For Philippine legal and tax matters, DFDL collaborates with Philippine law firm Ocampo & Suralvo Law Offices firm (OS Law).
OS Law is a full-service law firm in the Philippines.
OS Law assists its clients with their corporate, commercial, and tax needs across a spectrum of business concerns, including general corporate and commercial matters, company establishment and registration, contract negotiation and drafting, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, corporate restructuring, foreign direct investments, transfer pricing and litigation.
OS Law is comprised of Philippine attorneys with outstanding academic and professional backgrounds and decades of legal, government, and regulatory experience. They are skilled industry advisers, having worked at top Philippine law firms and professional service firms where they have been involved in significant transactions and dealt with foreign clients acquiring, managing, or divesting Philippine investments. The power and energy sector is a key focus for OS Law as it builds on its partners’ experience with the industry in previous professional capacities.
Their partners’ expert knowledge of the Philippine regulatory framework and experience with domestic and foreign investment proposals, combined with access to DFDL’s regional legal and tax expertise and extensive experience in international cross-border transactions in the South and Southeast Asian markets for more than 20 years, enables OS Law to assist clients in optimizing opportunities and handling investments in this part of the globe.
OS Law is also driven to provide Philippine businesses with solutions that enable them to thrive in the global economy. It provides its clients with access to the tax and legal expertise in many of the world’s fastest-growing investment destinations through collaborations with DFDL, an international law firm focused on Asia’s emerging economies with twelve offices in eight countries, and Kinstellar, a trusted legal counsel to leading investors across Emerging Europe and Central Asia with offices in ten jurisdictions.
Assisted a number of multinationals on their compliance with the data privacy laws including a NASDAQ-listed software and related services provider and a Fortune 500 healthcare services company.
Provided transactional support on the corporate restructuring and divestment of shares in a top Philippine hospital, with a transaction value of approximately Php 5 billion (~USD 100 million).
Provided transaction support in real estate joint ventures in the Philippines for various clients – including the conduct of due diligence examination of real property, tax advisory in the structuring of acquisitions and drafting documentation for construction activities.
Acted as transaction counsel and advised on the acquisition by a Philippine conglomerate of significant real estate assets in Metro Manila.
Worked on various engagements on the application of Philippine anti-trust/competition rules and filings with the Philippine Competition Commission.
Advised buyer on a planned purchase of a controlling stake in a company listed in the Philippine Stock Exchange and supported the conduct of the mandatory tender offer process.
Assisted a global energy company in a due diligence review and investment structuring of a planned multi-billion-dollar acquisition of geothermal energy assets in the Philippines.
Advised on offshore PPP projects in Vietnam, Myanmar, and Cambodia, provided expert legal advice on PPP regulatory framework, procurement process, PPP bankability and structuring.
Advised a Philippine pharmaceutical company in the term licensing agreement for the intellectual property, branding and distribution of a leading pharmaceutical product to the largest pharmaceutical distribution company in the Philippines.
Retained counsel of one of the largest sports retailers in the world, one of the world’s largest home furnishing retailers, and a multinational hotel chain in connection with their Philippine operations.
Jude is a Philippine attorney specializing in mergers and acquisitions, corporate law, and tax. Jude has assisted a number of global and ASEAN multinationals in multi-jurisdictional reorganizations and has advised many clients on complex mergers and acquisitions.
He holds a Master of Laws degree from Harvard University where he received the Ayala Scholarship Grant, the Lopez Scholarship Grant, and the Landon H. Gammon Fellowship for Academic Excellence. He also earned a Master of Business Administration degree (Finance and Supply Chain Management) from UNC-Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler Business School where he was a UNC Kenan-Flagler Fellow. He is a graduate of and a former professorial lecturer on tax law and constitutional law at the University of the Philippines College of Law.
A corporate and tax lawyer with almost two decades of experience in the Philippines and abroad, Jude held senior director or partner positions in several Big 4 firms in the Philippines (KPMG), Central Asia (Deloitte) and in Europe (E&Y) He was, until 2015, a regional tax director and deputy head of regional tax of DFDL, an international law firm focusing on high-growth Asian markets.
He also served in the Philippine government. From 2004 to 2005, he was Assistant Secretary for Legal Affairs of the Republic’s Trade and Industry Department and Finance Department.
He writes on competition law for Lexis Nexis and tax law for IBFD. He also contributes to the Linklaters global data privacy protection guide. He is recognized by Asialaw Profiles as Leading Lawyer on M&A and Corporate Law.
Tina obtained her Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of the Philippines graduating with a Dean’s Award for Academic Excellence.
She was admitted to the Philippine bar in 2001, placing 10th in the bar examinations.
She worked as a junior associate of De Borja Medialdea Bello Guevarra and Gerodias law firm and later on as a tax lawyer at Sycip Gorres Velayo & Co. (Ernst & Young in Manila), the largest professional services firm in the country.
Tina also gained substantial experience as a legal officer with the Prosecution and Enforcement Department, Market Regulatory Office of the Philippine Stock Exchange.
She brings more than a decade of valuable regulatory experience with the power industry, working for many years overseeing the compliance of trading participants as Deputy Enforcement and Compliance Officer of the Philippine Electricity Market Corporation, which operates and governs the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market.
Tina’s expertise in labor, corporate, and commercial law allows her to advise and assist domestic and foreign clients in various stages of their business operations and in their many transactions. She has handled company registration and compliance involving various agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission, Bureau of Internal Revenue, Philippine Economic Zone Authority, the Food and Drug Administration, the Board of Investments, and many local government units. She assists clients in drafting, reviewing, and negotiating various contracts and agreements, and in conducting due diligence reviews prior to acquisitions.
Karen obtained her Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of the Philippines. She was admitted to the Philippine bar in 2001. She has extensive experience in corporate commercial and tax law, having worked as an associate at top law firm Castillo Laman Tan Pantaleon & San Jose, and as a tax lawyer at Sycip Gorres Velayo & Co. (Ernst & Young in Manila), the largest professional services firm in the country.
Karen’s experience in tax law is wide-ranging, from tax planning and advisory to tax controversy and advocacy. Her competence in this sphere is strengthened by international experience in the tax and legal departments of Big 4 accounting firms abroad. She was a senior tax manager at Deloitte Kazakhstan, providing investment counseling, corporate tax advice and international structuring assistance to domestic and multinational clients in various industries, particularly in the energy and resources space. She was also a tax executive at Ernst & Young Cambodia advising mostly inbound investors in a wide range of industries in respect of their corporate and transaction tax concerns, including mergers and acquisitions and cross-border structuring.
Karen is also adept at data privacy issues. She has advised on, and assisted clients with, data privacy compliance including data protection officer and data processing system registrations; establishing privacy management programs; drafting privacy policies, procedures and notices; drafting and updating vendor and data transfer agreements; and establishing and implementing breach management procedures. Karen has the Certified Information Privacy Manager (CIPM) credential, as certified by the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP).
In respect of corporate and commercial matters, she has handled corporate registrations, mergers and acquisitions and corporate reorganizations for domestic and multinational clients. She has assisted clients in drafting, reviewing and negotiating various contracts and agreements and in the performance of due diligence reviews prior to acquisitions.
Christine obtained her Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of the Philippines where she was awarded the Dean’s Medal for Academic Excellence. She holds a Master of Corporate Law degree from the University of Cambridge graduating with First Class Honors. She was admitted to the Philippine Bar in 2007.
She possesses extensive experience in the Public Private Partnership (PPP) sector, having worked as the head of the Project Development Service Department of the Public-Private Partnership Center of the Philippines. She likewise worked as a Foreign Consulting Attorney for Kelvin Chia Yangon Ltd., where she was seconded as General Manager of the Legal Department of the Joint Operations/PPP between Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications and KDDI/Sumitomo Corporation. She also previously worked for the Department of Finance Privatization and Management Office as Deputy Privatization Officer For Legal, and as an Associate at Castillo Laman Tan Pantaleon & San Jose Law Offices, one of the largest law firms in the Philippines.
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