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We provide legal services in dealing with broad and diverse issues arising from setting up of businesses, securing of permits and licenses, entry of foreign investments, the establishment of corporate vehicles and joint ventures, corporate restructuring and reorganizations, dissolution, and regulatory compliance.

We also provide legal advisory services and regularly assist private and publicly listed companies in their compliance requirements with various government agencies. Through our affiliate Gorriceta Support Services Inc., we provide corporate secretarial and business support.

The Firm has also been at the forefront of corporate law practice and has participated in shaping relevant issuances by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

As a core practice area, we are internationally ranked as a leading law firm in the field of mergers and acquisitions.

The Firm is highly regarded and trusted for its advice on all stages of the transaction specifically in due diligence, structuring, negotiating, documenting and closing mergers and acquisition transactions, acting either as the buy or sell-side counsel for various clients. Through our deep experience and expertise, we have developed industry-specific knowledge that extends to handling cross-border, complicated domestic asset-purchase and share-for-share swap deals, public and private mergers and acquisitions, as well as equity investments and divestment.

Our expertise in mergers and acquisitions has been recognized by prestigious international organizations. We have been ranked as a top tier firm in mergers and acquisitions by the Asia Legal Business, The Legal 500, Asia Law Profiles and International Financial Law Review.

We have consistently been awarded as the industry leader and number one in telecommunications, media and technology law in the Philippines by various prestigious international organizations. We have been ranked as a top-tier firm in this practice area by the Asia Legal Business, The Legal 500, Asia Law Profiles and International Financial Law Review.

We provide industry-specific and in-depth advice covering the entire spectrum of this practice area, including other emerging practice areas that extend to financial technology (fintech), property technology (proptech), health technology (healthtech), education technology (edtech), artificial intelligence, blockchain initiatives, cryptocurrency, virtual currency business activities, e-commerce, and other innovative initiatives.

We have been the go-to strategic partner of the majority of the fintech, e-commerce, and many of the leading and impactful technology industry players in the Philippines, and internationally.

We provide competent legal and transactional advisory services in various securities transactions including initial public offerings, follow-on and top-up offerings, private placements, tender-offers, backdoor listings, and reverse take-overs of publicly listed companies.

We have acted as the transaction counsels for several companies intending to go public, issuers, investors and underwriters. We have successfully assisted clients in initial public offerings, secondary offerings, and private placements.

We have been ranked as a top tier firm in capital markets by The Legal 500, Asia Law Profiles and International Financial Law Review.

Anti-trust and Competition Closely related to our award-winning cross-border M&A practice, we advise clients on competition and anti-trust issues that implicate the Philippine Competition Act. We counsel upon sensitive questions that deal with merger control regimes and the ways in which those regimes impact Philippine competition law.

Our lawyers have developed their expertise in advising on competition issues dealing with cross-border mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and licensing. A number of our attorneys have served as speakers on merger rules, on the procedure, mandatory notification and compliance for M&A transactions, and other requirements set forth by the Philippine Competition Commission.

We are privileged to have been able to handle complex and challenging multijurisdictional competition questions, and we work alongside international counsel in order to advise our clients on a full range of legal questions concerning any matter with a nexus to Philippine law.

We act as counsel to various Philippine and foreign clients representing project finance transactions . Clients will gain from our thorough knowledge of the entire project transaction, as well as our ability to be able to identify particular issues relevant to the project.

We provide legal representation in various kinds of litigation and dispute resolution such as civil, criminal, commercial, administrative, and arbitration and regulatory disputes.

We also assist clients in the settlement of estates and family law cases and provide services for dispute resolution, mediation, and special proceedings.

We have represented our clients before the metropolitan and regional trial courts, Court of Appeals, the Supreme Court, Land Registration Administration, Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board, Office of the President, Commission on Elections, Department of Justice, and Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board, among others.

We specialize in complicated tax work, tax planning, tax counseling, and tax litigation. We provide clients with practical, realistic, and expert advice on various taxation issues.

We are highly respected for our practical and client-centric approach to handling, identifying, and resolving tax cases and concerns for our clients.

The Firm has also secured landmark rulings and regulations for several clients and has successfully represented them in tax litigation cases from the administrative level, trial courts, Court of Tax Appeals, and the Supreme Court of the Philippines.

We have been ranked as a top-tier firm in taxation by the International Tax Review, Asia Law Profiles, and the Asian Legal Business.

We counsel clients in all matters of labor relations and employment, including compliance, employee benefits, termination, employment documentation, overseas employment, and mandatory government employment compliance work.

We act for employers and employees in various employment and labor issues.

We represent the major real estate and property developers, as well as top condominium corporations in all aspects of real estate development. We have deep expertise in land banking, property conveyancing, land use reclassifications, land acquisitions and titling, conversion of land, commercial leasing, and the entire gamut of real estate practice.

Our real estate practice has been recognized by international organizations and we have been awarded the Real Estate and Construction Law Firm of the Year by the Asian Legal Business in 2020.

We hold expertise in energy regulation, project development for renewable and non-renewable energy, electric generation and transmission, and environmental law. We act as counsel to developers and energy proponents for a wide range of projects, including coal-fired, solar, and geothermal plants. We advise upon all aspects of commercial, transactional, and regulatory issues, and fuse our expertise from our other practice areas such as M&A, regulatory affairs, project finance, private equity, infrastructure law, and tax.

We deal with a full spectrum of intellectual property practice which includes filing, enforcement, litigation and prosecution of patents, trademarks, copyrights, domain names, licensing, electronic commerce and software issues.

We have a deep expertise in technology transfer and intellectual property assignment, licensing and documentation.

Our expertise in intellectual property law has been recognized by prestigious international organizations. We have been ranked as a top-tier firm by the Asia Legal Business and The Legal 500.

We provide a broad and in-depth data privacy and cybersecurity protection practice in the Philippines. We assist clients with cyber risk and data privacy assessments, data privacy law compliance, data breaches, regulatory issues, data ethics and information security matters.

The Firm draws its leadership in this practice area from its exposure and expertise in the Build Build Build program of the Philippine government. Our expertise includes administering, advising upon, and troubleshooting issues that arise in Public-Private Partnership (PPP) packages, concession agreements, and right-of-way acquisition for priority projects under the Build Build Build program.

Our work includes advising upon the following PPP and toll regulatory board (TRB) projects: Cavite-Laguna Expressway (CALAX), Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway (TPLEX), NAIA Expressway (NAIAX), Muntinlupa-Cavite Expressway (MCX), NLEX-SLEX Connector Road, NLEX Harbor Link for Segments 8.2, 9, and 10, Metro Manila Skyway Stage 3, C5 South Link, South Luzon Expressway Toll Road-4 (TR-4), Metro Manila Expressway (C6), Cavitex Segments 4 and 5, and the Metro Manila Subway (formerly the Mega Manila Subway) project. We are capable of troubleshooting legal, financial, auditing, and compliance problem areas encountered by PPP and TRB projects.

Other projects and transactions include M&A for power projects, technology, toll roads, renewable energy, construction and real estate development, airports, transportation, logistics, and telecommunications. We have assisted in the development of infrastructure projects in various ecozones, and through various build-operate-transfer schemes and other modes available under PPP frameworks, including LGU “P4 modalities” and the LGU Code for Joint Ventures (JVs).

We are a leader in government procurement under R.A. 9184, in part owing to several of the Firm’s attorneys’ previous memberships in government bids and awards committees (BACs) and BAC secretariats across several agencies. Our Firm attorneys voted on, discussed, and advised upon the procurement of locally and foreign-assisted projects and upon all types of procurement: infrastructure, consulting, and goods and services. Our accomplishments include membership in the largest civil works BAC in the country; acting as lead counsel for local and international consortia in their bid for high-impact projects, such as the Philippine Identification System (National ID System), Stages, 1, 2, and 4, under a total approved budget for contracts (ABC) of over 5 billion pesos; assisting a consortium led by a publicly listed Malaysian company in the bid for goods and services under various government agencies; and assisting Triple A and Quadruple A construction companies in support of their bid for regional and district-level infrastructure projects.

The Firm prides itself in providing end-to-end immigration services, from advisory, documentation, visa and other work authorization in support of pre-arranged employment, local employment law compliance, and immigration litigation. We have extensive experience in handling all immigration and employment-related issues with the Philippine Bureau of Immigration.

Among other immigration and labor-related projects handled by the Firm include handling the expansion in Asia of one of the largest international manning agencies in North America; management of all labor concerns of a multinational cladding company with respect to its labor, immigration, and employment-relation concerns over its multinational workforce; assisting an international fintech software development company with respect to securing appropriate permits, visas, and other requirements to ensure the lawful stay and employment of the company’s multinational consultants; and assisting international executive search companies in setting up business in the Philippines, including securing a private employment agency (PEA) license in order for the company to engage in the recruitment and placement of workers for local employment.

Gorriceta Africa Cauton & Saavedra’s progressive and leading-edge approach to providing exceptional legal services extends to its Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) practice area. Being at the forefront of innovation and legal and regulatory developments, the Firm recognizes the value of ESG in businesses, and the need to continuously keep up with the evolving ESG landscape.

Our Firm’s ESG Team is composed of multidisciplinary legal professionals and experts who have robust and practical experience in complex corporate, securities, and commercial law, mergers and acquisitions, labor, litigation, and environmental law. Through its combined expertise, lawyers are well-versed in handling legal and regulatory compliance, regulatory disclosures and reporting, and in advising clients in a myriad of issues pertaining to corporate governance, ESG acquisitions, impact investments and due diligence, as well as environmental laws, labor, and data privacy compliance. The Team has also represented clients in litigation and regulatory proceedings; and has the capacity to provide innovative and practical approaches to ESG compliance.