Becoming a lawyer was not part of Atty. Camille Sue Mae Ting’s original career plan, but encouragement from her parents and a renewed interest in the legal field eventually led her to the Supreme Court where she began her career and later became its first female spokesperson.
Ting said neither of her parents was a lawyer but both encouraged her to pursue the profession.
“They wanted me to be a lawyer,” Ting said in an interview with Bilyonaryo News Channel’s At The Forefront with Atty. Karen Jimeno.
Asked why her parents wanted her to become a lawyer, Ting replied: “Who knows? Maybe because, oh, we’re lacking in this field, we should have one.”
After college, Ting narrated that she did not immediately enter law school.
“I didn’t think I wanted to be a lawyer just yet,” she said.
Instead, she explored other fields. She pursued a master’s degree in philosophy, worked, and even took courses in interior design.
Her interest in law eventually returned, however, partly because of her college background in legal management.
“But then later on, I missed the legal field, I’d say, because in college, I took up legal management also,” Ting said.
“So, I was just like, I think I’ll go to law school,” she added.
Her decision eventually brought her to the high tribunal, which became her first workplace after law school.
Ting started at the court’s Public Information Office, where she worked for about 10 years.
She was among the lawyers who worked under then spokesperson Jose Midas Marquez, who later became Court Administrator and is now an associate justice.
Ting said Marquez influenced her approach to communicating with the public particularly his ability to make complicated matters easier to understand.
“Well, he’s very good at simplifying things, I would say,” Ting said.
She also admired his rapport with the media, something she said she hopes to emulate.
“His rapport in the media, I guess that’s something I’d like to also aspire to,” she said.
Ting described herself as a “social introvert,” and admityed that she is quite different from the more extroverted Marquez.
Despite the different personalities, Ting has followed a similar path in public information work eventually becoming the SC’s first female spokesperson.
Asked whether she could one day see herself becoming a SC justice, Ting acknowledged that it is a dream shared by many lawyers.
“Many lawyers, they aspire and they dream to become a Supreme Court Associate Justice. And if that would happen, that would be a true privilege,” she said.
Asked if becoming a justice is part of her own ambitions, Ting gave a cautious answer:
“Let’s see.”#