All posts by Ink Elephant

Rogelio Nicandro (Senior Partner), is a member of the Executive Board and the head of the Intellectual Property group. His practice focuses on intellectual property, litigation, and arbitration.

Roger started practicing law immediately after the bar when he was invited by his professor, William R. Veto, a commercial law authority and senior counsel of Tañada Carreon Tañada, to be his legal assistant. He handled civil and commercial litigation at the trial and appellate level. He also handled insurance and intellectual property, variegated contracts, and prepared opinions for his banking clientele.

Roger joined the firm in 1969. In his early years, his practice was concentrated on litigation, civil and commercial, with some criminal cases. He was also into contracts, banking, corporations, intellectual property, and condominiums. He is a pioneer in condominium law practice, having been counsel for the earliest condominium projects in the Philippines.

Roger has acted as panel chairman and arbitrator in significant cases and has been elected since 1996 as trustee of the Philippine Dispute Resolution Center, the country’s foremost arbitration center.

In 1999, he became the head of the intellectual property department of the firm. He regularly attends international IP congresses where he often contributes country reports and position papers. He is currently Vice-President of the Intellectual Property Lawyers’ Association of the Philippines and is past president of the Licensing Executives Society International, Philippine Group.

From 1987 to 2011, Roger was a legal consultant of the Asian Development Bank. He also taught Election Law in Ateneo Law School for eight years. He was lead counsel of the National Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL), particularly, for its successful accreditation as the citizen’s arm for the snap presidential elections of 1986 before the Marcos-controlled Commission on Elections. He likewise handled human rights cases and became Counsel General of the Brotherhood of Nationalistic, Involved and Free Attorneys to Combat Injustice and Oppression (BONIFACIO), a human rights lawyers’ group. He is past president of the Legal Management Association of the Philippines.

Roger received his A.B. Philosophy degree from San Beda College and is a graduate of the Ateneo de Manila School of Law.

Jose Salvador Y. Mirasol (Senior Partner), is a member of the Executive Board and the head of the Corporate Banking & Finance group. His practice focuses on banking and finance, corporate law, and real estate.

Zaldy is particularly consulted by corporate clients on structuring, nationality compliance, capital raising, counterparty negotiation, and other difficult corporate issues. He is likewise engaged by major foreign banks, multilaterals, and financial institutions on derivatives and structured products, cross-border advisory and investments, franchise expansion, multi-creditor cross-currency refinancing, and other complex financial transactions. His advice is sought for its comprehensiveness, creativity, and practicability.

Zaldy is regarded for his ability to innovate and design legal solutions that eventually became industry standards. He pioneered the structure that enables foreign condominium ownership beyond 40%. He created concepts like “unsolicited offer to purchase”, “nominated subcontracting”, “shared areas”, and “concomitant interest”. His proposed statutory amendment enabled foreign bank branches to become universal banks. He designed the legal framework of the Philippine Central Depository, which modernized the settlement of equity trades in the stock exchange, and the Philippine Dealing System, which formalized the marketplace and support infrastructure for fixed-income securities. The documentation he developed for Tier 2 issuances became an industry template for Basel-compliant quasi-equity instruments for banks.

Zaldy has been cited as a Band 1 leading individual in corporate and commercial law, banking and finance, capital markets, and mergers and acquisitions by various international legal publications for several years now. He is a faculty member of Commercial Law of the Philippine Judicial Academy of the Supreme Court, and the College of Law of the University of the Philippines.

Zaldy earned his bachelor’s degree in Philosophy and Mathematics, cum laude and department awardee, from the Ateneo de Manila University in 1980, joining the Philosophy faculty the same year. He received his bachelor of laws degree, cum laude and class valedictorian, from the University of the Philippines in 1988. He was admitted to the Philippine bar and joined the firm in 1989.

Cynthia Roxas-Del Castillo (Senior Partner), is a member of the Executive Board and head of the Securities group. Her practice focuses on securities and corporate law.

Cynthia is responsible for projects of the firm involving securities law practice, capital market transactions, registration of securities, and offerings of securities to the public. She is also involved in major investment projects of foreign companies in the Philippines, organization and operation of mutual funds, acquisitions, joint ventures, mergers, and structuring and executing capital-raising activities.

Cynthia headed teams handling major projects involving the flotation of equity and debt securities and listings with The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE). These projects involve domestic and international initial public offerings of leading Philippine-registered companies. She has advised major merger and acquisition transactions in the Philippines, including investments of foreign companies and start-up projects. She also contributed in the formulation of rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and PSE which affect the capital markets.

Cynthia became the Dean of the Ateneo de Manila University School of Law from 1990 to 2000; currently, she is distinguished as the youngest and only female dean. She is a professorial lecturer in Securities Regulations and Practice, Civil Law Review, Obligations and Contracts, and Credit Transactions. She was also a bar reviewer in Civil Law. Aside from her various awards in the fields of civil and commercial law, she is recognized as a Recommended Lawyer in various legal publications for capital market transactions, mergers and acquisitions, and commercial law.

Cynthia received her bachelor’s degree in Political Science, with honors, from the University of Santo Tomas. She then obtained her bachelor of laws degree, Valedictorian, from the Ateneo de Manila University in 1976 where she also received several gold medals and awards for academic excellence. She was admitted to the Philippine bar in 1977, placing 11th in the bar exam. She joined the law firm in the same year.

Jose F. Buenaventura (Senior Partner), is the vice-chairman of the Executive Board and the Chief Financial Officer of the firm. His practice focuses on corporate law.

Chito is President and Director of Consolidated Coconut Corporation. He sits as an Independent Director of Banco de Oro Universal Bank, and is a member of the board of BDO Securities Corporation. He is likewise a Director and Corporate Secretary of 2B3C Foundation, Inc. and Peter Paul Philippines Corporation.

Chito serves as director of Capital Managers & Advisors, Inc., Cebu Air, Inc., GROW, Inc., GROW Holdings, Inc., Hicap Properties Corporation, Himap Properties Corporation, La Concha Land Investment Corp., Melco Crown (Philippines) Resorts Corp., Philippine First Insurance Co., Inc., Philplans First, Inc., Techzone Philippines,Inc., The Country Club, Inc., Total Consolidated Asset Management, Inc. and Turner Entertainment Manila, Inc.

Chito holds the degrees of Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws from the Ateneo de Manila University. He has a master of laws degree from Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C.