Silliman University President Dr. Betty Cernol-McCann has named the country’s former Solicitor Gen. Florin Hilbay as dean of the SU College of Law starting November this year.
Dr. McCann said Atty. Hilbay will bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to the deanship of the College of Law, after having served in important positions in government, the academe in Manila, and civil society.
Atty. Hilbay assured that aside from strengthening the position of the SU College of Law as one of the top law schools in the country, he intends to take the lead in cutting-edge issues like Money and the State, referring to the advent of digital currencies and its effect on law and society.
Serving as solicitor general during the term of former President Benigno Aquino III, Hilbay acted as the principal agent of the Philippines in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea arbitral proceedings against China on the issue of the West Philippine Sea.
Before his stint as solicitor general, Hilbay taught Advanced Constitutional Litigation, Constitutional Law, and Philosophy of Law at the UP College of Law, where he earlier earned his law degree in 1998. He topped the 1999 bar examinations. He was also director of the Institute of Government & Law Reform of the UP Law Center.
Atty. Hilbay earned his Master of Laws degree from Yale Law School in 2005.
Aside from being a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at Boston College in Massachusetts, he has held fellowships at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law & International Law in Heidelberg, Germany, and at the Asian Law Institute for Comparative Public Law at the National University of Singapore.
He also served as editor-in-chief of the Philippine Law and Society Review, and editor of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines Law Journal.
Atty. Hilbay first came to the Silliman campus in 2006 when he gave a lecture at the College of Law as vice-chairperson of Bantay Katarungan (Sentinels of Justice), a civic organization formed by former Sen. Jovito R. Salonga. Hilbay then helped Silliman organize the Dr. Jovito R. Salonga Center for Law & Development, now headed by Atty. Mikhail Lee Maxino.
Hilbay will take over the deanship from Atty. Myles Nicholas Bejar, SU general counsel. (SU OIP)
