Building, Ayala Avenue, on November 30, 2005 at 5:00 p.m.  (RSVP  Leila – 849-2357 / 848-0114).

Our special guest speaker is the OIC Commissioner of the Bureau of Internal Revenue, Jose Mario C. Buñag, who will discuss, among others, the new eVAT regulations.

Many thanks to our sponsor, Sycip Gorres & Velayo (Ernst & Young).

Memorial Service for Jackie Fernandez-Suntay

I met Jackie Fernandez-Suntay a few years ago when I went for my LLM.  Among the Pinoy students in the Boston area, she and her husband Bobbit were one of the “old-timers.”  They’d been in Harvard for about 3 or 4 years when I met them.  Jackie had completed fellowships at Harvard’s MassGen Hospital and Bobbit was pursuing his PhD in education at the EdSchool. I understand it was during this time that Jackie was diagnosed with cancer.  Although the prognosis was bleak, Jackie fought bravely and with arguably the best medical care in the world and her own determination, she outlived her doctors’ expectations.  In early October, she passed away in the company of her husband and family.

There will be a memorial service for Jackie on Saturday, 12 November 2005, at the residence of Mrs. Dely Panlilio Fernandez: 12 Pili Avenue, South Forbes, Makati. Mass will be at 5:00 PM, followed by the light refreshments.

In lieu of flowers, Bobbit requests that we donate to the cancer wellness foundation that Jackie and Bobbit started when they learned that she and her dad had cancer. Checks may be made out to: The Carewell Community Foundation. They accept donations in dollars or pesos. For more info, go here: www.carewellcommunity.org.