Let’s welcome our new lawyer, Atty Neil Abam, to the Filipino community in Toronto. He took his oath at the Law Society of Ontario on June 23, 2026.
In a recent interview, Neil, as he is fondly called by friends, said that he is willing to serve his kababayans pro bono, for free, especially those who cannot afford to hire a lawyer.
“’ As long as it’s within the area of my competence and practise, I will render free service to people because it’s part of our oath to serve the needy to uphold justice” Atty Abam said.
Even before coming to Toronto 2010, Neil was already a practising lawyer back home. After earning his Bachelor’s degree from the University of the Philippines, he pursued law at Western Mindanao State University. He has a Master’s Degree from Ateneo University. His Master’s thesis was about the shipping industry.
So, in Zamboanga, Neil applied his MA thesis on shipping by starting a small shipping firm, Edgewater Shipping Agency, with three employees, which facilitates the shipment of goods via container vans from various countries destined for Zamboanga.
He was already enjoying his little business and earning money just enough for himself, but for some reason or another, life’s break came all along, giving him a chance to take up law.
Neil said that “since my office is near the Western Mindanao State University, I used to pick up and take home my sister Jolina, who was studying there. Seeing me reading magazines and newspapers while waiting for my sister, the school librarian suggested to me why not take up law instead, since law entails lots of reading anyway?”
“ When we came here to Canada in 2010 with my wife, Eileen and our 5 young children, three girls and 2 boys, I had no choice but to look for a job to support my family. Because my children were still young at the time, I had to focus more on making a living. I set aside going through the process of becoming a lawyer,” Neil said.
“I worked in a call center for some time, dealing with bank clients, and while having that job, I was also trying to get a license for a real estate broker. Eventually, I became a licensed real estate broker and focused on that work thereafter.
Sometime in 2010, Neil tried to apply as a receptionist at a Nigerian law firm, but on seeing his qualifications, the head of the law firm advised him, “You will be wasting your talents here. Why don’t you send your credentials to the Committee of Accreditation of the Law Society of Canada for evaluation?
Neil did what he had been told to do, so he submitted his credentials and other documents to the said accreditation committee.
In 2011, he received instructions from the accreditation committee that he had to pass certain subjects to become eligible for the licensing process to become a lawyer.
While focusing on making a living, Neil let the years pass by without doing anything to get his law practice started
In 2022, when Neil got Covid, he had to stay home for 30 days, and while doing nothing, he remembered the response he had received from the accreditation committee in 2011, which outlined all the requirements he had to meet before he could get his license to practice law.
“ I have to submit all my credentials for evaluation so that some of the subjects that I had taken back home will be credited in Canada, and to take some subjects at Osgoode Hall Law School to upgrade my knowledge of the law, he said.
The 10 subjects that Neil completed at Osgoode were part of a master’s degree program, so the school conferred on him the degree of Master of Laws in Canadian Common Law.
After finishing the requirements set by the accreditation committee, the committee gave Neil a” certificate of qualification”, which means that he is qualified to apply for the licensing process of becoming a lawyer.
To complete the licensing process, Neil has to pass two bar exams, plus do some” articling ” with a law firm, meaning Neil has to undergo some kind of apprenticeship, a way of bridging the gap between law school and real-world law practice.
While he was upgrading, his wife, Eileen, a nurse, helped him every step of the way, allowing him to focus on his studies.
Before his oath-taking on June 23, he and his wife invited us — some of his close friends—to lunch at a Korean restaurant in Ajax and to a coffee shop for a few little chats with him.
He had to make this blowout that early because he knew he would have busy days after his oath-taking.
What is notable about Atty Abam is his humility, his infectious smile when meeting people, and his love for his family.
Neil is blessed to have a wonderful family—daughters Dianne, Fabzha, and Nurzha, all nurses; sons Nuriam, a law student, and Hanjin, a medical student.
