SU names former SolGen Hilbay as Law dean
Atty. Florin T. Hilbay during a lecture on the West Philippine Sea in July 2019 at the Silliman University College of Law.
Former Solicitor General of the Republic of the Philippines Florin “Pilo” T. Hilbay will assume the position of dean of the Silliman University (SU) College of Law beginning November 1, 2022.
Dr. Betty C. McCann, SU president, confirms Hilbay’s assumption to the position saying that the former solicitor general will bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to the deanship of the College of Law, having served in important positions in government, the academe, and civil society.
For his part, 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 it 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 S. Aquino III, Hilbay acted as the principal agent of the Philippines in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea Arbitral Proceedings against China on the issue of the West Philippine Sea. He earned his law degree from the University of the Philippines (UP) College of Law in 1998 and obtained his Master of Laws degree from Yale Law School in 2005. He placed No. 1 in the 1999 bar examinations.
Before his stint as solicitor general, Hilbay was a professor at the UP College of Law where he taught Advanced Constitutional Litigation, Constitutional Law, and Philosophy of Law. He was also the director of the Institute of Government and Law Reform of the UP Law Center. Aside from being a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at Boston College in the United States, 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 in the National University of Singapore. He also served as the editor-in-chief of the Philippine Law and Society Review and as an editor of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines Law Journal.
Hilbay was first welcomed to SU in 2006 when he lectured at the College of Law. Serving at that time as the Vice-Chairperson of Bantay Katarungan (Sentinels of Justice), a civic organization formed by former Senator Jovito R. Salonga, he helped the University organize the Dr. Jovito R. Salonga Center for Law and Development.
He will take over the deanship from Atty. Myles Nicholas G. Bejar, the University General Counsel, who was designated to serve the remaining portion of the term of Dean Sheila Lynn C. Besario after she was appointed to the judiciary.
