Ties with tech companies sought for legal sector

PHILIPPINE law firms should collaborate and consult with more information technology (IT) firms to keep up with the changing times, a corporate law firm said on Thursday.

“The future of the law practice will be now focused on more IT-aided business today and even established firms seeking to upgrade their capacities,” Carlos Alfonso T. Ocampo, founding partner of the Ocampo Manalo law firm, told reporters at a media roundtable discussion celebrating its 25th anniversary.

He added that local law firms should also provide legal solutions through the new online platforms firms have adopted into their way of doing business, especially during the coronavirus pandemic.

“It is like we are part of the construction crew of a house being built and we are serving this purpose to firms that want to enhance their services,” the lawyer said. “The world is changing very fast and we need to evolve with the times.”

When it was established in 1997, the firm started out representing clients from the aviation industry and provided legal consultation for the construction of several airports such as the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3.

Managing Partner Manolito A. Manalo told the same event that the aviation industry was the firm’s gateway to growing its clientele.

Some of the firm’s notable clients include Qatar Airways, Turkish Airlines, and Philippines AirAsia.

“We were able to get more and more clients in different industries, which proved that the kind of legal consultancy we provide is what helped us expand and still be in the business,” he said.

The law firm also offers legal services to companies engaged in infrastructure, transportation, energy, mining, labor and employment, and international trade, it said in a statement sent to reporters on Thursday.

“We are following the path of the nation’s development and I would like to see us breaking new ground in these new industries,” said. Mr. Manalo. — John Victor D. Ordoñez