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DEAN JOSÉ AGUILA GRAPILON
Dean José Aguila Grapilon’s life work goes beyond the titles he has obtained and does not completely explain the arc of his work. His career has stretched across litigation, legal education, bar leadership, and reform. What ties it together is a steady pattern: he builds institutions and invests in people.
Born on March 16, 1947, he graduated magna cum laude from Divine Word University in 1967 and earned his Bachelor of Laws from the University of the Philippines in 1971. In the decades that followed, he continued studying. He completed advanced academic work in industrial relations and public administration, graduating valedictorian in his Master’s in Industrial Relations program, and later obtained his Master of Laws from Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila in 2022. Even late in his career, he returned to the classroom as a student. That choice says much about how he sees the profession: never finished, always refining.
In practice, he built J.A. Grapilon Law Office and co-founded Grapilon Chan & Pasana Law Offices. His field has been litigation, but his reach . expanded into alternative dispute resolution. He became a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators in 1995 and later earned a Diploma for Senior Arbitrators in International commercial arbitration in 2016. As a Supreme Courtaccredited senior mediator, he has long supported dispute mechanisms that resolve conflict without exhausting parties in years of trial.
His national influence became more visible during his term as National President of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines from 1997 to 1999. It was during this period that the IBP Board of Governors, under his leadership, adopted and forwarded a draft of the Mandatory Continuing Legal Education rules to the Supreme Court. The concept of MCLE had been discussed earlier, but concrete institutional action came when the IBP formally moved it forward. His leadership gave the necessary step needed for IBP to advance it from proposal to formal adoption.
His involvement did not stop at policy endorsement. Beginning in 2003, he himself became an MCLE lecturer. He taught alternative dispute resolution, international law, legal ethics, advocacy, and legal writing. That dual role—policy architect and classroom instructor—strengthened the reform. He did not simply support continuing education in theory; he delivered it.
Since 2013, he has served as Dean of Philippine Law School which traces its roots to 1915. To lead such an institution requires balance. Under his deanship, the school navigated curriculum transitions, regulatory shifts, and evolving expectations in legal education. Faculty stability was reinforced. Continuing legal education was emphasized. Discipline remained central.
He also taught in other institutions, including Far Eastern University, Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, Lyceum University, and the Polytechnic University of the Philippines. Generations of students encountered him not as a distant administrator but as a professor who demanded preparation and clarity.
One of the more personal dimensions of his legacy is the DJAG Scholarship Program. Bearing his initials, the Dean José Aguila Grapilon Scholarship reflects a belief that legal education must remain accessible to those with promise but limited means. The program has offered full tuition support, stipends, and structured academic expectations.
It requires scholars to commit fully to their studies and to participate in school life. In this way, it is not merely financial aid. It is formation. The DJAG program complements his institutional work. MCLE strengthened practicing lawyers nationwide.
The scholarship supports aspiring lawyers at the start of their path. One reform focuses on professional growth after admission to the bar. The other opens doors before the first bar review begins. Together, they show a lawyer thinking across the full life cycle of the profession.
His international involvement also broadened Filipino representation. He held leadership roles in organizations such as LAWASIA and the World Jurist Association. These posts required sustained engagement with cross-border legal dialogue. He brought Filipino legal voices into regional and global settings.
Dean José Aguila Grapilon’s legacy is not a finished chapter but a living force—still unfolding, still shaping the school and the people within it. The rest of us can only do what history asks at moments like this: take note, carry it forward, and rise to the standard it sets.
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