For our second edition of the Legal 500’s GC Powerlist: Philippines, we decided to turn the focus of the publication on to legal teams rather than individual lawyers, based on conversations we had with in-house and private practice lawyers in the region. By doing so, we moved our attention on to hardworking but often less heralded members of the legal team alongside the general counsel and other senior lawyers that are famous in the community. The response the community was intensely positive, and we were happy to welcome around 150 people to the beautiful Rainmakers Lounge at Villaraza & Angangco’s V&A Law Centre in Manila for our exclusive launch event.

After speeches from managing partner Sylvette Tankiang, Dodjie Lagazo of ACEN Renewables who provided the in-house legal perspective, and Legal 500 editor Joe Boswell, we moved on to the award ceremony where each legal team was given their accolade on stage by Sylvette. As you can see from the photos, we had a huge range of teams in attendance, many of whom made great efforts to represent their companies. Of particular note are the team from Globe who attended wearing matching T shirts to fly the flag.

As always, celebrations continued well past the official end time and the energy in the room was hugely positive. Special thanks for the massive success of our second GC Powerlist Philippines must go to our excellent sponsors V&A, who were helpful throughout the research in giving nominations and tips regarding the in-house legal community there, as well as faultlessly organising a complicated reception and award ceremony.