BIZ BUZZ: ‘Legal A-list’

Lawyers are an essential part of the country’s business scene, especially during challenging economic times when disputes born out of difficulties emerge.

As such, there are also a plethora of legal practitioners who offer their services to the country’s biggest names in business. But the experience and skill levels of these lawyers—and their fees, naturally—vary widely.

Thankfully, there’s a guide to help Filipino captains of industry sort the wheat from the chaff, so to speak, in the form of the Asia Business Law Journal’s annual list of the country’s 100 best lawyers.

We’re talking about the country’s best practicing legal minds who are “guiding the giants” of the business world, as the publication puts it, adding that particularly in demand nowadays are “corporate lawyers who can advise on practical impacts in volatile circumstances, scaling up businesses, controlling the damage or drawing up exit strategies.”

The most prominent firms in the annual legal A-list are, naturally, some of the most well-established law offices in the country.

We’re talking about the likes of Sycip Salazar Hernandez & Gatmaitan—a 75-year-old firm—which has nine lawyers in this year’s list, and the illustrious AccraLaw, which has eight lawyers in the country’s Top 100.

Formerly one firm, and now divided into two, the firms of Villaraza & Angangco and its rival Cruz Marcelo & Tenefrancia are also well represented, with the former having six of its lawyers in the ranking and the latter with seven. Talk about a neck and neck rivalry, huh?

And then there are the relatively newer firms that have experienced a surge in their business volume—and legal wins, according to the word in the community—in recent years.

We’re talking about DivinaLaw which, at only 15 years of age, already has five of its partners in the list of the country’s Top 100 lawyers (that’s one more than last year), including managing partner and founder Nilo Divina.

Apart from Divina, other partners of the law firm that are also on the prestigious list are Alden Francis Gonzales, Estrella Elamparo, Enrique Dela Cruz Jr. and Danny Bunyi.

More importantly, the Asia Business Law Journal article heaped praise on the DivinaLaw team courtesy of their large corporate clients who were unanimous in citing the partners’ professionalism and astute legal minds that help them overcome their legal challenges.

Other law firms in the A-list are Romulo Mabanta Buenaventura Sayoc & De Los Angeles with five lawyers, PJS Law with five and Quisumbing Torres with five.

Talk about being spoilt for choice, huh?

—Daxim L. Lucas

4Ps of IPO

Here in the Philippines, 4Ps is synonymous to the government’s conditional cash grant program Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps).

For Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) chief operating officer Roel Refran, however, there are 4Ps that apply to the stock market, representing the time-tested factors behind the success of companies that have gone public, including those that did it even in the midst of a raging pandemic.

During the PSE’s “Road to IPO” (initial public offering) forum that focused on small and medium enterprises yesterday, Refran said the first P was preparation, as listing is not something that happens overnight. Businesses aspiring to embark on an initial public offering must prepare their corporate structure and financials to make sure that there’s a resilient sustainable business that could generate interest from the investing public. This is an undertaking that typically takes years of grooming.

The second P is pricing, which means that controlling shareholders must not be too greedy in the pricing of the IPO.

“You are looking for a price that that should also pay well to investors. Give them a little bit of discount because successful IPOs are not just on IPO date itself. It has to be sustained (in terms of investor interest) after the IPO—one month, two months after and later on,” he said.

The third P is deliver on promises. The prospectus is essentially an issuer’s covenant with investors. “That’s a promise. It’s your commitment to investors who put their money with full faith and confidence in what you represented yourself to be. So deliver,” he said.

Companies that overpromise but underdeliver will eventually be penalized by the market in terms of reduced valuation, and vice versa.

But there are a lot of factors that the issuer or the underwriters can’t control, particularly market conditions at the time the company comes to market. Over and above the three mentioned Ps is another P for prayers.

“If you’re the founder, this is your grail or probably your milestone, so I’m sure prayers will help also [in] making sure that you have a successful IPO.”

—Doris Dumlao-Abadilla