Delivering Mandatory Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) certificates of compliance on time to lawyers has always been a commitment and fulfillment for Alex Canata, Co-Founder and Program Director of ACCESS MCLE, the first-ever accredited online MCLE provider in the country. Such certification is necessary for lawyers to continue appearing in court to sign and file pleadings.
For Mr. Canata, this has become a calling — his personal way of helping the country through ensuring continuous development of the legal practice. He is aligned with ACCESS MCLE’s goal to develop a positive mindset among Filipino lawyers when it comes to MCLE, a mandate by the Supreme Court to keep practicing lawyers updated to the evolving legal system.
Mr. Canata has been helping lawyers fulfill MCLE requirements for almost two decades now. He has been involved in planning, marketing, registration, delivery, post-reporting, and record-keeping of numerous MCLE seminars for thousands of legal practitioners across various compliance periods.
Long journey
In 2007, he met Atty. Ma. Louella Aranas in a seminar conducted by another MCLE provider, where he used to work as facilitator. “Back then, we had discussed the possibility of setting up an organization that will provide continued professional development not only for lawyers but for other licensed professions,” he recalled.
Mr. Canata admits that the ‘birthing pain’ of ACCESS MCLE was overwhelming — considering the challenges of completing all requirements to partner with a law school. After almost half a year of strenuous meetings with various prospective law schools, ACCESS MCLE was finally established in 2017 by Mr. Canata and Atty. Aranas, and was granted an accreditation as an MCLE Provider upon the partnership with Adamson University College of Law, one of the country’s premier law schools.
ACCESS MCLE under Mr. Canata and Atty. Aranas has been working together with Adamson University College of Law Dean Atty. Anna Maria Abad to continuously make MCLE more accessible and enriching for learners through programs that are developmental and transformative for today’s Filipino legal practitioners.
“Over the years, I have gained a deeper understanding of lawyers’ pressing work load. I know how valuable their time is as they serve their clients and attend to many other things in line with the legal profession. Thus, we at ACCESS MCLE are committed to make our curated programs worth their time. By ensuring satisfaction with our MCLE offerings, we know we’re getting free marketing as well as most of our learners actually recommend our programs to their colleagues,” said Mr. Canata.
Keeping a reliable team
Making the workplace cozier and more conducive for personal growth of team members is another commitment being fulfilled by Mr. Canata. “I consider my team as younger brothers and sisters. As an older brother, I make sure that everyone is able to deliver and complete his task. I value insights from Atty. Peaches [Aranas] and share those with my teammates.”
Mr. Canata and his team are point persons lawyers can get in touch with for inquiries and registration for any of ACCESS MCLE’s curated programs. ACCESS MCLE offers online on-demand (asynchronous) or online class (synchronous) setup. It has also introduced a new version of the synchronous program dubbed as Flexi-Synch, which makes ACCESS MCLE courses available all year round — if a learner misses a lesson, that same lesson will be offered on the same day and time on the following month.
“I would like to remind those who intend to sign up to have their roll numbers on hand as well as other information on the MCLE courses they have taken to make enlisting with our programs much faster. We would be glad to welcome our lawyer friends to our curated and unique programs that have been customized for them,” Mr. Canata concluded.
Mr. Canata could be reached through email (askalex@accessonline.ph).
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