BAGUIO, Philippines – Although not the world’s youngest lawyer on record, Jozef Maynard Borja Erece is bound to become among the youngest international lawyers today. This 27-year-old lawyer traces his roots to Baguio City.
He obtained his Bachelor of Laws degree at the University of Southern Queensland and a Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice from the Queensland University of Technology earlier that year, at the age of 18.Baccus started studying law at the University of Miami at the age of 14, finished his degree within two and a half years to graduate at 16, and had to petition the Florida Supreme Court to take his bar exams as he was below the required 18-year-old age limit.
But unlike Baccus, Jozef remained focused on his legal career and his goal of being admitted to the Bar in New York and London. His father, Dr. Maynard Victor Erece, said that the New York Bar allows him to enter the highest levels of international arbitration and dispute resolution, as the top law firms involved in this area of the law are in New York.