Hechanova Bugay Vilchez & Andaya-Racadio

The firm: The firm was established in the Philippines as Hechanova Bugay & Vilchez in January 2006 by Editha R Hechanova, an intellectual property lawyer, Rodinil D Bugay, a corporate and estate planning law practitioner, and Gladys C Vilchez, former hearing officer at the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines, all with over 15 years of experience in their own fields of specialisation. On March, 2014, to strengthen its tax practice, Ms Yasmin A Andaya-Racadio was admitted as a partner and the firm is now known as Hechanova Bugay Vilchez & Andaya-Racadio, lawyers. The firm believes that lawyering is not just a profession but a way of life where opportunities to practice the core values of leadership, innovation, relationship and integrity are boundless. Consequently, the principle – passion for service… service with integrity – was adopted.

Areas of practice
Intellectual property: the firm has extensive experience in the areas of border control, enforcement, intellectual property litigation, licensing, due diligence and IP management and strategy, and has successfully represented clients in disputes. The firm’s affiliated company Hechanova & Co, Inc handles the prosecution for the registration of patents, trade marks, industrial designs, utility models, copyrights, domain names, plant variety protection and product registration and has been awarded top patent filer for the period 2010-2014, ranking no. 2, and ranked within the top 20 trade mark filers for the same period by the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL). The firm has been ranked consistently in the field of intellectual property law since 2007 by both the publications of Managing IP and Asia IP. The firm’s managing partner, Editha R. Hechanova has been consistently identified as Leading Lawyer in intellectual property in the Philippines by the Asia Law publication from 2002 to date, Who’s Who Legal from 2013 to date.

Corporate and commercial: the firm provides a broad range of services for corporate and commercial matters including financial advisory services for real estate and construction-related transactions, corporate rehabilitation, debt restructuring, securitization, mergers and acquisitions, asset disposal, mortgage and other collateral security, joint ventures, spin-offs, balance sheet re-engineering and privatization, and advising on international transactions, and dealt with entities in various industries such as mining, energy, financial services, manufacturing and business outsourcing. We conduct due diligence work for clients in its acquisition or merger projects.

Taxation: The firm advises on tax planning and structuring investments and other cross border transactions, structured finance transactions and various equity, debt and hybrid financial products and have represented clients in tax disputes before the Court of Tax Appeals, appellate courts, and government agencies. The firm advises on registrations with the various economic zones such as the Philippine Export Zone Authority (PEZA), among others, to obtain optimum tax benefits.

Labour, employment and immigration: The firm advises on employment contracts, disciplinary measures, trade secrets issues, pension and benefits plan, and represent clients before the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) and appellate courts.

Litigation and dispute resolution: The firm has members who are accredited mediators and arbitrators. It advises on civil and commercial litigation matters, and represent clients in civil, criminal and administrative cases.