Key team members: Rosa Christina R. Hermoso, head of legal 

How do you see the role of in-house legal teams evolving in the Philippines over the next five-ten years? 

For the next five to ten years, the role of in-house legal teams will evolve, including more lawyers involved in diverse roles within the company. The management of the corporations and companies would also need to understand that as a company or corporation grows and expands, the legal team would need to grow as well.  The legal team would eventually have a broader scope beyond corporate housekeeping, litigation, labor, regulatory and compliance. For the successful operations of the companies/corporations, we see more transactional, commercial and business development lawyers to be included in the legal team. It would evolve to have lawyers in specialised fields such as commercial, dispute resolutions, data privacy, and finance. Aside from additional lawyers, it will also include hiring more paralegals or legal assistants. 

Which recent political, economic or regulatory changes have impacted your work the most in recent years?   

The 2022 Philippine elections have hugely affected some of our renewable energy projects in the Philippines. The change of political leaders, particularly in the local government units where our projects are located, have significantly influenced the progress of our projects.  For the legal team, this includes some delay in closing some contracts with the LGUs because of the change in local administration. Some project permits and certifications were also delayed or re-applied again. 

In addition, last 2023, the Philippines have allowed 100% foreign ownership of renewable energy project companies.  With this development, our projects can now be owned by our principal foreign shareholders. Since ib vogt is a global entity based in Berlin and in Singapore for the Asia-Pacific region, this change paved the way for the Philippine legal team to begin the corporate restructuring of our local project companies to allow for better project financing and a clearer ownership structure. This policy change has also hugely improved our project planning and work coordination with our principals and allowed ib vogt to truly own the projects.   

Are the effects of AI on the legal world overplayed, or underplayed? 

For now, the effects of AI in the legal world seem to be underplayed. More senior lawyers are probably snubbing the use of AI in their legal work, although the younger lawyers are embracing the help of AI. 

While AI is an amazing technological development, there is that fear that AI might eventually replace the roles of lawyers, most especially in preparing contracts or legal documents. However, in our company, we welcome AI as a means of making our work better and more convenient. We have an internal team composed of employees from different departments to study the role of AI in the company. However, for the legal team, we think that AI’s work will still need the final review of lawyers in the proper application of law.  In addition, there are still areas in law and within the legal world that AI cannot do, particularly the roles of commercial negotiations, dispute resolutions and litigations.